James Falzone’s music has always spanned aesthetics. The Chicago native, who plays clarinets, shruti box, and percussion, has led and participated in ensembles that create various combinations of jazz, classical, and Arabic traditional music; he’s also served as an instructor at Columbia College and as music director of Grace Chicago Church. In 2016, he moved to Seattle to become chair of music at Cornish College of the Arts, an institution that has long included experimental and creative jazz musicians in its faculty, but he’s sustained relationships with some of his Chicago associates. One of them is bassist and vocalist Katie Ernst, his partner in the duo Wayfaring. While they’re of different generations, they’re otherwise kindred spirits. She’s music director for Wheaton College’s jazz band and for Grace Presbyterian Church in Winnetka, and she plays in jazz trio Twin Talk; she’s also been a regular participant in Ted Sirota’s Wednesday Night Jazz Fellowship, a jam session at the Hungry Brain. On Wayfaring’s 2017 album, I Move, You Move (Allos Documents), Falzone and Ernst’s shared affinity for poetic distillation manifests itself in more than one way: it’s audible instrumentally in a numbered sequence of intricate miniatures entitled “Tanka,” and it appears vocally in their treatment of Thomas Merton’s poem “In Silence,” as Falzone delivers an earnest recitation and Ernst’s singing makes the same words take flight. On the traditional spirituals “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” and “Wayfaring Stranger,” Ernst’s yearning vocals alternate with instrumental passages that recall the folk-tinged work of Jimmy Giuffre. For the first time since 2019, the duo are reuniting at Constellation—the site of their first concert—in order to work on new material. According to Falzone, their set will include original compositions, old hymns and ballads, and tunes by Giuffre and fellow jazz clarinetist John Carter. Saxophonist Sarah Clausen opens.
Sarah Clausen, Wayfaring, Sat 4/9, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15, $5 streaming, 18+
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