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  Improvisations based upon Jewish biblical chant
  In loving memory of my father, Stan Gluck
  
  Tropelets is a lyrical, multilayered duet for piano, soprano saxophone, and electronics. Together the instruments interweave layers of lyrical melody, highlighting the sonic beauty of historical cantorial traditions, and the openness, dialog and parallel play found within modern jazz improvisation. The music is inspired by a deep spirituality of generations past. It is informed by the breadth of each musician’s respective musical adventures, among them Sterman’s decades of performances with the Philip Glass Ensemble and Gluck’s highly regarded trios and duet recordings.
  
  
  Tropelets can be experienced in many ways: as influenced by the playfulness of early jazz, the fleeting sensory snapshots of Impressionism, the improvisational world opened by Ornette Coleman, Jewish narrative singing, and a myriad of other possibilities. Each section is based upon one of three models used to chant biblical texts (“trope”) from the biblical books of Esther, Prophets, and Lamentations. Densities and shapes ebb and flow as musical and emotional implications of the melodies and their history are explored. A third layer, constructed from digitally processed vocal recordings of biblical chant, periodically weaves in and out, providing an additional sonic partner. Throughout this recording, Bob Gluck and Andrew Sterman present a musical work of beauty, soulfulness, and intensity.
  
  
  Tropelets opens with the call and response of “Jeremiah speaks” (6:02), individual tones and sound gestures emerging from silence, closing with resonant electronic echoes of the exchange. Unexpected timbres arise from the piano in “A first Lamentation” (5:19). Steadily rising and falling piano lines are joined by bursts of saxophone invention. The opening mournful cries of “A second Lamentation” (4:57) are animated by hopeful saxophone melodies, cradled by gentle piano figures and tapestries of human breath sounds that take on more forceful emotions. “Jeremiah speaks again” (3:39) delightfully transforms the traditional prophetic biblical chant into a cascade of melodic and rhythmic invention. “Esther’s story” (3:15) introduces a third biblical chant melody within an electronic canon of sung melody. The piano and saxophone spin ornamentation around the sound collage. “A third Lamentation” (3:34) returns the listener to the recording’s opening emotional sensibility, subtly hinting at alternate possibilities that lie within its melody.
  
  
  “Jeremiah speaks further” (1:39) is a canon of cantorial singing, spun electronically in cascading motion. “Jeremiah speaks yet again” (6:03) captures the insistent qualities of the prophetic text and its traditional chant, while exploring new motivic implications. The performance culminates in a thicket of voices and spinning saxophone gestures. The clarion saxophone calls within “A fourth Lamentation” (1:49) counter the ironically upbeat opening piano figures, culminating in a delicate interplay between instruments. In “A fifth Lamentation” (4:06) saxophone filigree wraps around piano quotations of the biblical chant; the digitally processed piano notes and lines bend and slide in surprising ways. A canon-like vocal treatment opens a reprise of the prophetic chant in “Jeremiah continues to speak” (5:35), against which the saxophone plays buoyant melodies joined by the piano. As the vocal collage fades, an increasingly expansive exposition of the chant melody unfolds. Troplets concludes with “Esther’s story continues” (4:47), a lyrical duet that hints at harmonic resolution, reminding the listener of the intimacy of the improvisational collaboration that characterizes this unique recording. ... more
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  Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of And every fleck of russet, Early Morning Star, At This Time, Infinite Spirit: Revisiting Music of the Mwandishi Band, Tropelets, Textures and Pulsations, Something Quiet, Returning, and 5 more. , and , .

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