Kris Davis

Capricorn Climber
Clean Feed CF 266 CD

Creating a cohesive program that moves from experimentation to straight-ahead swing and lush inventions – often on the same track – pianist Kris Davis outlines a series of moods on this program of her own compositions. Calgary-born Davis has made a reputation for herself as an arranger as well as a soloist and each of her compositions displays her sidefolk – some of New York’s most accomplished players – to their collective best advantage.

Take for instance Pass the Magic Hat, which starts off as a swirling and spiraling exposition for her piano plus the bass of Trevor Dunn and the drums of Tom Rainey, but soon evolves to a contrapuntal duel between her metronomic comping and Ingrid Laubrock’s pulsating tenor saxophone. A spikier secondary theme developed by violist Mat Maneri arrives, eventually to be harmonized with piano and reed slurs. On the other hand, Bottom of the Well is a cohesive recital-styled track with low-pitched piano clunks underscoring the chromatic string sets. Before a legato finale, Dunn vibrates a solo in the cello-range while the violist harshly rubs his strings. With Davis’ narrative literally more low-key and impressionistic, Pi is Irrational balances Maneri’s tremolo stridency with Rainey’s rugged ruffs and taps, until Laubrock’s gentling arpeggios presage a brief, rhythmically sophisticated bass solo.

Davis who studied at Banff and Toronto defines her program enough to give her soloists the freedom to interpolate everything from strident reed bites and fiddle scratches to extended cymbal vibrations into the nine tracks. But she reins them in enough with strategies ranging from inner piano string plucks to keyboard jabs and cohesive chording to maintain the integrity of her compositional visions.

--Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 18 #8

May 13, 2013

Angelica Sanchez Quintet

Wires and Moss
Clean Feed CF 259 CD

Nick Fraser

Towns and Villages

Barnyard Records BR 0330

Arriving in New York from his native Tucson in 1995, Tony Malaby has since made his distinctive tenor and soprano saxophone tones part of that city’s scene, both with his own bands and as a sideman – most notably with bassist Mark Helias’ trio. His high- quality improvisations are featured on both these CDs, although he does have much closer ties to one leader than the other.

That’s because pianist Angelica Sanchez, who also composed Wires and Moss’s half-dozen tracks, is Malaby’s spouse, as well as being a respected jazzer in her own right. Another session reflecting her unique vision, the disc unites the two with a top rhythm section of bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey plus French guitarist Marc Ducret. A responsive time-keeper who composed all the titles on his CD, Toronto-based drummer Nick Fraser calls on Malaby’s skills more platonically on Canadian Towns and Villages. The distinctiveness of this CD comes from the juxtaposition of his and the saxman’s instruments with those played by two other Toronto-based musicians. The distinctive timbres of Andrew Downing’s cello and Rob Clutton’s bass are both cleverly worked into the arrangements.

A member of the collective quintet Drumheller and the band Ugly Beauties with pianist Marilyn Lerner and cellist Matt Brubeck, the Ottawa-born drummer is so self-effacing that often it’s only clip-clops, bumps or patterns which characterize his accompaniment. Meanwhile a track such as “Albs” is built around a mellow interface that contrasts Malaby’s sweet-and-sour tenor vibrato with Downing’s rich bowed lines and timed thumps from Clutton. Even when the two string players advance contrapuntal whistles and creaks, as on the fully improvised “Sketch #10”, an innate lyricism is still present, with Fraser’s understated ratamacues softening Malaby’s thick sax slurs

In contrast the track that moves this quartet closest to Albert Ayler territory – he used similar instrumentation, but with trumpet as well – is the enigmatically titled “?”. Here Malaby’s pinched blowing and peeping is matched by the bassist’s string sawing and the cellist’s staccato creaks and crackles. While the drummer’s output is more dominant, it seems that his basic taste prevents the tune from blasting into the stratosphere.

Overall however the CD’s most distinctive number is “Sketch #12”, which sums up the fine musical line the quartet walks. The performance is neither completely straight-edged nor fully free form despite Malaby’s narrowed tremolo vibrato, disassociated slurs and reed bites. No matter, the backing stays resolutely linear. A thick walking bass line plus pops and clatters from the drummer sees to this. While there’s curiosity engendered with this clashing of sonic strategies, more excitement could have resulted if the four resolved the situation one way or the other.

Fewer tunes and more front line players distinguish the other session. Although the combo has been together for a half-dozen years, unlike the Fraser-Malaby one-off, a basic tension still exists. Malaby’s chesty moans and concentrated slurs plus Ducret’s ringing tone distortions pull the band in one direction, while Sanchez’s sympathetically and contrapuntally decorated expositions aim for an opposing game plan. With Dress and Rainey forcefully backing up the three, a disconnect between subtle and sinewy is often highlighted. Overall it’s mostly the guitarist who is the spark plug and whose playing is most disruptive to the measured narratives.

Since after all Sanchez composed all the tunes and is session leader, this effect is probably simpatico with her aims, even if it appears to conflict with her sympathetic chording and restrained keyboard dusting. Yet when Ducret’s buzzing, sliding licks on “Dare” give the impression that he`s daring the saxophonist to dispense with his previously lighter-than-air soprano lines and turn to pressurized lip vibrations is this part of Sanchez’s plans? Certainly while she has occasion to showcase a staccato interface with runs from both hands emerging for additional coloration, her main concern is melody building, with the atonal improvising left to others.

Only on the extended “Soaring Piasa” for example, when broken-octave counterpoint is advanced by Malaby’s human-sounding altissimo squeals and muscular Rainey drum ruffs, does the pianist seem intent on taking control of the rhythm section, harmonizing and integrating every other instrumental texture. Again does this pinpoint Sanchez’s collaborative skill or her instrumental shyness?

As it is the unanswered question suggests something is lacking on both sessions. Although each can be listening to with interest, the conciseness of Fraser’s performances plus the resolute linearity of Sanchez’s concepts work against a full loosening of structures and the creation of fully exhilarating dates. Perhaps next time...

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Towns: 1. Prescott: The Fort Town 2. Sketch #10 3. Tricycle 4. Sketch #12 5. 5. Revolution 6. Albs 7 Spencerville: Home of the Heritage Grist Mill 8. Sketch #9 9 Ballad for Lydia 10. 11. “?” 12. Hundred Mile House, pop. 1885.

Personnel: Towns: Tony Malaby (tenor and soprano saxophone); Andrew Downing (cello); Rob Clutton (bass) and Nick Fraser (drums)

Track Listing: Wires: 1. Loomed 2. Feathered Light 3. Soaring Piasa 4. Dare 5. Wires & Moss 6. Bushido

Personnel: Wires: Tony Malaby (tenor and soprano saxophones); Angelica Sanchez (piano); Marc Ducret (guitar); Drew Gress (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums)

April 21, 2013

Tom Rainey Trio

Camino Cielo Echo
Intakt CD 198

Ingrid Laubrock/Javier Carmona/Olie Brice

Catatumbo

Babel BDV 12103

Well-travelled, Münster-born saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock is now a Brooklyn resident, but spends time in London, where she was based for two decades, to maintain involvement in bands on both sides of the Atlantic. Recorded six months apart with closely allied personnel, these CDs demonstrate her trans-oceanic skills.

A live date from London’s Vortex club, Catatumbo matches Laubrock with two high-class improvisers with plenty of other axes in the fire. Madrid-born percussionist Javier Carmona spent seven years in London before settling in Barcelona. Besides membership in the London Improvisers Orchestra, he was in a duo with tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip. UK-native, bassist Olie Brice’s affiliations include a duo with veteran flautist Neil Metcalfe and a band with Hanslip. Meanwhile in a Brooklyn studio, Camino Cielo Echo unites the saxophonist with her husband, drummer Tom Rainey, a Santa Barbara-native now one of New York’s busiest percussionists, who is also part of a Laubrock trio with British pianist Liam Noble. String strength comes from Boston-born guitarist Mary Halvorson, who works with everyone from drummer Weasel Walter to trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum.

Despite the names above the titles, both groups are essentially co-ops. Rainey, the most generous of percussionists, gives both his partners plenty of solo space; plus writing duties for his CD’s 13 tracks are split three ways. Each of the five tracks on the other disc is an instant composition, involving all participants.

