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
Fanfare Magazine
In Fanfare 45:4 David DeBoor Canfield reviewed enthusiastically a previous release by the Art Deco Trio devoted to arrangements of music by George Gershwin. For this follow-up disc, titled 'Classical Changes', the trio’s pianist, Iain Farrington, has made ingenious, jazzy arrangements for a programme of familiar light classics, as well as a trio of sea shanties and five spirituals. The result is an absolute delight. (In the headnote I am following SOMM’s listing of Farrington as the composer of every piece, rather than the famous names who frequently crop up.) You can tell from many of the titles what the original source was. It is obvious with The Bite of the Flumblebee, less so with Valerie Takes a Ride (Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries). What is important is that the range of moods and musical styles is comfortably embraced by the excellent performers. In addition to Farrington, the Art Deco Trio consists of Peter Sparks (clarinet) and Kyle Horch (saxophone). Sparks can be sensuous and seductive in One Night in Seville (an arrangement of the Habanera and more from Carmen), and then turn cheeky in the ensuing Gypsy Dance from Carmen (here titled Jiffy Dance). Saturday in the Park with Elgar is a swing setting of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, and you will never hear Land of Hope and Glory in quite the same way again. The same can be said for Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, treated as an extended jazz riff in Country Breaks.
The program succeeds because of the skill and freedom of the performances, but just as much because the variation of moods keeps the listener on his toes. Elise’s Blues is a tender, wistful setting of Beethoven’s Für Elise, and Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 pictures an almost desolate loneliness (thus its title, Jim’s Nobody). The Art Deco’s performance is exquisite in its hushed beauty. It is immediately followed by an exuberant Hungarian High-Five, which is, as you probably guessed, an arrangement of Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5. The three sea shanty settings will have you tapping your toes for the first and third, and reflecting on the nostalgic beauty of the middle one, Lowlands. The same combination of energy, wit, sensitivity, and melodic expansiveness comes together in the group of five spirituals that close the program.
The whole disc is great fun, and there is enough good musicianship behind the arrangements and the performances to sustain interest on repeated hearings. Well-balanced recorded sound and informative, well-written programme notes complete the package. Henry Fogel
Clarinet and Saxophone Magazine
The rise of American jazz in the early 20th century and the means by which it could reach audiences, through radio and records, introduced this new unique sound to a wider audience, which was keen to hear more. As well as original material in the various jazz genres, older melodies could be reworked in any of the new styles. The familiarity of older melodies helped draw in new listeners, maintain some form of respectability, and the avoidance of having to pay royalties to living composers added an economical incentive. In the accompanying ample programme notes, arranger, composer and pianist Iain Farrington does acknowledge (albeit in brackets) the “somewhat controversial” nature of this practice, and I have to admit this was one thought that popped into my mind when I first saw the content.
Farrington has made a name for himself as a composer and arranger, in particular taking large works and reducing them to smaller combinations, usually with imaginatively wonderful quirkiness and humour. I am certainly not suggesting he is avoiding any royalty contributions, as the opening track The Bite of the Flumblebee (after Rimsky-Korsakov) must have come from a sheer enjoyment of recreating an already brilliant tune into something very different, exploring any number of ways to reinvent the familiar while retaining Rimsky-Korsakov's structure and intentions.
The Art Deco Trio – Peter Sparks on clarinet, chased by Kyle Horch on alto sax, with Farrington supporting on piano – burst into life, dashing on that familiar journey but with stylistic touches from the boogie-woogie bass line (think Jack Fina's Bumble Boogie but madder) to the offbeat chord hits and jazzy harmonies. After this whirlwind opening Valerie Takes a Ride (after Wagner) could double as a Mission Impossible theme while Arrival Revival (after Handel) has a Gershwin feel. Some works are followed closely while others use material to develop into a larger work. Country Breaks takes themes from Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony, reworking it much more freely to create a sonata-form movement with short fugal entries. Other well-known works from the likes of Bizet, Elgar, Vivaldi and others receive the Farrington jazz treatment and they are all imaginative and pure fun. Twelve tracks make up the Classical Changes and this is followed by a suite of three traditional shanties, A Sea Shanty Shake-Up which plays with 'What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor', 'Lowlands' and the 'Sailor's Hornpipe', reminiscent of Malcolm Arnold. The final suite is Lay my Burden Down, five reworkings of African-American spirituals.
