专辑英文名: Promises Kept
专辑中文名: 保持承诺
歌手: Steve Kuhn with Strings
音乐风格: 爵士
资源格式: FLAC
发行时间: 2004年04月27日
地区: 德国
语言: 英语
简介:
出品厂牌：ECM Records
专辑目录：ECM 1815
音乐风格：Jazz, Modern Creative
专辑时长：58:26 min
推荐指数：★★★★★
专辑介绍：
『幽暗中渗出些许光芒，希冀晨曦中带些绝望。』
这是如此地矛盾与不健全，却又有种莫名的成癮性存在著。
作为一位专职的音乐演出者已经超过了五十年，美籍钢琴家 史提夫·昆恩﹝Steve Kuhn﹞一向保持著绅士文雅的隐者形象，以欧陆古典主义为基底，带出极为悲情幽鸣的出色旋律线，辅以优雅流畅的弦乐之音、低调木訥的贝斯基石，造就出无与伦比的超脱作品《保持承诺》﹝Promises Kept﹞。
低鸣撕吼的低音提琴、与飘渺虚无的小提琴合奏，其中最美的声响无非是Steve Kuhn那令人醉心的净透琴音，曲2『Life's Backward Glance』，细腻却又环环相扣的曲式结构、乘著超然的绝美旋律线条，渲染出带著些鬱气的靛紫色云彩，就巧妙地涂在那遥远的天际之上。
标题曲曲5『Promises Kept』中阿根廷籍的出色指挥家Carlos Franzetti精巧地配置出如梦似幻的弦外之音，稳重扎实的贝斯演奏家David Finck也十分称职地担任捕手的角色，彷彿小心翼翼地掌著这些美妙轻盈的鸟儿般地奏著，著实为巧妙地将古典与即兴演奏融为一体的高超篇章。
曲末10『田园』﹝Pastorale﹞，有著一股淡淡地哀伤，是一种让人感到微微地忧鬱，却又是那么的无暇纯真，这种似乎只能容纳一个人的音乐氛围，纯粹是单独为妳而弹奏的，听著听著，热泪不知不觉地从眼眶潸然而下，不为了什么，没有任何多餘的解释，只是它有著能够牵引出妳内心深处的悸动与回忆的力量，这是如此地不可思议、真实的感动。
《保持承诺》﹝Promises Kept﹞成功地将弦乐之音与古典/爵士交杂的钢琴风格推向臻熟的顶峰境界，同时演绎出如同电影配乐般的戏剧张力，精密地、剧烈地、典雅地、却又瀰漫著一股油然而生的无奈与悲情，这确实能清楚感受到那无可言喻的、悲从中来的哀凄，在妳我的本能之中…
Steve Kuhn，生于38年，5岁学钢琴，13岁正式演出，21岁哈佛大学毕业。后与Kenny Dorham、John Coltrane、Stan Getz等合作，并磨练技艺。60年代中期在欧洲大陆四处表演录音，71年回美国并开始为ECM录制独奏或领奏，同期与Sheila Jordan合作。
Steve Kuhn出身美国东岸，曾受教於上低音萨克斯风手Serge Chaloff的母亲——担任钢琴教师的Chaloff夫人。在McCoy Tyner加入之前，擅长演奏调式爵士（Modal Jazz）风格的Steve Kuhn曾经担任John Coltrane四重奏的钢琴手，也是这个乐团唯一的白人乐手。Steve Kuhn早年曾为Kenny Dorham、Art Farmer、Stan Getz等人效命，以演奏精纯咆勃风格的爵士乐为主。七○年代以后，Steve Kuhn为ECM录制了不少代表性作品，在这些专辑中他尝试演奏电子琴，冶古典和即兴音乐於一炉（例如Trance）。不过在这段期间，Steve Kuhn最受好评的作品，是与女歌手Sheila Jordan合作的Playground，可惜目前为止尚未CD化。
八○年代以后，Steve Kuhn又走回原音爵士的演奏路线，其间他也接受日本爵士厂牌Venus之邀，录制了不少评价不错的三重奏专辑，其中最富盛名，也较容易在台湾买得到的，自然是精纯咆勃佳作Love Walked In，只要听Steve Kuhn在第一轨「No Problem」中火力全开的热烈演出，就已经值回碟价！
至於这里推荐的Promises Kept，系Steve Kuhn与阿根廷裔的Carlos Franzetti指挥的弦乐团合作的录音。弦乐团为爵士艺人伴奏并不是什么新鲜事，但通常都是跨流行和爵士的歌/乐手出於商业考量，以优美动听的弦乐合奏来添加演奏的戏剧性。如此的弦乐伴奏常被评为添加味素，滋味过重，不是自诩为即兴能手演奏的常态。Promises Kept不但是个例外，也是个惊喜注二。一开场的「Lullaby」，Steve Kuhn的钢琴演奏真是美到令人心碎，配上Carlos Franzetti领导的弦乐伴奏，无论是旋律或和声都是甜而不腻。弦乐搭配著Steve Kuhn漂亮的旋律，峰回路转，每一首曲子似在诉说著一个传奇，一桩生命经验或是情绪，而那些故事的细节，在Steve Kuhn微妙的钢琴和弦变化之间，作了明确的交代。Promises Kept与之前Steve Kuhn的作品完风格全不同，是他迈入千禧年之后的代表作。即使这是一张完全不走摇摆风格的即兴作品，仍值得所有的古典及爵士乐迷一听。
Steve Kuhn has had an interesting career. A talented jazz pianist, he has worked in many types of settings through the years. He began classical piano lessons when he was five, studied with Madame Chaloff, and accompanied her son, baritonist Serge Chaloff, on some gigs when the pianist was 14. He freelanced in Boston as a teenager, graduated from Harvard, and moved to New York where he worked with Kenny Dorhams group (1959-1960). Kuhn was the original pianist in John Coltranes Quartet, playing for two months before McCoy Tyner succeeded him. He was with the bands of Stan Getz (1961-1963) and Art Farmer (1964-1966), lived in Europe (1967-1970), and then returned to the U.S. in 1971. Kuhn doubled on electric piano in the 1970s, recorded for ECM, and co-led a group with Sheila Jordan in the latter part of the decade. After a period playing commercial music, he formed an acoustic trio in the mid-80s, which has been his main vehicle ever since. Steve Kuhn has recorded as a leader for Impulse (1966), Contact, MPS, BYG, Muse, ECM, Blackhawk, New World, Owl, Concord, and Postcards.