Brice’s solid string pumping and angled spiccato work from the back or in the foreground are continuing characteristics of the tunes on Catatumbo. Stretching but never breaking the chromatic interface is a common strategy throughout, especially when the band’s more pensive dialogues come to the fore. Isolated, Brice’s double-gaited pacing, Carmona’s ringing cymbal work and Laubrock’s tongue pops plus choked-air exhalation may be distracting, combined they blend into concentrated narratives. As an individual, Carmona’s percussion on a track like “Ribbons and Beads” consists of cowbell pops, asymmetrical rim and side slapping plus resonating patterning. Climax is reached when his staccato slaps with wire-brush-handles meet up with the bassist’s sul ponticello lines and Laubrock’s jagged eviscerating reed cries. By “Vientos Alisios”, the final track, as the drummer’s bounces plus bass-string sprawls pace her, Laubrock’s sprawling Dolphyesque snarls slide from sharp, altissimo to dampened vibrations. The resulting triple timbres from all are conclusive and calming.

Calm is certainly not the first adjective one would apply to the Rainey trio. With Halvorson in full flight the number of fuzz-encrusted distortions, gnarly and ringing string tones and jagged runs proliferate. Not to be outdone, Laubrock screeches, squeals and splinters pressurized tones from her saxophone, and at times Rainey unleashes a barrage of drags, strokes and flams. His decisive taste prevents that from happening too often however. Nonetheless some of these drum explosions take place, but also in the context of an up-tempo tune such as “Leapfrog”. Simultaneously as the guitarist snaps and vibrates her strings while the saxophonist’s reed biting mutates the theme.

This doesn’t mean that every track is sonically zealous. “Arroyo Burrow” for example features low-key, flute-like glissandi from Laubrock on soprano saxophone, colored by near-folksy plinks from the guitarist and Rainey rolling his sticks on top of his drums and punctuating the exposition with bass drum bangs. Following it, “Strada senza nome’ is a simple tune where the guitarist’s repetative strums could come from a ukulele, and are met by chain-shaking and other percussion vibrations from Rainey. The atmospheric title track outlines a similar sentiment.

Meanwhile cuts such as “Mental Stencil” – as would be expected – and “Two Words” – which may be all of a Metal band’s vocabulary – highlight rougher stances. The latter which binds together pressurized drones from Laubrock, flashing flanges and bent notes from, Halvorson and constant tapping from Rainey, pumps up to further oscillated buzzing from the guitarist and swelling screams from the reedist. A little more restrained, “Mental Stencil” has an exposition divided between intermittent guitar strums and bubbling reed puffs until Rainey’s subtle jabs and cymbal pops pacify first Laubrock into displaying polished tones that are almost cello-like, then encourage single licks from Halvorson, that in context are dance-like. Harmonizing individual outputs, the trio members’ lines eventually and mutually fade to muted interaction.

Significant in trio circumstances, as these CDs confirm, Laubrock’s verve and intelligent improvising serves her in good stead no matter the band size or the improvising context.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Catatumbo: 1. Darkness Rarely Lasted Long 2. Ribbons and Beads 3.The Fabric of Air 4. Cocuyos 5. Vientos Alisios

Personnel: Catatumbo: Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone); Olie Brice (bass) and Javier Carmona (drums)

Track Listing: Camino: 1. Expectation of Exception 2. Mullet Toss 3. Mr and Mrs Mundane 4. Corporal Fusion 5. Arroyo Burrow 6. Strada senza nome 7. A third line into little Miss Strange 8. Leapfrog 9. Camino Cielo Echo 10.Fluster 11. Mental Stencil 12. Two Words 13. June

Personnel: Camino: Ingrid Laubrock (tenor and soprano saxophones); Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Tom Rainey (drums)

November 21, 2012

Michael Bates

Acrobat: Music For, and By, Dmitri Shostakovich
Sunnyside SSC 1291

Fred Ho and the Green Monster Big Band

The Sweet Science Suite

Mutable/Big Red Media 003

Ariel Shibolet/Nori Jacoby

Scenes from an Ideal Marriage

Kadima Collective KCR 28

Adam Pierończyk

Komeda - The Innocent Sorcerer

JazzWerkstatt JW 104

Something In the Air: Improvisers’ Unexpected Inspirations

By Ken Waxman

Over the past few years as post-modernism has made anything fair game for musical interpretation, sophisticated improviser/composers have taken inspiration from the most unlikely sources, far beyond the motifs, historicism and pastels of earlier times. Canadian bassist in New York Michael Bates for instance, has organized a salute to Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), using his own music and variants on the modern Russian composer’s oeuvre. Iconoclastic American composer/saxophonist Fred Ho has produced a five-part suite honoring boxer Muhammad Ali (b. 1942) as a militant, outspoken fighter for social justice. The luminous canvases of American visual artist Cy Twombly (1928-2011) stimulate Israeli saxophonist Ariel Shibolet’s creativity, while Polish saxophonist Adam Pierończyk recasts in his own fashion the distinctive film scores of composer Krzysztof Komeda (1931-1969).

Bates’ masterful arrangements on Acrobat: Music For, and By, Dmitri Shostakovich

Sunnyside SSC 1291 are so perceptive that during the course of nine tracks he almost reveals symphonic colors using only a top-flight quintet consisting of his double bass; the perfectly timed drums of Tom Rainey; Russ Lossing’s shuddering smears from electric and regular pianos; trumpeter Russ Johnson’s brassy blasts; and the fluid lyricism of Chris Speed’s sax and clarinet. This is apparent from the first track, Dance of Death, from Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor. Very quickly the bouncy melody is transformed with plunger trumpet work and well-modulated reed trills to a motif that’s as much 1970s’ Miles Davis as it is a mazurka. Later Silent Witness uses fusion references to atmospherically suggest the composer’s Stalin-era paranoia, with Speed’s singular reed slurs becoming progressively lower-pitched and tonal as Rainey`s drums smack and rebound while Lossing’s ratcheting licks make it seem as if he’s playing electric guitar not piano. Held together by Bates’ reliable thumping, the cacophonous final section gives way to repeated theme variations and conclusive keyboard echoes. Elsewhere, with music derived from the Russian composer’s work or not, the tunes use varied strategies. Intermezzos can be atmospheric and formal, with the reedist approximating oboe-like burrs and timed runs arising from Lossing’s acoustic instrument; as loose and swinging as a Benny Goodman-led combo; or exploding with tougher near-Jazz Messengers-like harmonies. Arcangela is another highpoint, allowing both Russes sufficient solo space. The pianist showcases a series of repeated glissandi centred by Bates’ stentorian pulse; while the trumpeter’s capillary slurs evolve into a quicksilver flow cushioned by harmonized keyboard and reed textures. All in all the wrap-around themes simultaneously celebrate Shostakovich’s intent while exposing improvisations that are true to jazz’s ethos.

Transforming the sounds of another musician whose short-lived but prolific career defined Polish jazz, popular and even notated sounds for years after his untimely death is the task of Krakow-based tenor and soprano saxophonist Pierończyk on Komeda-The Innocent Sorcerer JazzWerkstatt JW 104 Luckily he has the help of Brazilian guitarist Nelson Veras, countryman Łukasz Żyta on percussion, including typewriter [!] plus two American veterans, bassist Anthony Cox and tenor saxophonist Gary Thomas. Actually it’s Veras who often sets the pace, since his delicate nylon-string strumming brings a Bossa Nova-like lilt to, and encourages equivalent horn harmonies on, later-period Komeda tunes like After the Catastrophe. Two of Komeda’s best-known themes are treated most substantially by the quintet. Sleep Safe and Warm used in “Rosemary’s Baby” and Crazy Girl from “Knife in the Water”. Typewriter sounds produced by Żyta underlie contrasting rubato split tones from Thomas’ tenor and Pierończyk’s soprano sax obbligato during variants on the first tune. Meanwhile sul ponticello bass work make the theme more menacing, with the piece reaching a crescendo of sharp guitar licks and overlapping horn parts, drastically truncated as the sound of a typewriter’s carriage return completes the track. Bustling Cool Jazz-like harmonies give way to contrapuntal horn vamping, rapid twangs from the guitarist and broken-meter drumming on Crazy Girl. With the percussionist waving Latin percussion and Cox sliding up and down his strings, Thomas’ hard-toned blowing and Pierończyk’s parallel tongue fluttering define the song’s repeated motif, as the two reedits circle back to recap and draw out the initial head.

