Way Out Northwest

The White Spot
Relative Pitch RPR 1006

Perhaps it should be called a North American Free Improv Agreement or NAFIA. Every time experimental British saxophonist plays in the northwestern part of this continent his trio is made up of two Vancouver-based players: bassist Tortsten Müller and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Listening to the nine pitch-perfect improvisations on this disc demonstrates why this configuration has been maintained since 2007.

The veteran bassist, who is perfectly capable of atonal string-stretching and scrubbed pulsations, is careful to maintain a connective pumping throughout. Liberated by that stance, the drummer has the freedom for strategic moves involving everything from cymbal snaps and woodblock clipping, the better to complement Butcher’s narratives.

Probably the easiest entry to the poised intensity from this balanced trio is Earlianum. With Müller’s accompaniment low-pitched and rhythmic, Butcher’s tenor sax exposition is so well-modulated it could be from Coleman Hawkins, until he opens up the piece with shaking vibrations and quivering multiphonics, which are shadowed by the drummer’s clicks and clatters. As the saxophonist’s part evolves to reed bites plus staccato split tones, van der Schyff introduces muscular ruffs and the bassist’s part is transformed from stentorian tremolo strokes to razor’s edge slices and stops.

This interaction is emphasized throughout the disc. No matter how many triple-stopping bass runs, drumstick-on-cymbals shrills or strident reed-shattering banshee wails are heard, skillful equilibrium allows the tunes to impress as they flow chromatically. Comparison of NADIA with NAFTA makes it clear that cooperation involving disparate musicians easily trumps any tripartite agreement dreamed up by politicians

--Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 18 #7

April 11, 2013

Joëlle Léandre/Nicole Mitchell/Dylan van der Schyff

Before After
Roguart Rog-0032

Joëlle Léandre

Live at the “Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon”

Leo Records CD LR 594/595

Joëlle Léandre & India Cooke

Journey

No Business Records NBCD 18

Joëlle Léandre/Phillip Greenlief

That Overt Desire of Object

Relative Pitch Records RPR 1002

By Ken Waxman

Solo, duo, trio, combo, there seems little that French bassist Joëlle Léandre isn’t capable of in an improvising situation. This clutch of CDs demonstrates this. One outstanding anomaly however is Live at the “Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon”, where she directs a handpicked tentet through a composition she created specifically for the festival. All the discs are of uniform high quality.

Both duos feature musicians she encountered during stints in California’s Bay area. Journey is a deeper exploration of the string partnership first exposed when she and violinist India Cooke, an academic affiliated with Mill College, played at Canada’s Guelph Jazz Festival in 2004. It contrasts her proto-European style with Cooke’s attachment to roots American music. That Overt Desire of Object on the other hand features Oakland-based Phillip Greenlief challenging her to evolve strategies as he successively brings out his clarinet, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones. Meanwhile the trios couldn’t be more different. Matched with AMM pianist John Tilbury and long-time associate Kevin Norton on vibes and percussion at Austria’s Kaleidophon, Léandre spins out a unique take on the jazz trio. Creating different sound colors Chicago AACM flutist Nicole Mitchell and local percussionist Dylan van der Schyff are her partners on Before After, recorded at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. Finally there is the through-composed music for tentet.

Léandre’s most consistent response to the laughing smears, tongue slaps and staccato barks from Greenlief’s woodwind collection is an unfazed series of stentorian plucks and metronomic pops. Sawing glissandi or spiccato presses against the bass strings deal firmly with the split tones and bubbling cries dribbling from reedist’s higher-pitched instruments. Ultimately the two come to broken-octave concordance. The most penetrating and individual sounds result from the bass-tenor saxophone pairing. Shaking the strings and smacking the instrument’s wood with enough friction so that the resulting textures resemble those produced by blowing with a saxophone’s hard reed, Léandre sets up a challenge. Greenlief’s pants, reed-biting and overblowing finally coalesce into uncharacteristic lyrical sound spurts which perfectly match the bassist’s buzzing timbres.

Rather than the rough-smooth, low-high pitches continuum she exhibits with Greenlief, the bassist’s interchange with Cooke underscores opposing sonic traditions. While Léandre is grounded in legit European background that she extrapolates on her tentet composition, the violinist calls on emotional African-American spirituals plus variants of hoedown fiddling, frequently expressed with polyphony and flying staccato. The bassist’s raunchy rule-breaking is on show as well, with bulky string slaps, downward runs and pressurized partials. Additionally, Léandre’s vocal interjections, ranging from treble warbling to faux basso hums – which are also given an extended single-track showcase on That Overt Desire – frequently harmonized with her almost-vocalized bass lines, are used as parallel parlando on this CD as well. Uniquely each woman’s tendencies are exacerbated as she improvises.

“Journey 4” for instance, finds the bassist highlighting a blues progression with splayed double stopping. Cooke counters with mandolin-like twangs until an extended interlude where layered string friction finally separates the two into low-pitched and high-pitched roles. The result is both methodical and melodious. Verbalization and staccato counterpoint also shows up on the concluding “Journey 6”. Following an episode of musically evoking each other’s names, both busy themselves in a paroxysm of sibilant stops and strident glissandi. Thickening the interaction through plucked pizzicato, each manages to complement the others’ tones without either playing a secondary role.

Percussiveness missing elsewhere appears on the trio discs, especially on Before After, since Léandre provides the low-pitched continuum. In contrast, Mitchell’s cross-blown flute and piccolo work is strident and other-directed enough to resemble a jet’s sound-barrier shattering or the plaintive lines of a Chinese bamboo dizi, while elsewhere maintaining the western instrument’s plaintive lyricism. On “After After” for example, the ferocity of her tart osculation, matched by col legno pulses and yodels from Léandre plus clacking strokes and bell pings from van der Schyff, doesn’t dissipate until the coda: a hushed recitation of an anti-war poem.

While certain intermezzos reveal Mitchell’s gentling lines and ostinatos from the bass strings, most of the session consists of wrapping seemingly disassociated sound extensions into a satisfying whole. So on “Before Before”, stentorian bowing from Léandre is mated with ricocheting pops and polyrhythmic resonations from the percussionist. Or a single drumstick rotating on a cymbal top encourages the flutist to bleat, then whistle and finally produce flutter tonguing plus strained cries. Mitchell’s output can resemble comb-and-tissue paper blats or distant wind wisps; while Léandre’s spiccato thrusts or powerful thumps mirror the other’s strategies as necessary. Similarly faux lyric soprano-like panting from Mitchell matches pseudo-operatic chanting from the bassist. Eventually Asiatic-oriented flute puffs and staccato bow action from Léandre attain satisfying musical closure.

Vocalizing is at a minimum with Tilbury and Norton. Moreover despite the classic instrumentation, the improvisation more closely resembles moderato chamber improv. New music echoes predominate, partially because of the drummer’s use of vibes and miscellaneous percussion, but also because of the bassist’s and pianist’s fluency in interpreting notated works. From the beginning Tilbury’s clean patterning with low-frequency cadenzas suggests an impressionistic narrative; a position reinforced as Norton’s chromatically rolls mallets over his vibes. Léandre is the disruptive force, using sul tasto swipes and thumps to fortify the textures. Slow moving, yet powerful enough to connect with Norton’s sympathetic snare and tom coloration, Tilbury’s playing alternates between stark linearism and melodic filigree. By mid-point, the theme is advanced in broken octaves. Subsequently an explosion of abrasive string friction from Léandre coupled with Norton’s cymbal smacks plus Tilbury’s irregular note cascades sets up a new variation which moves forward until its vociferous multiphonics are calmed. A prolonged final section allows each participant to add supplementary sonic colors. These stretch the narrative to the breaking point before almost harmonizing as the sound dissolves.

New music, pastoral and contemporary jazz textures touched upon by both trios is elaborated in Ulrichsberg during the premiere of Léandre’s almost 54-minute composition. “Can You Hear Me” is almost completely composed, with some improvised material appended. Most timbres don’t fall obviously on either side of the notated-improvised divide, but some imply the split. Near the top, for example, Burkhard Stangl’s guitar licks reverberate among the space left by the swelling exposition of four unison horns and four harmonized strings. Later on, woodblock, marimba and drum taps by Norton resemble mid-20th century notated percussion works more than anything from the improv world. In contrast during the piece’s penultimate minutes, tenor saxophonist Boris Hauf breathes out jazz-like flutter tonguing, while trombonist Bertl Mütter’s tremolo grace notes are backed by the ruffs and flams the drummer would display in a jazz setting. Earlier the roughened tones from the horns plus the skittering and crying string advances may be pan-tonal and spiky, but the resulting group work is blocked out to be both linear and concentrated -- leaving no space for individual expression. If any string sawing arrives it’s most likely from the composer. Following a climatic loosing up, when every orchestra member shakes, rubs, toots and vibrates children’s toys to create sonic bedlam alongside Léandre’s semi-scatting, the finale again focuses on her skills. Warbling a combination sea shanty and Maghrebian chant, she underlines a whispered poem about war with spiccato string strokes.

If anything, “Can You Hear Me” demonstrates that the composing Léandre has been creating since the 1970s for theatre and dance groups can be expanded into non-programmatic concert music. But if she writes more, one would hope that it won’t keep her away from exemplary bass improvising so aptly showcased on the other CDs.

-30-

Tracks: Overt: 1st variation for clarinet and contrabass; variation 2; variation 3; 1st variation for soprano saxophone and contrabass; variation 2; 1st variation for alto saxophone and contrabass; variation 2; 1st variation for tenor saxophone and contrabass; variation 2; 1st variation for soprano saxophone and voice; 1st variation for contrabass and voice

Personnel: Overt: Phillip Greenlief: clarinet, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones and voice; Joëlle Léandre: bass and voice

Tracks: Journey: Journey I; Journey II; Journey III; Journey IV; Journey V; Journey VI

Personnel: Journey: India Cooke: violin; Jöelle Léandre: bass

Tracks: Before: Before Before; After Before; Before After; After After

Personnel: Before: Nicole Mitchell: flute, alto flute, piccolo; Jöelle Léandre: bass; Dylan van der Schyff: drums, percussions

Tracks: Live: CD1: 1. Can You Hear Me? CD2: 1. (46:58)

Personnel: Live: CD1: Lorenz Raab: trumpet; Bertl Mütter: trombone; Susanna Gartmayer: alto saxophone, bass clarinet; Boris Hauf: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Burkhard Stangl: guitar; Thomas Wally: violin; Elaine Koene: viola; Melissa Coleman-Zielasko: cello; Joëlle Léandre: bass; Kevin Norton: vibes, percussion CD2: John Tilbury: piano; Jöelle Léandre: bass; Kevin Norton: vibes, percussion

--For New York City Jazz Record June 2011

June 10, 2011

Gordon Grinda Trio

If Accident Will
Plunge Records PR00628

Gordon Grinda’s East Van Strings

The Breathing Of Statues

Songlines SGL-SA 1572-2

The Tony Wilson Sextet

The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Drip Audio DA 00482

Ken Aldcroft

Our Hospitality

Trio Records TRP-010

Extended Play: Versatile Canadian Guitarists Score

By Ken Waxman

Arguably more responsible than any other instrument over the past century for famous and infamous music, the electric guitar is a harsh taskmaster, especially for musicians creating innovative sounds. Luckily the six-string’s versatility can be adapted to a variety of sonic situations. Mixing original concepts with sympathetic musical partners make each of these discs notable.

Toronto’s Ken Aldcroft takes an organic approach on Our Hospitality

Trio Records TRP-010, situating his axe within a top-flight ensemble filled out by trumpeter Nicole Rampersaud, trombonist Scott Thomson, alto saxophonist Evan Shaw, bassist Wes Neal and drummer Joe Sorbara. Long-time colleagues, this relationship means that Aldcroft’s eight compositions are extended with instant arrangements and sympathetic improvisations throughout. Just a Hint and Dialoguing illuminate this. On the former, Sorbara’s paradiddles set up each soloist’s understated parallel lines while discursive guitar plucks maintain spectral separation. Eventually Rampersaud’s fluttering grace notes provide connective sinew as she ascends the scale. A group improv, Dialoguing matches the trumpeter’s flutter-tonguing with moderato and legato trills from Shaw. All the while Thomson’s trombone is slurring and shuffling on its own tangent, as is Aldcroft’s circular, finger-styled pacing. When the plectrumist introduces below-the-bridge hammering plus metallic crunches, it’s Neal’s bass line that steadies the narrative from below.

Transforming much different source material is Vancouver’s Tony Wilson’s The People Look Like Flowers at Last Drip Audio DA 00482, whose centrepiece is an improvisational re-imagining of Benjamin Britten’s Lachrymae. The 11-movement suite is made new not only by mutating and mixing melodies with improvisations and other musical tropes, but by interpreting the chamber work composed for viola and piano with Wilson’s guitar, Peggy Lee’s cello, Paul Blaney’s bass, Dylan van der Schyff’s drums, Dave Say’s saxophones and Kevin Elaschuk’s trumpet. Proving the theme’s adaptability, the sextet takes it straight in sections, adds to its lyricism elsewhere, distorts it abrasively in other spots and alludes to folk songs at points. The last is most apparent on Movement #4 Variation as Wilson’s linear development is given added impetus by Lee’s sul tasto sweeps as well as wavering trumpet lines. Movement #2 on the other hand includes sul ponticello scratches from the strings, plus the drummer’s martial flams and rim shots that only occasionally let portions of the melody peek through. Elaschuk’s contrapuntal trumpet lines and Wilson’s slurred fingering help turn Movement #11 into a sectional swinger with the others riffing until the guitarist’s distorted licks give way to theme recapitulation.

