The
Merling Trio could certainly have picked a less crowded field to enter into with its third CD outing and first for Centaur, Music of Astor Piazolla and Frank Proto. Argentine composer
Astor Piazolla is one of the most recorded figures among classical composers born after 1920, and although a lot of that attention has only come in the early 2000s, it has resulted in a considerable number of recordings. Nonetheless, these are some outstanding interpretations of
Piazolla, and the
Merling Trio should be credited with taking into the studio something it does well, rather than trying to prepare another thing for purposes of recording that's not fully baked.
However, the real focus of this release should be placed on the excellent Quartet for piano and strings of Frank Proto, who has long been regarded as perhaps the finest composer belonging to Cincinnati, OH, since
Gunther Schuller was in town, but remains little known outside of the former "Queen City." In this latter work, the
Merling Trio is joined by string bassist Tom Knific, resulting in the seldom, if ever, used chamber combination of violin, cello, piano, and string bass. Knific is able to switch out of the typically bowed role of the string bass in chamber music to the pizzicato voicing that we know from jazz, and this piece as a whole represents a highly successful -- one hastens to use this word -- fusion of jazz and Western Expressionism. In this sense, it does vaguely resemble a work of
Schuller's, Conversation, written for the
Modern Jazz Quartet and the Beaux Arts String Quartet back in the '50s, but with two huge differences. The two ensembles, and styles, are pitted directly against one another in
Schuller's work, whereas Proto achieves the same sense of duality with one, and Proto also manages to attain a seamless and fluid combination of jazz and expressionist scoring, whereas
Schuller, in 1958, is satisfied after achieving a mixture that's roughly oil and water. It is also worth mentioning that the last movement evokes a little of "Sweet Georgia Brown" in the final send-off, so what's not to like about that?
The
Merling Trio is based out of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. This disc was recorded on campus at the university's Dalton Center, and the recording is a cut well above the usual out-of-house production that Centaur incorporates into its release schedule from time to time. Music of Astor Piazolla and Frank Proto is a fun disc and will prove rewarding to listeners who are looking for something different, but comprehensible within the means of most tastes.