Scintillating Beauty by Cat Toren's HUMAN KIND

At its core, the creative act of making art is grounded in generosity and hope; the gift of sharing one’s inspiration with others and the hope that in doing so, it will be transformative in some form for those who experience it. Inspired by two iconic quotes from the Reverend Martin Luther King, pianist/composer Cat Toren confronts the fraught contemporary moment in our collective history by searching for music that resonates with the ideals of redemption, metamorphosis, and spiritual evolution that are at the core of the civil rights movement. Enlisting the talents of her quintet HUMAN KIND on their sophomore release, Toren draws on her work as a sound healer and the influences of spiritual jazz practitioners such as Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders to produce an album whose message is powerfully communicative.

“Radiance in Veils,” the album’s opening track, begins with delicate chimes drawn directly from Toren’s sound healing practice. The quartet gradually explores a rhythmically free space over harmonic drones, quietly at first before gaining in intensity as the pedal point swings back and forth between the initial pitch and surrounding notes. Despite the diverse music cultures suggested by the instrument of oud, saxophone, mixed percussion, and piano, this opening is grounded in an immediately recognizable expressive template, an introductory call to prayer of sorts that one can identify in musics from around the world. A rhapsodic piano solo follows as Toren meditates on mournful Phrygian harmonies, leading into a vamp over which saxophonist Xavier Del Castillo and oudist Yoshie Fruchter play a haunting melody in unison. Del Castillo leads the way with a blistering solo as the group gradually joins him and the rhythm becomes free once again. Another contemplative piano solo acts as a harmonic bridge to a frenetic transitional passage, before the piece’s mysterious main second theme arrives, a disjunct, obstinate figure played in rhythmic unison that ushers in oud and piano solos. An ensemble melody follows, an intensified quasi-hybrid of the previous two themes, before the track ends with the oud embellishing a smooth vamp.

“Garment of Destiny” is inspired by a King quote that speaks of an “inescapable network of mutuality,” a network that Toren sees in the dynamics of improvising as much as social communication. Beginning with a searching Toren solo, Fruchter and bassist Jake Leckie join for an improvised dialogue that is notable for the restraint and space each musician creates. The entire quintet comes together for an unfolding improvisation that is led by Del Castillo’s plaintive sax, evolving as one long gesture opens into a broad climax.

“Ignis Fatuus” is the most overtly swung music on the album, presented with a touch of irony, a response to the ministrations of politicians, spin doctors, and those who pollute the social discourse with misinformation. The sax melody has hints of the dry humor of Monk and Mingus. Toren’s solo toys around with melodic fragments from various angles, twisting and turning them to see how they can be heard from multiple angles. Del Castillo's entrance is brash and sardonic and as his solo intensifies, his lines become more angular and disjointed.

The final work on the album, “Rising Phoenix,” opens with an organ, a new texture that briefly references the gospel tradition and brings us back to the reverent space of the opening track. Energy accumulates through the improvisation on this track, as if to capture a reawakening and energetic renewal. Midway through the piece, Toren begins to play towering, polytonal triads over a pedal before Del Castillo intones three note clarion calls. This leads into a slow, gospel blues groove organized into seven bar phrases that roll over themselves like crests of a heavy wave, a message of renewal to close the recording.

On top of crafting an expressive and energetic arc over the course of the album, Toren deftly blends the stylistic references inherent in the HUMAN KIND instrumentation. The shared musical environment she facilitates is one in which the various voices present, whether it be the Arabic oud, jazz saxophone, or percussion grounded in the healing tradition, are meeting in a space that has a quality of universality; she skillfully avoids the trap of featuring any instrument for the exoticism of its association. Perhaps this is yet one more way that Toren’s practice strives to send a message about community and harmony, that we can find a mutual forum for discourse. Or as King put it as no one else could, “Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”

cattoren.com