Nicols, Mitchell, Al-Sultani

Lots to take in here, weaving an expressive tapestry along the interface between improv and poetry. Especially liking “Impart” with its shades of Keith Tippett and Julie Tippetts. A unique achievement. 10/10 – Clive Craske, GREEN RADIO, BRIGHTON

I just wanted to send a message saying how much I’m loving the Immersion CD I ordered off you. In the darkest point of winter, it is truly glorious to hear Maggie, Alya and Robert play, sing and speak of letting in light. Real food for the soul. A special release and one of my all time favourites from Discus. Thanks! – Discus Music customer comment

The piano of Ilford-born Robert Mitchell is accompanied by three voices on his new album, Immersion: his own, the wayward sounds of 1948-born veteran oral improviser Maggie Nicols, and that of the vocalist from Basrah, Iraq, Alya al-Sultani. Mitchell attests that the trio might have received “the co-ordinates of the most important treasure: living in peace.” The two women give his writings “stunningly bespoke clothing,” and transform his words into one coalesced message. It’s a unique album, and I doubt if poetry has ever achieved such an original musical timbre, particularly as the album is the result of completely unrehearsed studio sessions by three disparate musicians who had never previously performed together, and who out of apparent wide divergence, create a precious real-times unity. “Playing with poetry with great improvisers has become one of my life’s great joys,” exclaims Alya. Hear what you think. – Chris Searle, MORNING STAR

Free improv vocalists Maggie Nicols and Alya Al Sultani have worked together quite a lot in recent years. When, in 2024, they were working on their album Free, Free, Nicols brought along a poem by jazz pianist (and poet) Robert Mitchell, to see what they could do with it. The upshot was that they got together with Mitchell himself to make the album Immersion, recently released by Discus Music and described by Al Sultani as ‘a sonic interpretation of three of Robert’s books of poetry, three poems chosen by each of us’.

There is, a course, something of a tradition of improvising pianists writing poetry – Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor spring to mind. Anyone unfamiliar with Mitchell’s writing should check out his poetry audiobook (available on Bandcamp), A Vigil For Justice, A Vigil For Peace. If, like me, you like to know a bit about a poet’s work before you hear it used in a piece of music, you’ll be interested to know that one of the poems he reads on it, ‘You Are My World’, also appears on Immersion (as ‘My World Is You’). I was wondering how best to explain how his poetry relates to his music and then realised Mitchell had already done a better job than I could in the album notes that go with Immersion: ‘As Wayne Shorter says ‘Our instrument is our humanity’. Our most human job surely is to keep our antenna clean and functioning, and to keep as many channels open as possible. As a result – we might even receive the coordinates to the most important treasure: living in peace. The daily distractions, and thus the deliberate weakening of our abilities to work together while benefitting from our naturally occurring ‘differences’ – are some of the most pressing challenges of these times.’

The first track, ‘Amongst a Trillion Fears’, is all vocal. Mitchell recites the poem with some rhythmic elaboration while Nicols and Al Sultani weave improvisational paths around his words. From hereon in, Mitchell spends most – although not all – of his time on the piano. It soon becomes clear that the words are often hard to follow. It’s best not to try. After all, what we’re being offered is the essence of poetry rendered as music: to try to follow the poem in each case could be considered a distraction. A lot of the time, only the occasional phrase jumps out (‘walk as one’, ‘full immersion: there is no division’, ‘we are free’). The style of the music ranges from the bluesy (especially in ‘My World Is You’ and ‘Soul Speak’) to the avant-garde. Although what’s happening here is obviously on a much smaller scale, I was reminded more than once of the late operas of Michael Tippett and, indeed, the themes of Mitchell’s poems and Tippett’s libretti are not dissimilar.

