Reviews
Classical Changes recording
Gramophone
In the Coronation year of 1953, Trinidad-born pianist Winifred Atwell recorded Let's Have a Party, a right royal knees-up of songs from yesteryear knocked out on her 'other' piano. Perhaps in anticipation of the crowning of our new monarch, something of that party spirit seems to have rubbed off on Iain Farrington and friends, as they dress up the classics and doff their hats to jazzers from the last century, who thought nothing of borrowing from the classical masters.
The Art Deco Trio let their hair down in There's a Storm Brewing, drawn from Vivaldi's Summer, where the clarinet of Peter Sparks and saxophone of Kyle Horch ping-pong across the stereo spectrum in playful fashion; I liked too the wacky send-up of Wagner in Valerie Takes a Ride (geddit?). Horch takes the limelight for the soulful Elise's Blues after Für Elise, while Farrington burns the midnight oil on 3am Lullaby, harmonised after Brahms. There's a striking employment of aural chiaroscuro in Farrington's One Night in Seville, where Carmen cases the joints of Seville, car horns honking, and in a similar pictorial vein, an impressionistic afternoon drawn from Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1, dressed up as Jim's Nobody. He takes a leaf from the master of the stride style, James P Johnson, in Arrival Revival, based on Handel's Queen of Sheba, and swings Elgar, always a picture of decorum, while the trio run riot in the Drunken Sailor from A Sea Shanty Shake-Up. On a more serious note, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child from Lay My Burden Down – a sequence of African American Spirituals – leads us to a darker place, where the off-beat piano chords under the languorous clarinet line suggest an unsettling undercurrent.
Exemplary recording and balance from producer Siva Oke and her team in the Menuhin Hall, on the banks of the River Mole, in Stoke d'Abernon. Adrian Edwards
Light Music Society
We discovered the Art Deco Trio with their impressive debut album Gershwinicity a couple of years ago, and here they are again in a release that is largely fun from beginning to end. This time the piano, clarinet and saxophone combination perform pianist Iain Farrington's dazzling jazz-accented arrangements of a dozen popular classical pieces, three sea shanties and five American/African spirituals. So, here are the likes of The Bite of the Flumblebee (after Rimsky-Korsakov), Valerie Takes a Ride (after Wagner), Elise's Blues (after Beethoven), Arrival Revival (after Handel), Jiffy Dance (after Bizet), Hungarian High-Five and 3am Lullaby (after Brahms) – other composers getting a makeover are Elgar, Satie and Vivaldi – What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor, Sailor’s Hornpipe, Amazing Grace, Steal Away and Every Time I Feel the Spirit.
The arranger certainly succeeds in what he writes in his explanatory booklet notes of translating the work's "original sober environment into one that was more intoxicated". And Messrs Peter Sparks, Kyle Horch and Farrington's playing throughout these first recordings is marvellous.
SOMM are a renowned innovative label and will surely put a smile on the faces of a lot of listeners with this album. Let us hope we do not have to wait another two years for a third ADT release. Peter Burt
-----
Regular readers of this feature will probably remember the earlier CD for which Peter and myself wrote reviews back in 2021 (SOMM CD0632) entitled Gershwinicity. On this brand-new release, the brilliant members of the Art Deco Trio are once again 'doing their stuff' with a very varied programme spotlighting the indisputable talents of the three musicians.
As Peter Burt suggests above, their programme is bound to get listeners smiling from the very beginning – not least because of the 'fun' titles of the first twelve tracks. I have hardly stopped listening to it since my copy arrived in the post ! I would also echo Peter's remarks regarding SOMM Records and its imaginative and enterprising founder, Siva Oke, who has once again produced what I am certain will be another winner! Tony Clayden
Classical Music Sentinel
Sometimes, and more so at this time of year, we all need a breath of fresh air, or to shake things up a bit to pull us out of the cold storage that is winter. And musically speaking, this new recording by the Art Deco Trio with Peter Sparks (clarinet), Kyle Horch (saxophone) and Iain Farrington (piano), may very well do the trick. Just like how Claude Bolling and/or Jacques Loussier reached a large audience in the past with their unique stylings of classical music transformed into jazz, the clever and sometimes tongue-in-cheek arrangements by Iain Farrington of these famous and highly popular classical pieces, make the music jump off the page.
