Threads of song are tied in knots on this release. It’s the second installment of Caroline Davis’ Portals series. In 2021, Vol. 1
meditated on the alto saxophonist’s grief and trauma following the
sudden death of her father. The muse for Vol. 2 is her grandmother,
the English poet Joan Anson-Weber, who passed away in 2010. Dialog
is at the heart of the composed content and free playing.
That dialog involves Davis and trumpeter Marquis Hilland, as well as
pianist Julian Shore, bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Allan
Mednard. The same quintet featured on the first record alongside a
string quartet. This time there are guest vocalists and spoken word
artists, plus contributions from visiting synthesizers, organ and
Rhodes. Nicole Mitchell’s flute takes a star turn on one track.
A seesawing call from saxophone and trumpet starts things off on
“Gate of the Year”. The two horns are fractionally out of sync as
they enunciate the written content together. That creates a
disconcerting atmosphere that Davis fleshes out via a three-minute
solo punctuated by intervallic leaps. Her upper register has a
violin-like texture. There’s a bebop-adjacent feel to her phrasing.
Poetry by Joan Anson-Weber is incorporated into several tracks. The
group improvised a response to audio samples lifted from family
videos for “Back Again”. It’s a short and gorgeously intimate piece.
Davis’ grandmother is encouraging her to swim. But we hear, in
hushed asides, her concern about whether young Caroline is too far
out of her depth. The free playing is sweet and tender.
There’s pain on this album too. Beneath ominous drip-drops from
piano on “Only the Names Are Changed, Part 1”, something is wounded
and weakened. An agonized vocal moan slips out between the fluttery
techniques, high-pitched squeaks and thumped bass strings on
“Oblivion”.
Portals Vol. 2: Returning deftly transposes the many-sided
experience of bereavement and its subsequent sense of absence. Its
twelve tracks are tangled around a common conceptual thread but tied
in an inventive variety of knots. Instruments call to each other in
familiar voices across vast, untraversable space. Will they get
together again? Only Caroline Davis knows.
The album is available on CD and as a digital download
here.