by Raul da Gama
The pianist and Peter Saltzman declares at the very outset
of his short liner notes that what you are holding or about to hold in your
hands is “not a CD”. So if you think, like me, that you are being drawn into an
alternate reality that is something like an even newer Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner revisited in Chicago, 2051
you would not remiss. In his Kickstarter campaign for a previous recording entitled Piano Diaries were born the roots of Blues, Preludes & Feuds: A Musical
Diary. Saltzman suggests Piano Diaries was a work in progress. Well, in
many ways the music that you hear on this James Joycean record is just that, a steam-of-consciousness
narrative. The fact that it is an evolving story of a life lived by a multi-talented
musician, which is informed by endless invention and improvisation it soon
feels like what music-loving pre-and-post-Heisenberg theoretical physicists might
call the musical physics of Saltzman’s alternate universe. If you’re wondering
whether that last sentence is devious plot to create a new conundrum completely
separate from what you are about to hear, simply give the disc a spin. Okay,
let’s start over:
Peter Saltzman is a pianist who has written music and
produced a slew of records as a solo-performer bristling with talent; a
musician, who was classically-trained, seduced by Jazz and worships at the
altar of originality. He has also written and performed music with the
Revolution Ensemble. In many ways, everything he has done as a musician may
have led up to this monumental venture. Blues,
Preludes & Feuds: A Musical Memory is not simply an armchair
recollection. It is a peripatetic caravanserai that journeys through a dawn of
the renaissance of music during the baroque era by Bach’s majestic inventions.
It is hardly surprising then that Saltzman should, in the act of playing
original music such as that which is on this disc, weave Bach into cultural
topography of his new inventions. However, Bach’s Preludes, Fugues and a Two-Part
Invention are not the only aspects of the baroque that inform the endless
creativity on this album. The shadowy figure of Thelonious Monk and a floating
bust of Beethoven suggest that there is much more to this musical pursuit of a
musical Holy Grail.
However, as in the case of the search for the fabled
chalice, Peter Saltzman’s musical journey is interminable. This is cleverly
suggested by the short, jabbing lines in Fanatical in A, for instance; or in
the palpable deeply-felt sighs that inform the music of Temporary Cessation of Hostilities as it transitions to Amazing Grace. The “Blues” and “Feud”
parts of the music are born of Saltzman’s artistically militant side. Raised in
the harsh political climate of 1960s Chicago, Peter Saltzman would naturally be
affected by the fiery winds that seared the more deadly aspects of the windy
city into the memory. But the often whimsical and angular phrasing of
Saltzman’s music played in deference to Monk is what finally defines this
extraordinary musical tale that is available as a hybrid music-eBook; another
Peter Saltzman sleight-of-hand to marvel at.
Tracks: Prelude
– Overt? Sure!!; Blues for the End of Time; Or Not Blues; Part 1 – Prelude#0
(The Theme); Feud #0 (The Counter-Theme); Prelude #0; Two-Part Invention;
Signify; Part 2 – Ostinato
Asymmetrique; The Veiled Theme; Lullaby; The Other Theme; Ostinato
Improvisique; Contention in E; Fanatical in A; Temporary Cessation of
Hostilities; Part 3 – Amazing Grace;
Bach Prelude #1 Remix; Bach Prelude #2; Bach Fugue #2ish; Fantasy on Bach Fugue
#2; Part 4 – Star Spangled Minor;
Prevaricate; Similitude; Prelude & Feud #1; Eggman’s Lament; Blues en Français.
Personnel: Peter Saltzman: piano