Antiquity yields modern insights in The Pythiad; in this extraordinary nine-movement suite, Jim Gailloreto welcomes voice and bass violin into his Jazz String Quintet, which places his own soprano saxophone improvisations within his compositions for traditional string quartet. It is also the first collaboration between Gailloreto, an acclaimed writer of modern “third-stream” works, and his son Coleman, a gifted writer who penned the lyrics; he also wrote the summaries that introduce each movement in this wildly inventive project.

In The Pythiad, music and words combine to weave the stories of nearly a dozen lesser-known Greek heroes and heroines. Most of us know about the strength of Hercules, the persistence of Odysseus, the ferocity of the Amazons; you’ll find none of those within. But here are crafty Autolycus (son of Hermes), the master thief; selfless Menoeceus, who sacrificed himself for the good of his city; and Asclepius, whose medical skills saved so many from death that the Underworld suffered a population shortage. Here you’ll find the lovers Philemon and Baucis – whose kindness led the gods to immortalize them in nature – and Castor and Pollux, whose devotion to each other and to their sister, Helen (of Troy), left them immortalized in the stars. Greek mythology brims with gods, demi-gods, and mortals lost to popular culture. The Pythiad restores them to us, using the language of today to intermingle such contemporary tropes as video games, athletics, action films, medical ethics, and gender fluidity.

It all unfolds under the steady guidance of a sage psychotherapist, who turns out to be the Oracle of Delphi. As their narratives unfold, she discovers and shares their motivations and obsessions, their strengths and weaknesses – the qualities that made them archetypes for the Greeks, yet relevant in our own time. Portraying the Oracle, and embodying the multiple characters on display, the brilliantly versatile vocalist Cheryl Wilson shares the spotlight with Gailloreto to bring this endeavor to life.

Wilson’s stylistic range extends from the commercial studios of Chicago, to countless sessions backing the biggest names in popular music (Celine Dion, Faith Hill, Michael Jackson, Mavis Staples), to the foothills of Mt. Rushmore, where her recording of “America The Beautiful” graces the sunset ceremony held each evening. Gailloreto credits her as an inspiration for his creation, stating, “I don’t know anyone else who could sing this music. Her execution, her attention to detail, her ability to sing a half-step away from my own note and not get thrown off – I can write music for her that you’d think only an instrumentalist could play. And I’m amazed at her ability to bring out the emotion of a lyric, through phrasing and diction; you never struggle to understand her.”

Wilson herself confesses she “was stunned” when Gailloreto first introduced her to an audience as his “muse” for The Pythiad. She doesn’t deny her range, particularly her ability to make massive or minute alterations to her tonal color, as well as the other techniques that allow her to inhabit so many characters within this work. But her main concern lies with the work itself. “I’m just one of the instruments that some idea is coming through,” she says. “The writing is king to me. And what gets me about Jim is that while he cares what people think of his writing, that’s not the driving force. He just has to write a piece of art that he wants to do. And then he moves on and makes more art.”

Gailloreto initially conceived The Pythiad while performing at the Getty Villa museum space in Los Angeles, where the emphasis on antiquities – and a cogent suggestion from a friend who handles the programming there – led him to consider a composition rooted in ancient Greek literature. He already had the perfect vehicle for such a cross-disciplinary project: his Jazz String Quintet. Previous recordings by the JSQ have drawn praise for the depth and breadth of his compositions and his authoritative command of the string quartet idiom. He initially thought of crafting the lyrics himself, but then turned to his son Coleman, who majored in writing at Beloit College, and who eagerly embraced this project.

Coleman researched Greek lore to unearth a number of relatively obscure and intriguingly dysfunctional characters, while his father separately considered various melodic ideas to portray them. Meeting periodically to compare their progress, they juggled subject matter and musical ideas to arrive at a truly collaborative junction. Coleman then embarked on his libretto: now cheeky, now bittersweet, now moving – and unfailingly poetic. (For Coleman, the process offered the additional opportunity to contribute to music that has filled the Gailloreto household for as long as he can remember. The JSQ formed in 1997, when Coleman was 6 years old, and from the beginning has featured his mother Jill Kaedling – Gailloreto’s wife – on cello.) As the work took shape, Gailloreto recalls, “It occurred to us that maybe these stories were being told by one person – and that from the modern point of view, she could be a therapist, telling them to us as case studies of not only each character, but also humanity as a whole.”

Mesmerizing interplays of words, music, and voice reveal themselves throughout The Pythiad. In “Caneus,” Gailloreto lets the melody soar majestically when the narrator challenges the protagonist to “swallow your pride,” as well as weigh the impact of refusing to do so. “Autolycus” opens with skittering high strings and skulking cello and bass, the better to convey the fly-by-night adventures of the title character; Wilson’s voice segues from the thief’s sotto voce instructional manual to the high-flown advice of “the mystics.” In “Atalanta,” the strings sting and bite, complementing the lyric evocation of exertion experienced by the long-distance runner. Such examples abound in this remarkable suite.

The Pythiad also reveals the influence of one more collaborator, albeit an indirect one: Gailloreto’s mentor Cliff Colnot, the world-renowned arranger and conductor known for his work with such contemporary classical groups as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW, the Contempo Ensemble, and ICE. “A lot of what I do with string writing, the abilities I’ve crafted, started with Cliff,” Gailloreto says. “He has mentored me since the late 90s, and has shown me the palette of colors and beauty that is out there for string writing.”

Gailloreto has included three arrangements that Colnot wrote specifically for this ensemble. These reflect his respect for his former teacher, and they also echo the long friendship that connects Colnot to The Pythiad’s principals (both of whom worked with Colnot in the commercial recording studios of 1990s Chicago). And because they are so different from Gailloreto’s own writing, they also amplify the versatility of the JSQ concept – as well as the multifaceted instrument that is Cheryl Wilson.

Somewhere, the Muses are smiling.

NEIL TESSER