SAHARA VON HATTENBERGER

1Q84

Odd Sound Musique

Sahara von Hattenberger, Cello; Joanne Kang, piano; Adrian Vedady, bass; Jim Doxas, drums; Malcolm Sailor &Remy Le Boeuf, composers.

This is chamber music at its best.  It’s an astounding album, featuring Sahara von Hattenberger on cello, alongside her talented trio of musicians.  This double album is unique, beginning with its odd title: “1Q84,” borrowed from a Japanese author’s famous fantasy novel of the same name.  That novel begins in the year 1984.  In Japanese, the number 9 is pronounced like the letter Q (kyuu).

The year 1984 was a turbulent time of change and challenge.  In America, the country suffered from terrible inflation.  It was a time when the AIDS/HIV epidemic was raging, and the United States was obsessed with technology. At the same time, Claude Bolling composed his “Suite for Cello and Jazz Piano Trio” specifically for Yo-Yo Ma to perform.This piece of musical art is the suite that opens von Hattenberger’s album.

Sahara von Hattenberger praises her rhythm section by saying, “The musicians … Adrian Vedady and Jim Doxas, were university professors at McGill while I was studying there and have mentored me since a young age.  It was a dream come true to collaborate with them on this album.”

Dr. Joanne Kang is a superb Australian pianist, praised for her performance of both Baroque music and contemporary jazz.  She brings excitement and technique that highlights her swiftly moving fingers dancing over the keys in improvised ways. Based in NYC, Kang enjoys an international career as both a soloist and a chamber performer, hailed for her brilliance from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Australia Opera house.

Adrian Vedady is heralded as one of Montreal, Canada’s finest jazz bass players. He has won three Juno Awards (comparable to the USA Grammy Award) for Best Jazz Album. The talented and diverse Jim Doxas brings a love of rock, jazz, Motown and World Music to his drum talents.  He can play it all. Doxas can be heard on over 150 albums and film soundtracks galore. He brings energy and excitement to this project.

Von Hattenberger is a New York City based celloist, who also works frequently in Canada and worldwide. The sensitive cello player has received four sizeable grants from the Canada Council for the Arts for her work in commissioning contemporary music as well as promoting cultural exchange between Japan and Canada with her other group “Duo Kogarashi.”  Her ongoing mission as a musician is to create new music that is accessible to diverse audiences globally.

It was her French father who first put a cello into von Hattenberger’s tiny child arms. Sahara’s love of that instrument grew with each passing year, along with her love of Bolling’s musical works, especially this suite that she interprets with her trio on Disc One. She is masterful at merging jazz with her classical cello presentations. That is evident and entertaining in a beautiful way, on both of these creative CDs from her double set release.

Disc Two features newly composed original music that reflects the ‘alternate reality’ of 2024. Sahara employs the composer talents of Malcolm Sailor and Remy Le Boeuf. They were inspired by the past four years, where our world has experienced a pandemic, inflation, and the threat of AI, very similar to the Bolling Suite celebration of 1984. Despite our country’s challenges, this music is not dark or dreary. It is full of light, love, hope and beauty.  Sailor has composed the song “Night Path,” while Le Boeuf has contributed a composition titled “Air Chrysalis.”

Sahara von Hattenberger is stellar on cello and her carefully picked musicians bring their own brilliance and sparkle to this incredible project.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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