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Misha Mengelberg: Rituals Of Transition

By Mark Corroto
December 5, 2020
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It takes a master to speak like a child. Pianist

Misha Mengelberg

piano
1935 - 2017

" data-original-title="" title="">Misha Mengelberg (1935-2017) was such a giant at the keyboard that he could shed all pretension and improvise with a simple innocence. Call it Zen enlightenment or just a blunt brilliance. His music is often absurd and paradoxical, like an inside joke, except he graciously lets us all in on the pranks.

Rituals Of Transition is a collection of solo performances recorded from 2002 through 2010 in The Netherlands, Ukraine, France, and of course Italy, the home of AngelicA, Festival Internazionale de Musica in Bologna. This sample taste of Mengelberg can best be described as a gift to listeners. Opening with "Amsterdam," Mengelberg engages a child in the audience with a make believe language that cascades into a similar make believe piano language. The pianist, although conservatory trained, favors eccentricity throughout. His language is spontaneous, unbidden by conventional styles, much like that of his personal heroes

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk and

Herbie Nichols

piano
1919 - 1963

" data-original-title="" title="">Herbie Nichols.

That said, "Kiev" parts 1-3 serve tastes of

Duke Ellington

piano
1899 - 1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Duke Ellington's flowing style,

Bill Evans

piano
1929 - 1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Evans' romanticism, some classical passages, and that probing percussiveness we might associate with a modernist like

Matthew Shipp

piano
b.1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Matthew Shipp. "Pantin" and "Bologna" dissect bits of Monk as if we were hearing it in a nostalgic dream. Was Mengelberg sentimental for the days he

Roswell Rudd

trombone
1935 - 2017

" data-original-title="" title="">Roswell Rudd, and

Steve Lacy

saxophone, soprano
1934 - 2004

" data-original-title="" title="">Steve Lacy were certifying Monk's genius? Yes, plus his performance at AngelicA expands into fragments of cabaret song. Singing not for that child on the first track but the child inside the adult he has become.

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Track Listing

Amsterdam; Kiev I; Kiev II; Kiev III; Pantin; Bologna.

Personnel

Misha Mengelberg

piano

Album information

Title: Rituals Of Transition | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: I Dischi Di Angelica

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