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Cuban pianist Manuel Valera and Iranian santourist Sourena Sefati have each released new albums that live outside the musical mainstream but which are nonetheless quite comfortable inside the ear. Valera’s compositions draw on the theoretical constructs of Russian composer and conductor Nicolas Slonimsky, and Sefati employs ancient Persian elements in his modern compositions.

Manuel Valera Trio
The Planets(Mavo Records)
A review
Appropriately enough, the harmonies throughout pianist/composer Manuel Valera’s The Planets* suite have an otherworldly quality to them, and they wander (planet: from the Greek planes, wanderer) across the musical sky without ever losing their gravitational tether to tonality. It’s a characteristic of Russian composer and conductor Nicolas Slonimsky’s pandiatonic progressions, as described in his Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, which have fascinated a wide range of composers from Stravinsky to Zappa, Reich to Adams, Schoenberg to Coltrane. Leveraging Slonimsky’s insights and inspired by the cosmological, astronomical, and mythological associations of the eight planets and the sun, Valera’s compositions take harmonic liberties without ever inducing vertigo in the listener. It’s straight-ahead jazz in curved space. The trio’s virtuosic members, with Hans Glawischnig (bass) and E.J. Strickland (drums), are preternaturally attuned to one another’s intentions, delivering performances that are as muscular as they are supple. If you can tear your ears away from Valera’s astonishing right hand, check out what his left is doing, gathering and breaking up rhythms and harmonies at an often dizzying pace. Highlights include the suite’s opening track, “Sun Prelude I,” whose beautiful and exotic melody could have been written by Erik Satie on mushrooms. “Mercury – The Messenger” dazzles with speed and power as the entire trio flies through the piece with the controlled abandon of a Manhattan bike messenger. “Venus – Peace” soothes with its exquisite harmonies. “Jupiter – Joyous Thunder” captivates with its densely packed ideas. In addition to the suite, which was made possible by support from Chamber Music America’s 2017 New Jazz Works program, the album includes two bonus pieces, the richly romantic “Llora” and the gospel-inflected whimsy of “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” which gently return the listener to a sublunar orbit. Altogether, the album delivers exhilarating jazz that delights the ear and electrifies the brain. The CD package’s graphic design and cover illustration, by Lisa Walters Designs and Takao Fujioka, respectively, make a satisfying visual contribution to the album’s impact.

Sourena Sefati
The Sound of Peace (Ur Music)
A review
Albuquerque is blessed to have two Middle Eastern virtuosi in permanent residence: Iraqi oudist Rahim AlHaj, who’s been here 18 years, and santourist Sourena Sefati, who arrived from his native Iran 4 years ago. The two perform and have recorded together in AlHaj’s trio, and Sefati has just released his first American recording, the dazzling The Sound of Peace,* on AlHaj’s Ur Music label. The grandfather of the cimbalom, the hammered dulcimer, and similar stringed instruments, the santour is an acoustic instrument with 72 metal strings stretched over a resonant trapezoidal wooden box. It is played with delicate felt-tipped mallets, called mezrabs in the Persian tradition. In the hands of a virtuoso such as Sefati, the instrument is capable of an astonishing and expressive range of timbres, and Sefati masterfully exploits the timbral possibilities to color the album’s eight original compositions. Each is driven by strong rhythmic currents and showcases Sefati’s remarkable technique. He delights in intricate, high-speed passages, producing waves of sound that seem all but impossible to create with only two small mallets. On the jubilant “Holy Peace,” he somehow manages to develop two independent, syncopated melodic lines simultaneously. “To My Beloved Motherland,” an affecting love song for a distant land and family, communicates the pangs of separation with highly technical playing and a sensitive selection of timbres. “The Sound of Samaa” suggests a ritual dance while the lively “Dance of the Meadow” offers an exuberant release. The stately “The River” gathers momentum as it tumbles toward the sea, and “Migration” somehow captures a sense of wonder as it moves through a variety of musical environments. The sheer virtuosity of Sefati’s playing may initially displace appreciation of his compositions, which deserve attention for their musical logic and flow. Sefati is joined on the album by Iranian percussionist Kourosh Danaei on tombak, udu, damman, and dayereh. The CD package is enhanced by Danaei’s calligraphy, which reproduces part of a work by the Persian poet Saadi.

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© 2018 Mel Minter