STEFANO PASTOR/KASH KILLION - Bows (Slam 524; USA) Featuring Stefano Pastor on violin, flugelhorn & percussion and Kash Killion on cello & sarangi. Two very different string players from different backgrounds. Italian-born, London-based violin virtuoso Stefano Pastor has worked with George Haslam, Borah Bergman & Harry Beckett. Originally based in St. Louis and now living in L.A., Kash Killion has worked with Horace Tapscott, JD Parran, Joel Futterman & Paul Murphy. This disc was recorded in Genoa, Italy in November of 2007 and the duo performs four improvisations and two Thelonius Monk covers. String duos are pretty rare, although I do remember checking the duo of Dierdre Murray & Fred Hopkins (cello & acoustic bass) a couple of times. The opening piece is called "Obstinacy" and while Kash plucks a droning bass line, Stefano sails on top, his violin playing a somber solo. Although Kash plays this repeating line, he speeds up and slows down while Stefano solos. When Mr. Killion switches to sarangi (Indian multi-stringed instrument) for "Shanti", Mr. Pastor switches to flugelhorn. This is certainly an odd combination yet there is a similarity of textures & tones in the middle register of each instrument. The duo overdub other parts and the results are even more exotic, engaging and twisted. On "Bows" both string players are of course bowing and what is interesting is that their sounds are so different and distinct. The strings are close-mic'd, their sound most impressive and intense. You might think that Thelonius Monk would be a strange choice for violin & cello but somehow it works. Monk's slightly skewered melodies sound even more perverse than usual. Kash does a good deal of walking bass on his cello while Stefano plays the theme in his own bent way, both taking inspired, unique solos. Their take of Monk's "Ruby My Dear" reminds me of the way Eric Dolphy did "Music Matador", I am not sure how serious to take it yet it is still a poignant ballad done in its own weird way. The longest piece a great improv called "Ahimsa" which explores more strange terrain with then sarangi and violin. What makes this piece and this disc so special is the sympathetic way these two musicians work together. This piece is raga-like and builds organically towards a grand conclusion. The sarangi is also plucked and sounds like a sarod or oud at times. This piece is an outstanding example of two musicians from different backgrounds coming together in a strong united force. Stefano adds some hand percussion as the piece evolves and the central theme that they build to halfway is stunning. An unclassifiable and successful cultural exchange. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Pastor and Killion take up the two-fold gauntlet next (3) with duets for violin, fluegelhorn or percussion, and cello or sarangi, respectively. As it turns out this is a pretty mixed bag of music—from Indian Classical sounding sarangi playing, violin improv over cello ostinato (a little rough hewn but impassioned and jazzed), Free modal improvisations, cello and violin working on a kind of compositional schema of irregularly bowing together with space in between. On a version of Monk's "Epistrophy," cello and violin play the head an octave apart, phrasing well. The cello walks and plays chord tones and the violin takes the bridge. Then it's back to A as the two play it as a round and drift into double improvisations. There is also a rather lovely version of "Ruby My Dear": violin takes the melody while the cello nicely walks-chords. Very expressive violin melody playing and nice cello plucking in accompaniment. There is some soul there, just not a hell of a lot of chops. This is not uninteresting. Not totally great but interesting. Violin and cello are tough instruments and they are very much exposed in this duo situation. Aside from technical limitations these are imaginative players and they do unexpected things. The closer to the Indian Classical perhaps the less successful. But I've never heard a "Jazz" guy try to do sarangi at all and so find this surprising and not at all bad.. Grego Applegate Edwards ©Cadence Magazine April 2011
This CD as a duo with Kash Killion, who has played with American Pharaoh Sanders, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, but also with BB King, is additional evidence of the consistency and originality of the aesthetic vision of Pastor.It is the result of a complete self-management: the violinist recorded November 23, 2007 in Genoa, then mixed and mastered by himself, the self-produced CD is now for SLAM, even some of the photos were taken by Pastor.
A close, intimate interplay and fusion of different sounds of stringed instruments used to provide a unified path changed.In "Shanti" Pastor overdub a part on flugelhorn and tenuous percussive accents, and "Ahimsa" percussion adds a light background.In these two songs playing the sarangi Killion: emerge as a trend dilated and hypnotic, that seems imaginary transfiguration of some Indian music.
On the other hand, the cello sounds and measured the Killion verve reminiscent of the much forgotten Abdul Wadud, is varied in the pizzicato riff of "Obstinacy" nell'archettato is the more "classical" pronunciation of "Bows".As always the dominant and unmistakable violin Pastor is the wavering sound, capable of very different tonal modulations, connecting at the same time so symbiotic a lazy melodic phrasing and insinuating.
The two songs monkiani, "Epistrophy" and Ruby My Dear, "will be interpreted with participation and respectful loyalty theme, but translated into a sinuous, smooth sound dimension, sometimes with sequences allayed ago the two instruments. On the whole CD, another element unifying and distinctive, it seems to draw a veil of melancholy, of conscious detachment, if not disillusionment: a sign of the times, a sign of current approach of the two authors.
Libero Farnè http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=5763
STEFANO PASTOR& KASH KILLION / Bows (Slam Productions)
Une belle rencontre entre le violoniste Stefano Pastor (dont le violon est muni de cordes de guitare électrique) et du violoncelliste Kash Killion (qui joue aussi du sarangi). Au menu: improvisation libre fortement jazzée et deux pièces de Monk. Beaucoup d'émotion et de senti. Merci à l'étiquette britannique Slam Productions de faire connaître depuis deux ans les enregistrements de Pastor (celui remonte à novembre 2007).
A fine meeting between violinist Stefano Pastor (whose violin is fitted with electric guitar strings) and cellist Kash Killion (also playing sarangi). Jazzed-up free improvisations and two Monk standards are on the menu. Lots of feeling and heartfelt playing. Thanks go to UK label Slam Productions for spreading Pastor's recordings for the past couple of years (this one comes from a November 2007 concert). François Couture http://blog.monsieurdelire.com/
Corriere Del Sud Issue No. 13 to 1 August 2010
Bows, bows: the violin by Stefano Pastor, Strap on that, moreover, the flugelhorn and beats on various percussion, and cello (and sagangi) Kash Killion.
An Indo-European duo in the broadest possible sense geomusicale, digging locates and opens resonant sound on the whole staff body, mind and soul.
Which can be found under the common roof of the fusion of aesthetic roles performer-interpreter, improvisation, creating inspired, meditative, introspective, contemplative.
There is deep into the jazz of Monk's Epistrophy and Ruby My Dear, and traditional Indian music, in songs Shanti and Ahimsa, and the introduction of the album, Obstinacy, also signed by the two musicians, where the Asian component, which is not only the drone "obstinato", and the winds, as in Bows, it seems to drag on faults cutting-edge fresh clash, interlocking natural, smooth, up to an ecstatic reunion instrumental.
The essence of free reports are predominant in Freedom, additional hard Slam (Silta Records) in which the presence of Pastor George Haslam on baritone, are accompanied by Claudio Lugo on soprano saxophone and bass Giorgio Dini.
Music research. Search for music, this, out of places (towns) and spaces (canons).Skipped the previous formal references - raga, monkiani standard - you are an open situation, at simultaneous in / accomplished. Free recovery? If anything, demand for a freedom that today looks at the chaotic complex experimental music through the disruptive than half a century ago.
Amedeo Furfar
Bows, archi : il violino di Stefano Pastor, che imbraccia peraltro anche il flicorno e batte su
percussioni varie, e il cello (nonché sagangi) di Kash Killion.
Un duo indoeuropeo in senso geomusicale il più lato possibile, che scava scova e schiude risonanti sonorità agenti sull'insieme corpo-mente-anima. Che si ritrovano sotto il comune tetto estetico della fusione dei ruoli esecutore-interprete, dell'improvvisazione, della creazione ispirata, meditativa, introspettiva, contemplativa.
C'è dentro il profondo jazz del Monk di Epistrophy e Ruby My Dear, e musica tradizionale indiana,nei brani Shanti e Ahimsa, e nell'introduzione dell'album, Obstinacy, anche questa a firma dei due musicisti; dove la componente asiatica, che non è solo il bordone "ostinato", la avvolge e, come in Bows, pare trascinarla su faglie d'avanguardia per uno scontro dolce, ad incastro naturale, senza scosse, fino ad una estatica ricongiunzione strumentale.
L'essenza free si segnala preponderante in Freedom, ulteriore disco Slam (Silta Records) in cui alla presenza di Pastor e George Haslam al baritono, si affianca quella di Claudio Lugo al sax soprano e di Giorgio Dini al contrabbasso.
Musica di ricerca. Ricerca di musica, anche questa, fuori dai luoghi (comuni) e dagli spazi (canonici). Saltati i precedenti riferimenti formali – raga, standard monkiani - si è in una situazione aperta,
a/simultanea, in/compiuta. Recupero free? Semmai rivendicazione di una libertà che guarda al caotico complesso oggi musicale attraverso la dirompenza sperimentale di mezzo secolo fa.
Amedeo Furfaro
O título do disco desvenda boa parte
do que se passa por aqui: a dupla
Stefano Pastor / Kash Killion trabalha
uma música que vive à base de cordas
e, necessariamente, de arcos. O italiano
Pastor é responsável pelo violino
(mas também passa pelo fliscórnio
e pela voz) e o americano Killion fica
com o violoncelo e o sarangi (digamos
que o "violoncelo indiano", para
simplificar). Apesar de a premissa
inicial ser bastante simples, a música
da dupla acaba por surpreender, dada
a sua riqueza e a criatividade com que
os músicos abordam cada instrumento.
Entre os momentos mais agudos
do violino e os limites mais graves
do violoncelo, há toda uma panóplia
de combinações e cores, exploradas
com inteligência.
Nuno Catarino Jazz.pt #39 Nov 2011