ROKICT, April 6, 2009
Jedd Beudoin reviews: A Handful of Earth - Fantastic
Merlins
04-06-09
A Handful of Earth-Fantastic Merlins, Independent, 2009 Hailing from the great state of Minnesota, this chamber jazz outfit has delivered, in A Handful of Earth a dense and deserving slab of intellectually stimulating and emotionally stirring pieces. Reminiscent of 20th Century composer Morton Feldman’s penchant for the genuinely sedate rather than the furiously superficial, pieces such as the title cut and “Purple Orange,” penned by cellist Jacqueline Ultan, exhibit an exhilarating beauty that belies the quartet’s market designation of “adventurous jazz.” Elsewhere, the material turns to the hauntingly beautiful (tenor saxophonist Nathan Hanson’s “Face in the Window,” bassist Brian Roessler’s “Short Time”) and at least one amalgamation of all possibilities inherent within the outfit (drummer Pete Henning’s “Inversion is the Condition”).
A Handful of Earth is a soundtrack to the contemporary American soul, one that daily witnesses abandoned tenements, crack houses, poverty and superfund sites, yet finds time to appreciate the beauty and promise still left in our weary hearts and troubled minds. But A Handful of Earth is also much more––it’s an affirmative statement about American music and the present day composer who, as Edgar Varese once said, refuses to die.
–––––––––Jedd Beaudoin
04-06-09
A Handful of Earth-Fantastic Merlins, Independent, 2009 Hailing from the great state of Minnesota, this chamber jazz outfit has delivered, in A Handful of Earth a dense and deserving slab of intellectually stimulating and emotionally stirring pieces. Reminiscent of 20th Century composer Morton Feldman’s penchant for the genuinely sedate rather than the furiously superficial, pieces such as the title cut and “Purple Orange,” penned by cellist Jacqueline Ultan, exhibit an exhilarating beauty that belies the quartet’s market designation of “adventurous jazz.” Elsewhere, the material turns to the hauntingly beautiful (tenor saxophonist Nathan Hanson’s “Face in the Window,” bassist Brian Roessler’s “Short Time”) and at least one amalgamation of all possibilities inherent within the outfit (drummer Pete Henning’s “Inversion is the Condition”).
A Handful of Earth is a soundtrack to the contemporary American soul, one that daily witnesses abandoned tenements, crack houses, poverty and superfund sites, yet finds time to appreciate the beauty and promise still left in our weary hearts and troubled minds. But A Handful of Earth is also much more––it’s an affirmative statement about American music and the present day composer who, as Edgar Varese once said, refuses to die.
–––––––––Jedd Beaudoin