The lackluster project
The Redesign by Operazone was conceived as a jazz-opera hybrid by producer
Alan Douglas and realized on this Knitting Factory Records CD by cornetist/flügelhornist
Graham Haynes, all-around creative jazz legend
Karl Berger, and bassist/producer
Bill Laswell. The performers are
Berger on keyboards,
Haynes, Philadelphia tenor saxophonist
Byard Lancaster, New York acoustic bassist
Mark Helias, and a host of other musicians on strings, flutes, and French horns.
The Redesign features operatic themes of
Donizetti,
Verdi,
Saint-Saens, and
Puccini performed by thick and undistinguished strings, interspersed among generally languid solo spots from
Haynes and
Lancaster. Rhythm tracks with tablas and other ethnic percussion are consistently low in the mix, propelling the music forward at consistent tempos and providing a touch of world music exoticism. It is unclear to whom this music is intended to appeal. Certainly the drama, passion, and spectacle of opera are missing, and the flat dynamics and auto-pilot percussion make this lukewarm jazz at best.
Lancaster is usually a soulful and robust player, but he is watered down on this outing.
Haynes fares a bit better, perhaps because he has more experience finding ways to be expressive over robotic techno beats (and also because the cornet and flügelhorn can more easily cut through the mushy "Material Strings" arranged by
Berger).
Laswell might have been expected to pick up an idea or two from
Bob Belden, with whom he worked on
Panthalassa, the 1998 Sony/Columbia Records remix/reconstruction of
Miles Davis "fusion period" music.
Belden took his own shot at mixing opera with jazz on Puccini's Turandot, a 1992 Blue Note CD released only in Japan. Compared to Operazone's
The Redesign, Puccini's Turandot by
the Bob Belden Ensemble is a dazzlingly rich recording, a real journey across varied terrain with a pronounced
Miles influence and absolutely no reliance on percussive cruise control. In contrast, Operazone has been successful in redesigning opera and jazz as something perilously close to elevator music -- smooth, lush, and atmospheric but robbed of each genre's vitality and emotional expressiveness. ~ Dave Lynch