Nobu Stowe “An die Musik”
(Soul Note 2008)
Nobu Stowe (Suto) – piano
Alan Munshower - drums
Badal Roy – tabla
This lovely set of totally improvised, three-person music owes a great debt to the extemporaneous, no-pre-composition approach of Keith Jarrett. It is musing, lyrical and delightful. Following Jarrett’s approach is much easier said than done, though. The demanding nature of improvising for 70 minutes, working with sections that come together as distinct and coherent movements, would seem to lead to unfocused noodling and internal disorder. However, Stowe does rather just the opposite by tapping into his own potential for spontaneous unity. Each of the eleven improvised sections comes out unique, exciting, but still very coherent and ‘composed.’
Improvising in this way solo would be one thing, but what makes this CD especially intriguing is the interplay of these three musicians, all of them improvising or composing-in-the-moment together. Their unique interaction seems to demand a new word, maybe “improcomposing” or something. For the percussionists, creating rhythms that support the piano is one thing, but keeping those rhythms constantly open enough to respond to the pianists’ impulses is another. The drumming and tabla playing stays right with Stowe, never falling behind, as one might suspect. Clearly, both Munshower and Roy know Stowe’s approach deeply enough to be able to accent, comment, and enhance his piano phrasing and musical trajectories.
Stowe always seems to be offering up not one but two simultaneous directions, one with his left hand and one with his right. His internal musical dialogues flows out smoothly, the strong left hand emphasizing key points, with his right hand moving easily between muscular chording and long delicate lines of melody. In turns, passionate, soft, pretty, dissonant, lyrical, with many other textures and tones flowing in and out of these qualities, the music could not be pre-planned, but clearly arises naturally from inside. That might be just another way of entering into the moment musically, but with Stowe that’s a way that works wonderfully!
Like a suite of interconnected sections that flows into a total piece, Stowe’s way of reconfiguring the music by both improvising inside structures and improvising the structures themselves, puts spontaneity ahead of other musical values. Doing that, as any improviser knows, can become a way of walking a very thin line, but Stowe’s buoyancy and poise, and an unending flow of ideas, keeps the trio moving forward along that tight wire to make lovely, passionate and beautiful music.