Moving on from celebrating masterful musicians’ compositional influences to appreciating the political subtext of someone dubbed athlete of the century is The Sweet Science Suite Mutable/Big Red Media 003, a five-part suite Ho composed for his 19-piece Green Monster Big Band. An activist as well as a musician, Ho’s arrangements are as outstanding and unique as Ali’s boxing style. Unafraid of outside references, on Shake up the World, the piece’s staccato exposition quotes liberally from Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love for a proper period feel, although that theme is intertwined with vamping section work echoing the Count Basie band, a funky backbeat, fiery brass triplets and a slinky boppish tenor sax solo. Other variants, such as Rope-A-Dope frame Salim Washington’s muscular big-toned tenor saxophone in a lusty big band arrangement that’s part ballad and part free form. Still other tunes expose and bury references to interludes ranging from Chinese court music to American TV show themes, to speeding train-like riffs plus Charles Mingus’ particular blend of gospel and blues. Other examples of bravura (over) blowing include Ho double-tonguing a staccatissimo baritone sax interlude from pedal point to altissimo range that is outlined clearly among brass fanfares and gruff snorts from two bass trombones plus broken beats from percussionist Royal Hartigan. The climatic key to the suite is the constantly expanding No Vietnamese Ever Called me a Nigger, where Hartigan’s stylized gongs and hammered cross tones suggest the sounds of the Viet Nam War Ali avoided, costing him his championship status. Throughout the more-than-16½-minute narrative, sonic interpolations, encompassing split-second theme inferences, bluesy harmonies from the six-piece sax section, twanging guitar riffs, discordant trumpet blasts, pedal-point bass trombone snorts and a final, unexpected, smoothing coda describe the discordance of the era and its final resolution. This resolution, personified by abrasive guitar solos and split-tone reed explosions, leads to Worthy of Praises Most High, a concluding theme that acknowledges Ali’s undiminished skill. Triumphantly fortissimo and atonal, the finale highlights guitarist Amanda Monaco’s rock-like chording arching over sequences of juddering pitch dislocation from brass triplets until decisive orchestral calmness prevails.

In contrast to the other CDs’ inspirations, Shibolet’s Scenes from an Ideal Marriage Kadima Collective KCR 28 expresses in music his interpretation of Twombly’s acrylic and pencil painting of the same name. Part of a trilogy of CDs by the tenor saxophonist dedicated to the recently deceased visual artist, “Scenes” also features violist Nori Jacoby. Despite obvious differences, like partners in an ideal marriage, the timbres from Shibolet’s soprano saxophone and Jocoby’s viola are sometimes indistinguishable, especially when involved in intertwined dialogue. At times polyphonic, polytonal or polyharmonic the instruments’ textures mix without blending or losing individual identities. Masterful in his use of multiphonics, the reedist lip burbles, pushes unaccented air through his horn’s body tube, hums through his mouthpiece while sounding a tone, and squawks wet glissandi. Meantime the fiddler’s strategy involves sul ponticello scrapes, flying spiccato scrubs and jagged, angled vibrations. By the time the climatic second theme variant is heard, Shibolet’s pinched ney-like whistles and Jacoby’s sul tasto strokes surmount abrasive atonalism. The defining intermezzo is unexpectedly lyrical in contrast to the exposition, but doesn’t neglect pressure for prettiness. When each player’s timbres become as thin as pencil strokes, the subsequent split tones (from the saxist) and angled strokes (from the violist) stretch the sound without breaking it, and eventually combine for wide-bore smears which advance then conclude the recitation.

Sonic inspiration can come from anywhere. It`s up to the canny improviser to do the best he or she can with it, as these musicians demonstrate.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 17 #6

March 11, 2012

Marc Ducret

Tower Vol. 2
Ayler Records AYLCD 119

By Ken Waxman

Fraternal, but not identical twin to French guitarist Marc Ducret’s Tower Vol. 1, this CD features him with a completely different cast, yet is just as noteworthy. The only horn is alto saxophonist Tim Berne, whose association with Ducret goes back 15 years. Drummer is in-demand Tom Rainey and unparalleled string variations come from fellow Gaul, violinist Dominique Pifarély, who has worked with reedist Louis Sclavis.

Consisting of three, extended – the briefest is nearly 17 minutes – multi-sectional compositions, the quartet operates at a high level throughout. Organic and polyphonic, the musical narratives frequently depend on textural similarities among the three lead instruments as Rainey stays in the background with strokes, pops and bounces.

For instance, “Real Thing #3”, the first and second variation of which are on Vol. 1, finds the fiddler and saxophonist vibrating nearly identical note expansions, with individual identity only obvious as Pifarély jaggedly double-stops and dynamically stretches his lines to almost humanly vocalize alongside Berne’s straightforward ostinato and circular smears. Meantime Ducret’s output turns from scene-setting reverb to downturned strums almost rococo in their decoration.

Ducret’s shifts from folksy to febrile strumming plus Rainey’s positioned strokes mark transitions from one section to another. Subsequently, as on “Sur l’Electricité”, the violinist’s angled and speedy spiccato meets perpendicular guitar distortions. Or on “Softly Her Tower Crumbled in the Sweet Silent Sun”, the continuum is characterized by Morse-code-like stopping from the fiddler, ragged frails and distorted flanges from the guitarist plus yakety sax-like overblowing from Berne, all evolving in parallel, yet complementary lines.

This wordy-titled, concluding track ends with satisfying and lyrical cohesiveness. One would expect that if there is yet another Tower sequel it will offer as many pleasant surprises as volumes 1 and 2.

Tracks: Sur l’Electricité; Real Thing #3; Softly Her Tower Crumbled in the Sweet Silent Sun

Personnel: Tim Berne: alto saxophone; Marc Ducret: electric guitar; Dominique Pifarély: violin; Tom Rainey: drums

--For New York City Jazz Record December 2011

December 5, 2011

Sclavis/Taborn/Rainey

Eldorado Trio
Clean Feed CF 193 CD

New Old Luten Trio

White Power Blues

Euphorium EUPH 025

Taking as a starting point the trio instrumentation used superbly by piano experimenters such as Cecil Taylor and Alexander von Schippenbach, these CDs demonstrate improvisational concepts plus a balance between older and younger players. Skillful improvisations, the results produced are completely divergent, if equally significant.

Both recorded live, each session differs from the get-go. A Leipzig meeting, White Power Blues – an apt if somewhat politically incorrect title – celebrates a meeting between 75-year-old reedist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky and two improvisers at least 40 years his junior: pianist Elan Pauer and percussionist Christian Lillinger. Petrowsky, along with trombonist Conrad Bauer, pianist Ulrich Gumpert and percussionist Günter Baby Sommer created noteworthy advanced Jazz in the former East Germany. A Sommer- protégé, Berlin-based Lillinger with his own Hyperactive Kid trio and backing players such as saxophonist Henrik Walsdorf, has become a lively, energetic drummer. Meanwhile Pauer ranges over the keyboard while touching on a multiplicity of sonic impulses. In short, the two extended tracks are no-holds-barred Free Jazz.

Twenty years’ Petrowsky’s junior, French soprano saxophonist and bass clarinetist Louis Sclavis was formally trained and over the years has flirted with melodic sounds related to folk music, both real and imaginary. His partners here, both Americans – keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Tom Rainey – are long-time associates of innovative players including saxophonist Tim Berne and bassist William Parker. Although the alchemist gold references in the trio’s name may be a fantasy, the musical balance among the three is a certainty. Overall the CD’s eight tracks are mid-length, more formalist and poised than those created with sometimes over-exuberant playing of the New Old Luten Trio.

Superficially the main difference between the German trio’s improvisations is length, with the second almost twice as long as the first. Equally high-powered, agitato and staccato, the shorter “Vitalistic Hymn” is both a prelude to the title track and a mantra for self-determinism. Petrowsky for one doesn’t let the strictures applied by politics, geography or aging shape his playing. Moving among alto saxophone, clarinet, flute and quarter-flute, his flutter-tonguing, a capella twittering, sturdy split tones and whistles migrate with him. Of course there are more pressurized spits and tongue bubbles from the clarinet, reed-biting and circular-breathed squeaks from the sax, and fog-horn-like vibrations and basso-like breaths from the flute. Rattling and clipping the keys, stroking and stopping the piano’s inner strings and occasionally pummeling its woody frame, Pauer demonstrates his skills here. For his part, Lillinger’s strategy encompasses rugged whacks, steady clip-clop and tinting his beats with quivering gongs and clattering cymbals.