Another Vancouver guitarist, Gordon Grdina follows a similar route on The Breathing of Statues Songlines SGL-SA 1572-2 Except all the compositions are his, and the East Van Strings which accompanies are violinist Jesse Zubot, violist Eyvind Kang and again cellist Lee. Combining Grdina’s fascination with Middle Eastern music – he also plays oud here – the second Viennese school and improvisation, the CD ensures that disparate influences converge without conflict. A detour into double-timed Arabic progressions is most apparent on the title track, when following a strummed drone from the oud, the other strings’ initial gypsy-like romantic coloration takes on the tonal characteristics of kamanchas or three-string spiked fiddles. This allegro stridency ceases though, when Lee’s adagio slides move the piece towards western lyricism. More attuned to atonality are Silence of Paintings and Origin. On the later, after lively string curves illuminate the theme, Grdina counters with spidery runs and antiphonal slurred fingering. Pitch-sliding and flying spiccato from Kang lead the narrative towards stop-time until guitar strokes and romantic harmonies level the tempo. On the former, heavily rhythmic, vibrating cadenzas from Grdina sharply drive the theme chromatically as the strings’ layered pulsations scrape and scatter.

Tauter three-part dialogue characterizes Grdina’s other session while confirming both the guitar’s versatility and his own. If Accident Will Plunge Records PR00628, with his combo filled out by bassist Tommy Babin and drummer Kenton Loewen, furrows the classic fusion power trio groove. However the originality and finesse exhibited on his other CD also appear on this one, albeit in a brawnier fashion. Tracks such as Yellow Spot into the Sun illustrate this, as the drummer’s measured march time is decorated with drags and flams as well as thick double bass thumps. Thanks to Grdina’s chromatic sound sprays the disguised ballad still retains its form despite Loewen’s hard pummeling. Arabic influences and the oud aren’t neglected either. Cobble Hill/Renunciation brings out a double-strung ecstatic pitch from Grdina, elastic chording from Babin and beats that could arise from a dumbek or North African goblet-shaped drum.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #5

February 6, 2010

Ken Aldcroft

Our Hospitality
Trio Records TRP-010

Gordon Grinda’s East Van Strings

The Breathing Of Statues

Songlines SGL-SA 1572-2

Gordon Grinda Trio

If Accident Will

Plunge Records PR00628

The Tony Wilson Sextet

The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Drip Audio DA 00482

Extended Play: Versatile Canadian Guitarists Score

By Ken Waxman

Arguably more responsible than any other instrument over the past century for famous and infamous music, the electric guitar is a harsh taskmaster, especially for musicians creating innovative sounds. Luckily the six-string’s versatility can be adapted to a variety of sonic situations. Mixing original concepts with sympathetic musical partners make each of these discs notable.

Toronto’s Ken Aldcroft takes an organic approach on Our Hospitality

Trio Records TRP-010, situating his axe within a top-flight ensemble filled out by trumpeter Nicole Rampersaud, trombonist Scott Thomson, alto saxophonist Evan Shaw, bassist Wes Neal and drummer Joe Sorbara. Long-time colleagues, this relationship means that Aldcroft’s eight compositions are extended with instant arrangements and sympathetic improvisations throughout. Just a Hint and Dialoguing illuminate this. On the former, Sorbara’s paradiddles set up each soloist’s understated parallel lines while discursive guitar plucks maintain spectral separation. Eventually Rampersaud’s fluttering grace notes provide connective sinew as she ascends the scale. A group improv, Dialoguing matches the trumpeter’s flutter-tonguing with moderato and legato trills from Shaw. All the while Thomson’s trombone is slurring and shuffling on its own tangent, as is Aldcroft’s circular, finger-styled pacing. When the plectrumist introduces below-the-bridge hammering plus metallic crunches, it’s Neal’s bass line that steadies the narrative from below.

Transforming much different source material is Vancouver’s Tony Wilson’s The People Look Like Flowers at Last Drip Audio DA 00482, whose centrepiece is an improvisational re-imagining of Benjamin Britten’s Lachrymae. The 11-movement suite is made new not only by mutating and mixing melodies with improvisations and other musical tropes, but by interpreting the chamber work composed for viola and piano with Wilson’s guitar, Peggy Lee’s cello, Paul Blaney’s bass, Dylan van der Schyff’s drums, Dave Say’s saxophones and Kevin Elaschuk’s trumpet. Proving the theme’s adaptability, the sextet takes it straight in sections, adds to its lyricism elsewhere, distorts it abrasively in other spots and alludes to folk songs at points. The last is most apparent on Movement #4 Variation as Wilson’s linear development is given added impetus by Lee’s sul tasto sweeps as well as wavering trumpet lines. Movement #2 on the other hand includes sul ponticello scratches from the strings, plus the drummer’s martial flams and rim shots that only occasionally let portions of the melody peek through. Elaschuk’s contrapuntal trumpet lines and Wilson’s slurred fingering help turn Movement #11 into a sectional swinger with the others riffing until the guitarist’s distorted licks give way to theme recapitulation.

Another Vancouver guitarist, Gordon Grdina follows a similar route on The Breathing of Statues Songlines SGL-SA 1572-2 Except all the compositions are his, and the East Van Strings which accompanies are violinist Jesse Zubot, violist Eyvind Kang and again cellist Lee. Combining Grdina’s fascination with Middle Eastern music – he also plays oud here – the second Viennese school and improvisation, the CD ensures that disparate influences converge without conflict. A detour into double-timed Arabic progressions is most apparent on the title track, when following a strummed drone from the oud, the other strings’ initial gypsy-like romantic coloration takes on the tonal characteristics of kamanchas or three-string spiked fiddles. This allegro stridency ceases though, when Lee’s adagio slides move the piece towards western lyricism. More attuned to atonality are Silence of Paintings and Origin. On the later, after lively string curves illuminate the theme, Grdina counters with spidery runs and antiphonal slurred fingering. Pitch-sliding and flying spiccato from Kang lead the narrative towards stop-time until guitar strokes and romantic harmonies level the tempo. On the former, heavily rhythmic, vibrating cadenzas from Grdina sharply drive the theme chromatically as the strings’ layered pulsations scrape and scatter.

Tauter three-part dialogue characterizes Grdina’s other session while confirming both the guitar’s versatility and his own. If Accident Will Plunge Records PR00628, with his combo filled out by bassist Tommy Babin and drummer Kenton Loewen, furrows the classic fusion power trio groove. However the originality and finesse exhibited on his other CD also appear on this one, albeit in a brawnier fashion. Tracks such as Yellow Spot into the Sun illustrate this, as the drummer’s measured march time is decorated with drags and flams as well as thick double bass thumps. Thanks to Grdina’s chromatic sound sprays the disguised ballad still retains its form despite Loewen’s hard pummeling. Arabic influences and the oud aren’t neglected either. Cobble Hill/Renunciation brings out a double-strung ecstatic pitch from Grdina, elastic chording from Babin and beats that could arise from a dumbek or North African goblet-shaped drum.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #5

February 6, 2010

The Tony Wilson Sextet

The People Look Like Flowers at Last
Drip Audio DA 00482

Gordon Grinda’s East Van Strings

The Breathing Of Statues

Songlines SGL-SA 1572-2

Gordon Grinda Trio

If Accident Will

Plunge Records PR00628

Ken Aldcroft

Our Hospitality

Trio Records TRP-010

Extended Play: Versatile Canadian Guitarists Score

By Ken Waxman

Arguably more responsible than any other instrument over the past century for famous and infamous music, the electric guitar is a harsh taskmaster, especially for musicians creating innovative sounds. Luckily the six-string’s versatility can be adapted to a variety of sonic situations. Mixing original concepts with sympathetic musical partners make each of these discs notable.

Toronto’s Ken Aldcroft takes an organic approach on Our Hospitality

Trio Records TRP-010, situating his axe within a top-flight ensemble filled out by trumpeter Nicole Rampersaud, trombonist Scott Thomson, alto saxophonist Evan Shaw, bassist Wes Neal and drummer Joe Sorbara. Long-time colleagues, this relationship means that Aldcroft’s eight compositions are extended with instant arrangements and sympathetic improvisations throughout. Just a Hint and Dialoguing illuminate this. On the former, Sorbara’s paradiddles set up each soloist’s understated parallel lines while discursive guitar plucks maintain spectral separation. Eventually Rampersaud’s fluttering grace notes provide connective sinew as she ascends the scale. A group improv, Dialoguing matches the trumpeter’s flutter-tonguing with moderato and legato trills from Shaw. All the while Thomson’s trombone is slurring and shuffling on its own tangent, as is Aldcroft’s circular, finger-styled pacing. When the plectrumist introduces below-the-bridge hammering plus metallic crunches, it’s Neal’s bass line that steadies the narrative from below.

Transforming much different source material is Vancouver’s Tony Wilson’s The People Look Like Flowers at Last Drip Audio DA 00482, whose centrepiece is an improvisational re-imagining of Benjamin Britten’s Lachrymae. The 11-movement suite is made new not only by mutating and mixing melodies with improvisations and other musical tropes, but by interpreting the chamber work composed for viola and piano with Wilson’s guitar, Peggy Lee’s cello, Paul Blaney’s bass, Dylan van der Schyff’s drums, Dave Say’s saxophones and Kevin Elaschuk’s trumpet. Proving the theme’s adaptability, the sextet takes it straight in sections, adds to its lyricism elsewhere, distorts it abrasively in other spots and alludes to folk songs at points. The last is most apparent on Movement #4 Variation as Wilson’s linear development is given added impetus by Lee’s sul tasto sweeps as well as wavering trumpet lines. Movement #2 on the other hand includes sul ponticello scratches from the strings, plus the drummer’s martial flams and rim shots that only occasionally let portions of the melody peek through. Elaschuk’s contrapuntal trumpet lines and Wilson’s slurred fingering help turn Movement #11 into a sectional swinger with the others riffing until the guitarist’s distorted licks give way to theme recapitulation.

Another Vancouver guitarist, Gordon Grdina follows a similar route on The Breathing of Statues Songlines SGL-SA 1572-2 Except all the compositions are his, and the East Van Strings which accompanies are violinist Jesse Zubot, violist Eyvind Kang and again cellist Lee. Combining Grdina’s fascination with Middle Eastern music – he also plays oud here – the second Viennese school and improvisation, the CD ensures that disparate influences converge without conflict. A detour into double-timed Arabic progressions is most apparent on the title track, when following a strummed drone from the oud, the other strings’ initial gypsy-like romantic coloration takes on the tonal characteristics of kamanchas or three-string spiked fiddles. This allegro stridency ceases though, when Lee’s adagio slides move the piece towards western lyricism. More attuned to atonality are Silence of Paintings and Origin. On the later, after lively string curves illuminate the theme, Grdina counters with spidery runs and antiphonal slurred fingering. Pitch-sliding and flying spiccato from Kang lead the narrative towards stop-time until guitar strokes and romantic harmonies level the tempo. On the former, heavily rhythmic, vibrating cadenzas from Grdina sharply drive the theme chromatically as the strings’ layered pulsations scrape and scatter.

Tauter three-part dialogue characterizes Grdina’s other session while confirming both the guitar’s versatility and his own. If Accident Will Plunge Records PR00628, with his combo filled out by bassist Tommy Babin and drummer Kenton Loewen, furrows the classic fusion power trio groove. However the originality and finesse exhibited on his other CD also appear on this one, albeit in a brawnier fashion. Tracks such as Yellow Spot into the Sun illustrate this, as the drummer’s measured march time is decorated with drags and flams as well as thick double bass thumps. Thanks to Grdina’s chromatic sound sprays the disguised ballad still retains its form despite Loewen’s hard pummeling. Arabic influences and the oud aren’t neglected either. Cobble Hill/Renunciation brings out a double-strung ecstatic pitch from Grdina, elastic chording from Babin and beats that could arise from a dumbek or North African goblet-shaped drum.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #5

February 6, 2010

Tony Wilson/Peggy Lee/Jon Bentley

Escondido Dreams
Drip Audio DA00206

Larry Ochs/Miya Masoka/Peggy Lee

Spiller Alley

RogueArt ROG-0016

Alex Cline

Continuation

Cryptogramophone CG 140

Peggy Lee

New Code

Drip Audio DA 00318

Extended Play: The “Other” Peggy Lee

By Ken Waxman

Established in Vancouver for nearly 20 years following extensive musical study in her native Toronto, Peggy Lee has become one of the most in-demand cellists in both improvised and New music. Occasionally working with her husband, drummer Dylan van der Schyff, but more frequently on her own, Lee’s string prestidigitation is prominent in meetings with Canadian, American and European musicians.

Recent discs show the range of her talents. Spiller Alley RogueArt ROG-0016 features her as part of a trio completed by Bay area saxophonist Larry Ochs and New York koto player Miya Masaoka. Meanwhile Escondido Dreams Drip Audio DA00206], is a trio with other Lower Mainlanders: guitarist Tony Wilson and saxophonist Jon Bentley. Wilson, Bentley and van der Schyff are also on the cellist’s New Code Drip Audio DA 00318 along with other West Coast luminaries – trumpeter Brad Turner; guitarist Ron Samworth, trombonist Jeremy Berkman and electric bassist André Lachance. On Continuation Cryptogramophone CG 140 percussionist Alex Cline gathered a similar group of California-based improvisers – violinist Jeff Gauthier, pianist Myra Melford, bassist Scott Walton to play his tunes. Lee is the only non-American.

Cline’s writing has an Asian feel to it. Scene-setting gong resonations color nearly every track, with Melford’s winnowing harmonium drone sometimes adding to the Far Eastern emphasis. Eclectic in execution, most of the compositions bounce from near- syrupy melodies usually advanced by the fiddler, to modern swing propelled by thumping bass and the pianist’s dynamic patterning. In between, Lee’s malleable timbres join with Gauthier’s brusque lines for thematic elaboration, or add staccato runs and spiccato jumps to advance the rhythm. “On the Bones of the Homegoing Thunder” is the most spectacular tune. It manages to wrap an exposition and recapitulation of temple bell peals and mournful cello runs around walking bass lines, kinetic piano runs plus string-clipping and triple-stopping from cello and violin.

