Oscar Lavën: Elegant Calamity album review – Exuberant jazz from New Zealand
Recorded in an intimate Wellington venue, Lavën’s orchestra delivers joyous, genre-hopping jazz
It must have been quite a night when New Zealand saxophone star Oscar Lavën brought his Elegant Calamity Orchestra into Wellington’s intimate Bedlam & Squalor venue to record this exuberant, exhilarating music. Although he concentrates on tenor saxophone here, Lavën is adept across the whole woodwind family and just as likely to be found performing Vivaldi and Telemann on bassoon as he is playing jazz of all suits, from New Orleans-style through to big band, be-bop and beyond.
The make-up of his orchestra reflects his wide range of work, with strings joining reeds, brass and a five-piece rhythm section. The musicians are encouraged to express themselves in an ensemble sound that slips easily from rambunctious to romantic. The opening ‘Trong Park’ begins with a foghorn-like blast before breaking into a grooving rhythmical canter that supports and drives a big brassy melody. Solos of fire and creativity on trumpet, tenor sax, piano and percussion set the standard for the remainder of this album. Then, following a second track that draws joyous inspiration from Dizzy Gillespie’s Afro-Cuban adventures, the lovely tango-flavoured ‘Butterfly’, which was composed by Lavën’s mum, offers gorgeous melodic reflection and a cello solo of singular potency.
Lavën himself introduces the energetic African groove of ‘Pharoah Blue’ with a throaty, virtuosic improvisation that hints at tenor titan Pharoah Sanders and there’s something of Duke Ellington’s ‘East St Louis Toodle-Oo’ in ‘Tall Poppy Stomp’ with its wah-wah trumpet and richly voiced reeds. While these influences and others pertain (Charles Mingus could be the orchestra’s guiding spirit), there’s also much that bears Lavën’s own maverick stamp. Like its predecessor, Questions In Red, which featured Lavën in quintet mode, this is an effusive endorsement of New Zealand’s music scene.
Elegant Calamity is out now on Thick Records NZ.