Rigid drum top smacks and cymbal skimming with drumsticks keeps the more-than 36½ minute “White Power Blues” percolating. With thematic shifts from the exposition, variants and the finale also reflecting the reedist’s horn-switching, glottal punctuation in the form of side-slipping lines and split tones share space with duck-like quacks and continuous screeches. Unexpected legato patches show up as well.

At one juncture Petrowsky sounds as if he’s improvising on “Perdido”, other times snatches of Bebop heads pop up, then as quickly are swallowed by the swirling and layered Klangfarbenmelodie. Dynamic feints and an assembly line-like collection of percussive tones come from Pauer; who marks tune transitions with aleatory keyboard pumps. Additionally Pauer’s surging glissandi sometimes alternate with the prodding and strumming of the piano’s internal strings. By the final variations, the saxophonist lets loose with a reed-shredding fortissimo cry. The pianist plays what could be termed Zombie boogie-woogie, with multiple note piling, but without walking-bass rhythms; while the drummer smacks and pounds kinetically.

It’s worth noting that in person, with his hair-flying and body moving every which way, Lillinger is an energetic and almost overwhelming player. Such is the cumulative vitality of this trio nonetheless, that at times his playing is almost submerged by the sheer staccato muscle of the three improvising together.

Moving from White Power to Eldorado, Rainey doesn’t overpower Taborn or Sclavis with his equipment either. His motivation is seamless adherence to what the others are creating, and to help the results without drawing attention to himself. From the very beginning Rainey’s rim shots, press rolls and other movements are perfectly timed, and as spectacular in their execution as Lillinger’s are in theirs. But the American’s playing is more in-the-pocket, easily connecting with, but also muting, Taborn’s frequently staccato chording and Sclavis’ timbres which run from squeaks to snorts.

Eldorado Trio also exposes a wider variety of moods than those on the other CD. “To Steve Lacy”, for instance, with Sclavis appropriately playing soprano sax, is a lament built on a moderato line stretched to near breaking-point, until succeeded by reed bites. Taborn’s comping brings in languid urbanity while Rainey’s drags and rolls are suitably unforced. Similarly, “Lucioles” is a chamber-like fantasia with Taborn creating dancing pianissimo lines so consonant, that the outcome is nearly equal temperament. The clarinetist’s continuously breathed tongue flutters are similarly crepuscule, as the drummer equals the stylized playing of his partners with hand pumps and brushes on drum tops. Although contrasting dynamics, splintered cross tones and protracted glissandi show up on the CD, no matter how atonal and contrapuntal the construction appears, the linear nature of the tune is never sacrificed.

To stretch a metaphor perhaps, it’s true that love making can be either hard and fast or slow and sensual, without either being correct. So too is the interaction of a double-bass-less trio. As with intimacy, some may prefer the aggressive style of the German band, others the more mannered style of the Franco-American aggregation. Adventurous types may be inclined to try both.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: White: 1. Vitalistic Hymn 2. White Power Blues

Personnel: White: Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (alto saxophone, clarinet, flute and quarter-flute); Elan Pauer (piano and percussion) and Christian Lillinger (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Eldorado: 1. Let It Drop 2. To Steve Lacy 3. Up Down Up 4. La Visite 5. Summer Worlds 6. Lucioles 7. Possibilities 8. Eldorado

Personnel: Eldorado: Louis Sclavis (soprano saxophone and bass clarinet); Craig Taborn (piano and electric piano) and Tom Rainey (drums)

June 20, 2011

Simon Nabatov

Roundup
Leo Records CD LR 586

Lucas Niggli Big Zoom

Polisation

Intakt CD 174

Probably the most interesting younger trombonist in Europe, who is affiliated neither with out-and-out Free Music or the Mainstream, is German-born Nils Wogram. Like most contemporary players he leads his own ensembles while lending his inventiveness to a variety of other groups. Paradoxically though, while his own CDs lean towards the populist, the challenge of sidemen duties often brings out a more adventurous side, as these CDs demonstrate.

Wogram has a long history of collaboration with Russian-American pianist and Köln-resident Simon Nabatov, in duo and in other bands. Aptly titled, Roundup is particularly notable since the two’s playing partners are gathered from disparate places. They include Berlin-based tenor saxophonist Matthias Schubert, who often works with tubaist Carl-Ludwig Hübsch; Amsterdam-based cellist Ernst Reijseger, a former member of the ICP Orchestra; and New York drummer Tom Rainey, who works with seemingly every second Jazzer on both sides of the Atlantic.

More atonally sophisticated still is the newest generation of Uster, Switzerland-based percussionist Lucas Niggli’s Big Zoom band. Joining the holdovers, who include Wogram and Swiss guitarist Philipp Schaufelberger, who often plays with reedist Tommy Meier, are two veterans, American New Music flautist Anne La Berge and British bassist Barry Guy, who has been involved with advanced sound ensembles since the late 1960s. The invented word in the title refers to the overlapping polyrhythms, polymetrics and polytones used by the band, most definitely related to the multiphonic rhythms the percussionist brings to each piece.

Cameroon-born Niggli has a particular affinity for African percussion, and the four tracks are alive with rhythms and timbres that could come from the berimbau, batà or djembe drums. But this is no World Music session; the drummer leaves that concept for his other more percussion-dedicated projects. Instead his polyrhythmic expression is deployed as part of more substantial creations – and blends. While rotating among his regular kit and extra percussion, the drummer works with different musicians in turn. Shuffles and drags make room for Schaufelberger’s chiming, almost country & western approach, for instance, while Africanized percussion patterns back Wogram’s high-pitched triplets that are also matched with decorative flute flutters. Every participant has a similar role. Guy’s ringing bass lines for example, presage a moderate, andante trombone solo, which is also backed by the guitarist’s spidery fills.

Each of the musicians bring his or her particular skills to Niggli’s compositions which often seem to meld Sun Ra’s mysticism, Sun records’ beats and Sonny Rollins’ virtuosity in equal measures. The highlights include Le Berge’s shrilling multiphonics or breathy flutters; Guy’s solid, unshowy pacing; and Schaufelberger’s staccato strumming or Rock-styled distortion. Besides the drummer however, it’s the trombonist who makes the strongest impression. From shrill capillary blats to back-of-throat growls his trombone mastery is highlighted.

It’s a somewhat similar situation on Roundup, with Nabatov serving as Wogram’s second. In contrast to Big Zoom’s out-and-out timbre dabbling and deconstruction, the seven Nabatov compositions contain the sort of voicing that could come from a, 21st Century version of pianist George Shearing’s classic quintet. A fine example of this appears on the balladic “Stuck For Good”. Here a gentle waterfall of notes from the pianist is harmonized alongside low-pitched trombone breaths and sul tasto swells from the cellist. Redefined as a lyrical swinger, the tune concludes with carefully measured piano key clips, tongue flutters from Wogram, and martial ratamacues from Rainey.

While the tunes on Roundup are more tonal than the dissonant romps on Polisation, there are sections when Nabatov allows everyone to play more freely. For instance, space is made for Schubert’s reed puffs and thick-grained slurps, Reijseger’s kinetic syncopation and Nabatov’s geometrical keyboard thumps. The performance is also conventional enough to allow for solo showcases. “Low Budget”, for instance is a percussion intermezzo, while “Desfile” is given over to Wogram’s slide explorations.

On the former, Rainey uses subtly and taste to paint a percussion picture with colored with cymbal splashes plus bounces, ruffs, strokes and pats on bass drum, snares and toms. A later variation has him keeping time with rim shots as Nabatov doubles the tempo with fractured glissandi. Analogous keyboard dynamics which take on player-piano-like echoes are used effectively on “Desfile”. So are staccato cello runs and hand drumming plus cymbal clanks from Rainey. But it’s Wogram’s textural pinpointing which gets the best work-out here. Alternating between gutbucket blasts and crying trills he defines the theme in such a way that it almost resembles a cabaletta. Subsequent brass guffaws lead to a dancing near-African line, with the cellist’s string plucking taking on lead-guitar reverb, while Rainey’s and Nabatov’s responses match Reijseger’s in velocity and intensity. Overall though the piece resembles an exercise in exotica rather than one with the African echoes Niggli prefers.

