Variations On a Summer Day

Variations on a Summer Day is an ambitious and unusual project by the accomplished Finnish jazz composer/pianist Frank Carlberg and his frequent collaborator, the Indian-born vocalist Christine Correa. Carlberg composes a song cycle based on Wallace Stevens' poem of the same name. Each of the poem's 12 sections is set to music, with each track taking its title from key words or phrases in its respective stanza. Correa's eerie and suggestive vocals give the poetic language a life beyond the printed page. The ensemble boasts some of the most capable jazz players around: Carlberg on piano, Chris Cheek on tenor saxophone, Chris Speed on tenor sax and clarinet, Andrew D'Angelo on alto sax and bass clarinet, Curtis Hasselbring on trombone, Ben Street on bass, and Kenny Wolleson on drums.

Carlberg brilliantly captures Stevens' ocean-related imagery. Disquieting turbulence pervades "The Rocks of the Cliffs" and "Shaken and Shaken." Hauntingly strange balladry sets the tone on "Say of the Gulls," "Star Over Monhegan," and "Night and Day (This Cloudy World)." "A Music" and "To Change Nature" swing with a Mingusian urgency. "Forever Young" and "One Sparrow" occupy a nebulous, rubato zone where angular vocal melodies are set against craggy ensemble support. Tango rhythms underscore the images of inevitable death found in "Everywhere." And "Round and Round" ends the cycle in stark, minimalistic fashion.

Interestingly, within the text of "An Exercise," the shortest movement, the probable source of Carlberg's initial inspiration can be found: "An exercise in viewing the world /On the motive! But one looks at the sea/As one improvises on the piano." ~ David R. Adler, Rovi