Terry Riley, jazz review: At 81, Riley still takes us to a high

Moments of transcendence came and went, leaving a real sensation of peace, says Jane Cornwell
Working from his dreams: Terry Riley
Getty Images for Nashville Symph
Jane Cornwell26 September 2016

“Cannabis is a wonderful drug,” sang Terry Riley, seated at the piano, white beard plait quivering. “It makes you feel so sprightly.” At 81 the Californian composer and shamanic hero is clearly doing something right, even if his dream-inspired lyrics — variously involving mud huts, speeding rickshaw drivers and falls from tall trees — hinted at underlying anxieties.

Stage left, Riley’s Telecaster-playing son Gyan supplied inventive, energetic counterpoints to his father’s musical strands and moods, which ranged from a weathered raga-based piece to a sort of drifting cosmic sound cloud propelled by bittersweet melodica.

The second half was the thing: Riley’s groundbreaking work In C, a modern masterpiece that starts with a throbbing C note and builds into a trance-like, shapeshifting whole. Hailed for its simplicity — each musician has the same sequence of 53 melodic motifs, to do with as they please — it’s a piece that begs reinterpretation, that keeps itself fresh (Africa Express with Damon Albarn and Brian Eno recorded a version).

The London Contemporary Orchestra (with Riley on piano and Gyan on guitar) came armed with bassoon, double bass, chamber organ, a drummer, two percussionists and three vocalists, with each musician using instinct to guide them forward.

Small flourishes — a bow on a metal spiral, a hand up the side of a tambourine — overlapped; moments of transcendence came and went. The climax, a wild variation in volume, saw the piece finish abruptly. Leaving, for the briefest of moments before the ovation, a real sensation of peace.

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