That pronounced difference is key, since these examples of high-class Euroimprov show off Wogram’s burgeoning skills, but within different, yet simpatico contexts.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Roundup: 1. Sunrise, Twice 2. Carrier Ladder 3. Stuck For Good 4. Now What 5. Low Budget 6. Desfile 7. No Doubt

Personnel: Roundup: Nils Wogram (trombone); Matthias Schubert (tenor saxophone); Simon Nabatov (piano); Ernst Reijseger (cello) and Tom Rainey (drums)

Track Listing: Polisation: 1. Polisation I 2. Polisation III 3. Nirvana 4. Polisation I

Personnel: Polisation: Nils Wogram (trombone and melodic); Anne La Berge (flutes and electronics); Philipp Schaufelberger (guitar); Barry Guy (bass) and Lucas Niggli (drums and percussion)

June 15, 2011

Tom Rainey Trio

Pool School
Clean Feed CF 185 CD

Owen Howard

Drum Lore

BJU Records BJUR 017

Harris Eisenstadt

Woodblock Prints

No Business NBLP 18

Heinrich Köbberling

Sonnenschirm

Jazz Werkstatt JW 093

Extended Play: Drummers as leaders and composers

By Ken Waxman

Constantly the brunt of other musicians’ jokes for their supposed fixation on rhythm, over the years drummers have actually proven themselves as organized band leaders and sophisticated tunesmiths. Edmonton-born, Brooklyn-based percussionist Owen Howard strikes a blow for his stick-wielding brethren with Drum Lore BJU Records BJUR 017 as he leads a sextet through compositions by 11 different drummers. including himself. His notable CD, along with others by drummer/leaders, demonstrates these players’ overall improvisational and compositional smarts.

Howard proves his percussion adaptability with strategies ranging from understated paradiddles and pops backing muted trombone and slurry bass clarinet on Shelly Manne’s “Flip”, to cross pounded bounces and clattering opposite sticking that adds an undercurrent of gravitas to Alan Ferber’s trombone ostinato and call-and-response patterns from the three saxophonists on Ed Blackwell’s “Togo”. He’s even more impressive guiding the slinky polyrhythms of Jack DeJohnette’s “Zoot Suite”, as clattering cymbals and popping bass drum subtly shifts tempos from andante to moderato as the layered horn riffs expand in scrappy, cascading counterpoint. The drummer’s own Roundabout vibrates with shifting pulses as alto saxophonist John O’Gallagher’s refracting flutter-tonguing alters the melody already trilled by soprano saxophonist Adam Kolker. Howard’s blunt rebounds and splashing cymbals keep things moving until pianist Frank Carlberg’s wide-spaced comping signals the finale.

Howard’s CD shows jazz percussionist’s compositional versatility, while the six compositions on Woodblock Prints No Business NBLP 18 presents a singular vision by another drummer, Toronto native-turned Brooklynite Harris Eisenstadt. Program music based on celebrating the art of Japanese wood bock prints, this chamber-improv is played by a brass-heavy nonet. What isn’t expected is that Mark Taylor’s French horn and Jay Rozen’s tuba are frequently lead voices, with the burbling timbre crepuscule of Sara Schoenbeck’s bassoon often used for its unique tincture. Most demonstrative of Eisenstadt’s skills as a colorist is “Hokusai”, energized by his bell-tree shaking and tambourine smacks. Meanwhile hoarse, stuttering, bassoon patterns deconstruct the slow-gliding theme alongside Jonathan Goldberger’s guitar licks. Following Michael McGinnis’ squealing clarinet trills backed by the drummer’s ruffs and drags, Rozen’s extended tremolo line shepherds the variants towards Eisenstadt’s conclusive cymbal shimmies. Similarly on “The Floating World”, the narrative is defined as much by waddling tuba slurps plus diffuse French horn brays as liquid clarinet runs and pumping unison horns. The tubaist’s penultimate snort dissolve into pitch-sliding polytones as the drummer outlays shuffles, ruffs and bell-pings.

Less upfront as a performer, but responsible for all compositions on Sonnenschirm Jazz Werkstatt JW 093 is Heinrich Köbberling, a professor of percussion at Germany’s Leipzig University. He’s content using his cross strokes, opposite sticking, drags and rebounds to keep the session moderato, but with infectious, flowing rhythms. Rather than taking solos, Köbberling’s compositions and accompaniment give full reign to bassist Paul Imm, piano/accordionist Tino Derado and especially bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall. An unflappable tone explorer, Mahall adds sonic vitality to the often-jaunty tunes. “Zahlen Bitte” is a particular example of the reedman’s skills. Here his coloratura slides and tongue-stuttering face chiming piano lines. Circling around one another, all the textures then join to complete the melody. Meanwhile the drummer rolls and pumps in the background. Built on light-fingered piano harmonies, “Konbanwa” is another standout as the repeated theme variants are expressed sequentially by lyrical reed voicing and cascading piano chords.

Completely antithetical to the preceding discs is Pool School Clean Feed CF 185 CD is the first disc under the leadership of busy New York percussionist Tom Rainey. Consisting of 12 instant compositions, the CD depends as much on the inventiveness of guitarist Mary Halvorson and tenor and soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock as Rainey’s drum dexterity. Yet as low-key and unforced as Rainey’s rhythms are, it’s their unruffled surge which keeps the dozen tracks moving. “More Mesa” for instance is taken agitato and moderato, with Laubrock’s pressurized vibrations as intense as the angled crunching runs from Halvorson. Yet the piece’s atmospheric identity is maintained through Rainey’s rim shot accents, hi-hat strokes and cymbal slaps. The drummer’s swirling cauldron of broken-octave rebounds and solid ruffs also create a subversive swing rhythm by the finale of “Semi Bozo”. Earlier, his ratcheting clicks and drum-top pops, the guitarist’s disconnected chording and slurred fingering plus the saxophonist’s rasping, low-pitched warbles appear to evolve in parallel rather than connective lines, until Rainey’s inverted sticking pushes them into harmonic concordance.

As these sessions prove, giving a sophisticated drummer freedom to innovate, results in much more than a rhythmic free-for-all.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 16 #2

October 12, 2010

Ingrid Laubrock with Liam Noble & Tom Rainey

Sleepthief
Intakt CD 146

Trio Werchowska/Pontévia/Boubaker

Décalage vers le rouge

Petit Label pl son 002

Two takes on the piano-drums-and saxophone trio end up with widely divergent emphasis on the colors accessible from the instruments’ timbres. Free form as possible, the unbridled Décalage vers le rouge extends an identity that was initially advanced by pianist Cecil Taylor’s pioneering units. More neutral and technique-oriented, Sleepthief’s orientation leans towards the sometime free, sometime formalist trio of pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. Each strategy is equally valid.

German-born, but a London resident since 1989, soprano and tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock studied with some of jazz education’s top names and won music prize. But despite this, she is still also part of F-IRE, an arts collective. An Oxford University music grad, pianist Liam Noble has worked with jazz men as traditional as flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler and saxophonist Stan Sulzmann – coincidentally one of Laubrock’s teachers – as well as composer Moondog, and also explored outer-directed programming playing keyboards and samplers. Finally American Tom Rainey has established himself as the go-to percussionist for many advanced improvisers including saxophonist Tim Berne, bassist Mark Helias and trumpeter Herb Robertson.

Awards and schooling is a little more opaque for the other trio. However Bordeaux-based Mathias Pontévia, who plays a horizontal drum kit, is part of the Trio de batterie with Didier Lasserre and Edward Perraud and has worked with pianist Frédéric Blondy. Paris-based Nusch Werchowska is a band called Two Spoiled Strings with violinist Mathieu Werchowski, and has worked with electronics manipulator Uli Böttcher and American saxophonist Jack Wright among others. Toulouse-based Heddy Boubaker operates his own performance space, and works with dance companies as well as with fellow sound experimenters such as trumpeter Birgit Ulher

On Décalage vers le rouge, the interface is midway between dissonance and imperfection, with distended and stretched tones evolving in layered and clashing multi tones. The pianist scratches, bows and plucks her instrument’s internal strings with the same intensity that she brings to keyboard pumps and pedal expansions. The drummer screeches a stick along cymbal tops and spanks, clanks and whacks other parts of his kit. Meanwhile the saxophonist expends blurry pressurized pitches from his horn.

At points Pontévia splinters his strokes as if an entire cymbal factory is exploding around him; other times it appears as if he’s smacking his sole snare with a thick stick. Yet in a sometime reversal, the result brings out what could be the sounds of someone exploring a playroom full of percussion toys – including glass armonicas, rattles, squeaky plastic animals and chains. On his side, Boubaker tongue slaps and exposes miasmatic peeps and metallic scrapes as he pitch-slides from staccato vibrations to intense buzzing. When bursts of key percussion don’t mark his presence, he rams air through his horn’s hollow body tube.

