An ambitious project that attempts to recall and revive key events and social realities of the American Civil War, Turning Point is here captured in a live rendition pairing pianist/composer Dave Burrell and trombonist Steve Swell, who together lay down a convincing performance of this epic piece.
The most attractive quality of the session lies in the fact that the wide-scope of the compositional canvas, which covers such a tumultuous epoch as the American Civil War, can be so powerfully conveyed by only two instruments: piano and trombone.
We know of course that the piano can be an orchestra in miniature to begin with, and here it is at times used in that fashion. But the magic that happens is the result of the meeting of two players with deep roots in the American musical soil, who are subsequently able to evoke styles and settings with very minimal means. It is above all the character of the suite that dominates as Burrell and Swell, drawing on pre-composed material and their improvising skills, tell an ever-dramatic story. The scenes, from the opening "One Nation," with its insistent quoting of "Look Away" and other fragments of historic, programmatic material, to the pieces that describe the Battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, stopping along the way at a church picnic, contraband camps, the effects of Emancipation, and the "Fancy Trade" (i.e. prostitution), are all clear, coherent, flowing in a powerful narrative arc. And while there are only two instruments here, the voices of a people and a national consciousness shout out, moan, celebrate, and cast an elegiac glance at how the epoch was a crucible for a remarkable nation.
Burrell is no stranger to jazz audiences and he is remarkable in his bridging of roots traditions and the progressive experimentalism of the avant-garde. The same can be said of Steve Swell as a player with a wide palette who can play "inside" and "outside." The compositions are clearly delineated, rich in evocative material, and the improvisation that happens within the pre-determined material is inspired and gives this historical narrative a contemporary relevance, as it presents a set of dynamic musical portraits of America's past.
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