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| Caroline Davis' 'Portals, Volume 2: Returning' is out September 20, 2024 via Intakt Records Losing loved ones is a universal experience, but the process of grief is deeply personal. Saxophonist and composer Caroline Davis has created a way to connect with her family members who have passed on, studying their past lives, aligning with their past visions, and composing music to breathe life back into their spirits. Portals has been the name of Davis' project since 2019, when her father passed away unexpectedly, opening a portal to connect with the spirit world. The music for Portals, Volume 1: Mourning was a fresh attempt at creating, weeks after sudden loss. Portals, Volume 2: Returning, is a dedication to Caroline's grandmother, Joan "Lady" Anson-Weber, a British poet (1927-2010) who was a direct inspiration for her lifestyle as an artist. Releasing on September 20 on Intakt, Davis wrote the pieces on Portals, Volume 2 for her current quintet, inclusive of diverse voices in the current jazz community: Marquis Hill (trumpet), Julian Shore (piano), Chris Tordini (bass), and Allan Mednard (drums). She invited several guests, including flutist Nicole Mitchell, who Caroline met in Chicago and later worked with as a mentor through CMA's Performance Plus Grant. Other guests were brought to the table to honor Lady's poetry with their voices through spoken word and singing; Jen Shyu, Nappy Nina, Julia Easterlin, and Alexa Barchini. With this bounty of expansive musicians, the groups came together at the Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, New York, with engineer Aaron Nevezie at the helm, to manifest the nuanced drum sounds Caroline was seeking for this book of music. "My understanding of portals is that they are always morphing, transitioning, growing, so it feels like a project that will keep going throughout my years of performing and composing. Recording albums for people I knew in this realm is a deeply emotional process, " commented Davis. "Gate of the Year" opens the album, and is an anthemic portrait based on the rhythms of a humourous poem Lady wrote for the gate leading into a magnificent garden. On the next two tracks, "Coming 'Round" and "Back Again, " we hear Lady's voice, captured from VHS movies from her home in Darien, Connecticut. The latter is a tender moment with Caroline as a baby, encouraged in the water by Lady and her dad. In the studio, the sounds of Lady's voice were played as prompts to spontaneously improvise together, and in post production, the tracks were overlayed with her voice. "One of the most important lessons I learned from Nicole Mitchell, who was a mentor throughout the process of writing this music, is to cultivate a vibe, and to let it guide you through rehearsals, studio time, and shows, " Davis shared. In "Olympian Air" we are introduced to guest vocalist, Jen Shyu, who recites the namesake poem by Anson-Weber. In this piece, the romping motion of interlocking parts and tenacity of the horns eventually gives way to the power of the piano voice, the fat gods from the poem. "Kites" features Julia Easterlin (voice) and Mike King (synthesizers, organ). Listeners will get a sense of Caroline's personal journey of getting to know her grandmother; experiences of beauty, strife, and loathing. The apex arrives with "I'll help you fly a kite for loathing, " bringing new ways of healing through a portal to help her grandmother who veered away from openly sharing her struggles. "Only the Names are Changed, Part 1" breathes life into the trio (Julian Shore, Chris Tordini, Allan Mednard), harkening back to textures of grief explored in Portals 1 through bowed acoustic bass. Listeners will hear Lady's voice for the last time on "Darien, " inviting us to "come on down, " as she walks through the garden, past her cats and trees, onward to the lake where there are two fisherman, fishing for catfish. In "Only the Names are Changed, Part 2, " rhythms of her rhymes were assigned to the horn voices, jaggedly supported by the trio. In the latter half of the piece, a dense anthem oscillates with Nappy Nina's verses, inspired by the poem's message that history repeats itself. Jen Shyu opens "Everlasting Fire" with Middle Stage, a short verse by Lady, leading into Alexa Barchini's soulful vocal offering. Davis's lyrics question the paths between light and dark, sun and moon, respect and scorn, leading the path into Atlantis, a set of verses about Lady's experiences in London during World War II. "City Flora" is a grooving walk through New York, a place Anson-Weber visited often, with plants growing out of the sidewalk as metaphors for not making it in the big city. Nicole Mitchell, Chris Tordini, and Davis had Lady's poem, "Oblivion, " on the music stand in the studio, as a prompt for this improvisation. Portals 2 closes with "Cover Up, " a journey through verses about trust, recited by Jen Shyu, and landing in a lilting melody that turns a blind eye to a world crashing down, as we continue our dance into the light. Portals, Volume 2: Returning is a visitation to a family member who was responsible for instilling creative energy in Caroline's music, an honoring of tradition through bloodlines, a way to explore poetry in less obvious ways of simple recitation. "I hope listeners will gain strength and grace, two of the best qualities from my grandmother that I try to embody in my own right, " the artist concludes. write your comments about the article :: © 2024 Jazz News :: home page |