Jazz Reviews : Winter Howls at Wiltern

Who else but soprano saxophonist Paul Winter could get his audience to howl like wolves for world peace?

Near the end of his Consort’s concert with the Dimitri Pokrovsky Singers at the Wiltern Theatre on Saturday, Winter included a wolf howl on tape at the conclusion of “Kyrie,” then followed that cry with a mimic of his own. He then exhorted the crowd to join him in this peace cry, and sure enough, the enthusiastic audience bayed as if the full moon outside were really in the hall.

This howl was just one of a series of remarkable sounds offered during the evening, the most unusual of which was the human sound coming from the Russian-based singers, a 12-person ensemble that Winter met while touring the Soviet Union in 1986. Most of the evening’s numbers came from their collaborative “Earthbeat” (Living Music) LP, recorded in Moscow in May, 1987, and the first project to be recorded in Russia by American and Russian artists together.

The singers specialize in Russian village folk songs--some modern, some dating back a thousand years--which tend to have a single, repeated melody. To most of these songs, like “Kurski Funk,” “Song for the World” and “Green Dreams,” Winter adapted new music, and the pieces went from dense yet colorful chant-like vocal ensembles, backed with a light-rock/jazz or bossa nova beat, to an instrumental interlude.

There, solos by Winter, pianist Paul Halley and cellist Eugene Friesen stressed singing, melodic tones. Percussionist Glen Velez had two stirring solos, one where he took a large, circular drum into the audience, and by rubbing it with his thumb, created an eerie, high-pitched moan, almost like the song of the humpback whale, which was heard on tape later. He offset this mood with solid, open-handed whaps.

Except for Pokrovsky, who wore a suit, the singers dressed in typical village fashion, with basic muslin dresses, shirts and pants enlivened with colorful aprons and sashes. The singers sometimes danced while the band played.

The merging of Winter’s Consort with the Pokrovsky Singers again proves that people of disparate cultures have much in common. And while the concert was a little long--it ran about three hours--and the music sometimes lacked some needed edge or thrust, there was no denying the glasnost spirit behind it.