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JANE IRA BLOOM
The concept that Bloom is working with here is a heady and potentially rewarding one, since Pollack often sought to create visual art that mimicked the movement of sound. Now Bloom seeks to take the visual interpretation and interpret it again into sound, providing something like the sounds inside the artist’s head that would have inspired the paintings in the first place. In lesser hands, this type of project could have become so dense and theory-laden that it never would have gotten off the ground, but Bloom is an uncommonly talented composer and improviser, and she’s working with an amazingly sensitive and closely attuned group of musicians. The result is music that, while never facile, provides the listener with a unique experience and allows another way of understanding Pollock’s work. Indeed, it may be easier for those who are attuned to sound to approach Pollock’s paintings with the insight that Bloom’s music provides. There is also never an attempt to provide an overly literal translation of Pollock’s work. Instead, Bloom and company seem to take the kinetic energy, the color, and other elements of Pollock’s entire oeuvre and render a sonic portrait that is much more of a treatise on all of Pollock’s work rather than an interpretation of any individual painting. Nor is there an overabundance of concentration on the physical aspects, the energy, and the very masculine nature of Pollock’s work. It’s all there, to be sure, but it is balanced by the more introspective elements as well, without which the paintings would merely be pastiches of themselves. Listen, for example, to Bloom’s playing at the beginning of the third track, “The Sweetest Sounds,” which is meditative without being either tentative or outright boring, at the same time reminding the listener that Jane Ira Bloom is one of the best soprano saxophonists around. She is able to take an instrument that can either sound remarkably harsh (a la Coltrane at times) or incredibly saccharine (Kenny G) and makes it not only beautiful, but truly distinctive member of the saxophone family, defining its sound the way Ben Webster and Lester Young defined the tenor, Charlie Parker defined the alto, and Gerry Mulligan defined the baritone sax.
Jane Ira Bloom photo credits:
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Given
soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom’s interest in movement and
the physical side of musical creation as well as her pioneering use
of live electronics to shape her improvisations, it should come as no
surprise that she should be interested in or inspired by the work of
painter Jackson Pollock. Her latest CD, Chasing Paint, is a
suite of music that aims to recreate the way that Pollock pushed paint
around a canvas by allowing her quartet (Bloom, pianist Fred Hersch,
bassist Mark Dresser, and drummer Bobby Previt) to move sound around
the group in a sonically similar fashion. The results are fascinating
and make for a provocative and challenging listening experience. Ultimately,
you’ll be glad you took the trip with Bloom and her band.
Most
importantly, Chasing Paint is a joy to listen to. The music
here is restless and relentlessly inventive, and it leaves the listener
wanting more. The connection between Abstract Expressionism and Free
Jazz ought to be somewhat apparent, but it’s easy for both the
visual and aural form of this expression to become clichéd and
hackneyed. Not only that, but both Abstract Expressionism and Free Jazz
can be treated as museum pieces, artistic relics of a bygone era that
no longer breathe or can be molded into something new. Bloom rejects
this approach, building on both Pollack’s ideas and the deconstructions
of her Free Jazz forbears to move the concepts she is embodying forward
into the present. That allows the music she and her cohorts create here
to be appreciated completely separately from its context. It certainly
enriches the listeners’ enjoyment to know that this is music inspired
by the work of Jackson Pollock and to have some understanding of that
work, but it is not strictly necessary. From a purely musical point
of view, Chasing Paint has its own pleasures to offer, and
they would make this one of the most interesting jazz/improvisational
music releases so far this year whether the connection to Jackson Pollock
existed or not. 
