Queen Mab
Close (duos and trios)
 
 
 

Marilyn Lerner, piano
Lori Freedman, clarinets
with guests
Jack Vorvis, drums
Fides Krucker, voice
Tiina Kiik, accordion
Lee Pui Ming, piano
Victor Bateman, bass
 

Recorded May 9, June 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6 1999, at the Music Gallery in Toronto, Ontario and May 15, 1997, at Roulette, New York.
 

What the critics are saying;

In this release, they play with greater abandon, aided and abetted by five distinct personalities who join them on one track each.  At once more assertive and vigorous in their own forays, they are now carving out quicksilver designs full of tensile strength.  Design as the key to all artistic endeavor?  Indeed.  But so is instinct, and a guiding light that now shines brightly on their path ahead.

They [Lerner & Freedman] have a remarkable symbiosis, with Lerner's quite elegant lines sometimes giving this disc the sound of what it might have been like if Eric Dolphy had ever played with Cecil Taylor.  Lerner's powerful phrasing also seems to owe something to Stravinsky.  Of the huests, vocalist Fides Krucker makes the most lsting impression with sometimes caterwauling, sometimes cooing lines recalling Lauren Newton, Maggie Nichols, and Julie Tippets.  This is at times a forbidding disc, but it is ultimately quite spectacularly rewarding: Lerner and Freedman never repeat themselves, never lapse into cliches, and always keep the listener reveling in the sounds of surprise.

Although Barbie's Other Shoe  was convincing, this second offering is better in every conceivable way; impeccable production, energizing, urgent and unbridled playing (without overdoing it - we'll put that on the count of feminine sensibility times two).  Oh, and a lush artistic presentation.  A winner on all counts, this record is a must!

A wonderfully eccentric grab-bag of duos and trios focuses on the versatile pairing of pianist Marilyn Lerner and Lori Freedman on clarinets (they're the Mabs)...It's music of angles and astringency, at times austere, and others excitingly emphatic...Moods shift but there's obvious empathy between principals, who mix cat-and-mouse games with serious musical conversation that's open and provocative.