Mellow Cello: Joan Jeanrenaud makes her next great post-Kronos leap

Joan Jeanrenaud's first CD after leaving Kronos Quartet was aptly titled Metamorphosis, indicating her personal transformation from ensemble player to solo artist. But that recording, albeit dazzling, moody and exquisitely rendered, now feels like a baby step compared to the cellist's new recording, Strange Toys (Talking House Records), in stores today (Tue., June 24).

Metamorphosis was a cello tour de force, with Jeanrenaud's virtuosic technique augmented by computer electronics, looping and overdubbing. But, save the original "Altar Piece," all the writing was done by other composers, including Karen Tanaka and Mark Grey and three who had worked closely with Kronos—Steve Mackey, Hamza El Din and Philip Glass.

Now it may seem strange to think of Kronos, San Francisco modern classical icon and string quartet champion of music by living composers from all over the globe, as a safe haven. But Jeanrenaud had to sever her intimate 20-year working relationship with David Harrington, John Sherba and Hank Dutt in order to fully realize her individual musical voice. As she told me in 2002, it was a startling break: "You step out of that, and you realize how, instead of being in this world over here, you're in this big world."

I remember watching Jeanrenaud make her initial leap into live solo improvisation at Rova Saxophone Quartet's Music on the Mountain event on Mt. Tamalpais in the summer of 1999. Since then, the Memphis, Tenn.–bred, Bernal Heights–dwelling musician has repeatedly pushed her own limits in challenging improvisatory contexts with saxophonist Larry Ochs, guitarist Fred Frith, koto player Miya Masaoka and many others.

"Improvisations led to compositions," Jeanrenaud writes in the liner notes to Strange Toys, "and this CD culls a collection of material that resulted from this exploration over the past seven years." Jeanrenaud wrote all the pieces on Strange Toys and performs most of them solo, adding her own effects. But producer pc muñoz injects beats on a few tracks; William Winant plays marimba on one piece, vibraphone on another; and Jeanrenaud's abiding interest in layered ensemble sound manifests itself in "Transition," a composition for two cellos and two violas da gamba, and "Air & Angels," which puts a John Donne text (spoken by muñoz) to music for cello, chime sculpture and quadrachord (played by Paul Dresher).

It probably reads more avant-garde than it sounds. Jeanrenaud is a gentle and decorous revolutionary, relishing the very human tonal range and timbres of her instrument and honoring its intrinsic sonic beauty. Strange Toys is  like 14 miniature soundtracks that use mood and color to tease out story lines and call forth characters from the listener's subconscious.

When Jeanrenaud celebrates the CD's release, Weds., June 25, at the Great American Music Hall, she'll be joined in various configurations by Munoz, Michael Halaas, Alex Kelly and Kronos' Hank Dutt and Jeffery Ziegler. Three-and-a-half weeks later, on July 19, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, she will premier ARIA, a music and video installation in collaboration with Alessandro Moruzzi.