Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The intricate weave of Mat Maneri’s raspy viola and Lucian Ban’s full-bodied piano has been a jazz pleasure for more than a decade. Ban’s Romanian origins, never far beneath the surface of his music, give contemporary jazz an original twist, and Maneri, a schooled and sympathetic collaborator, is equally strong.Their first duo album for ECM, Transylvanian Concert, recorded live in 2011, mixed plangent original compositions with stirring free improvisations and delivered a moving reading of the spiritual “Nobody Know the Troubles I’ve Seen”. Ban’s roots were perceptible in the undercurrent of roiling emotions and a rhythmic turn of phrase but, overall, the aesthetic was that of New York left-field jazz.Transylvanian Dance, the follow-up ECM release, recorded live in Romania in 2022, makes Ban’s heritage even more explicit. As on the 2020 trio album Transylvanian Folk Songs, the inspirations are compositions collected by Béla Bartók in the early 20th century. Tracks such as the mournful “Harvest Moon Ballad” and the brooding “Lover Mine of Long Ago” resonate with Transylvanian sorrows and up-tempo pieces conjure village festivities. But now the influence of downtown Brooklyn is stronger, viola and piano are more intimately connected and moods are downbeat.The album opens with the wistful melody of “Poor is My Heart” and its showcase viola trills and tinkling piano support. “Romanian Folk Dance” comes next, with a complex melody that conjures multiple moods and borders on the abstract. Later, the title track evolves over a stirring piano riff, “The Enchanted Stag” is magical and “The Boyar’s Doina” rumbles to a peak and fades over a gentle rhythmic motif.Overall, emotions veer towards the sombre, and viola and piano are engagingly close-knit. Maneri’s mid-range slurs and upper-register sustains add mystery to Ban’s confident harmonic touch and a sense of foreboding when voicings become dense. The set ends with the traditional “Make Me, Lord, Slim and Tall”, in which unfulfilled desires are captured as blues cadences and Romanian scales combine.★★★★☆‘Transylvanian Dance’ is released by ECM