Humorous works need great technical accomplishment to truly work. The contrast of the laid-back sounds with the serious commitment to playing is essential, otherwise the joke falls flat. Fortunately, this has some super ensemble. Sparks and Horch blend incredibly well and also take turns to shine in solos, stylistically aware at all times. Farrington also demonstrates some fine piano playing, accompanying and soloing. It is cheerful, uplifting and definitely one to make you smile. Stephanie Reeve
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
Light Music Society
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
Fanfare Magazine
In Fanfare 45:4 David DeBoor Canfield reviewed enthusiastically a previous release by the Art Deco Trio devoted to arrangements of music by George Gershwin. For this follow-up disc, titled 'Classical Changes', the trio’s pianist, Iain Farrington, has made ingenious, jazzy arrangements for a programme of familiar light classics, as well as a trio of sea shanties and five spirituals. The result is an absolute delight. (In the headnote I am following SOMM’s listing of Farrington as the composer of every piece, rather than the famous names who frequently crop up.) You can tell from many of the titles what the original source was. It is obvious with The Bite of the Flumblebee, less so with Valerie Takes a Ride (Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries). What is important is that the range of moods and musical styles is comfortably embraced by the excellent performers. In addition to Farrington, the Art Deco Trio consists of Peter Sparks (clarinet) and Kyle Horch (saxophone). Sparks can be sensuous and seductive in One Night in Seville (an arrangement of the Habanera and more from Carmen), and then turn cheeky in the ensuing Gypsy Dance from Carmen (here titled Jiffy Dance). Saturday in the Park with Elgar is a swing setting of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, and you will never hear Land of Hope and Glory in quite the same way again. The same can be said for Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, treated as an extended jazz riff in Country Breaks.
The program succeeds because of the skill and freedom of the performances, but just as much because the variation of moods keeps the listener on his toes. Elise’s Blues is a tender, wistful setting of Beethoven’s Für Elise, and Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 pictures an almost desolate loneliness (thus its title, Jim’s Nobody). The Art Deco’s performance is exquisite in its hushed beauty. It is immediately followed by an exuberant Hungarian High-Five, which is, as you probably guessed, an arrangement of Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5. The three sea shanty settings will have you tapping your toes for the first and third, and reflecting on the nostalgic beauty of the middle one, Lowlands. The same combination of energy, wit, sensitivity, and melodic expansiveness comes together in the group of five spirituals that close the program.
The whole disc is great fun, and there is enough good musicianship behind the arrangements and the performances to sustain interest on repeated hearings. Well-balanced recorded sound and informative, well-written programme notes complete the package. Henry Fogel
Clarinet and Saxophone Magazine
The rise of American jazz in the early 20th century and the means by which it could reach audiences, through radio and records, introduced this new unique sound to a wider audience, which was keen to hear more. As well as original material in the various jazz genres, older melodies could be reworked in any of the new styles. The familiarity of older melodies helped draw in new listeners, maintain some form of respectability, and the avoidance of having to pay royalties to living composers added an economical incentive. In the accompanying ample programme notes, arranger, composer and pianist Iain Farrington does acknowledge (albeit in brackets) the “somewhat controversial” nature of this practice, and I have to admit this was one thought that popped into my mind when I first saw the content.
Farrington has made a name for himself as a composer and arranger, in particular taking large works and reducing them to smaller combinations, usually with imaginatively wonderful quirkiness and humour. I am certainly not suggesting he is avoiding any royalty contributions, as the opening track The Bite of the Flumblebee (after Rimsky-Korsakov) must have come from a sheer enjoyment of recreating an already brilliant tune into something very different, exploring any number of ways to reinvent the familiar while retaining Rimsky-Korsakov's structure and intentions.
The Art Deco Trio – Peter Sparks on clarinet, chased by Kyle Horch on alto sax, with Farrington supporting on piano – burst into life, dashing on that familiar journey but with stylistic touches from the boogie-woogie bass line (think Jack Fina's Bumble Boogie but madder) to the offbeat chord hits and jazzy harmonies. After this whirlwind opening Valerie Takes a Ride (after Wagner) could double as a Mission Impossible theme while Arrival Revival (after Handel) has a Gershwin feel. Some works are followed closely while others use material to develop into a larger work. Country Breaks takes themes from Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony, reworking it much more freely to create a sonata-form movement with short fugal entries. Other well-known works from the likes of Bizet, Elgar, Vivaldi and others receive the Farrington jazz treatment and they are all imaginative and pure fun. Twelve tracks make up the Classical Changes and this is followed by a suite of three traditional shanties, A Sea Shanty Shake-Up which plays with 'What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor', 'Lowlands' and the 'Sailor's Hornpipe', reminiscent of Malcolm Arnold. The final suite is Lay my Burden Down, five reworkings of African-American spirituals.
Humorous works need great technical accomplishment to truly work. The contrast of the laid-back sounds with the serious commitment to playing is essential, otherwise the joke falls flat. Fortunately, this has some super ensemble. Sparks and Horch blend incredibly well and also take turns to shine in solos, stylistically aware at all times. Farrington also demonstrates some fine piano playing, accompanying and soloing. It is cheerful, uplifting and definitely one to make you smile. Stephanie Reeve
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
Light Music Society
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