Lee’s octet CD is less formalized, though no less eclectic, but democratic in its soloing. Both guitarists are partial to folksy twangs as well as Hard Rock-like distortions; the horns produce R&B-like vamps plus processional harmonies; Turner on flugelhorn is the languid melodist; and van der Schyff constantly pumps parts of his kit. Meanwhile the cellist personalizes the material. On “Tug” her angled sweeps tug apart into spikier runs the horns’ ceremonial grace notes. On “Not a Wake Up Call” flanged and distorted guitar licks shatter into jagged and ricocheting slurs as Lee’s spiccato multiphonics help gentle the theme so that it runs into the calming “Floating Island” – complete with muted trumpet – which follows it. Dealing with a tune as familiar as Bob Dylan’s “All I Really Want To Do”, her mordant modal interjections halt a conventional, C&W-styled reading, and encourage agitato horn shrills on top of Byrds-like guitar strumming and a vocalized saxophone obbligato.

Bentley’s woodwind arsenal has more space on Escondido Dreams, proving adapt at both speedy and languid tempi. “Man and Dog” plus “Monkey Tree/Just Stories” demonstrate this. On the first, the saxophonist defines the Impressionistic theme, along with Lee’s cello obbligato. After descriptive unison passages first with the cellist, then with the guitarist, sax trills dovetail into slurs as Wilson strums mandolin-like chords and Lee sweeps across the soundfield. Tougher and animated, the later is a roller coaster of a tune built on contrapuntal reed bites and electrified guitar interjections. Following a raucous call-and-response section, the guitarist’s chromatic patterning and Lee’s spiccato runs reintroduces the note-dangling theme.

Veteran Ochs uses more advanced techniques than Bentley on Spiller Alley, while the multi functions of Masaoka’s many-stringed koto negate the need for drums. Ironically, despite the textures of the venerable Japanese instrument, and unlike Continuation, this CD has almost no Asian reflections. Expert in rasgueado and chromatics, Masaoka treats her koto as if it is a combination harp, 12-string and six-string guitar. Bringing out node striations as well the sounds of the notes struck – as does Lee – the string duo attaches and detaches timbres to mutate the program as Ochs enlivens his work with wide octave jumps, staccato blasts and circular breathing.

Climaxing the session during the nearly 18½-minute title tune, the three criss-cross each other’s lines and runs, off-setting or cushioning when needed. With Ochs peeping and shrilling arpeggios, Masaoka unleashes a torrent of cascading tones and Lee exposes multi-string runs. The cumulative consequence showcases imperfectly formed but not unpleasant, textures from each. Operating in triple counterpoint, blurry interaction comes into focus, with the end result trilled, swept and resonated into a stripped-down mutual rapprochement.

While each musician’s skill melds to produce these notable CDs, each would be unthinkable without Lee’s talents and interactive expertise.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #7

April 4, 2009

Alex Cline

Continuation
Cryptogramophone CG 140

Larry Ochs/Miya Masoka/Peggy Lee

Spiller Alley

RogueArt ROG-0016

Tony Wilson/Peggy Lee/Jon Bentley

Escondido Dreams

Drip Audio DA00206

Peggy Lee

New Code

Drip Audio DA 00318

Extended Play: The “Other” Peggy Lee

By Ken Waxman

Established in Vancouver for nearly 20 years following extensive musical study in her native Toronto, Peggy Lee has become one of the most in-demand cellists in both improvised and New music. Occasionally working with her husband, drummer Dylan van der Schyff, but more frequently on her own, Lee’s string prestidigitation is prominent in meetings with Canadian, American and European musicians.

Recent discs show the range of her talents. Spiller Alley RogueArt ROG-0016 features her as part of a trio completed by Bay area saxophonist Larry Ochs and New York koto player Miya Masaoka. Meanwhile Escondido Dreams Drip Audio DA00206], is a trio with other Lower Mainlanders: guitarist Tony Wilson and saxophonist Jon Bentley. Wilson, Bentley and van der Schyff are also on the cellist’s New Code Drip Audio DA 00318 along with other West Coast luminaries – trumpeter Brad Turner; guitarist Ron Samworth, trombonist Jeremy Berkman and electric bassist André Lachance. On Continuation Cryptogramophone CG 140 percussionist Alex Cline gathered a similar group of California-based improvisers – violinist Jeff Gauthier, pianist Myra Melford, bassist Scott Walton to play his tunes. Lee is the only non-American.

Cline’s writing has an Asian feel to it. Scene-setting gong resonations color nearly every track, with Melford’s winnowing harmonium drone sometimes adding to the Far Eastern emphasis. Eclectic in execution, most of the compositions bounce from near- syrupy melodies usually advanced by the fiddler, to modern swing propelled by thumping bass and the pianist’s dynamic patterning. In between, Lee’s malleable timbres join with Gauthier’s brusque lines for thematic elaboration, or add staccato runs and spiccato jumps to advance the rhythm. “On the Bones of the Homegoing Thunder” is the most spectacular tune. It manages to wrap an exposition and recapitulation of temple bell peals and mournful cello runs around walking bass lines, kinetic piano runs plus string-clipping and triple-stopping from cello and violin.

Lee’s octet CD is less formalized, though no less eclectic, but democratic in its soloing. Both guitarists are partial to folksy twangs as well as Hard Rock-like distortions; the horns produce R&B-like vamps plus processional harmonies; Turner on flugelhorn is the languid melodist; and van der Schyff constantly pumps parts of his kit. Meanwhile the cellist personalizes the material. On “Tug” her angled sweeps tug apart into spikier runs the horns’ ceremonial grace notes. On “Not a Wake Up Call” flanged and distorted guitar licks shatter into jagged and ricocheting slurs as Lee’s spiccato multiphonics help gentle the theme so that it runs into the calming “Floating Island” – complete with muted trumpet – which follows it. Dealing with a tune as familiar as Bob Dylan’s “All I Really Want To Do”, her mordant modal interjections halt a conventional, C&W-styled reading, and encourage agitato horn shrills on top of Byrds-like guitar strumming and a vocalized saxophone obbligato.

Bentley’s woodwind arsenal has more space on Escondido Dreams, proving adapt at both speedy and languid tempi. “Man and Dog” plus “Monkey Tree/Just Stories” demonstrate this. On the first, the saxophonist defines the Impressionistic theme, along with Lee’s cello obbligato. After descriptive unison passages first with the cellist, then with the guitarist, sax trills dovetail into slurs as Wilson strums mandolin-like chords and Lee sweeps across the soundfield. Tougher and animated, the later is a roller coaster of a tune built on contrapuntal reed bites and electrified guitar interjections. Following a raucous call-and-response section, the guitarist’s chromatic patterning and Lee’s spiccato runs reintroduces the note-dangling theme.

Veteran Ochs uses more advanced techniques than Bentley on Spiller Alley, while the multi functions of Masaoka’s many-stringed koto negate the need for drums. Ironically, despite the textures of the venerable Japanese instrument, and unlike Continuation, this CD has almost no Asian reflections. Expert in rasgueado and chromatics, Masaoka treats her koto as if it is a combination harp, 12-string and six-string guitar. Bringing out node striations as well the sounds of the notes struck – as does Lee – the string duo attaches and detaches timbres to mutate the program as Ochs enlivens his work with wide octave jumps, staccato blasts and circular breathing.

Climaxing the session during the nearly 18½-minute title tune, the three criss-cross each other’s lines and runs, off-setting or cushioning when needed. With Ochs peeping and shrilling arpeggios, Masaoka unleashes a torrent of cascading tones and Lee exposes multi-string runs. The cumulative consequence showcases imperfectly formed but not unpleasant, textures from each. Operating in triple counterpoint, blurry interaction comes into focus, with the end result trilled, swept and resonated into a stripped-down mutual rapprochement.

While each musician’s skill melds to produce these notable CDs, each would be unthinkable without Lee’s talents and interactive expertise.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #7

April 4, 2009

Peggy Lee

New Code
Drip Audio DA 00318

Larry Ochs/Miya Masoka/Peggy Lee

Spiller Alley

RogueArt ROG-0016

Tony Wilson/Peggy Lee/Jon Bentley

Escondido Dreams

Drip Audio DA00206

Alex Cline

Continuation

Cryptogramophone CG 140

Extended Play: The “Other” Peggy Lee

By Ken Waxman

Established in Vancouver for nearly 20 years following extensive musical study in her native Toronto, Peggy Lee has become one of the most in-demand cellists in both improvised and New music. Occasionally working with her husband, drummer Dylan van der Schyff, but more frequently on her own, Lee’s string prestidigitation is prominent in meetings with Canadian, American and European musicians.

Recent discs show the range of her talents. Spiller Alley RogueArt ROG-0016 features her as part of a trio completed by Bay area saxophonist Larry Ochs and New York koto player Miya Masaoka. Meanwhile Escondido Dreams Drip Audio DA00206], is a trio with other Lower Mainlanders: guitarist Tony Wilson and saxophonist Jon Bentley. Wilson, Bentley and van der Schyff are also on the cellist’s New Code Drip Audio DA 00318 along with other West Coast luminaries – trumpeter Brad Turner; guitarist Ron Samworth, trombonist Jeremy Berkman and electric bassist André Lachance. On Continuation Cryptogramophone CG 140 percussionist Alex Cline gathered a similar group of California-based improvisers – violinist Jeff Gauthier, pianist Myra Melford, bassist Scott Walton to play his tunes. Lee is the only non-American.

Cline’s writing has an Asian feel to it. Scene-setting gong resonations color nearly every track, with Melford’s winnowing harmonium drone sometimes adding to the Far Eastern emphasis. Eclectic in execution, most of the compositions bounce from near- syrupy melodies usually advanced by the fiddler, to modern swing propelled by thumping bass and the pianist’s dynamic patterning. In between, Lee’s malleable timbres join with Gauthier’s brusque lines for thematic elaboration, or add staccato runs and spiccato jumps to advance the rhythm. “On the Bones of the Homegoing Thunder” is the most spectacular tune. It manages to wrap an exposition and recapitulation of temple bell peals and mournful cello runs around walking bass lines, kinetic piano runs plus string-clipping and triple-stopping from cello and violin.

Lee’s octet CD is less formalized, though no less eclectic, but democratic in its soloing. Both guitarists are partial to folksy twangs as well as Hard Rock-like distortions; the horns produce R&B-like vamps plus processional harmonies; Turner on flugelhorn is the languid melodist; and van der Schyff constantly pumps parts of his kit. Meanwhile the cellist personalizes the material. On “Tug” her angled sweeps tug apart into spikier runs the horns’ ceremonial grace notes. On “Not a Wake Up Call” flanged and distorted guitar licks shatter into jagged and ricocheting slurs as Lee’s spiccato multiphonics help gentle the theme so that it runs into the calming “Floating Island” – complete with muted trumpet – which follows it. Dealing with a tune as familiar as Bob Dylan’s “All I Really Want To Do”, her mordant modal interjections halt a conventional, C&W-styled reading, and encourage agitato horn shrills on top of Byrds-like guitar strumming and a vocalized saxophone obbligato.

Bentley’s woodwind arsenal has more space on Escondido Dreams, proving adapt at both speedy and languid tempi. “Man and Dog” plus “Monkey Tree/Just Stories” demonstrate this. On the first, the saxophonist defines the Impressionistic theme, along with Lee’s cello obbligato. After descriptive unison passages first with the cellist, then with the guitarist, sax trills dovetail into slurs as Wilson strums mandolin-like chords and Lee sweeps across the soundfield. Tougher and animated, the later is a roller coaster of a tune built on contrapuntal reed bites and electrified guitar interjections. Following a raucous call-and-response section, the guitarist’s chromatic patterning and Lee’s spiccato runs reintroduces the note-dangling theme.

Veteran Ochs uses more advanced techniques than Bentley on Spiller Alley, while the multi functions of Masaoka’s many-stringed koto negate the need for drums. Ironically, despite the textures of the venerable Japanese instrument, and unlike Continuation, this CD has almost no Asian reflections. Expert in rasgueado and chromatics, Masaoka treats her koto as if it is a combination harp, 12-string and six-string guitar. Bringing out node striations as well the sounds of the notes struck – as does Lee – the string duo attaches and detaches timbres to mutate the program as Ochs enlivens his work with wide octave jumps, staccato blasts and circular breathing.

Climaxing the session during the nearly 18½-minute title tune, the three criss-cross each other’s lines and runs, off-setting or cushioning when needed. With Ochs peeping and shrilling arpeggios, Masaoka unleashes a torrent of cascading tones and Lee exposes multi-string runs. The cumulative consequence showcases imperfectly formed but not unpleasant, textures from each. Operating in triple counterpoint, blurry interaction comes into focus, with the end result trilled, swept and resonated into a stripped-down mutual rapprochement.

While each musician’s skill melds to produce these notable CDs, each would be unthinkable without Lee’s talents and interactive expertise.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #7

April 4, 2009

Larry Ochs/Miya Masoka/Peggy Lee

Spiller Alley
RogueArt ROG-0016

Tony Wilson/Peggy Lee/Jon Bentley

Escondido Dreams

Drip Audio DA00206

Alex Cline

Continuation

Cryptogramophone CG 140

Peggy Lee

New Code

Drip Audio DA 00318

Extended Play: The “Other” Peggy Lee

By Ken Waxman

Established in Vancouver for nearly 20 years following extensive musical study in her native Toronto, Peggy Lee has become one of the most in-demand cellists in both improvised and New music. Occasionally working with her husband, drummer Dylan van der Schyff, but more frequently on her own, Lee’s string prestidigitation is prominent in meetings with Canadian, American and European musicians.

Recent discs show the range of her talents. Spiller Alley RogueArt ROG-0016 features her as part of a trio completed by Bay area saxophonist Larry Ochs and New York koto player Miya Masaoka. Meanwhile Escondido Dreams Drip Audio DA00206], is a trio with other Lower Mainlanders: guitarist Tony Wilson and saxophonist Jon Bentley. Wilson, Bentley and van der Schyff are also on the cellist’s New Code Drip Audio DA 00318 along with other West Coast luminaries – trumpeter Brad Turner; guitarist Ron Samworth, trombonist Jeremy Berkman and electric bassist André Lachance. On Continuation Cryptogramophone CG 140 percussionist Alex Cline gathered a similar group of California-based improvisers – violinist Jeff Gauthier, pianist Myra Melford, bassist Scott Walton to play his tunes. Lee is the only non-American.

Cline’s writing has an Asian feel to it. Scene-setting gong resonations color nearly every track, with Melford’s winnowing harmonium drone sometimes adding to the Far Eastern emphasis. Eclectic in execution, most of the compositions bounce from near- syrupy melodies usually advanced by the fiddler, to modern swing propelled by thumping bass and the pianist’s dynamic patterning. In between, Lee’s malleable timbres join with Gauthier’s brusque lines for thematic elaboration, or add staccato runs and spiccato jumps to advance the rhythm. “On the Bones of the Homegoing Thunder” is the most spectacular tune. It manages to wrap an exposition and recapitulation of temple bell peals and mournful cello runs around walking bass lines, kinetic piano runs plus string-clipping and triple-stopping from cello and violin.

Lee’s octet CD is less formalized, though no less eclectic, but democratic in its soloing. Both guitarists are partial to folksy twangs as well as Hard Rock-like distortions; the horns produce R&B-like vamps plus processional harmonies; Turner on flugelhorn is the languid melodist; and van der Schyff constantly pumps parts of his kit. Meanwhile the cellist personalizes the material. On “Tug” her angled sweeps tug apart into spikier runs the horns’ ceremonial grace notes. On “Not a Wake Up Call” flanged and distorted guitar licks shatter into jagged and ricocheting slurs as Lee’s spiccato multiphonics help gentle the theme so that it runs into the calming “Floating Island” – complete with muted trumpet – which follows it. Dealing with a tune as familiar as Bob Dylan’s “All I Really Want To Do”, her mordant modal interjections halt a conventional, C&W-styled reading, and encourage agitato horn shrills on top of Byrds-like guitar strumming and a vocalized saxophone obbligato.

Bentley’s woodwind arsenal has more space on Escondido Dreams, proving adapt at both speedy and languid tempi. “Man and Dog” plus “Monkey Tree/Just Stories” demonstrate this. On the first, the saxophonist defines the Impressionistic theme, along with Lee’s cello obbligato. After descriptive unison passages first with the cellist, then with the guitarist, sax trills dovetail into slurs as Wilson strums mandolin-like chords and Lee sweeps across the soundfield. Tougher and animated, the later is a roller coaster of a tune built on contrapuntal reed bites and electrified guitar interjections. Following a raucous call-and-response section, the guitarist’s chromatic patterning and Lee’s spiccato runs reintroduces the note-dangling theme.

Veteran Ochs uses more advanced techniques than Bentley on Spiller Alley, while the multi functions of Masaoka’s many-stringed koto negate the need for drums. Ironically, despite the textures of the venerable Japanese instrument, and unlike Continuation, this CD has almost no Asian reflections. Expert in rasgueado and chromatics, Masaoka treats her koto as if it is a combination harp, 12-string and six-string guitar. Bringing out node striations as well the sounds of the notes struck – as does Lee – the string duo attaches and detaches timbres to mutate the program as Ochs enlivens his work with wide octave jumps, staccato blasts and circular breathing.

Climaxing the session during the nearly 18½-minute title tune, the three criss-cross each other’s lines and runs, off-setting or cushioning when needed. With Ochs peeping and shrilling arpeggios, Masaoka unleashes a torrent of cascading tones and Lee exposes multi-string runs. The cumulative consequence showcases imperfectly formed but not unpleasant, textures from each. Operating in triple counterpoint, blurry interaction comes into focus, with the end result trilled, swept and resonated into a stripped-down mutual rapprochement.

While each musician’s skill melds to produce these notable CDs, each would be unthinkable without Lee’s talents and interactive expertise.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #7

April 4, 2009

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya
Leo Records CD LR 507

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row

hatOLOGY 649

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem

Henceforth Records 104

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning

Resonant Music 004

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone

Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row
hatOLOGY 649

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem

Henceforth Records 104

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning

Resonant Music 004

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone

Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya

Leo Records CD LR 507

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem
Henceforth Records 104

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row

hatOLOGY 649

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning

Resonant Music 004

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone

Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya

Leo Records CD LR 507

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning
Resonant Music 004

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row

hatOLOGY 649

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem

Henceforth Records 104

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone

Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya

Leo Records CD LR 507

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone
Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row

hatOLOGY 649

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem

Henceforth Records 104

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning

Resonant Music 004

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya

Leo Records CD LR 507

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup
Red Toucan RT 9331

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the Internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution.

This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. Reg Erg and Primordial Soup, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label. The Bay Window and Green-Wood, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint. Way Out Northwest characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Muller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

Free improv at its finest, Way Out Northwest highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring of each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements.

While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Muller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like “magiC CloCk maCHine” evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls.

Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, The Bay Window deals with shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes “Chrysalide/Imago” a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a capella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. “Y” proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.

Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg. De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication.

On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings.

Reg Erg’s climax is “Wadi”, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.

There’s no bass or piano on Primordial Soup. Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between.

Take “NCG 2270 Terrier”, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers.

Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats.

Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven “NGC 2276 Inspektion”. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.

Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD. The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody.

Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock.

With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named “Power” and “Half the Battle”, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven “Willwaw”, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps

A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about Green-Wood is encapsulated on the melancholy “It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving”. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest
Drip Audio DA 00272

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

By Ken Waxman

Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the Internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution.

This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. Reg Erg and Primordial Soup, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label. The Bay Window and Green-Wood, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint. Way Out Northwest characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Muller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

Free improv at its finest, Way Out Northwest highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring of each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements.

While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Muller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like “magiC CloCk maCHine” evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls.

Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, The Bay Window deals with shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes “Chrysalide/Imago” a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a capella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. “Y” proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.

Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg. De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication.

On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings.

Reg Erg’s climax is “Wadi”, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.

There’s no bass or piano on Primordial Soup. Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between.

Take “NCG 2270 Terrier”, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers.

Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats.

Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven “NGC 2276 Inspektion”. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.

Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD. The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody.

Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock.

With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named “Power” and “Half the Battle”, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven “Willwaw”, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps

A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about Green-Wood is encapsulated on the melancholy “It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving”. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Kartet

The Bay Window
Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the Internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution.

This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. Reg Erg and Primordial Soup, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label. The Bay Window and Green-Wood, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint. Way Out Northwest characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Muller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

Free improv at its finest, Way Out Northwest highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring of each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements.

While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Muller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like “magiC CloCk maCHine” evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls.

Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, The Bay Window deals with shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes “Chrysalide/Imago” a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a capella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. “Y” proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.

Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg. De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication.

On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings.

Reg Erg’s climax is “Wadi”, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.

There’s no bass or piano on Primordial Soup. Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between.

Take “NCG 2270 Terrier”, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers.

Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats.

Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven “NGC 2276 Inspektion”. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.

Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD. The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody.

Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock.

With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named “Power” and “Half the Battle”, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven “Willwaw”, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps

A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about Green-Wood is encapsulated on the melancholy “It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving”. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

James Carney Group

Green-Wood
Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the Internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution.

This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. Reg Erg and Primordial Soup, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label. The Bay Window and Green-Wood, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint. Way Out Northwest characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Muller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

Free improv at its finest, Way Out Northwest highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring of each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements.

While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Muller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like “magiC CloCk maCHine” evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls.

Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, The Bay Window deals with shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes “Chrysalide/Imago” a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a capella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. “Y” proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.

Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg. De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication.

On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings.

Reg Erg’s climax is “Wadi”, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.

There’s no bass or piano on Primordial Soup. Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between.

Take “NCG 2270 Terrier”, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers.

Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats.

Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven “NGC 2276 Inspektion”. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.

Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD. The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody.

Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock.

With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named “Power” and “Half the Battle”, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven “Willwaw”, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps

A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about Green-Wood is encapsulated on the melancholy “It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving”. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg
Red Toucan RT 9332

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the Internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution.

This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. Reg Erg and Primordial Soup, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label. The Bay Window and Green-Wood, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint. Way Out Northwest characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Muller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

Free improv at its finest, Way Out Northwest highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring of each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements.

While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Muller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like “magiC CloCk maCHine” evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls.

Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, The Bay Window deals with shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes “Chrysalide/Imago” a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a capella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. “Y” proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.

Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg. De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication.

On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings.

Reg Erg’s climax is “Wadi”, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.

There’s no bass or piano on Primordial Soup. Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between.

Take “NCG 2270 Terrier”, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers.

Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats.

Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven “NGC 2276 Inspektion”. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.

Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD. The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody.

Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock.

With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named “Power” and “Half the Battle”, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven “Willwaw”, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps

A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about Green-Wood is encapsulated on the melancholy “It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving”. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Michael Blake Sextet

Amor De Cosmos
Songlines SGL SA 1567-2

Visiting his Vancouver hometown in 2005, Brooklyn-based saxophonist Michael Blake organized this top-flight sextet to play eight tunes especially written for the session. With compositions honoring the West Coast history of his own family as well as British Columbia’s – Amor De Cosmos was a 19th century newspaperman and politician – Blake has created a disc that’s as spacious and full of promise as the province itself.

A charter member of the Lounge Lizards and Slow Poke, Blake’s home team is also notable. Pianist Chris Gestrin has just released a double CD; Sal Ferreras is a noted Latin/classical percussionist; drummer Dylan Van der Schyff is in a trio with Chicago trumpeter Rob Mazurek; while bassist André Lachance and trumpeter Brad Turner work both sides of the mainstream/avant-garde divide.

Pointedly for a session like this, the most poignant tune is “So Long Seymour” written for Blake’s childhood Newfoundland dog. As tough walking bass lines hold the bottom, the piece is introduced by marimba ratcheting and tremolo trumpet coloration. When the melody accelerates from allegro to agitato, Blake adds pitch-shifting, staccato phrasing and the drummer bounces rim shots. Unison horn lines and clinking piano key complete the portrait.

More atmospheric, the title tune is another portrait which in execution ends up saluting Miles Davis as much as the B.C. premier who founded the Victoria Colonist. Gestrin’s electric piano vamps and Turner’s muted lines recall the 1960s rather than the 1870s, as does the undercurrent of blurry electronics. Still, De Cosmos’ individualistic and eccentric traits may be reflected in van der Schyff’s serrated backbeat and Blake’s tongue fluttering.

More than a postcard from home, Amor De Cosmos is made up of reminiscences everyone can appreciate.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For CODA Issue 337

January 15, 2008

Tigersmilk

Android Love Cry
Family Vineyard FV45CD

Geared more towards electronic-tinged improv than his other projects, the co-op trio Tigersmilk makes full use of Dylan van der Schyff’s understated yet rhythmically encompassing percussion licks. The Vancouver-based drummer serves as perfect foil for Chicago bassist Jason Roebke, whose electric and acoustic contributions are even more self-effacing than van der Schyff’s work, plus the fluttering synthesizer oscillations and muted rubato washes of cornetist Rob Mazurek, a Chicagoan now resident in Brazil.

Long-time proponent of genre-mixing with his various-sized Chicago Underground bands, Mazurek sometimes uses blurry electronics to clone his chromatic grace notes and concentric slurs, bouncing them back onto subsequent note clusters. Yet while his Harmon-muted runs may define the CD’s landscape, the focal point shifts among the trio members.

“Already Crippled by Water and Wind” for instance, matches echoing brass timbres with adagio triple strokes from the drummer. Meanwhile Roebke’s electric bass thumb-popping and thick stops carve through fluttering wave forms to define “Falling Signals Rising” as succinctly as the brassman’s vaulted brass tones. “Minimal Distress Code” even creates common sonic ground among the bassist’s sawing spiccato timbres, the drummer’s single-cymbal resonation, van der Schyff click clacking on the wooden parts of his kit plus Mazurek’s claw-hammer banjo stroking.

Although near musique concèrete pulsations are exposed elsewhere, together the CD’s 13 tracks defy an all-in-one musical definition for Android Love Cry. What they do confirm is that Tigersmilk operates in its own sonic zone.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For CODA Issue 335

October 3, 2007

Achim Kaufmann/Michael Moore/ Dylan van der Schyff

Kamosc
Red Toucan RT 9329

Flexible and inventive in his playing, Vancouver percussionist Dylan van der Schyff uses his rhythmic muscle to keeps this session properly focused.

Recorded in two Canadian and two American cities during a 2005 tour by this European-North American trio – plus guest Dutch trombonist Wolter Wierbos on two tracks – the drummer’s skill is such that he reins in German pianist Achim Kaufman and American reedist Michael Moore when they seem to become a bit too romantically cloying in their contributions.

Both based in Amsterdam, and veterans of bands like the ICP Orchestra (Moore) and the Astronotes (Kaufmann), these versatile players are as familiar with notated as improvised music. But on pieces like “Roadside” and “Kopfspinnennetz” if not for the drummer’s clinking cymbals and woodblock smacks respectively, the organic keyboard patterning and trilling reed lyricism would push the renditions into mere prettiness. Imagine a combination of Mozart and the Benny Goodman trio.

Luckily, the pianist, who composed most of the tracks here, uses tremolo voicing and resounding string slides to toughen his renditions other places. His spiky runs, key clipping and hesitant chording plus Moore’s intense, rappelling alto saxophone trills make “Corybant” sound like a forgotten Monk tune.

Wierbos’ distinctive triple-tongued runs and elongated slurs back up van der Schyff’s blunt flams and marital rolls when he appears. Additionally, the trombonist’s shapely plunger movements encourage the pianist to batter harpsichord-like on the keys and the alto saxophonist to wiggle out his most atonal split tones.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For CODA Issue 330

January 1, 2007

NOW Orchestra and Marilyn Crispell

Pola
VICTO cd 097

By Ken Waxman

Without a whiff of prima-donna-meets-local-musicians attitude, Woodstock, N.Y. pianist/composer Marilyn Crispell is newest out-of-town guest on this collaboration with Vancouver’s venerable creative music collective, the New Orchestra Workshop (NOW) Orchestra.

Consisting of a clutch of Vancouver’s top improvisers who also lead their own bands, the 13-piece NOW Orchestra has in the past worked with such individualistic composers as Québécois guitarist René Lussier and then California-based trombonist George Lewis. Unlike those strong personalities, Crispell – best-known for her tenure in reedist Anthony Braxton’s 1980s-1990s quartet – assumes the piano chair on Pola as if she has been part of the ensemble for years.

There are detriments as well as benefits to this approach. Performing one of her compositions, three by NOW artistic director multi-woodwind player Coat Cook and one by band member guitarist Ron Samworth, the attitude-free pianist seems to demand no more than her allotted time on each track. At the same perhaps a more dynamic and assertive stance on her part could have prevented some of the CD’s weaker spots.

Case in point is the final track, Cook’s more than 10½-minute “Suffused with Blue Light”. Although it consists of similar macro (whole band) and minimal (soloist) fluctuations as the other tunes, the overall muted, massed harmonies are some understated that you suspect aimless noodling not playing in some parts. Near the top highlight is a double double-bass solo from Paul Blarney and Clyde Reed. With one striating the strings near the pegs and the other strumming full-fingered tremolos in mid-range they are one eight-stringed monster, controlling the action with a steady drone. Downside, however, is the overly dramatic acting out of a impressionistic poem by vocalist Kate Hammett-Vaughan, whose whispering reading bring an unneeded solemnity to the proceedings.

Considering Hammett-Vaughan is one of Canada’s pre-eminent singers and appropriately showcases her improvisational talents on this disc, the decision to interpret the material that way should probably be attributed to Cooke. Considering that Cooke, who plays tenor and baritone saxophones and flute on Pola, is heavily involved in working with dancers, plus video, film and spoken word artists, the misstep is probably his.

Listing his instruments brings up another of the CD’s problems. With three flautists (Graham Ord and Saul Berson as well as Cooke); two alto saxophonists (Bruce Freeman and Berson); and Ord a tenor player along with Cooke; as well as two trumpeters – John Korsrud and Kevin Elaschuk – naming soloists on each track would make the situation more transparent.

On the upside, Crispell’s “Ying Yang” and Samworth’s “M.C.”, likely written for the pianist are two bang-up examples of what the NOW contributes at its best.

On the former the guitarist’s rough nylon string plinking circle though the tones as the orchestra slowly insinuates itself onto the track. As the accompaniment moves from being felt to being heard, successive solos are by a closely-breathed flute, sputtering bass work and contrapuntal hide-and-seek among trumpet, trombone and a vibrated tenor saxophone. After a display of near recital-like piano patterning, Hammett-Vaughan’s wordless soprano moaning brings things to a fitting end.

The vocalist’s purported speaking in tongues meets up with traffic-jam like reed squeals and clashing cymbals from drummer Dylan van der Schyff in the crescendo of “M.C.” Beginning with heraldic brass and bird-like reed squeals, the first variation on the initial elegiac line is superseded by strummed arpeggios and patterning from Crispell, unaccompanied, stretched octave final solo turns the polyrhythmic climax into a finale of measured tonality.

A good session that could have been great Pola will interest followers of both the pianist and the orchestra.

July 14, 2006

Gestrin/Monder/van der Schyff

The Distance
Songlines SGL SA1557-2

Reminiscent of guitarist Jim Hall’s work with pianist Bill Evans or what would have happened if a pre-Americana-obsessed Bill Frisell had recorded with a non-pretentious Keith Jarrett, The Distance goes the distance to prove that a first time meeting among convinced improvisers can result in memorable sounds as long as there’s a shared dynamic.

Dramatis personnel here are Vancouver pianist Chris Gestrin, who has played with everyone from vocalist Kate Hammett-Vaughn to ex-BTO guitarist Randy Bachman and busy New York guitarist Ben Monder, both of whom prefer a narrow exposition. Luckily percussionist Dylan van der Schyff, who has seconded everyone from vibrant trumpeter Dave Douglas to minimalist saxophonist John Butcher, is along for the ride. His little instruments ratcheting, maracas shaking and subtle his rhythmic thrust on the rest of his kit adds a tincture of vivid coloring to Gestrin and Monder’s near monochromic playing.

Mostly completely improvised from the get-go, the 10 tracks highlight ongoing double counterpoint from the two chordal instruments, with Moder’s delicate, flowing finger-picking sometimes amplified to wide grunge-like drones or flanged pulsations with almost Jimmy Page-like audacity. A gentle stylist, when he isn’t involved in soft chording or patterning cadences, Gestrin, uses paper and other implements to prepare the piano. The results allow him to hightail it along the keys and create bottleneck guitar quivers at points, or showcase a color wheel of variations which involve airy soundboard vibrations that echo along with his intricate phrasing on the keys.

-- Ken Waxman

March 20, 2006

Impromptu

Impromptu
Digitalis Purpùrea

Rutherford/Vandermark/Müller/van der Schyff
Hoxha
Spool/Line

By Ken Waxman
February 13, 2006

CDs recorded practically two continents apart, these session show how veteran avant trombonists of roughly the same vintage can adapt and collaborate with younger musicians. Each chooses to do so in a different, but very characteristic, fashion.

Giancarlo Schiaffini – born in 1942 – is someone whose reinterpretation of the trombone’s role goes back to the birth of Italian improv with the Gruppo Romano Free Jazz in 1966. He’s an autodidact, who shifts effortlessly between the improv and the notated world. A member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, he has also involving himself in many jazz situations over the years. Simultaneously he has collaborated with the likes of John Cage, Luigi Nono and Giacinto Scelsi, with specific solo works written for him by Scelsi, Nono and other so-called serious composers.

Thus it’s no surprise to see him as a member of Impromptu, a Sardinia-based “improvisation and composition group”, whose members have background in jazz, improv, orchestral and theatrical music. Its unusual line-up adds Schiaffini’s trombone to violin – played by Adele Madu– plus piano, bass and drums. Cagliari-based pianist Silvia Corda and bassist Adriano Orrù not only teach at the local conservatory but recorded a well-received trio CD under Corda’s name a couple of years ago. Drummer and percussionist Roberto Pellegrindi splits his time between hard core improv and conservatory instruction.

Less than six months after the eight tracks on Impromptu were recorded in 2004, London-based trombonist Paul Rutherford – born in 1940 – was in Portland, Ore. as part of a free-form concert. His associates were German-born, Vancouver, B.C.-based bassist Torsten Müller, Vancouver-based percussionist Dylan van der Schyff – who has worked with everyone from British reedist John Butcher to American bassist Mark Helias – and Chicago-based tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Ken Vandermark, who in the past decade has probably performed with more different improvisers than anyone else on the scene.

Again, Rutherford’s participation in this an ad hoc ensemble is no shock, since from his beginnings in BritImprov, he was as likely to be found in free-form combos like Iskra 1903 with bassist Barry Guy as in such multi-person big bands as Mike Westbrook’s or the Globe Unity. He loves to play, whether it’s with jazz-style bands in the 1980s or, as he has recently, with two live computer processors.

Hoxha includes not a hint of electronics, something which has fascinated Schiaffini in other circumstances as well. There’s also no hierarchical suggestions or Old master - young apprentices separateness here, even though Müller, the next oldest musicians is almost a decade and a half younger than the British trombonist. Instead what’s most apparent is a sense of these improvisations being in the moment, which further distances them from Impromptu. That CD consciously specifies the formal strategies that go into individual creations – clearly labeled as written by one or another of the players – even if the end results are all-out improvisations.

Curiously, when timbre follows texture during these fully-rounded performances on Hoxha, Rutherford’s slide work and use of mutes at points takes on a gutbucket, traditional jazz coloration, not too distant from the solos of his older contemporary Free Jazzer Roswell Rudd. Trad Jazz was popular in the United Kingdom when Rutherford was coming up and while he, unlike Rudd, was likely never a recorded Dixielander, the fearless technique and casual joy of those older bonemen could influence anyone, even if by osmosis.

Harmonizing Rutherford’s sweeps, swoops and echoing timbres with Vandermark’s flutter-tongued tenor saxophone rumbles, backed by only bass and drums, also bring up memories of Rudd’s 1960s strategies with equally strong saxmen like John Tchicai and Archie Shepp. Müller’s string-scraping applications, sudden col lengo thrusts and spiccato patterning are the extreme opposite of the steady bassists Rudd worked with in these bands, however. As for van der Schyff, in this situation his thought process is focused more on Free Music than Free Jazz. He’d never be confused with Milford Graves or Beaver Harris. Just listen to the resonation of his cymbal lines, the snaps and rolls on his snares and toms, his slap on unlathed cymbal surface, and the all-encompassing rattles, nerve beats and sand dances he produces from his drum tops. Vandermark’s clarinet is another point of demarcation here, since his pinched and nasal trills and woody resonation serves as unmistakable counterpoint to the trombonist’s echoing purrs and low-pitched elongated slurs.

All this bravura technique surrounding it functions as the prelude and postlude to “Baragon”, Hoxha’s touch-over-21-minutes showpiece. The drummer’s rattles and raps plus the reedist’s high-pitched trilling give way to an ample demonstration of the mature Rutherford style as he slides around the slide brace, bell and mouthpiece, crying and shouting through the tube, slithering from harsh note mastication to full-fledged braying and blubbering. During the course of the tune Vandermark plays many roles, at one point creating a sibilant but flowing counter line, broken up with sudden squeaks and shattering tones, and at others – on tenor saxophone– creating a tongue-slapping ostinato. Plunger comments and back-of-the-throat squeals are the trombonist’s response as van der Schyff shifts to rock-like bounces and the bassist wraps things up with an inclusive bass thump.

Impressive for what it is, Hoxha may have benefited from more formalism, something Impromptu, the album, has in spades. But what Impromptu, the band lacks, is a prevailing counterforce to Schiaffani with as powerful an instrument as Vandermark’s. As well as she functions, Madu’s gentler approach to the fiddle is sometimes unintentionally blown away by the Big Bad Wolfness of the trombone’s power. Conversant with a variety of styles and techniques, pianist Corda mounts a challenge at certain points, but as referee between the front line and the rhythm section, she has to function on both teams.

Often that means the response to brass sound excursions from il dottore Schiaffini is to introduce sparse, isolated timbres. With downwards spiccato slices from the violinist, col legno patterning from Orrù and cascades of passing tones from the piano covering curving plunger tremolos from the trombonist, the end result on a piece like Madau’s 11-minute “Kaoscasokausa” sounds exceedingly solemn and loggy.

Harmonized formalism affects other tunes as well. On Corda’s “Di poche parole”, not only does Pellegrindi appear to be using techniques more appropriate for symphonic kettledrum and bell players than improvisers, but as his sounds expand it seems as if he’s valiantly holding himself back from replicating the percussion rumbles from the “1812 Overture”. The composer herself falls into near-stereotypical classical chording. Heading for a crescendo of unrelieved tension, the rigidity threatens to throttle the piece. Luckily, a release section of scraped chromatic violin lines and circular stops plus bass string clicks lighten the performance as do jazzy spits and slurs from the trombonist.

Short – less than five minutes – and light-hearted, Schiaffini’s “Mercoledi 17” rejuvenates the proceedings as do valve slurs, cross patterning piano chords, plucked violin strings and a walking bass line from the players. Following a cymbal resonation that could easily come from pressure on a metal garbage can lid, the tune’s extro features tailgate slurs from the composer and swinging slide action from Madau.

Even more exceptional is the final “Comme se fosse autunno”, evidently a burlesque contrafact of “Autumn Leaves”. Beginning with double-stopping tremolos from Madau and exaggerated chording that would make Roger Williams proud from Corda, the tune soon develops into a stroll, complete with double-timed, cascading note patterns from the fiddler and a strummed bass lines from Orrù. Following a last minute recapitulation of the theme, the proceedings screech to a sudden halt.

While accomplished, Impromptu the CD, implies that Impromptu, the band, still needs to put more thought into how best to balance its disparate parts. Hoxha, as a one-off improv, misses top rank as well. Still both prove the adage that old trombonists – unlike dogs – can learn new tricks – and get along well enough with musical puppies to pass on their own capers.

February 13, 2006

Dylan van der Schyff

The Definition of a Toy
Songlines SGL SA1554-2

Half of Vancouver’s first family of improvised music – with cellist Peggy Lee – drummer Dylan van der Schyff organized this international contingent for a hometown concert.

The results prove that when musicians have a connective history, an exceptional program can be developed after one rehearsal. Trumpeter Brad Turner and van der Schyff have played together since the 1990s; New York bassist Mark Helias and Amsterdam-based reedist Michael Moore met in 1978; and German pianist Achim Kaufmann has toured with Moore and the drummer since 2000.

Except for a trumpet-bass duo track and an abstract feature for drums, piano and reeds, the pieces are full-flavored and remarkably consistent. Tight compositionally, they’re loose enough for individual expression. Van der Schyff is a model of restraint throughout, rhythmically guiding the tracks without turning up the volume. Turner impresses with muted echoes and sluicing tones on his own moderato “Queen of the Box Office”, while the pianist can switch from the off-centre dynamics he exhibits on Helias’ romp, “Broken” – which also has some liquid flutter-tonguing from Moore’s clarinet – to committed mainstream comping elsewhere.

Kaufmann’s chord strumming and patterning shape the title tune. Encompassing slapped drum top and rattled cymbals, col legno bass pulsations and bugle-like brassiness from Turner, it culminates in bumpy dance-like rhythms. Before that, composer Moore’s trilled alto saxophone cadences imply a bulked up version of Paul Desmond’s tone.

Locking disparate component parts into a groove, the CD confirms van der Schyff’s talents as a top session organizer as well as a first-rate percussionist.

-- Ken Waxman

January 10, 2006

SONGLINES

Challenging Sounds from Canada’s West Coast
for CODA

“I love the challenge of producing records well, and I try to keep up with technology,” states Tony Reif, owner of Vancouver, B.C.’s Songlines Recordings.

Now in its 13th year, the West Coast-based label has 56 CDs in its catalogue, many of which mix jazz with World and so-called classical music. Besides recording projects from Canadian, American and European musicians – sometimes in international groups – every Songlines CD since 2002 has been released as a hybrid SACD.

Although he admits “the discs are about twice as expensive to manufacture as regular CDs, without being able to be sold at a comparable premium”, as an audiophile Reif says, “I look at high-res as an investment in the future of this music.

“If people still want to hear my CDs 10 or 20 years from now, I want them to be as vivid and powerful as whatever technology is being used for new recordings. If what one hears in the mastering studio could be conveyed to the home listener in all its glory for a reasonable financial outlay in a playback system, there isn't a music lover on earth who wouldn't want SACD,” he adds

At the same time, Songlines isn’t neglecting the non-audiophile market or the possibilities of the Internet. All of its CDs are playable on non-super-audiophile systems; Songlines discs can be bought as digital downloads; and the label’s Website offers interviews with the artists that provide more detail than in the CD booklets.

Songlines is financed by Reif’s inheritance. Someone whose background is in English literature and film, he gained an appreciation for what he calls “left-of-centre jazz” during graduate studies in Toronto and California. Initially he planned to document Vancouver jazz through live concert recordings. “But soon, I realized that if I was going to get Vancouver music to a broader, international audience I would have a better chance if I diversified a bit.”

Over the years, Songlines’ first CD by local clarinetist François Houle has been joined by CDs recorded in and featuring musicians from Seattle (Babkas), New York (trumpeter Dave Douglas’ Tiny Bell Trio), Paris (pianist Benoît Delbecq) and Amsterdam (Aros). “Challenging but accessible" was the catchphrase I used then,” says Reif. “I think it still applies.”

Today he adds, “I look for music that has a balance between improvisational and compositional elements, though perhaps I've moved more towards the compositional, because improv can be very hit-and-miss. I like music that has a strong sense of form and that can’t be ‘used up’ in one or two listenings. The musicians and I put a lot of thought into making each record work as an overall experience.”

Songlines’ three newest CDs do just that. Saxophonist Patrick Zimmerli’s Phoenix leans towards ambient/modern classical music; drummer Dylan van der Schyff’s The Definition of a Toy towards avant jazz; and Lingua Franca, with saxophonist Peter Epstein, guitarist Brad Shepik and drummer Matt Kilmer towards jazz mixed with World music.

The three sessions use different levels of technology. Phoenix for example went through five different digital editing, mixing and mastering stages; Lingua Franca was recorded 16-track analog and mixed in analogue to DSD; while The Definition of a Toy was recorded to eight-track DSD and mixed in analogue back to DSD. “I always prefer to be in the studio, to offer another set of ears, help the artists get what they want musically and help the engineer get the best possible sound,” states Reif.

The label’s musical leanings are even broader. Releases include pure World music (Amir Koushkani’s Quest), avant-folk (Poor Boy: Songs of Nick Drake), avant-improv-electronics (Hilmar Jensson’s Tyft), and jazz and spoken word (Jerry Granelli’s Sandhills Reunion). “The typical Songlines release probably ‘leans’ in more than one direction, or if it’s incontrovertibly jazz, it includes a lot of variety,” suggests Reif. “Maybe I get bored easily, or maybe I just like to shake things up.”

As for the future, among the six CDs Songlines tries to releases each year will be a live trio session with local pianist Chris Gestrin, New York guitarist Ben Monder and van der Schyff; Seattle pianist Wayne Horvitz recorded with cellist Peggy Lee, trumpeter Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck; a New music/World music record, featuring Vancouver composer and piper Michael O’Neill’s compositions involving up to four bagpipe lines and percussion; and – in a rare foray into Eastern Canada – a CD led by Toronto reedist Quinsin Nachoff. This classical-jazz hybrid features Americans, bassist Mark Helias, drummer Jim Black and a string quartet.

With Songlines essentially a one-man operation, Reif admits “there’s plenty to keep me busy for the future”.

-- Ken Waxman

November 15, 2005

DAVE DOUGLAS & NOMAD

Mountain Passages
Greenleaf Music GRE-01

Focused around moods and memory, trumpeter Dave Douglas’ 22nd recording – and first on his own label – cements his reputation as the most accomplished mainstream trumpeter around.

Unlike a certain other famous brassman who spends his time looking backwards to what jazz was, Douglas is forward looking enough in his playing and composing, to adapt other influences, from European folk airs to contemporary classical sounds,. At the same time, like most of the CDs he’s made recently, the 13 melodic and muted themes on the CD won’t upset even the most casual jazz listener. If that unnamed trumpeter and his Young Lions hadn’t retarded the improvisation tradition so, the minute deviations from 4/4 swing and blues tonalities here wouldn’t be heard as far out. Douglas may play often with John Zorn, but MOUNTAIN PASSAGES is nowhere near experimental sounds.

Resulting from a commission from a Northern Italian festival in the Dolomites, for music to be played following a mountain hike to an elevation spot between 9,000 and 12,000 feet, the sounds serve a double function. Drawing on the area’s local Ladino music, the trumpeter adapts both its devotional calmness and the riotous celebration that characterize it. At the same time Douglas’ themes are intended to honor his father, a mountain runner and mapmaker, who died within a month of the recording, never having heard it.

One piece, “North Point Memorial”, a picturesque, chamber-like number, is specifically dedicated to his father. Built on Peggy Lee’s moderato cello lines and cymbal reverberation from drummer Dylan van der Schyff, the theme and variations depend on chromatic, contrapuntal harmonies from clarinetist Moore and Douglas’ trumpet. As the adagio theme unfolds, it’s given additional heft by accompaniment in broken chords from Marcus Rojas’ tuba.

Husband and wife Vancouverites, Lee and Van Der Schyff have recorded with the trumpeter elsewhere and are part of the faulty at the Banff [Alberta] International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, where Douglas is director. They also play internationally and in their hometown with the pick of improv musicians. Rojas, on the faculty at New York University, is better known for his contributions to reedist Henry Threadgill’s bands. The only non-part-time academic, Moore, who plays bass clarinet and alto saxophone here, is a Californian turned Amsterdam resident, with a long-time tenure in Holland’s influential ICP Orchestra.

“A Nasty Spill”, the most liberated composition here reflects that blend of classicism, folklore and jazz that characterize European ensembles like the ICP or Gianluigi Trovesi’s Octet. Episodic and thematic, with an underscore which sounds as if it was lifted from “Minnie the Moocher”, the tune features twirling clarinet lines, tuba burps, and rim shots and nerve beats from Van Der Schyff. While all this is going on Douglas unleashes triplets that could zip along mountain trails as quickly as his father could run on them. Semi-growls and slurs from the trumpet as well as a call-and-response section between the strings and higher-pitched horns characterize the final variation.

One of the most self-effacing of leaders, Douglas sometimes seems like a sideman on his own dates. He never hogs the microphone, and gives every one his or her fair shot at solo space. An outstanding arranger nonetheless, he voices the instruments in such a way that the harmonies are full and inclusive, making it sound as if a larger ensemble is playing on many of the tracks,

Mixing Romay, Latin, dance-like and brass band infections, other tunes featuring Moore’s liquid clarinet tone, Douglas’ rubato variations and Rojas’ tuba pedal point could be Italianized Dixieland – especially when the drummer plays a shuffle. Still others, like “Cannonball Run”, which features the trumpeter’s showiest and most open-horned solo, mixes a percussion-lead Second Line Shuffle with almost formal, Europeanized alto saxophone lines wrapped within stop-time.

Drawing both on solemn devotional calmness of Ladino sounds and Anglo-Saxon understatement that’s part of the brass man’s heritage, several of the other numbers resemble dumps – not garbage repositories but melancholy old English dances, usually in 4/4 time. Here adagio movements from the cellist are used to color these lamentations, which are kept fully grounded by a contrapuntal funereal tuba line. The matter-of-factness is such that even if the piece bears a picturesque title such as “Bury Me Standing”, Douglas’ solos, more often than not are lightly legato, not overwrought.

Anyone interested in a first-class CD that matches the best of European continuity with the freedom of the exemplary improvised music should investigate MOUNTAIN PASSAGES. There’s very little hard climbing here despite the source of the commission.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Summit Music 2. Family of the Climber 3. Gnarly Schnapps 4. Gumshoe 5. Twelve Degrees Proof 6. North Point Memorial 7. Cannonball Run 8. Palisades 9. A Nasty Spill 10. Purple Mountains Majesty 11. Off Major 12. Bury Me Standing 13. Encore: All Is Forgiven

Personnel: Dave Douglas (trumpet); Michael Moore (clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone); Marcus Rojas (tuba); Peggy Lee (cello); Dylan van der Schyff (drums)

September 19, 2005

HORVITZ/SAMWORTH/LEE/CLARK/VAN DER SCHYFF

Intersection Poems
Spool Line SPL125

TIGERSMILK
From the Bottle
Family Vineyard FV28

North American free trade of the most benign kind, FROM THE BOTTLE features an invigorating live performance from a trio mad up of two Americans and a Canadian, while INTERSECTION POEMS is another fine effort which adds an American pianist to an already constituted Canadian combo, which includes Tigersmilk’s drummer.

Vancouver-based Dylan van der Schyff has also brought his percussion wizardry to partnerships featuring such disparate players as American trumpeter Dave Douglas and British saxophonist John Butcher. His most frequent playing partner – and his wife – is cellist Peggy Lee, who also works with a clutch of international performers. Those two, trumpeter Bill Clark and guitarist Ron Samworth made up the band Talking Pictures, making this CD a reunion plus. The plus is Seattle-based keyboardist Wayne Horvitz, whose credentials include work with Bill Frisell and John Zorn, and who has known of the Vancouverites since the late 1980s.

Recorded six months after the seven improvisations on INTERSECTION, POEMS, FROM THE BOTTLE is Tigersmilk’s second CD. It’s a Chicago date which matches the drummer and local in-demand bassist Jason Roebke with cornet and laptop electronics manipulator Rob Mazurek, a veteran of the Chicago Underground groups, who now lives in Brazil.

Mazurek isn’t so in love with electronics, however, that he lets them dominate the proceedings. For instance, on track four, there’s a point where the cornetist’s live and prerecorded self seem to be improvising in harmony. But when it comes to slurred grace notes and translucent triplets, only the singular brassman is on mic. Meantime, van der Schyff is knitting accompaniment out of bell pealing, rim shots and clip clops before leveling the beat with brushes. At points you can hear what he does with each part of the kit in isolation. Not to be outdone, Roebke speedily double stops. Pushing aside an undercurrent of laptop, outer-space loops, open-horned the brassman then sprays a cascade of whole notes that meet up with tough, near-jazz drumming.

Then, on the final, almost-19-minute track, an ostinato of sequenced rumbles bubble underneath a percussion outing. Soon Mazurek squeezes out single notes with a soft Milesean lilt. Rubato and a cappella, his solo then takes on a Latinesque tinge. Almost a nocturne, his output is more sensuous than melancholy. Eventually he gives way to van der Schyff who parlays repetitive cowbell action and cymbal splashes into an emphasized beat, built around heavier and harder press rolls and single strokes echoing from the splash cymbal. Heading into the final variation, Roebke both strums guitar-like and injects spiccato pumping as the cornetist’s whinnying triplets climax as a lone, saturated tone.

Hissing electronic flutters are a barely-there component of the third track as well. But different impulses enliven it more. There’s the drummer starting things off with marital rattles, matched up with Mazurek’s bugle-like tattoo. As the other two twist the exposition out of shape, the brassman showcases both growly mouthpiece pressure and a squeaky, muted tone. Focused accents from the drummer give way to busy cross stick ruffs and flams as a steady bass line intertwines itself with some looping electronic reverb. Delay is used sparingly, so that Mazurek’s slurred patterns are his creations, not the product of cavernous reverb. With each of the three cognizant of background and upfront manipulations, technical wizardry merely emphasizes this close cooperation.

Teamwork is also the byword of INTERSECTION POEMS, despite five individual voices on a first time recording situation in this configuration. Visitor Horvitz establishes his bone fides almost from the first minutes on “Merge à la gauche”, the premier – and at nearly nine minutes – longest tune.

Stuttering, low frequency pianisms soon turn harder with pitter-patter pumping while Lee molds sul ponticello and sul tasto abrasions into more soothing legato lines. A choked, brassy tremolo from Clark sets up hammered pressure on the keys from the pianist as the cellist double stops the melody and van der Schyff contributes rolls and rumbles. Finale is low-keyed shuffle bowing vying for space with a sprinkle of penetrating piano notes.

“Merge à la gauche” also comes to a satisfactory conclusion, although the alternate strategy is the only criticism that can be leveled at this CD. Too often tunes merely dribble away, rather than making any sort of complete statement. This happens with the tile tune that, among a showcase of romantic piano arpeggios and hoedown resonation from the cello, impresses with the skill in which Lee splits her vibrating patterns into two separate melodies. But where’s the conclusion?

The question remains with many of the other pieces, but the playing is so accomplished, while at the same time being nearly ego-less that summation at times becomes secondary. With years of interaction between Samworth and Lee to draw on, it often appears as if guitar licks are inaudible. In many cases however, it’s Samworth who is probably using a stick and an e-bow to pummel and resonate his strings to replicate Lee’s ponticello work.

“…When Amber Flashing” sums this up as scraped interface from the guitarist, heraldic trumpeting from Clark, plinks and plucks from Lee, centred flams from the drummer and off-centre high frequency chording from Horvitz meld into a multi-hued musical meal. As the pianist continues to sound out thematic octave runs, Lee adds to the romantic underpinning with sprinkles of accented notes on top of a shifting tonal centre.

One of the most accomplished recent sessions involving Lee, and a confirmation of Tigersmilk’s maturing intercommunication, these Can-Am CD substantiate the idea that no matter where he lives, van der Schyff is a percussionist to hear.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Poems: 1. Merge à la gauche 2. Elk Crossing 3. Pavement Ends 4. Intersection Poems 5. Children at Play 6. Begin Two Way 7. …When amber flashing

Personnel: Poems: Bill Clark, (trumpet); Wayne Horvitz (piano); Ron Samworth (guitar); Peggy Lee (cello); Dylan van der Schyff (drums)

Track Listing: Bottle: 1. 11:49 2. 6:22 3. 15:25 4. 12:53 5. 1:57 6. 18:51

Personnel: Bottle: Rob Mazurek (cornet and laptop electronics); Jason Roebke (bass); Dylan van der Schyff (percussion)

June 27, 2005

DOUGLAS/SCLAVIS/LEE/VAN DER SCHYFF

Bow River Falls
Premonition Records KOCH CD 5744

PEGGY LEE BAND
Worlds Apart
Spool Line SPL124

Drummer Dylan van der Schyff and cellist Peggy Lee are the elements that connect these two sessions. With international reputations, -- Lee having played with the Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro and American reedist Vinny Golia, while van der Schyff has worked with British saxist John Butcher and American cornetist Rob Mazurek -- the Canadian husband and wife live in Vancouver, B.C., and have built their careers from there.