Trio Werchowska/Pontévia/Boubaker’s characteristic track is “Plus près”. Here intermittent reed chirps and basso echoes from the saxophonist quickly overcome Werchowska’s inchoate drones and Pontévia’s drum pops and gong smacks, until the pianist asserts herself. Splayed cadenzas reverberate against the piano sound board producing knife-edge supplementary tones, as piano keys are depressed for hollowed-out reverb. Meanwhile Boubaker growls irregularly and the percussionist batters and slaps his cymbals and snares. As fractured tones progress in an adagio fashion, the track fades to a microtones – then disappears altogether.

Laubrock, Noble and Rainey also collectively produce their share of drum set clinks and clanks, as well as peeping reed trills and rolling keyboard note clusters. But over the course of nine tracks their influence(s) are a bit more exaggerated and obvious.

“Zugunruhe” for instance, comes into focus with the saxophonist expending Evan Parker-like distanced puffs, as Noble distributes Thelonious Monk-like note displacement throughout. Only Rainey’s light strokes appear unaffected, and by the finale it’s his kettle drum-like rumbles that resolve an unbalanced piece which earlier on threatened to capsize. Harmonic convergence is more obvious on compositions such as the title tune, summed up with rubato low pitches alternating with almost Woody Woodpecker-like chirps from Laubrock positioned with irregular octave jumps. Initially the saxophonist advances the theme with lip-bubbling slurs interconnecting with tremolo arpeggios from Noble and near-Native Indian tom-tom beats from Rainey.

Evolving in a contrary fashion to the other trio, however, this mixed British-German-American combo produces statements that are as lucid as they are hectic. Some tunes such as “The Ears Have It” even flirt with romanticism. Worked out with gentling dynamic overtones from the pianist and emphasized pauses, those melody snatches are knit together with distinct, but distanced blowing from Laubrock, zigzagging from low-pitched to mid-range. While Rainey clip-clops and cymbal smacks, Noble pats his keys and the saxophonist arcs her tone to sound identical note clusters in tandem with the piano.

Proof that there’s still plenty of life left in this sort of trio interface, the music on these CDs impresses without ever becoming indispensable. Still, depending on the listener’s proclivities, each can be appreciated.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Décalage: 1. Parsec 2. Plus près 3. Un renvoi vers l’onière 4. Etabli/Diminutif/Rien 5. Sursaut X 6. Optique du crabe 7. Radioscource 8. Sursaut mu

Personnel: Décalage: Heddy Boubaker (alto saxophone); Nusch Werchowska (piano) and Mathias Pontévia (drums)

Track Listing: Sleepthief: 1. Zugunruhe 2. Sleepthief 3. Oofy Twerp 4. Never Were Not 5. Environmental Stud 6. The Ears Have It 7. Batchelor's Know-How 8. Social Cheats 9. Amelie

Personnel: Sleepthief: Ingrid Laubrock (soprano and tenor saxophone); Liam Noble (piano) and Tom Rainey (drums)

June 8, 2009

Trio Werchowska/Pontévia/Boubaker

Décalage vers le rouge
Petit Label pl son 002

Ingrid Laubrock with Liam Noble & Tom Rainey

Sleepthief

Intakt CD 146

Two takes on the piano-drums-and saxophone trio end up with widely divergent emphasis on the colors accessible from the instruments’ timbres. Free form as possible, the unbridled Décalage vers le rouge extends an identity that was initially advanced by pianist Cecil Taylor’s pioneering units. More neutral and technique-oriented, Sleepthief’s orientation leans towards the sometime free, sometime formalist trio of pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. Each strategy is equally valid.

German-born, but a London resident since 1989, soprano and tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock studied with some of jazz education’s top names and won music prize. But despite this, she is still also part of F-IRE, an arts collective. An Oxford University music grad, pianist Liam Noble has worked with jazz men as traditional as flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler and saxophonist Stan Sulzmann – coincidentally one of Laubrock’s teachers – as well as composer Moondog, and also explored outer-directed programming playing keyboards and samplers. Finally American Tom Rainey has established himself as the go-to percussionist for many advanced improvisers including saxophonist Tim Berne, bassist Mark Helias and trumpeter Herb Robertson.

Awards and schooling is a little more opaque for the other trio. However Bordeaux-based Mathias Pontévia, who plays a horizontal drum kit, is part of the Trio de batterie with Didier Lasserre and Edward Perraud and has worked with pianist Frédéric Blondy. Paris-based Nusch Werchowska is a band called Two Spoiled Strings with violinist Mathieu Werchowski, and has worked with electronics manipulator Uli Böttcher and American saxophonist Jack Wright among others. Toulouse-based Heddy Boubaker operates his own performance space, and works with dance companies as well as with fellow sound experimenters such as trumpeter Birgit Ulher

On Décalage vers le rouge, the interface is midway between dissonance and imperfection, with distended and stretched tones evolving in layered and clashing multi tones. The pianist scratches, bows and plucks her instrument’s internal strings with the same intensity that she brings to keyboard pumps and pedal expansions. The drummer screeches a stick along cymbal tops and spanks, clanks and whacks other parts of his kit. Meanwhile the saxophonist expends blurry pressurized pitches from his horn.

At points Pontévia splinters his strokes as if an entire cymbal factory is exploding around him; other times it appears as if he’s smacking his sole snare with a thick stick. Yet in a sometime reversal, the result brings out what could be the sounds of someone exploring a playroom full of percussion toys – including glass armonicas, rattles, squeaky plastic animals and chains. On his side, Boubaker tongue slaps and exposes miasmatic peeps and metallic scrapes as he pitch-slides from staccato vibrations to intense buzzing. When bursts of key percussion don’t mark his presence, he rams air through his horn’s hollow body tube.

Trio Werchowska/Pontévia/Boubaker’s characteristic track is “Plus près”. Here intermittent reed chirps and basso echoes from the saxophonist quickly overcome Werchowska’s inchoate drones and Pontévia’s drum pops and gong smacks, until the pianist asserts herself. Splayed cadenzas reverberate against the piano sound board producing knife-edge supplementary tones, as piano keys are depressed for hollowed-out reverb. Meanwhile Boubaker growls irregularly and the percussionist batters and slaps his cymbals and snares. As fractured tones progress in an adagio fashion, the track fades to a microtones – then disappears altogether.

Laubrock, Noble and Rainey also collectively produce their share of drum set clinks and clanks, as well as peeping reed trills and rolling keyboard note clusters. But over the course of nine tracks their influence(s) are a bit more exaggerated and obvious.

“Zugunruhe” for instance, comes into focus with the saxophonist expending Evan Parker-like distanced puffs, as Noble distributes Thelonious Monk-like note displacement throughout. Only Rainey’s light strokes appear unaffected, and by the finale it’s his kettle drum-like rumbles that resolve an unbalanced piece which earlier on threatened to capsize. Harmonic convergence is more obvious on compositions such as the title tune, summed up with rubato low pitches alternating with almost Woody Woodpecker-like chirps from Laubrock positioned with irregular octave jumps. Initially the saxophonist advances the theme with lip-bubbling slurs interconnecting with tremolo arpeggios from Noble and near-Native Indian tom-tom beats from Rainey.

Evolving in a contrary fashion to the other trio, however, this mixed British-German-American combo produces statements that are as lucid as they are hectic. Some tunes such as “The Ears Have It” even flirt with romanticism. Worked out with gentling dynamic overtones from the pianist and emphasized pauses, those melody snatches are knit together with distinct, but distanced blowing from Laubrock, zigzagging from low-pitched to mid-range. While Rainey clip-clops and cymbal smacks, Noble pats his keys and the saxophonist arcs her tone to sound identical note clusters in tandem with the piano.

Proof that there’s still plenty of life left in this sort of trio interface, the music on these CDs impresses without ever becoming indispensable. Still, depending on the listener’s proclivities, each can be appreciated.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Décalage: 1. Parsec 2. Plus près 3. Un renvoi vers l’onière 4. Etabli/Diminutif/Rien 5. Sursaut X 6. Optique du crabe 7. Radioscource 8. Sursaut mu

Personnel: Décalage: Heddy Boubaker (alto saxophone); Nusch Werchowska (piano) and Mathias Pontévia (drums)

Track Listing: Sleepthief: 1. Zugunruhe 2. Sleepthief 3. Oofy Twerp 4. Never Were Not 5. Environmental Stud 6. The Ears Have It 7. Batchelor's Know-How 8. Social Cheats 9. Amelie

Personnel: Sleepthief: Ingrid Laubrock (soprano and tenor saxophone); Liam Noble (piano) and Tom Rainey (drums)

June 8, 2009

Alban Darche

Trumpet Kingdom
BMC CD 136

The MacroQuarktet

Each Part a Whole

Ruby Flowers RF06CD

Brass improvisation in duo or trio forms characterize these two sessions. Both take advantage of trumpet and other horns’ timbres. However the American MacroQuarktet is engrossed in sound patterns available from sonic interaction, while the Hungarian-Belgian-French octet led by Gallic tenor saxophonist Alban Darche is cast in the more familiar form of a modern jazz showcase.

