Paris-Based Duo Tries to Jam with Prokofiev

Today is a major date for new releases. On my own queue I have four CDs and one video, which I shall have to alternate, one way or another, with the remainder of the ten CDs in the Twentieth Century Composers Series, which has been a focus of attention for this past week. Today I shall focus on one of today’s releases, a new album from the Paris-based Jazzmax label.

Giovanni Mirabassi and Stephane Spira (photograph by Nicolas Guillemot, courtesy of Braithwaite & Katz Communications)

The title of the album is Improkofiev, a clever mash-up of the verb “improvise” with the last name of the composer Sergei Prokofiev. As of this writing, Amazon.com is making this album available only through MP3 download. Improkofiev is also the name of the three-movement suite that occupies the last three of the seven tracks on the album. The suite was the brainchild of soprano saxophonist Stephane Spira, developed through his latest partnership with pianist Giovanni Mirabassi. Spira’s idea was to develop a platform for improvisation built upon selected themes from Prokofiev’s Opus 19 (first) violin concerto in D major.

This made for an interesting strategic move. The best-known violin concerto by Prokofiev is his Opus 63 (second) in G minor. In my own listening experience, if I have heard Opus 19 in performance at all, it was probably only once in Davies Symphony Hall. Since Opus 19 is less familiar, it provides the Improkofiev suite with a more open-minded approach to listening. Rather than playing “name that tune,” the listener can, instead, attend to the motivic seeds of each movement and how they unfold into improvisatory riffs.

For this project Spira and Mirabassi expanded their resources to a quartet, adding rhythm provided by Donald Kontomanou on drums and Steve Wood on bass. In addition, the opening movement of the suite (also entitled “Improkofiev”) has Yoann Loustalot on flugelhorn weaving a second melodic line around Spira’s saxophone work, an example of contrapuntal interplay that will be familiar to many Prokofiev enthusiasts. Ultimately, however, Prokofiev spends most of his time in the background, allowing the serious listener to focus on the inventiveness of all of the jazz players, which is where attention really belongs.

That attention is definitely also given its due in two of the opening tracks, both composed by Spira. “Ocean Dance” and “After Rain” provide a much richer opportunity for the listener to explore the inventive interplay between Spira and Mirabassi, consistently well supported by both Kontomanou and Wood. On the other hand I felt that the attempt to improvise around the first of the three Erik Satie piano compositions that he called “Gymnopédies” departed significantly from Satie’s spirit without filling the space with particularly convincing alternative content. The other opening track was Carla Bley’s “Lawns,” which was pleasant enough on the surface without allowing for much depth.

While the overall listening experience was consistently pleasant, by the end of the album I found myself more curious about giving Prokofiev’s Opus 19 closer listening.