The titles alone, like Valerie Takes a Ride, The Bite of the Flumblebee, Hungarian High-Five, hint at the comic relief injected into some of the music. But it's not all fun and games here, as these arrangements have all been masterfully crafted and at times inflict high technical demands on all three musicians. And on the flip side of the coin, pieces like Jim's Nobody and Elise's Blues elicit a high degree of expressive touches from the players.
Many attempts by others in the past to effectively fuse classical and jazz elements have proven detrimental to the music, and in my opinion proved to be blasphemous in respect to the composer's intent. Such is not the case here. Despite the main melodies sometimes being subjected to many harmonic permutations and jazzy rhythms, everything sounds fresh, well structured, and especially invigorating, just like removing our winter boots and slipping into well-worn running shoes. Jean-Yves Duperron
All Music
The practice of performers adapting popular tunes has a long history, and the jazz movement that emerged in the early 20th century picked right up on the trend. For the Art Deco Trio's sophomore release, Classical Changes, pianist Iain Farrington has done more than simply transcribing this veritable who's who of classical hits, essentially recomposing them for himself and his fellow Trio members, Peter Sparks (clarinet) and Kyle Horch (saxophone). A quick glance at the track titles on this program will likely elicit a chuckle, but the witty titles relate to Farrington's take on the tunes.
The Art Deco Trio offers a variety of styles in these interpretations, kicking things off with the snappy The Bite of the Flumblebee (after Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee), which will give listeners a sample of the technical skill held by the Trio members. Elsewhere, the Trio offers takes on Beethoven's Für Elise with Elise's Blues (transforming it into a forlorn tale of love lost), two pieces from Bizet's Carmen, and even remakes Brahms' Wiegenlied (3am Lullaby). Beyond the classical hits offered by the Trio are two suites that Farrington had originally arranged for different instrumentation before further adapting them: A Sea Shanty Shake-Up, for orchestra, and a collection of African American spirituals and traditional songs, Lay My Burden Down, which was first composed for organ. A Sea Shanty Shake-Up is pure fun and fits the players well. On the other hand, while Lay My Burden Down has some quality moments, the clarinet-saxophone-piano sound doesn't quite have the weight required for the original songs, which could benefit from a more fleshed-out instrumentation and arrangement. There is something here for fans of classical and jazz music alike, and it may create new fans of both. Keith Finke
Classical Changes recording
Gramophone
In the Coronation year of 1953, Trinidad-born pianist Winifred Atwell recorded Let's Have a Party, a right royal knees-up of songs from yesteryear knocked out on her 'other' piano. Perhaps in anticipation of the crowning of our new monarch, something of that party spirit seems to have rubbed off on Iain Farrington and friends, as they dress up the classics and doff their hats to jazzers from the last century, who thought nothing of borrowing from the classical masters.
The Art Deco Trio let their hair down in There's a Storm Brewing, drawn from Vivaldi's Summer, where the clarinet of Peter Sparks and saxophone of Kyle Horch ping-pong across the stereo spectrum in playful fashion; I liked too the wacky send-up of Wagner in Valerie Takes a Ride (geddit?). Horch takes the limelight for the soulful Elise's Blues after Für Elise, while Farrington burns the midnight oil on 3am Lullaby, harmonised after Brahms. There's a striking employment of aural chiaroscuro in Farrington's One Night in Seville, where Carmen cases the joints of Seville, car horns honking, and in a similar pictorial vein, an impressionistic afternoon drawn from Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1, dressed up as Jim's Nobody. He takes a leaf from the master of the stride style, James P Johnson, in Arrival Revival, based on Handel's Queen of Sheba, and swings Elgar, always a picture of decorum, while the trio run riot in the Drunken Sailor from A Sea Shanty Shake-Up. On a more serious note, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child from Lay My Burden Down – a sequence of African American Spirituals – leads us to a darker place, where the off-beat piano chords under the languorous clarinet line suggest an unsettling undercurrent.
Exemplary recording and balance from producer Siva Oke and her team in the Menuhin Hall, on the banks of the River Mole, in Stoke d'Abernon. Adrian Edwards
Light Music Society
We discovered the Art Deco Trio with their impressive debut album Gershwinicity a couple of years ago, and here they are again in a release that is largely fun from beginning to end. This time the piano, clarinet and saxophone combination perform pianist Iain Farrington's dazzling jazz-accented arrangements of a dozen popular classical pieces, three sea shanties and five American/African spirituals. So, here are the likes of The Bite of the Flumblebee (after Rimsky-Korsakov), Valerie Takes a Ride (after Wagner), Elise's Blues (after Beethoven), Arrival Revival (after Handel), Jiffy Dance (after Bizet), Hungarian High-Five and 3am Lullaby (after Brahms) – other composers getting a makeover are Elgar, Satie and Vivaldi – What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor, Sailor’s Hornpipe, Amazing Grace, Steal Away and Every Time I Feel the Spirit.
