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Jane
Ira Bloom Quartet Performs Jackson Pollock
Houston TX, 9 March 2002
by Frank Rubolino
May 2002
 Jane
Ira Bloom composed a suite in eight movements inspired by eight paintings
of Jackson Pollock. She and her quartet gave the world premiere of
the work in Houston at the prestigious Museum of Fine Arts. With Fred
Hersch on piano, Mark Dresser on bass, and Bobby Previte on drums,
the group awed a sedate crowd with the intricacy of the composition
and with the dynamics of the interspersed improvisations. Da Camera
of Houston, whose main efforts lean toward classical music, sponsored
the concert. I speculated that not many in the packed venue were previously
familiar with Bloom's work. To complement the performance, the museum
hung Pollock's multi-colored "Number Six" at the rear of
the stage. It was a fitting backdrop for the involved music. Titled
Chasing Paint, the suite segued through up-tempo composed segments,
exciting freeform explorations, and calming ballad-style musings.
Bloom frequently displayed her swirling, shifting specialty where
the soprano bell alternately moved from the left microphone to the
right in dashing form, which was coincidentally associable to Pollock's
painting approach.
While
loose structure was a natural part of the lengthy 78-minute composition,
Bloom encouraged the musicians to respond to images of each of the
eight paintings as a gateway to openness and free expression. Dresser
was the most aggressive in this mode. He robustly took his bass to
strange, exotic places in creating a masterful group of solos. Previte
was sensitive initially in adding accents to the movements, but he
often exploded with a barrage of sound that made one think of the
way color hit the canvas of a Pollack painting. Hersch was more reserved
on this occasion, adding the semblance of stability to the piece
rather than freelancing, although he had several occasions when he
introspectively found the inner core of the songs.
Bloom was the focal point throughout the show. She was tender, passionate,
energizing, and stimulating at various points, and she masterfully
directed the band through the ever-changing nature of the suite.
The varied tempo shifts kept the long performance in balance, but
it was the continual reaching of Bloom for new highs on the straight
horn that made the project gel. The artistry of the band in performing
this serious work did justice to the artistry of Pollack. It was
an engrossing event.
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