AMG Review:
The lineup on Promises Kept says it all: Steve Kuhn with strings. Kuhn is a jazz pianist whose recordings may have been out of the jazz mainstream for most of the five decades his career has spanned, but it hardly matters. Kuhn's style is signature, though his explorations have taken him to many different terrains in the world of jazz, from knotty post-bop to pointillism and modalism and through the nefarious world of 20th century vanguard composition to the place where listeners find him now: the place of a supreme and unabashed lyricism that is as sophisticated and forward-looking as it is historical and inclusive. Bassist David Finck is also present here; his trademark loping style has been a fixture on Kuhn's recordings since 1986. Conducted and orchestrated by Carlos Franzetti, this 15-piece string orchestra offers a lush yet poignant collaborative sphere for Kuhn to work his considerable harmonic magic. Kuhn composed all ten pieces. Some are well-known items in his oeuvre; others were written specifically for this recording. They vary in range, mood, texture, and depth of field. The album opens with "Lullaby," its sheer nocturnal elegance kissed by quiet joy. The bittersweet emotionalism of his classic "Life's Backward Glance" becomes a credo for the entire album. Beginning with a series of brooding washes by the cellos and tempered by a pastoral reflective series of chords and ostinatos, it becomes the haunted song of reverie as tempered by a sense of the fleeting present. "Trance" offers an elongated string introduction, whereby the feeling of time's suspension pervades in the violas and cellos until the repetitive, songlike melody line slips into the middle between them and the violins caress the entire mix. Here romanticism and jazz entwine in the body of Kuhn's harmonic structures, shimmering through a luxuriant mirror of musical history. And the title track, an homage to Kuhn's Hungarian immigrant parents, waltzes and glides between Old Europe and a far more romantic vision of America than exists today. It is formal and carries within it a wistful kind of romanticism that is seldom heard in modern music. In sum, this is one of the finest recordings Kuhn has ever issued. Simply put, for all the decades spent adventuring on the boundaries where various traditions blur, the pianist and composer articulate direct emotion as the most effective communicator here, no matter what terrain is navigated in form. A breathtaking and intimate outing, this is a career-topping effort.
Personnel:
*Steve Kuhn- piano
*Carlos Franzetti- arranger, conductor
*Krista Bennion Feeney, Elizabeth Lim-Dutton, Richard Sortomme, Karl Kawahara, Barry Finclair, Helen Kim,
*Robert Shaw, Carol Pool, Anca Nicolav - violin
*Sue Pray, Karen Ritscher, Vince Lionti - viola
*Stephanie Cummins, Richard Locker, Joshua Gordon - cello
*David Finck - bass