The arranger certainly succeeds in what he writes in his explanatory booklet notes of translating the work's "original sober environment into one that was more intoxicated". And Messrs Peter Sparks, Kyle Horch and Farrington's playing throughout these first recordings is marvellous.
SOMM are a renowned innovative label and will surely put a smile on the faces of a lot of listeners with this album. Let us hope we do not have to wait another two years for a third ADT release. Peter Burt
-----
Regular readers of this feature will probably remember the earlier CD for which Peter and myself wrote reviews back in 2021 (SOMM CD0632) entitled Gershwinicity. On this brand-new release, the brilliant members of the Art Deco Trio are once again 'doing their stuff' with a very varied programme spotlighting the indisputable talents of the three musicians.
As Peter Burt suggests above, their programme is bound to get listeners smiling from the very beginning – not least because of the 'fun' titles of the first twelve tracks. I have hardly stopped listening to it since my copy arrived in the post ! I would also echo Peter's remarks regarding SOMM Records and its imaginative and enterprising founder, Siva Oke, who has once again produced what I am certain will be another winner! Tony Clayden
Classical Music Sentinel
Sometimes, and more so at this time of year, we all need a breath of fresh air, or to shake things up a bit to pull us out of the cold storage that is winter. And musically speaking, this new recording by the Art Deco Trio with Peter Sparks (clarinet), Kyle Horch (saxophone) and Iain Farrington (piano), may very well do the trick. Just like how Claude Bolling and/or Jacques Loussier reached a large audience in the past with their unique stylings of classical music transformed into jazz, the clever and sometimes tongue-in-cheek arrangements by Iain Farrington of these famous and highly popular classical pieces, make the music jump off the page.
The titles alone, like Valerie Takes a Ride, The Bite of the Flumblebee, Hungarian High-Five, hint at the comic relief injected into some of the music. But it's not all fun and games here, as these arrangements have all been masterfully crafted and at times inflict high technical demands on all three musicians. And on the flip side of the coin, pieces like Jim's Nobody and Elise's Blues elicit a high degree of expressive touches from the players.
Many attempts by others in the past to effectively fuse classical and jazz elements have proven detrimental to the music, and in my opinion proved to be blasphemous in respect to the composer's intent. Such is not the case here. Despite the main melodies sometimes being subjected to many harmonic permutations and jazzy rhythms, everything sounds fresh, well structured, and especially invigorating, just like removing our winter boots and slipping into well-worn running shoes. Jean-Yves Duperron
All Music
The practice of performers adapting popular tunes has a long history, and the jazz movement that emerged in the early 20th century picked right up on the trend. For the Art Deco Trio's sophomore release, Classical Changes, pianist Iain Farrington has done more than simply transcribing this veritable who's who of classical hits, essentially recomposing them for himself and his fellow Trio members, Peter Sparks (clarinet) and Kyle Horch (saxophone). A quick glance at the track titles on this program will likely elicit a chuckle, but the witty titles relate to Farrington's take on the tunes.
The Art Deco Trio offers a variety of styles in these interpretations, kicking things off with the snappy The Bite of the Flumblebee (after Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee), which will give listeners a sample of the technical skill held by the Trio members. Elsewhere, the Trio offers takes on Beethoven's Für Elise with Elise's Blues (transforming it into a forlorn tale of love lost), two pieces from Bizet's Carmen, and even remakes Brahms' Wiegenlied (3am Lullaby). Beyond the classical hits offered by the Trio are two suites that Farrington had originally arranged for different instrumentation before further adapting them: A Sea Shanty Shake-Up, for orchestra, and a collection of African American spirituals and traditional songs, Lay My Burden Down, which was first composed for organ. A Sea Shanty Shake-Up is pure fun and fits the players well. On the other hand, while Lay My Burden Down has some quality moments, the clarinet-saxophone-piano sound doesn't quite have the weight required for the original songs, which could benefit from a more fleshed-out instrumentation and arrangement. There is something here for fans of classical and jazz music alike, and it may create new fans of both. Keith Finke