Darche, who composed all the tunes save one here, designed the CD to exhibit how he and follow French musicians – bassist Sébastien Boisseau, drummer Emmanuel Birault, woodwind player Sylvain Rifflet – plus Pécs-born guitarist Gábor Gadó, now based in France, react to the input of different trumpet soloists. While the results are impressive, if not outstanding, the irony is, that except in a matter of degrees, none of the prize-winning trumpeters – Eric Vloeimans from the Netherlands, Belgian Laurent Blondiau and Geoffroy Tamisier from France – sound that different from one another.

Only on “Trumpet Kingdom 2”, listed as a feature for Tamisier, is there any indication of the three doing more than harmonize. Even backed by finger-styled distorted runs and fret-jumping from Gadó and Birault’s thick press rolls and pops, Tamisier’s open-horn emphasis is still mostly languid and moderato, especially when contrasted with saxophone snorts and the other trumpeters’ echoed obbligatos. Besides this, Blondiau attempts some theme deconstruction with unexpected brays and slurs on the brief – less than two minute – “B.E.P.”, but overall the track is taken up by him lobbing note clusters back and forth with Darche. Even when squeezing out muted grace notes on “Hypocoristique”, Blondiau is heraldic, romantic and legato, with the track gaining most of its heft from long-lined ringing licks from Gadó.

In similar fashion, Vloeimans, who won the Boy Edgar Prize, Holland’s most prestigious jazz award, earlier in the decade, is only briefly distinctive on “Joseph & Sa Maman”. A jolly tune that could provide the soundtrack for a Fellini film, it’s built on a slinky bass line from Boisseau. Throughout, Vloeimans’s valve squeaks and tightrope-walking triplets only briefly shatter the circus music-inflected melody. On the other hand “Novenus” does have Vloeimans outputting some unusual rubato bites and flutter-tongued cries, which play off resonating guitar licks. But overall this performance too relies on big-band-styled section work and individual showcases in its penultimate moments when each trumpeter fires off speedy triplets. In fact, Birault’s flashy drum solo is more reminiscent of Buddy Rich at his peak than anything more contemporary.

In contrast, post-modernism is the watchword on Each Part a Whole with its subtly descriptive title. Made up of three interconnected suites, the dramatis persona include bassist Drew Gress, who often works with stylists like pianist Uri Caine and alto saxophonist Tim Berne; drummer Tom Rainey, trapsman of choice for Berne and bassist Mark Helias among many others; Dave Ballou on trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, plastic hose and mutes, whose heavy mainstream credentials don’t preclude work with bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Kevin Norton; plus Herb Robertson on cornet, trumpet, electric megaphone, mutes and attachments, who has played with ensembles ranging from bassist Barry Guy’s London Jazz Composer Orchestra to the bands of Berne and pianist Michiel Braam.

Convention isn’t the aim of this CD, which unlike Trumpet Kingdom, deals not with songs, but with moods, sensations and textures. That said, despite an insistence on showcasing tones ranging from quark-sized to massive, the CD never tumbles into static microtonalism or unappealing abstraction. Gress and Rainey are too much of a cooperative rhythm team for that – although you’d never confuse them for Paul Chambers and Art Taylor – or Boisseau and Birault for that matter.

Take “Basal D. Ganglia”, for instance. Among the interlocking parts, separated by pauses and silences, Gress presses thick thumps and Raney drags, rattles, clangs and clatters. Meanwhile Ballou and Robertson are involved in a broken-octave duet, defined through tremolo yelps and squeaks from one horn and wavering rubato slurs from the other. Eventually all of the brass air spaces are filled, as two whinnying lines, one pitched just slightly higher than the other, gallop to the finish line.

With each brassman employing a suitcase full of extensions and add-ons, it’s difficult to ascribe solos to one or the other. Certainly one exhibits livelier plunger tones, splats and squeaks, usually coupled with hand drumming from Rainey and either arco or pizzicato double bass runs. Another – or perhaps it’s the same person – is more reflective, evidentially sucking air backwards into his horn’s bell as the drummer strikes his stick together and offloads rim shots.

Moreover on “Neuroplasticity Part 3”, something – perhaps Robertson’s “attachments” – allows one brassman to sound licks that literally appear to come from a riffing electric guitar. The other then counters with rococo coloration and strident growls. After the first trumpet solos again, this part of the suite is given over to the two vaulting notes at one another, cumulatively building up tension, moving selectively to elevated pitches. Solos intertwine but never quite find one another.

The there’s part 6 of “Ducks and Geese …or Rabbits” where the mike-buzzing from one trumpet evolves into scrapping and cutting timbre, while Gress vibrates and pops his strings with non-Western patterns and Rainey’s distinctive drum beats could be coming from a tom-tom or a djembe. The satisfying summation involves a cappella snarls and pent-up colored air forced from each horn’s bell in turn.

Both of these discs prove that there are plenty of fine noises that can be created by two or three trumpets – with or without upfront reeds and strings. Trumpet Kingdom offers a variation of what multi-brass has sounded like in the past and does in the present, while Each Part a Whole outlines how brass convergence could sound in the future.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Each: Neuroplasticity: 1. Part 1 2. Part 2 3. Part 3 Ducks and Geese …or Rabbits: 4. Part 4 5. Part 5 6. Part 6 7. Part 7 Basal D. Ganglia: 8. Part 8 9. Part 9 10. Part 10

Personnel: Each: Herb Robertson (cornet, trumpet, electric megaphone, mutes and attachments); Dave Ballou (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, plastic hose and mutes Drew Gress (bass and fan) and Tom Rainey (drums and cymbals)

Track Listing: 1. Latin Bruno^ 2. Joseph & Sa Maman*3. Trumpet Kingdom 2^ 4. B.E.P.+ 5 Trumpet Kingdom 3 6. Fanfare du jour 7. Hypocoristique+ 8. Novenus* 9. Alex

Personnel: Eric Vloeimans [solo*], Laurent Blondiau [solo+: 4, 7], Geoffroy Tamisier trumpet [solo^] (trumpet); Alban Darche (tenor saxophone); Sylvain Rifflet (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Gábor Gadó (guitar); Sébastien Boisseau (bass) and Emmanuel Birault (drums)

April 2, 2009

The MacroQuarktet

Each Part a Whole
Ruby Flowers RF06CD

Alban Darche

Trumpet Kingdom

BMC CD 136

Brass improvisation in duo or trio forms characterize these two sessions. Both take advantage of trumpet and other horns’ timbres. However the American MacroQuarktet is engrossed in sound patterns available from sonic interaction, while the Hungarian-Belgian-French octet led by Gallic tenor saxophonist Alban Darche is cast in the more familiar form of a modern jazz showcase.

Darche, who composed all the tunes save one here, designed the CD to exhibit how he and follow French musicians – bassist Sébastien Boisseau, drummer Emmanuel Birault, woodwind player Sylvain Rifflet – plus Pécs-born guitarist Gábor Gadó, now based in France, react to the input of different trumpet soloists. While the results are impressive, if not outstanding, the irony is, that except in a matter of degrees, none of the prize-winning trumpeters – Eric Vloeimans from the Netherlands, Belgian Laurent Blondiau and Geoffroy Tamisier from France – sound that different from one another.

Only on “Trumpet Kingdom 2”, listed as a feature for Tamisier, is there any indication of the three doing more than harmonize. Even backed by finger-styled distorted runs and fret-jumping from Gadó and Birault’s thick press rolls and pops, Tamisier’s open-horn emphasis is still mostly languid and moderato, especially when contrasted with saxophone snorts and the other trumpeters’ echoed obbligatos. Besides this, Blondiau attempts some theme deconstruction with unexpected brays and slurs on the brief – less than two minute – “B.E.P.”, but overall the track is taken up by him lobbing note clusters back and forth with Darche. Even when squeezing out muted grace notes on “Hypocoristique”, Blondiau is heraldic, romantic and legato, with the track gaining most of its heft from long-lined ringing licks from Gadó.

