Cantaloupe Music has chosen to follow the notable release of Bang on a Can’s Renegade Heaven (8/01) with an album of solo clarinet music by Evan Ziporyn (b1959). René Magritte would have been proud of this album’s title‚ for this is certainly no ordinary clarinet recital and Ziporyn‚ truly a phenomenon in American music‚ cannot simply be understood as a clarinettist. For a start‚ there are moments in his composition Partial Truths where it is hard to believe that this is a clarinet record. ‘Are these pan­pipes? Or Didgeridoos? Or Midi Pads?’ was one typical response from one poor unsuspecting listener whom I tested. All creditable guesses – but the correct answer is a solo bass clarinet. Now for the phenomenon I was talking about. On the one hand‚ Ziporyn’s clarinet sound is so individual‚ so raunchy‚ that it would be hard to imagine any other player making this record. On the other‚ he is in truth a musical polymath so gifted that his playing career can sometimes seem just an interesting sideline in his musical life. Clarinet aficionados may know him as the clarinettist Steve Reich chose for the definitive recording of New York Counterpoint that now appears in the Reich 10­CD retrospective on Nonesuch (7/97). Yet the Balinese gamelan­playing community in America will assert that he’s one of their own. New Yorkers know him as the wind player who fronts the Bang on a Can All­Stars. Yet Bostoners and Yaleys cherish him as an academic with a breathtaking knowledge of world music. Viennese audiences know him (partly) as a singer‚ German audiences (partly) as a conductor and as a member of Paul Simon’s ensemble. And‚ by the way‚ he produces records. But it may yet turn out that the big Z’s most lasting contribution to American music is to be found in his own compositions. Consider his Boston­based Balinese group‚ Gamelan Galak Tika‚ and a raft of innovative works he’s written for them‚ such as Amok or Tire Fire‚ which both combine traditional gamelan with Western instruments; or his ecstatic Balinese transcription for multi­tracked solo cello which has adorned Maya Beiser’s cello recitals in recent years; Pay Phone and Esto House‚ composed for the Michael Gordon Philharmonic; or‚ indeed‚ some of the music on this record. This may seem a long diversion‚ but in fact ‘This is not a clarinet’ cannot be appreciated without understanding the special quality of Ziporyn’s musicianship‚ the breadth of his interests and his gift for translating foreign musical languages. In many ways he makes music like a traveller who trades between continents. His bass clarinet work‚ Tsmindao Ghmerto (originally released by Sony Classical‚ 10/96; now available from www.cantaloupemusic.com) exchanges Georgian folk music for a harder currency. His Four Impersonations‚ the second work on the present record‚ captures the sounds of Japanese gagaku‚ Balinese music and Nairobi guitar music. The precision with which he hears subtle nuances of tuning and phrasing is spellbinding. The fact that this is all achieved through the medium of a solo clarinet is beyond belief. The aforementioned Partial Truths is Ziporyn’s most in­depth exploration of the acoustic properties of the bass clarinet. It sounds at times rather as if Georgian Tsmindao had gone walkabout in the Australian outback (hence the didgeridoos) but that’s only one reason why I like it. The recital is rounded off with another tour de force‚ a masterly rendition of David Lang’s Press Release‚ one of the clarinet’s great modern classics. Like I said‚ phenomenal.