Search - Marilyn Crispell :: Vignettes

Take out the "Vignettes" & it's maybe 4*

David J. Ohanlon | Lilyfield, NSW Australia | 08/01/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is my second Marilyn Crispell CD (the first being the generally excellent "Nothing Ever Was Anyway....").

Now on the basis of three listens, I have to say I am NOT really taken with this album.

I found the "Vignettes"(#'s1-7, of which #7 is the best) rather uneven & a distraction from the flow of the more substantial compositions. Furthermore, the longer the album went the more "heavy-handed" became the piano playing such that even "Ballade" (Track 14) felt fairly ponderous & predictable, given what Crispell had given us on the 13 tracks prior. It seems that while most of Crispell's early dissonant, combustible free jazz style has now disappeared (& whatever of this is left is shown in some of the "Vignettes") what's generally lacking is a lightness of touch & fluidity such that there's a big "more of the same" aspect to most of the latter pieces.

5* tracks are Valse Trist, Gathering Light & Cuida de Espiritu (all beautifully elegaic & melancholic but all of which, you will notice, appear early on the album)."

Tender Beauty

Karl W. Nehring | Ostrander, OH USA | 07/07/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Pianist Marilyn Crispell is noted for her spare playing style and original musical ideas. On this new solo piano recording, she sustains interest over more than 68 minutes by playing music that sparkles with imagination and feeling. I was expecting this music to sound wispy and insubstantial, but was surprised and pleased to hear how rich and vivid her playing sounds. This is not piano playing that will bowl you over; rather, it will draw you in and reward you with its tender beauty."