Jazz : Twining’s Vocal Explorations

Toby Twining Music, a four-voice a cappella quartet, is almost impossible to categorize. Using elements as diverse as jazz improvisation, contemporary classical pointillism and repetitions, ethnic throat singing, doo-wop, yodels, vocal sound effects and a few utterly unclassifiable techniques that are uniquely their own, the ensemble is setting a standard for the stylistically unrestricted exploration of voice music.

There were times, in their concert at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall Saturday night, when the quartet’s quest for untried timbres and densities was reminiscent, in spirit, if not in substance, of Duke Ellington’s early investigations of novel instrumental sounds and combinations. At other times--”Sanctus,” one of the few pieces employing words, was a good example--the music rang with the sheer purity of a Palestrina Mass. Other works ranged in all directions: “Improvization,” in a tricky 5/4, was replete with back-and-forth scat singing; “Four Love Haiku” created a complex setting for a set of Basho poems; and “Hotel Destine” mixed the overtone-rich sounds of throat singing with surging, rhythmically percussive voice accents.

The eponymously named group was led by Toby Twining, who composed all the music, and also included Jeffrey Johnson, Gregory Purnhagen and Rebecca Weintraub. The inspiration of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra was apparent, both in some of the vocal textures and in the spare staging.

But on virtually every other count, Twining Music is an unquestionable original. The ensemble’s only problems were Weintraub’s occasional flatting of her highest notes and the need for selections by other composers to provide contrast and further examination of the colorful potential in Twining’s remarkable musical palette.