Without a single bar being directly quoted from Olivier Messiaen's scores, the great French
modernist and sound painter could be heard everywhere in Tim Hagans' jazz adaptations "Dances from the Messiaen Moment."
With his five through-composed pieces, premiered on Friday in the Rolf Liebermann Studio of the NDR, the Ohio-born American trumpeter and composer continued the focus series initiated by the former chief conductor Geir Lysne of the NDR Bigband, that aimed to establish connections to great modernists of the 20th century with "Talking to Béla Bartók" and "Visiting Krzysztof Penderecki."
Birdsong at the jazz concert:
Is the NDR Bigband chirping?!
And yet he chose a new path: "My concept for this original suite," he revealed beforehand, "was to integrate jazz into Messiaen's world of sound and feeling, rather than bringing Messiaen into the world of jazz." His pieces "Blue Hour to the Rayon Vert," "Detroit-Paris Junction," or "Dream Sanctuary with Gratitude to Olivier Messiaen" were truly successful in their rich contrasts, their captivating timbre, stringency, density and elegance.
Except for a brief opening, Hagans refrained from playing the trumpet himself for the remainder of the performance, limiting himself to his nuanced conducting, often setting the tempo with short foot taps where the meter changed. Evi Filippou on the marimba and percussionist Jim Hart quickly joined in with triangle accents, before three flutes and a clarinet provided orchestra colors that Messiaen himself had once strongly favored.
Birdsong at the jazz concert?
The NDR Bigband brings out the bird-calling whistle
After an initial crescendo by the 19-member NDR Bigband, pianist Florian Weber, who even provided electronic interludes of the Ondes Martenot sounds made famous by Messiaen's Turangalîla-Sinfonie took over with calm, often recurring chord progressions. Although Hagans repeatedly launched into independent improvisational solos, allowing the members of the NDR Bigband to showcase their skills, the motif repetitions and rhythmic patterns so typical of Messiaen, and even the bird sounds that the French bird song collector had incorporated into his works, returned.
Hagans used three flutes, including a piccolo and clarinet, as well as percussion sounds, imitating birdsong, for example, with a Vietnamese bird call whistle. Hagans drew inspiration from Messiaen's "Catalogue d'oiseaux," but also, in other places, from his "Quatuor pour le fin du Temps" and "Chronochromie." It was a fantastic concert experience.