Theoria

Album review

Recorded in early 1991, this edition of the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra led by Barry Guy features a non-Londoner as soloist: Austrian pianist Iréne Schweizer. Guy's composition is essentially a concerto for Schweizer for her fiftieth birthday. As such, Guy has conceded that unlike many of his other works for this group, Theoria could be divided into five sections as referents not only for the musicians, but for those of us who have to write about this stuff as well. All of that said, none of these sections stands on their own; they are all fully integrative to the whole of Theoria. This may be Guy's masterpiece in that here he has reached, finally, the perfect balance of incorporating all of his obsessions into one work: classical music, particularly the Romantic period, free jazz, new music, big band swing, blues, and soundtrack scores. While Schweizer plays throughout, the other members of the ensemble -- including Evan Parker, Jon Corbett, Trevor Watts, Paul Dunmall, Barre Phillips, Paul Lytton, Conrad Bauer, and others -- are all scheduled to solo and often. The tight structure of the ensemble elements, paired with the open-ended solo spaces, with Schweizer acting as a respondent as well as a principal, creates such a glorious tension that, in the places in the score that it gets resolved, the feeling is one of transcendent release. Here Guy's entire sonic world opens up in color, tone, shade, and nuanced beauty. It is beyond language to interpret its effect, but its organization is so complex, so righteously taut with ideas and combinations of harmonic and contrapuntal interconnectedness it just boggles the mind even when looking at the score.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo