Saxophonist Lena Bloch left her home country of Russia over two decades ago, but that doesn’t mean she lost her love for her culture. The New York-based composer draws continued inspiration from the poetry by her countrywoman Marina Tsvetaeva. Marina sets several of Tsvetaeva’s works, translated to English by Bloch herself, to music, and brought to life her steady quintet of pianist Jacob Sacks, drummer Michael Sarin, bassist Ken Filiano, and vocalist Kyoko Kitamura.
Tsvetaeva sacrificed much on her road to immortality – she lost her husband and two daughters while chronicling the 1917 Russian Revolution and the following famine in Moscow, lived in exile for most of her adult life, dying by suicide before becoming one of the most well-known writers in twentieth century Russian literature. Bloch treats the poems with the proper amount of reverence for such a tragic and beloved figure, but mixes it with the right soupçon of jazz romance as well. The libretto of “Tired” seethes with pain and melancholy, yet Bloch’s swinging melody tries to relieve it, the composer’s sultry solo in particular offering a welcoming hand. “Immeasurable” captures the forces tearing Tsvetaeva apart, buoying her sadness and anger with a swirling blend of free jazz and chamber music. The defiant title track stands tall, with the band providing brash accompaniment to bolster its author’s angry assertion of strength.
Though Kitamura provides sung and spoken passages from the poet’s work, the vocals feel more like asides than the main thrust of the tunes. Bloch keeps the focus on wordless expression of the feelings driving the words that inspired the songs, making Marina a distinctive album that keeps the flame of Russian poetry burning while still warming its feet by the jazz fireplace.
