Misha Alperin - North Story (1997)

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Misha Alperin - North Story (1997)

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Pianist Misha Alperin appears with a quintet on this set of mysterious original compositions. His longtime colleague, Arkady Shilkloper, plays French horn and flugelhorn and is joined by Tore Brunberg on tenor saxophone, Terje Gewelt on double bass, and ECM stalwart Jon Christensen on drums. Combining Russian folk, modern classical, and free jazz influences, Alperin's music ranges from the icy minimalism of "Morning" and "Alone" to the atonal fanfares of "Afternoon," the eerie unison melodies of "Psalm No. 1" and "Psalm No. 2," and the jumpy parallel-fifth motives of "Ironical Evening." Most memorable is the exquisite "North Story," a sparse invention framed by a descending pattern of seven gorgeous chords. In contrast, "Etude," one of the disc's more upbeat and exuberant pieces, is based on darting, tightly executed 16th-note patterns. The program ends with the sole non-original, Harald Saeverud's "Kristi-Blodsdraper (Fucsia)," a beautiful folkish ballad.

Review by David R. Adler, Allmusic.com

Simultaneously drawing on his folk roots and paying homage to European jazz music’s openness to cross-cultural dialogue, Ukraine-born pianist and composer Misha Alperin gives us North Story, his paean to the selfsame region where fermented the vivid contributions already so well documented on ECM. Classically trained brass player Arkady Shilkloper, who became acquainted after hearing snatches of Alperin at practice from an open apartment window, joins the group on French horn and flugelhorn. Saxophonist Tore Brunborg, bassist Terje Gewelt, and drummer Jon Christensen round out the quintet. And what a quintet it is, for it is quite clear that this set of eight originals positively glistens under the breath, feet, and fingers of master craftsmen. That being said, the rewards require patience and an invested heart. Alperin’s painterly ways move as if in slow motion, taking in details and finding even more within them. Everything in the light of “Morning” takes shape by contrast, so that what may seem at first sluggish blossoms in hindsight of Alperin’s delicate fortitude. Shilkloper follows similarly delicate arcs in the two-part “Psalm” and “Ironical Evening,” each a prize of organic denouement so fine that it passes through fishermen’s nets unnoticed. The title track gives us a deeper version of the same, Christensen building his tracings into full-blown sketches as Brunborg’s erases in swaths of negative space. “Alone” finds Alperin just so in a lulling piano solo, providing reprieve from fitful slumber on the way to “Etude,” a lovely duet with Shilkloper that sounds like a lost track from Wave Of Sorrow. Its skittering lines and virtuosic doubling concretize the storytelling. This leaves only an arrangement of “Kristi Blodsdråper (Fucsia)” by Norwegian composer Harald Sæverud (1897-1992). It is a fitting epilogue to an album of ever-growing detail, which like the whole becomes a mirror as we back away from it, sounds blending into an all-encompassing hush of existence.

Review by Tyran Grillo, ECMreviews.com

Pianist Alperin’s eight compositions (of nine), performed by his quintet including tenor and french horn doubling flugelhorn, are stark and terse realizations, owing much to Bartok and Brubeck. His own piano solos suggest a composed quality beneath their careful elucidations (Is “Etude” thus predictable?). Though Alperin’s roots are eastern European, the CD’s atmosphere invokes Norwegian sentiments, with an open cold landscape meant for listener indulgence (Jon Balke’s ensembles produce a similar effect), offering bassist Terje Gewelt arco moments. Tenorist Tore Brunborg energetically pursues several rhythmic possibilities on the longest piece, “Afternoon,” while for “North Story” and “Morning,” both of which demand varying ruminations, he is much in synch with Alperin’s meditations. Alperin wisely chose drummer Jon Christensen, an ECM regular, for those performances, given his deep experience with this music of silences, environmental allusions, and folk-inspired melodies, and throughout the CD he displays a remarkable sensitivity. Muscovite Arkady Shilkloper’s role with bass is background, and periodic at that.

Review by Ron Welburn, JazzTimes.com

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Misha Alperin - North Story (1997)

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Misha Alperin - North Story (1997)

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Misha Alperin - North Story (1997)

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