Nicols’ more natural voice with its wide-ranging vocal effects, Al Sultani’s more trained voice and Mitchell’s piano make a great trio. As I said, there’s everything here from avant-garde pyrotechnics to great bluesy moments, but some of the most spellbinding music they make together (as in ‘Inner Sanctum’ and ‘Where We Are’) succeeds because, it manages to be complex without being dense. Do give it a go. – Dominic Rivron, INTERNATIONAL TIMES https://internationaltimes.it/immerse-yourself-in-the-exosphere

Poet and musician Robert Mitchell had only recently met improv artist and doyenne of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble Maggie Nicols and improvising soprano Alya al-Sultani before they suggested heading into the studio to free Robert’s words from the strictures of the page and watch them take flight against a rolling backdrop of cascading piano. Alya and Maggie had been working together for a while, so the idea of producing their own sonic interpretation of Robert’s poetry also with his input was too good to turn down. So over ten carefully chosen pieces they run through all manner of vocal styles and manners, with a brief introduction allowing the listener an opportunity to hear their differing approaches, from spoken to shrieked and from a bubbling murmur to an intense hammering. You start to feel the energy and the “creeping fog of war” as the subjects elicit the necessary responses from the vocalists. In places, the piano is a rolling, thunderous backdrop; a dramatic canvas for the voices to rise and fall, soar and dive as they search for new ways to interleave. At points, as on “Immersion 2”, the voices are briefly liberated from structure before relishing the words, forming crazy cackles and heartfelt confessions while the ever-unfolding piano’s romantic meandering provides something to which they can return. Robert’s voice when it appears is more measured, a reaction to the joy of the others as they grasp the words through a gauze of vocal treats. When they slow, the meaning is delivered with strength in an autumnal settling, while wildness and freedom echoes in the background. They inhabit different characters depending on the piece and there is even a soulful tinge to the delivery on “Let The Light In”, with the wintry piano drifting in and out of the endless unfolding of the voices, while the piano on “My World Is You” has a sparkling immediacy.

The trio offers something fresh for each poem, with the random piano of “Present” offering plenty of space for the voices to inhabit and plenty of time for them to decide in which direction to go. There is something mysterious about the two very different vocal approaches and they each provide something the other does not, so there is a kind of three-dimensional element to the words; one a rushed murmur while to other soars, plucking a words like a bird in mid air. By the time final piece “Where We Are” has arrived with its delightful and mysterious accompaniment, we have been taken on a journey of unparalleled proportions in which voices evoke so much more than may be expected. A must for any fans of vocal adventuring and poetic strength. – Mr Olivetti, FREQ https://freq.org.uk/reviews/nicols-mitchell-alsultani-immersion/ 

Finally, a spe­cial men­tion for Immer­sion, where the voices of impro­vising doy­enne Mag­gie Nicols, clas­sic­ally trained Iraqi sop­rano Alya Al-sul­tani and pian­ist Robert Mitchell come together for a wel­come reuni­fic­a­tion of jazz and poetry, a concept that has been around since the work of Patchen and Rexroth in the 1950s. Here it returns refreshed: a proper dis­cus­sion of which – and indeed the his­tory of this artistic biform – could fill sev­eral pages. Do check out this com­pel­ling example of vocal theatre, which is both tech­nic­ally remark­able and emo­tion­ally charged. Five Stars. – BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE https://www.pressreader.com/uk/bbc-music-magazine/20260326/284979681263880

On their protest album “Free, Free,” Maggie Nicols and Basra-born London-based soprano Alya Al-Sultani demand “Free Palestine. Free Sudan. Free Congo. Free all oppressed peoples of the world.” And to that end, alongside poetry by Vicky Scrivener and Robert Mitchell, they deliver a delirious rendition of: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. No more genocide.” And with “Bandera Rossa,” they are primarily intoxicated by themselves. Here, the two vocalists, together with Mitchell as poet and pianist, immerse themselves in a state of profound emotion (DISCUS 205). The bandleader of Panacea, Epiphany 3, and True Think, who emerged from the F-IRE Collective and is the creator of “A Vigil For Justice. A Vigil For Peace.” (2017), returns to Discus, where he previously appeared with “Zeitgeist²” (with Shirley Smart, 2021). The trio, with Wayne Shorter’s “Our Instrument Is Our Humanity,” counters the malevolent spirit driven by ‘a trillion fears’ and differences with poetry, living in peace, light (‘Let the Light In’), soulfulness (‘Soul Speak’), a ‘you’ (‘My World Is You’), and a ‘we’ (‘Where We Are’). After ‘Amongst a Trillion Fears’ a cappella, he recitative, his partners cantabile, as echo and amplification, he also takes to the keys, tremulous, pinging, and plonking. And the women conjure magic with spoken word, glossolalia gospel, Nicols-esque melismas, and haunting murmurs. Al-Sultani brings recipes from the Conference of the Animals to unify the human race and sopranos ‘Soul Speak’ as an art song. Nicols giggles and clucks and meows and stirs during ‘Present’ and ‘Where We Are’ as Songbird. The pathos of the poetry thus becomes a bizarre hybrid of serious concern, animated fun, and joyful message. Only one last problem remains, Sherlock: What to do with the 6 million Zionists between the Jordan and the sea? Humanely cull them? Resettle them to where Jews are welcome? – Rigobert Dittmann, BAD ALCHEMY

