The Art of Improvisation

Ever feel like you just don’t get improv? I admit it leaves me feeling intellectually lacking sometimes, and the opening seconds of Leroy Jenkins’s The Art of Improvisation sound a bit like everything I’ve ever feared about musicians working this particular stylistic bent. But take a deep breath and just listen for a few minutes more to this band of violin, pipa, piano, and percussion, and the sounds start to connect in an abstract expressionist sort of manner. The second track, the 18-minute fantasy “To Sing,” begins with a the piano dragging itself up from a watery grave before Jenkins breaks into a cadenza that would likely have had Paganini enthralled with its audacity—ostentatious flourishes skimmed over in a sul ponticello and harmonic ethereal haze. Each band member gets a chance to take a solo turn before coming together in the closing minutes. But this is not to gear up for a powerhouse ending. Rather it’s more akin of a flock of migrating birds teaming up to fly a very long commute in each others company.

—MS