Americans tend to see jazz and classical music as two very distinct things.
Classical music comes from a European tradition and is associated with high
art. Jazz comes out of the African American experience and is associated
with smoky nightclubs. European musicians see the world differently.
Classical music and jazz are ways of approaching composition and arranging
sounds. Dutch pianist Misha Mengleberg talks about improvisation as "instant
composition." British guitarist Derek Bailey shrugs off labels and simply
calls his music improvisation. In the US, you'll find both musicians in the
jazz bin.
I first encountered Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier at the Bimhuis in
Amsterdam. She was leading a group she called her New York Quartet. The
Bimhuis is a jazz venue and the music the quartet produces is challenging
jazz. The music I heard that night was grounded in bebop, but took some
pleasantly unexpected turns. The group consisted of Courvoisier on piano,
Cuong Vu on trumpet and electronics, Michael Sarin on drums and cellist Eric
Friedlander filling the position normally held by a bass. The group could
swing with a groove or go off on tangents. At times, Courvoisier reached
inside her piano to pluck the strings or manipulate the strings. She even
played the soundboard like a percussion instrument. I was impressed.
The CD I picked up at the concert was another surprise. Y2K by Courvoisier's
group Ocher sees her playing with Michel Godard on tuba and Pierre Charial
on the barrel organ. This was something completely different from what I'd
heard in Amsterdam. Ocher sounds like a very strange carnival band in a
Fellini movie. Some of the sounds are hard to place and the ensemble sounds
like a much larger group than a trio. It wasn't until much later that I
learned that a barrel organ is a mechanical device that works much like a
music box. Now I was getting intrigued with this versatile performer. When I
heard her duets disc Music for Violin and Piano with it's new music sounds,
I knew I wanted to find out more about Sylvie Courvoisier.
When I got a chance to speak with Sylvie she was at home in Brooklyn
preparing for another European tour. When I complemented her on the range of
musical idioms she works in, she explained, "I did attend two schools. I did
the jazz school in Montreaux and classical school in Luzan." Like many other
performers more at home on a stage that in classroom, Courvoisier says she
"never finished the schools because I was in bands. I wasn't a very good
student anyway." She shrugs off any mention of her eclectic output being
unique. "If you look at the new music groups, they all have a lot of
influences. The qualification of the new music of today is to have a lot of
influences."
Still, few people even in the realm of new music write for the barrel organ.
Sylvie puts that into perspective describing the origin of her group Ocher,
"The people are more important than the instruments. Like someone can play
like a really unusual instrument, but if you like they way they play it can
be great. I meet Pierre Charial and I like his sound and I start writing for
him. Michel Godard invited me to play in his quartet, then I invited him to
play in my quintet. We played a lot, even in duos. I like the strange
combinations and to try to make something that isn't so strange. What is
great about a barrel organ," Sylvie continues, "is it's a machine. It's
perfect. You can write like for an orchestra. I like to work a lot because
you can write a really complicated score, unlike a score for jazz. It cannot
improvise, it can just speed up and slow down. Michel and I can improvise
around him."
A more recent recording is Deux Pianos with long time collaborator, Jacques
Demierre. " We've been playing together for ten years. "The disc features
the two pianists in an intuitive dialogue. The improvisations are restrained
with subtle exchanges and an overall lyricism one might not expect from
improvised music. The musicians compliment each other to the point where
it's hard to tell there are two different people playing. "We have very
different styles but are very similar," Sylvie explains. "We tried to make
two instruments sound like one big instrument."
Like most people working in jazz and new music, Courvoisier keeps busy with
a number of projects, Mephista is project with percussionist Susie Ibarra
and electronic music innovator Ikue Mori. The group recorded CD for John
Zorn's Tzadik label called Black Narcissus. The compositions on this disc
are surreal sonic landscapes. The pieces make me think of a naturalist's
field recordings from a parallel universe. Mori mixes acoustic based sounds
like gurgling water, rushing wind and analog static along with purely
electronic sounds. Ibarra is apt to create sounds with he percussion
instruments that sound like electronic washes or treated samples. Meanwhile,
Courvoisier is as likely to manipulated the insides of her piano as she is
to use the keyboard. The cumulative effect is that it is very difficult to
sort out who is playing what. The sound can be disorienting and yet very
beautiful. It's the sort of music that yields new and pleasant surprises
with each listening.
Other recent recording projects include a CD of improvisations with Ibarra
and bassist Joelle Leandre on a CD called Pasaggio. If you're keeping count,
that's another all female free music group that Courvoisier works with. A
few years ago, you would have been hard pressed to find any all female
groups playing free improvisation. Times are changing.
"I'm learning a lot playing with these people," Courvoisier says of hercollaborations. "I'm really lucky. I really love working with these people.
If I can make my living with my piano, I'm happy."
