Melange A Trois

Released shortly after the impressive Café Electric, a quintet album, but recorded a year and a half before, Mélange à Trois features the lineup of Max Nagl's quintet, minus bassist Achim Tang. Once again, the saxophonist tied his writing to other art mediums. The original project behind this music involved super-8 films. This dimension is absent from the recording (instead, the CD is packaged with eight cards picturing childlike drawings with short poems on the backs), but it doesn't diminish the soundtrack feel of the music. In the 16 short pieces, Nagl blends various styles: Waltzes, polkas, tangos, circus music, marches, and Eastern European dances join together in an elaborate but highly accessible vocabulary. Movie references, which formed the basis of Café Electric, are not entirely ruled out; the listener can detect imaginary soundtracks to a Nagl-revised director's cut of Last Tango in Paris and a wink at the seminal duo of Sergio Leone/Ennio Morricone in "Puigpunyent/Kuh." The composer uses creative writing, well-chosen atonal passages, and wild ideas to come up with interesting tunes that remain for the most part firmly inside the genre they took their inspiration from. For instance, "Résistance" is a genuine French waltz -- it could make him the John Zorn of the waltz, his approach somewhat similar to the American's Jewish music projects Masada and Bar Kokhba. Joanna Lewis' violin and Nagl's saxophone or clarinet often trade lead melodies, sculpting touching ballads ("Corrida/Meantime," "Nightwalk") some may even find too sweet. Café Electric and The Evil Garden are both stronger works in conception, composition, and performance, but Mélange à Trois, thanks to its lightness and direct approach, remains a highly enjoyable album and probably a better place to start for newcomers to less mainstream jazz. ~ François Couture|