“In The Morning,” the title work and opening track of Stefano Battaglia Trio’s new release, is one of the most poignant and evocative pieces of music I’ve encountered this year. I don’t know much about this work, and my knowledge of its composer Alec Wilder is woefully inadequate, but I do know that “In The Morning” has already entered my shortlist of favorite works of all time.
What I’ve learned about Wilder, and which you may already know, is that he was a prolific and self-taught American composer in the first half of the 20th century. His works were recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, the Mills Brothers and many others. He also wrote chamber music, operas, musicals and more, wrote the lyrics for some of his most popular songs, and also wrote an influential book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators (1900–1950). None of that would have prepared me for the opening bars of “In The Morning.”
Some of the emotional impact of the music is due to the musicians. Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia, in his sixth outing for ECM, is playing with bassist Salvatore Maiore and drummer Roberto Dani, and the three obviously have a rapport that compares with that of the greatest of jazz trios. But much credit also is due, of course, to the composer. These are some lovely songs and tunes, the title track most of all. Both in composition and execution it draws on early classical music, and Battaglia’s piano improvisation has a lengthy section of what sounds like Sephardic motifs.
The album has seven pieces, four lengthy works of 11 to 15 minutes (including the title piece), and three shorter, all performed and recorded live before an audience in Torino in 2014.
The shorter songs all are lovely lyrical works. “Moon And Sand” is a pensive, beautifully melodic art song, one of Wilder’s best known, written with Morty Palitz and William Engvick and memorably recorded by Xavier Cugat’s orchestra. The whole concert was amazingly captured by ECM chief Manfred Eicher, but to me the production really stands out on this song, which benefits greatly from the open, airy sound of the hall and the production, which seems to somehow capture an essence of the warm feeling these players bring to the music. The audience is in silent, rapt attention throughout, such that it’s a surprise when they applaud. “When I Am Dead My Dearest” is another delightful shorter piece – it isn’t a dirge but a percussive exploration on a somewhat somber theme. Dani’s percussion work is the focus here, his sticks calling forth all manner of ticks and washes, playing around and over the beat. (You can listen to this piece on the ECM website. ) The trio also goes some interesting places with the pretty, minor-key melody of “Where Do You Go,” which was written for a musical that didn’t make it to Broadway but was later recorded by Sinatra.
The three remaining longer works all are powerful in their own ways. “River Run” is a lengthy thematic work that has lyrics by the great librettist Marshall Barer (best known for “Once Upon a Mattress”) from the point of view of a woman whose sailor never returned from the sea. “Chick Lorimer” is an art piece in which Wilder set a Carl Sandburg poem to music. The concert’s focal point is “The Lake Isle Of Innisfree,” an utterly engaging 15-minute atmospheric exploration based on Wilder’s art song treatment of W. B. Yeats’s poem. It has some chilly, dirge-like rubato sections around a repeated Celtic-influenced slow dance melody.
This Alec Wilder project follows earlier Battaglia dates that paid homage to Bill Evans and Paul Bley, and to Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, and that were inspired by mythology. Turns out Wilder was a worthy subject, an inspiration to an album’s worth of beautiful performances. It leaves me eagerly looking forward to whatever next draws the Battaglia trio’s attention.
ECM, 2015