The Canadian West Coast has an abundance of known improvisers, clarinetist François Houle being another example -- but like everywhere else the hometown scene can be a little comfortable and self-contained. You notice that on these two efforts, The tunes on WORLDS APART, mostly written by Lee and recorded with local musicians in her hometown lacks a certain spark. A livelier affair, BOW RIVER FALLS, recorded in the neighboring province of Alberta during the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music in that city, matches up the West Coast couple with New York-based trumpeter Dave Douglas and Lyon, France-born clarinetist Louis Sclavis.

Both discs, however, suffer from an overabundance of tracks -- nine on APART and 11 on FALLS -- and a certain indefinable heavy-handed mournfulness in Lee’s cello playing detracts from the proceedings.

Additionally, the tracks on Lee’s solo disc often seem to range between overly pliable lullabies and excessively prissy rustic lines. The melancholy underlying the compositions is so strong that it seems to be heading for straight out depression.

Part of this may attributed to a lack of reed coloration. Brad Turner on trumpet, cornet and flugelhorn and Jeremy Berkman on trombone are the only horns, and frequently muted, they add to this bleak outlook. So do the other two -- or in some cases three -- string players. Electric and acoustic bassist André Lechance, and guitarist Tony Wilson, who has recorded with Houle, are on every track. Ron Samworth, of Vancouver’s NOW Orchestra who was in the Talking Pictures band with the cellist and drummer, is added on four. Capable of mood swings elsewhere, the two plectrumists also appear a bit too fond of the sort of spacey, restrained licks that have characterized Bill Frisell since his ECM tenure.

Weakest of the pieces is “Spells”, which suggests Lee is revisiting her folk-rock childhood. With a strummed double guitar lead reminiscent of Wishbone Ash -- or maybe Peter, Paul & Mary -- Blood, Sweat & Tears-era horn charts and heavy accented rock drumming, the end product is pretty poppy. “Beekeeper’s Club” isn’t that much better. Here Wilson and Samworth are in country and western mode, with double thumbed guitar licks meeting Clark’s prissy muted trumpet cadenzas. Could this be a close cousin to a pavan?

Better, but still no world-beaters, are tunes like “A Door” and “Retacing2”. The first, weighing in at almost 9½-minutes gives everyone some room. There are understated flams and bounces from van der Schyff, scratchy guitar runs, shaded trumpet patterns and lower case trombone accompaniment -- all very polite, even when Lechance produces a thump from his bass. It could be more leichen musik or funeral sounds, though.

Moody as well, “Retacing2” does have a sul ponticello cello lead that introduces a similar theme from the trumpet and drums. But even this shimmering performance sounds a little tired, with no one really standing out.

When the quartet on the other disc performs its version of “Retacing2” you could swear it was an entirely different piece of music. Here van der Schyff offers up a penetrating back beat while Lee’s walking cello lines presage unison horn work. Soon Sclavis’ lower-pitched clarinet is marching up the scale producing overtone vibrations that are finally resolved with a muted trumpet line and softer focused horns.

“Window”, another Lee composition, which may be related to “A Door” on the other CD also has more oomph to it than all of her writing on WORLDS. With van der Schyff supplying expanded crackles and pseudo birdcalls from his laptop, these overtones meet up with offhanded scrapes from cello, whistles from the clarinet and floating tremolo notes from trumpet. Eventually the performance remakes itself as a pastoral moderato line. Perhaps Sclavis and Douglas cured Lee of her melancholia. For while many of the tunes here are gentle -- some may say a bit too gentle -- most of them have the intestinal fortitude lacking on the other disc.

Sclavis’ “Dernier Regard/Vol”, for instance, is a pseudo gypsy line that may have reminded Douglas of his experiments in that era with his Balkan-inflected Tiny Bell Trio. Here he contributes high-pitched wah wahs that meld perfectly with the composer’s speedy, double-tongued reed playing. Patting and pumping, van der Schyff adds an understated drum solo and Lee’s cello introduces a French-style gigue before the theme is recapitulated.

“Petals”, from Douglas’ pen, offers up more muted trumpet spewing out grace notes with a Latinesque feel. Ambulatory, measured drum beats accompany broken counterpoint from Sclavis’ clarinet, then the reedman turns French funky, breaking up the time as he produces sluicing jittering tones. Douglas’ own solo is a variation on this. He’s probably used to atonal reed work from his time working with John Zorn in Masada.

The entire company is free enough to attempt an instant composition in “Dark Water”. Featuring clattering cymbals, double stopping cello lines and clarinet slurs, it sounds as if someone is literally bird whistling behind Douglas’ extended note twisting.

Swelling, deceptively simple melodies predominate on this outing as well, but the professionalism of all concerned add some heft and even jauntiness to the output. FALLS is actually little more than a pleasant meeting of equals. But it won’t plunge you into a something resembling clinical depression the way WORLD may.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Worlds: 1. Worlds Part* 2. Soft Scrape 3. Retacing2 4. Spells* 5. First Spin 6. Old One Knows 7. Beekeeper’s Club* 8. A Door 9. Lookout*

Personnel: Worlds: Brad Turner (trumpet, cornet and flugelhorn); Jeremy Berkman (trombone); Peggy Lee (cello); Tony Wilson and Ron Samworth* (electric and acoustic guitars); André Lechance (electric and acoustic basses); Dylan van der Schyff (drums)

Track Listing: Falls: 1. Blinks 2. Bow River Falls 3. Fete Forraine 4. Window 5. Maputo 6. Petals 7. Retracing 2 8. Dernier Regard/Vol 9. Woman at Point Zero 10. Dark Water 11. Paradox

Personnel: Falls: Dave Douglas (trumpet); Louis Sclavis (clarinet and bass clarinet); Peggy Lee (cello); Dylan van der Schyff (drums and laptop)

February 7, 2005

Carlo Actis Dato

American Tour
Splasc(H)

By Ken Waxman

August 2, 2004

With his ebullient personality and colorful outfits that often suggest one of the Seven Dwarfs inbred with the Three Stooges, Turin’s Carlo Actis Dato is perhaps the prototypical Italian free improviser.

Valued member of a clutch of local bands under his own name or led by others -- not to mention his part in the all-star Italian Instabile Orchestra -- Actis Dato is up for any kind of improvisation, in varied situations with all types of musicians.

Imprecisely named for xenophobic Yanks, the 16 aural souvenirs on this CD find the Italian on tenor and baritone saxophones plus bass clarinet matching wits with his peers in three American and two Canadian cities. If truth be told, the seven tracks recorded in Toronto and Vancouver, B.C. are as zestful as those done south of the 49th parallel and may even have a slight edge.

Actis Dato appears to be perfectly matched with fellow baritone saxist David Mott, who teaches at Toronto’s York University and has recorded with drummer Gerry Hemingway. Almost from the first note on the fittingly entitled “Two Brothers” the reedists take up individual spots in the improvisations.

Encompassing a frisky Balkan-style dance, a blues-based romp and what could be the soundtrack for two terpsichorean hippos, the buffo pieces have one player in the balladic top range of the sax for a portion of the time, while the other provides portamento snorts and tongue slaps. Then they switch roles. With two men able to create bicycle horn tremolos and squeals, flutter-tongued sideslipping and glottal punctuation with the same facility, twin commingling is easily achieved.

Boston trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum provides an comparable foil for Actis Dato on their four selections named for the elements. The brassman can hold his own with any reedman having also recorded duets with Anthony Braxton. Most memorable number is “Water” where Actis Dato’s trilling of a freylach-style melody on clarinet is decorated with grace notes and growling pedal point by the brassman. Eventually the two reach a rapprochement with Ho Bynum following Actis Dato’s triple-tongued slides and slurs at an accelerated pitch so that the two sound as if they’re playing “Salt Peanuts” in a Dixieland setting.

Other compositions encompass foot-tapping Latin rhythms, old country dances -- Actis Dato’s old country not Ho Bynum’s -- and military style timbres sounded with quivering percussiveness. Throughout, the reedman shows off his serpentine bass clarinet work, embellished with tongue stops and tongue slaps, while the trumpeter speedily fingers triplets, single line mouthpiece trills and ornamental slides.

Elsewhere, Actis Dato’s two trio gigs are as different as the weather in Vancouver, B.C. and Chicago. His match up with guitarist Ron Samworth of Vancouver’s NOW orchestra, and drummer Dylan van der Schyff, who has worked with British saxist John Butcher among others, encompasses POMO electronic suggestions. His partnership with cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, who seems to be on every second CD recorded in the Windy City and Wilco percussionist Glenn Kochi is harder and heavier.

Playing in British Columbia, the visitor gives the other musicians plenty of scope for inventiveness. Creating choruses of tongue slaps while overblowing, his tones fly over, around and through the drummer’s stick-on-stick nerve beats, ratamacues, wood block ratcheting and miniature cymbal strokes. From his corner, the guitarist introduces distorted reverb and electronic echoes.

Before the final notes are sounded however, Samworth has squealed out polyphonic chords, van der Schyff has created rugged rhythms with his bass drum, and Actis Dato uses the timbres flowing through his baritone’s body tube and bow to suggest some low-pitched Middle Eastern instrument. What would do you call an Italo-Arabic didjeridoo anyway?

Illinois brings out an entirely new side to the Italian reedist with the three selections rebounding from New music pointillism to out-and-out Free Jazz skronk.

“Alien Peace” is an example of the former with Actis Dato surrounding a middle section of chicken clucking arpeggios with tenor saxophone forays into mellow mid-range. Around him the cellist cascades chord patterns alive with spicatto, slurring bowing and, latterly, guitar-like strums. The drummer confines himself to cymbal clacks and press rolls. “Lost Melodies”, which follows, features New Thing-like smacks and lengthened trills from the reedist mixed with harsh flattement, side slipping and near whistles -- all from the saxman. Lonberg-Holm contributes double-stopping arco moments and Kotche wood block smacks.

Climax is reached with “Dawn” which begins with what appears to be Actis Dato bird calling through his detached mouthpiece, creating timbres that unexpectedly moderate into balladic trills. Lonberg-Holm’s ponticello slides turn louder and more staccato, first creating a miasmic cushion of pitches to contrast with the saxman’s riffs, then joining him to suggest a bouncing tarantella. Kotche is there with ruffs and rebounds. A crescendo is reached as Actis Dato tongue slaps a pogoing melody that the drummer extends with wood blocks thwacks.

Actis Dato’s three solo tracks here merely confirm the reed mastery that has he has. Shouting through his horn as he manipulates the keys, he appears able to sift timbres in such a way that they can be tough or tender depending on necessity and mood. As adapt at strained screaming textures which come from the gooseneck as exposing a sonorous tone situated deep in the bell, the reedist can split themes as well as tones, with the ability to produce two separate timbres from any of his horns.

Adept at his horns as well as amusing, Actis Dato’s antics never distract from his performance or his craftsmanship.

August 2, 2004

TOBIAS DELIUS/WILBERT DEJOODE/DYLAN VAN DER SCHYFF

The Flying Deer
Spool/Line SPL 119

APA INI
Apa Ini
Data Records 033

Listening to the archetypal sounds on these two discs involves a certain bit of ethnomusicology fascination as well as music appreciation.

That’s because the two sessions recorded in Holland are yet more examples of the universality of improvised music. Both feature British-born, Amsterdam-resident woodwind player Tobias Delius and veteran Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode. Completing the trio on THE FLYING DEER, is South African-born, Vancouver, B.C.-raised drummer Dylan van der Schyff. APA INI, which means “what’s this?” in Indonesian, finds Delius and de Joode partnered with British-born trombonist Hilary Jeffery and Senegalese multi-percussionist Serigne Gueye, both of whom now live in Amsterdam.

Tellingly enough, notwithstanding the exotic percussion of bugarabu, calabas, djembe and sawrouba used by Gueye, the sound of the trio is as striking as that of the quartet.

All five players are world musicians in the best sense of the word. De Joode, best known for his membership in clarinetist Ab Baars Trio, is self-taught, but versatile enough to play in an improvising string quartet and as an orchestral soloist. Also self-taught, Dakar-born Gueye was playing in traditional ceremonies when he was seven years old. Yet he since toured Europe and North America with African pop bands and is now attempting to link West African musical heritage to improvised jazz. Jeffery is involved in jazzman’s Paul Dunmall Octet and the band Kreepa’s electronic improvisations when he travels to England. Canadian van der Schyff has played with everyone passing through his hometown, from British saxophonist John Butcher to American trumpet Dave Douglas. Delius is not only involved with Available Jelly band whose repertoire ranges from Broadway tunes to African lines, but has also lived and played in Mexico and Argentina.

As a matter of fact, the only real jazz-like swing you’ll hear on THE FLYING DEER is in the final minutes of the very last tune, when the drummer switches to brushes and the bassist walks. Before that, however, van der Schyff has been clip-clopping all over his kit, producing a bell-like sound at one point, the scratch of a drumstick on a ride cymbal at another -- and there are times you’ll swear he’s playing a balaphone. Meantime De Joode’s bass tone has moved from bowed, symphonic suggestions to speedy double stopping. Only Delius, plows ahead in his solos like a proper Edwardian civil servant n maintaining his colonial decorum in an outpost assignment. But that respect for the mainstream doesn’t stop him from growling out split tone and producing speech-like reed interjections when he solos.

The tenorman’s foggy, Don Byas-like intonation comes to the fore on the title track. But its dense moodiness is leavened by a sometimes-wavering tone and minute, altissimo squeals, particularly when the tune becomes more rhythmic and De Joode’s buzzing strings begin vibrating as if he was playing a guiro or berimbau. Not to be outdone, van der Schyff bounces his mallets off the metallic surfaces of his cymbals and the sides of his drums, bends notes on his drum heads and comes up with wooden echoes as if he had smuggled a balophone onto the stage of the Zaal 100 club.

If there’s a complaint, it’s that sporadically van der Schyff’s bell tree, machine machinegun-like rat-tat-tats and timpani mallets pressure are a little too upfront in the mix. The recording would have been better served with a little more balance between the three instruments.

More seriously, Gueye’s solo showcase could have been dispensed with all together, while APA INI’s one ballad suffers from an arrangement that makes it sound like “’Round Midnight” played by 1950s band with an intrusive conga drummer. Still, African and Euro-American sounds are better integrated elsewhere.

“Wooden Horse,” for example, with a whispering beginning conveyed from Delius’ chalumeau register clarinet, soon finds the reedist in a chromatic interchange, intertwined with Jeffery’s grace notes. Add some double-stopping slap bass from De Joode plus bell-ringing and hand drumming from Gueye, and you end up with the right instruments for Dixieland, but a tune that would never be confused with Trad Jazz. This is especially true when Gueye’s bugarabu and djembe produce a rhythm that could have only been heard in New Orleans’ Conga Square before jazz was born.

Jeffrey’s plunger talents do get a workout on “Parodia Sanguiniflora”, though he’d never be confused with Big Jim Robinson or Jack Teagarden. Here he extends the melancholy, muted tones by humming along with them, then turns his solo rubato. With the drummer clacking his djembe like a conga drum the ‘boneman is so able to prolong his high-pitched wah wahs that’s it’s almost as if he’s playing a cornet. Content to stay in a deep-toned Ben Webster mode, save the odd post-Trane slur, Delius picks up the tempo as he and the trombonist unite and separate as they play their lines.

It may also be the power of historical suggestion, but despite its title, “Fusspot” isn’t fussy, but a lilting dance tune. The tenor man forces a buzzing comb-and-tissue-paper tone from his reed. while Jeffrey vibrates a slurring tone that may come from a Harmon mute. Meanwhile, the limpid Township jive beat here is more reasonably reminiscent of the influence South African musicians have had on British and Dutch musicians over the years, not Delius and De Joode’s meeting with van der Schyff who left South Africa as a child.

Subjects for joyous listening as well as serious ethnomusicology -- if those ideas turn you on -- these CDs show the many ways musicians of different nationalities can combine to produce exceptional sounds.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listings: Apa: 1. Zwerfvuil 2. Parodia Sanguiniflora 3. Bugar 4. Wooden Horse 5. Star Barnacle 6. Fusspot 7. Message 8. Gootsteen 9. Pok

Personnel: Apa: Hilary Jeffery (trombone); Tobias Delius (tenor saxophone, clarinet); Wilbert de Joode (bass); Serigne Gueye (bugarabu, calabas, djembe, sawrouba)

Track Listing: Deer 1. A Good Idea 2. Seven Day Itch 3. The Flying Deer 4. Bar Flies 5. Zaal 100

Personnel: Tobias Delius (tenor saxophone, clarinet); Wilbert de Joode (bass); Dylan van der Schyff (drums)

October 13, 2003

TIGERSMILK

Tigersmilk
Family Vineyard 19

JEFF PARKER
Like-Coping
Delmark DG-543

Fame may initially have come to the members of the Chicago Underground bands for their phase-shifting mixture of jazz, rock and electronica dubbed post-rock. But over time the sounds have become more predictable pastiche than innovative.

Far more palatable are the newest trio projects by two of the musicians: founder conetist/electronicist Rob Mazurek, who is one-third of Tigersmilk, which is showcased on a self-titled CD; and guitarist Jeff Parker, who debuts his own group on LIKE-COPING. Without fanzine fanfare, either CD provides a sound picture of Windy City improv eclecticism. Each is also impressive in its own way.

Knowing Mazurek’s background, TIGERSMILK is unsurprisingly more concerned with electronics than the other CD. But his playing partners -- local bassist Jason Roebke and Vancouver drummer Dylan van der Schyff -- keep the brassman away from the beat mongering of his work with Isotope 217 and some Chicago Underground discs. At times his playing almost resembles his original jazz style.

Roebke himself has experience encompassing bands with cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, guitarist Scott Fields and clarinetist François Houle. Van Der Schyff has worked with Fields, Houle, saxophonist John Butcher and just about every improviser who passes through his hometown in British Columbia.

Strangely enough, considering both his mates -- bassist Chris Lopes and drummer Chad Taylor -- were on the Chicago Underground Orchestra’s PLAYGROUND CD, and Parker is a member of Isotope as well, Parker’s CD is an all-out jazz effort. Then again, the guitarist was also a member of Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizon Ensemble, while the now New York-based drummer played with Chicago tenor legend Fred Anderson and is in a co-op trio with multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore and bassist Tom Abbs.

Consisting of all instant compositions, TIGERSMILK certainly shows off Mazurek’s Harmon mute. From the very first tune, little flurries of brass blats and squeals, plus electronic alterations distinguish his playing.

Not to be outdone, the other players stay away from common rhythm section sounds as well. “Right on Agitate”, for instance, feature van der Schyff rapping his sticks to produce a continuous ostinato, while Roebke snakes out deep, dark bowed lines that resolve themselves as a theme. Before a conclusion featuring a steady drum rat-tat tat and cowbell blows, the brassman has distorted his plunger tones through electronics. “There are Ghosts” lives up to its title, with sounds that imply contorted communication from outer space. You can hear the squeak of a drumstick on a cymbal, and electronic keyboard-like tones matched with arco bass slices. If the drummer smashes his floor tom for emphasis, then cornet tones head upwards as a crescendo.

Elsewhere the drone of electronic impulses pulls together a symphony of tiny gestures from all three men, with van der Schyff most outstanding, creating what appears to be the sound of marbles rolling on the floor, chirping grasshoppers and an imaginary elf tap dancing. At the same time, a few of what appears to be video game soundtracks and the sounds of percussive toys veering across the studio could be electronic, rather than percussive impulses.

In contrast to all this, “Secret and Mask”, the longest piece on the CD, appears to have all the qualifications of a traditional jazz tune. Encompassing walking bass, ascending lip vibratos and with Taylor’s brushes used on cymbals, drum heads and rims, it opens up with an intermittent, buzzing pulse and ricocheting string sounds, as the percussionist creates squeals by rubbing his drum heads with a wet finger and Mazurek exhibits hushed, this-side-of-Miles horn lines. Finally the tune decelerates with bowed bass and clip-clop percussion.

If TIGERSMILK sometimes sounds Miles-Davis-like jazzy, there are times on LIKE-COPING that you may feel that the ghosts of guitarists Grant Green or Tal Farlow have entered the studio during many of the 12 tracks. This is especially apparent in the disc’s mid-section.

On “Onyx”, written by Parker, for example, slithering finger-picking guitar chords in the bass clef join with subtle drum brush accents, while the thumping bass appears before the theme is again reprised on six-string. As traditional sounding as anything you’d hear in a smoky jazz bar, Parker reprises the single-note head again and again until the fade. “Watusi” seems to be a throwback to those pseudo-primitive dance riffs of the early 1960s, with an Afro-Cuban beat and Parker’s crystal clear picking bringing the work of another Chicago guitar hero -- George Freeman -- to mind.

Lopes’ “Pinecone” is an understated swinger like “Onyx”, built around a shifting vamp carried on Parker’s top strings, which then shifts to a more legato sound as it expands with echoing grace notes. A four-note riff assembled by the guitarist forms the cubic basis of his tune entitled “Cubes”. Working in extensive guitar tremolo and single note embellishments, the speedy, slinky lines meet quiet bass plucks and Taylor’s understated brushwork.

“Roundabout” written by the drummer, but featuring him on classical guitar and Lopes on flute, is an airy bossa nova advanced with percussive cowbell, while “Days Fly By”, a sweet Latinesque song Parker wrote for his daughter, moves through andante single note picking and gentle strumming that bookends a straightforward bass solo.

Even when the guitarist distorts his tone to whistle noises through his amp on one track, or brings out the Korg synthesizer on another, the pieces revert to jazzy, finger-snappers before they end.

Away from the Chicago Underground, Parker and his pals are easily able to prove he can turn out a mainstream jazz album. While Mazurek and his men show that there’s still plenty of musical terrain left to explore in the Windy City.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Tigersmilk: 1. Frequency Location 2. Long to Win 3. The Soft Releases 4. Little Pleasures 5. Right on Agitate 6. There are Ghosts 7. Secret and Mask 8. Waiting on Ferrari 9. Long, Past Time

Personnel: Tigersmilk: Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics); Jason Roebke (bass); Dylan van der Schyff (drums)

Track Listing: Like: 1.Mariam 2. Like-Coping 3. Days Fly By 4. Holiday for a Despot 5. Onyx 6. Watusi 7. Omega Sci Fi 8. Pinecone 9. Cubes 10. Plain Song 11. Scrambler 12. Roundabout

Personnel: Jeff Parker (guitar, synthesizer); Chris Lopes (bass, C flute); Chad Taylor (drums, vibraphone, classical guitar)

May 12, 2003

JOHN BUTCHER

Music on seven occasions
Meniscus Records MNSCS 004

JOHN BUTCHER/DYLAN VAN DER SCHYFF
Points, snags and windings
Meniscus Records MNSCS 010

As amiable as he is adventurous, British saxophone explorer John Butcher rarely misses an opportunity to collaborate with similar intrepid musical explorers. Comfortable in a variety of formations, the two accomplished discs here highlight his duet work.

A superb pair, the main difference between them is choice of partners. MUSIC ON SEVEN OCCASIONS is just that, recorded over a three year period in the 1990s in different American and British studios, featuring nine partners plus four solo saxophone interludes. POINTS, SNAGS AND WINDINGS, on the other hand, has one fewer musician on board then there are nouns in the title. It's a record of duets between Butcher and Vancouver, B.C.-based percussionist Dylan van der Schyff, done last year in Vancouver.

The soprano and tenor saxophonist's improvising is always at a consistently high level and part of the fascination of these discs is to see how he reacts to different situations. Interestingly enough, despite the nine partners, OCCASIONS come across as unified as the other disc. In fact, by beginning and ending with a percussion-saxophone duet it almost becomes an infinite circle, a continuum of improvisation that starts up again after it seems to end.

More of a serial monogamist than a swinger -- in both senses of the word -- Butcher connects with the other players here on a level that, in non-musical circumstances, would be passionate. Each determines the rhythm of the other and parries and thrusts as hard or softly as warranted. Plus being considerate music lovers, neither climaxes until the other has come to a certain point as well.

Thus while the soprano entwines Jeb Bishop's macho plunger trombone notes in delicate, romantic lacy tones on "The Late Approach", swaggering, tenor saxophone ejaculations characterize Butcher going mano-a-mano with inventive percussionists Michael Zerang on "Cold That Bites".

Growling split tones enable the saxman to hold his own with the Bay area's Gino Robair, whose whacked out percussion and preparations often come on with the force of the U.S. Calvary swooping down on an armed Indian camp in a Western movie. Back in England, long time cohort, pianist Veryan Weston's rolls out a chord carpet for Butcher's elongated, reverberating multiphonics or on "Sea They Think They Hear" a miniature, sprightly sax ditty. Then, German tube terror Thomas Lehn's synthesizer rumbles, blasts and silences are met with nearly continuous, high-pitched, single note gyrations.

Coming across like an old married couple, compared to the numerous one night stands that make up the other CD, Butcher and van der Schyff's alliance proves just as arousing. Part of the Canadian group Talking Pictures, and a veteran collaborator with other improvisers, including his wife, cellist Peggy Lee, the percussionist knows when to be gentle in musical congress and when to be rough.

"Recent Realism", for instance, with Butcher on tenor, builds up to a mass of rapid percussive thrusts from the drummer with echoing double tonguing from Butcher. Between the saxophonist vibrating extended timbres that reverberate against the alloy of his horn and the steady scratch of sticks from the percussionist's cymbals, tunes like "Early Animation" and "Points" include enough heavy metal to attract the Kiss Army. Meanwhile "Under Glass" is one part breathy subterranean reed rumbles and one part restrained percussive interludes. It could be preserved in the museum case the title suggests to showcase the limits of volume and silence improvisers use.

Improv can be very low key as well, as the two demonstrate on "Attempted Delivery". Van der Schyff organizes one of the those busy solo forays, which sound as if the percussionist is using sticks and brushes to search through every part of his kit for a misplaced note, while Butcher contributes a series of tones that go from barely audible to full force.

Looking for the real deal in creative musical satisfaction? Go no further than here. Butcher's two sessions offer a veritable Kama Sutra of improv positions. The one you prefer will likely depend on your taste for variety and how agile you want each performance --and performer -- to be.

-- Ken Waxman

Seven:

Track Listing: 1. Phlogiston 2. Caloric 3. Late Impromptu 4. 1rst singularity 5. 2nd singularity 6. Routemasters 7. Sea They Think They Hear 8. Gil thread dream 9. Anomolies in the customs of the day 10. The Step Sequence 11. The Late Approach 12. The Interior Design 13. The Only Way Out 14. 3rd singularity 15. 4th singularity 16. Cold That Bites 17. Shadow play* 18. Clackchat

Personnel: John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones) with: Gino Robair [tracks 1, 2] (percussion and preparations); Alexander Frangenheim [track 3] bass); Veryan Weston [track 6, 7, 8] piano); Thomas Lehn [track 9] synthesizer; John Corbett [track 10] guitar; Jeb Bishop [track 11] trombone; Terri Kapsalis [track 12] violin; Fred Longberg-Holm [track 13] cello; Michael Zerang [tracks 16, 17, 18] multiple percussion, tubaphone*

Points:

Track Listing: 1. Early Animation 2. Windings 3. Pool Lights 4. Recent Realism 5. Points 6. Snags 7. Under Glass 8. Incision 9. Attempted Delivery 10. Spills 11. Combat

Personnel: John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones); Dylan van der Schyff percussion)

October 1, 2001