Featuring Maggie Nicols & Alya Al Sultani on vocals and Robert Mitchell on piano & voice. Legendary Scottish vocalist, dancer and free/form performer, Maggie Nicols, has been at the forefront of the UK avant/jazz scene for more than a half century. She has collaborated with other giants of the British progressive/avant/jazz scene like Julie & Keith Tippett (in Centipede & Tapestry), John Stevens (in SME), Joelle Leandre, Lindsay Cooper and Irene Schweizer. She was even on the cover of The Wire magazine in the past year or so, an honor which rarely includes the older of the Creative Music world. Although British pianist Robert Mitchell has some nine discs as a leader as well and playing with a half-dozen other projects, I don’t recall hearing his name before now. Although I hadn’t heard of vocalist Alya Al Sultani before now, she does appear on a rare compilation called ‘Noise a’ Noise’. All of the words or lyrics on this disc come from the poetry by Robert Mitchell. This disc has a warm, somber quality. While one voice reads, the other voice shifts between singing and reading. A number of these pieces begin with the piano setting the pace while one voice sings the words and the other voice speaks the words, both quietly. The spoken words often sound like observations of life while the singing voice expresses something else. There is a good balance between both voices, both are most calm and sing or speak calmly, the piano plays minimal phrases or fragments. Sometimes both voices sing while expressing similar or related ideas or themes. At times, I had to listen closely to hear what exactly the words were saying or expressing. Their meaning kept floating inside and outside my conscious attention. It didn’t really matter at times since I was listening to just the sound of the word with occasional piano punctuation. There is something charming going on here although I did have to concentrate to hear the entire recording. – Bruce Lee Gallanter, DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY NYC

IMMERSION is a poetic musical originality, an immersion in jazz, poetry, and highly intrepid experimental music, avant-garde, RIO. An album of vocal poetry, created with four instruments, including the magic of three voices and a piano, featuring Alya AL-SULTANI, soprano and vocals; Maggie NICOLS, jazz singer, improvisational force, and vocals; and Robert MITCHELL, jazz pianist, vocals, and piano.

A sonic interpretation of three poetry collections by Robert MITCHELL, three poems chosen by the trio in 2024. A moving concept vibrates between jazz, literature, and prose with improvised sounds; the very best is offered in this opus. Each composition evokes the fluidity of singing, speaking, and touching. A unique ensemble tempers the brilliance of this energizing orchestration, fertile with light and intensely colored grace, animating a well-defined rhythm, characteristic of the trio’s sincere heart in its expansive declamations and touch of humanism. Three voices, a piano, a single line to describe a raw, naked, pure musical truth. A sonic perspective painting ten immense frescoes with its broad brush, sweeping and successively heroic and pastoral. A virtuoso orchestra fully expresses extreme emotions through simple, fluid stylistic exercises, assembling into ten remarkable poems where purity of voice, improvisation, and style go hand in hand with a profoundly romantic breadth, extended with restraint by the piano. A nervous lyricism, sparkling, crystalline sonorities, an innate sense of rhythm and contrast. A relaxed recital, outside the traditional framework, asserting itself in its passion and authenticity. What could be more natural than the voice? Moreover, possessing such capacity, charm, and prophecy, a succulent music emerges, built on the vibrations of sound, playing on the splendor of vocal cords, sure to delight lovers of rhythmic punctuation and epic poems. This recording shines thanks to these irresistible strings and the brilliance of its piano, without any grandiloquence, within this orchestral writing. Lovers of vocal adventures, fanatics of vocal art that flows, thunders, and abounds in delights, will be captivated by this album, IMMERSION, a force of talent, love, friendship, and freedom cementing this passionate orchestra with the importance of these three voices and that of the gentle piano. Like a kiss of the voice whispered in the ear, like birdsong on the branches, IMMERSION stretches its vocal cords and irresistible piano to infinity on [its ten tracks]. – Marie MESMER, HIGHLANDS MAGAZINE