In similar fashion, Vloeimans, who won the Boy Edgar Prize, Holland’s most prestigious jazz award, earlier in the decade, is only briefly distinctive on “Joseph & Sa Maman”. A jolly tune that could provide the soundtrack for a Fellini film, it’s built on a slinky bass line from Boisseau. Throughout, Vloeimans’s valve squeaks and tightrope-walking triplets only briefly shatter the circus music-inflected melody. On the other hand “Novenus” does have Vloeimans outputting some unusual rubato bites and flutter-tongued cries, which play off resonating guitar licks. But overall this performance too relies on big-band-styled section work and individual showcases in its penultimate moments when each trumpeter fires off speedy triplets. In fact, Birault’s flashy drum solo is more reminiscent of Buddy Rich at his peak than anything more contemporary.

In contrast, post-modernism is the watchword on Each Part a Whole with its subtly descriptive title. Made up of three interconnected suites, the dramatis persona include bassist Drew Gress, who often works with stylists like pianist Uri Caine and alto saxophonist Tim Berne; drummer Tom Rainey, trapsman of choice for Berne and bassist Mark Helias among many others; Dave Ballou on trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, plastic hose and mutes, whose heavy mainstream credentials don’t preclude work with bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Kevin Norton; plus Herb Robertson on cornet, trumpet, electric megaphone, mutes and attachments, who has played with ensembles ranging from bassist Barry Guy’s London Jazz Composer Orchestra to the bands of Berne and pianist Michiel Braam.

Convention isn’t the aim of this CD, which unlike Trumpet Kingdom, deals not with songs, but with moods, sensations and textures. That said, despite an insistence on showcasing tones ranging from quark-sized to massive, the CD never tumbles into static microtonalism or unappealing abstraction. Gress and Rainey are too much of a cooperative rhythm team for that – although you’d never confuse them for Paul Chambers and Art Taylor – or Boisseau and Birault for that matter.

Take “Basal D. Ganglia”, for instance. Among the interlocking parts, separated by pauses and silences, Gress presses thick thumps and Raney drags, rattles, clangs and clatters. Meanwhile Ballou and Robertson are involved in a broken-octave duet, defined through tremolo yelps and squeaks from one horn and wavering rubato slurs from the other. Eventually all of the brass air spaces are filled, as two whinnying lines, one pitched just slightly higher than the other, gallop to the finish line.

With each brassman employing a suitcase full of extensions and add-ons, it’s difficult to ascribe solos to one or the other. Certainly one exhibits livelier plunger tones, splats and squeaks, usually coupled with hand drumming from Rainey and either arco or pizzicato double bass runs. Another – or perhaps it’s the same person – is more reflective, evidentially sucking air backwards into his horn’s bell as the drummer strikes his stick together and offloads rim shots.

Moreover on “Neuroplasticity Part 3”, something – perhaps Robertson’s “attachments” – allows one brassman to sound licks that literally appear to come from a riffing electric guitar. The other then counters with rococo coloration and strident growls. After the first trumpet solos again, this part of the suite is given over to the two vaulting notes at one another, cumulatively building up tension, moving selectively to elevated pitches. Solos intertwine but never quite find one another.

The there’s part 6 of “Ducks and Geese …or Rabbits” where the mike-buzzing from one trumpet evolves into scrapping and cutting timbre, while Gress vibrates and pops his strings with non-Western patterns and Rainey’s distinctive drum beats could be coming from a tom-tom or a djembe. The satisfying summation involves a cappella snarls and pent-up colored air forced from each horn’s bell in turn.

Both of these discs prove that there are plenty of fine noises that can be created by two or three trumpets – with or without upfront reeds and strings. Trumpet Kingdom offers a variation of what multi-brass has sounded like in the past and does in the present, while Each Part a Whole outlines how brass convergence could sound in the future.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Each: Neuroplasticity: 1. Part 1 2. Part 2 3. Part 3 Ducks and Geese …or Rabbits: 4. Part 4 5. Part 5 6. Part 6 7. Part 7 Basal D. Ganglia: 8. Part 8 9. Part 9 10. Part 10

Personnel: Each: Herb Robertson (cornet, trumpet, electric megaphone, mutes and attachments); Dave Ballou (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, plastic hose and mutes Drew Gress (bass and fan) and Tom Rainey (drums and cymbals)

Track Listing: 1. Latin Bruno^ 2. Joseph & Sa Maman*3. Trumpet Kingdom 2^ 4. B.E.P.+ 5 Trumpet Kingdom 3 6. Fanfare du jour 7. Hypocoristique+ 8. Novenus* 9. Alex

Personnel: Eric Vloeimans [solo*], Laurent Blondiau [solo+: 4, 7], Geoffroy Tamisier trumpet [solo^] (trumpet); Alban Darche (tenor saxophone); Sylvain Rifflet (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Gábor Gadó (guitar); Sébastien Boisseau (bass) and Emmanuel Birault (drums)

April 2, 2009

Kidd Jordan/Kali Z. Fasteau

LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland
Flying Note FNCD 9012

Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley

A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves

Another Timbre at06

Scott Fields

Bitter Love Songs

Clean Feed CF 102 CD

Open Loose

Strange Unison

Radio Legs RL 013

Jason Stein

A Calculus of Loss

Clean Feed CF 104 CD

By Ken Waxman

Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch.

Someone who has been on the cutting edge since the 1960s, British saxophonist Evan Parker brings his questing spirit to the emblematically titled A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves, Another Timbre at06 Parker’s soprano saxophone is framed by shimmering, pulsating and whirling percussion and electronics. The other musicians – all British – are Mark Wastell playing tam-tam, metal percussion and harmonium, Graham Halliwell using computer and electronics; and Max Eastley on arc, an electro-acoustic monochord.

The unyielding drones from arc and harmonium create the sonic bed on which these improvisations rest. Additional electronic prestidigitation from Halliwell means that Parker’s carefully measured vibrations are seconded by lyrical trills reconstituted from his own output.

Although the saxophonist’s unhurried modulations announce their distinctive presence as they peep from among the seeping tones, all the players reach resolution on “The Chessboard Cherry Tree”. Here turbidity is shattered by ear-wrenching percussion abrasions and crackling electronic wave forms. Most distinctively, Parker’s aviary slurs coagulate and multiply with circular breathing. Utilizing ghost notes and flutter tonguing, his phrases color and connect the proceedings. Eventually the others’ blurred harmonies bond with understated reed trills for a satisfying climax.

If Parker finesses his polyphonic tones than New Orleans-based tenor-saxophonist Kidd Jordan burns through his with molten energy. Unlike Parker, Jordan performs infrequently in Canada. You can hear why this is a loss on LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland Flying Note FNCD 9012, where his unbridled improvising is showcased. Associates of the septuagenarian saxophonist are percussionist Newman Taylor Barker and Kali Z. Fasteau, who expresses herself on mizmar, piano, flute, cello, synthesizer, violin, drums and soprano saxophone.

Announcing themselves on “Trance Dance”, Baker rumbles, pops and rebounds, as Fasteau scrapes, stops and strums the piano’s strings before turning to modal chording. For his part, Jordan divides his sheets of sound between screeching that abuts dog-whistle territory, and slurred, subterranean growls.

Additional mass is added elsewhere when Fasteau packs performances with thick synthesizer reverberations, screechy cello lines or, drumming, joins Baker in producing press rolls. Meanwhile Jordan ratchets from his horn’s top to tip in a nanosecond, utilizing vibrated split tones, double-tongued flattement and side-slipping. With Jordan expelling staccato, free-form patterns and Fasteau utilizing her soprano saxophone’s pinched, ney-like tone, “Sound Science” is another effective track; timbres brush up against one another as identical notes appear in different pitches.

Another improviser who tours as frequently as Parker is guitarist Scott Fields. Chicago-born, Fields moved to Köln, Germany a few years back. On the witty Bitter Love Songs Clean Feed CF 102 CD, he leads a trio completed by a Portuguese rhythm section: bassist Sebastian Gramss and drummer João Lobo. Fields’ compositions, which match liquid guitar runs, slinky bass lines and on-the-beat drumming, are still at variance with their sardonic titles.

For instance “My Love is Love, Your Love is Hate” features a spinning staccato theme from Fields that is stretched with slurred fingering until it seems that it will rupture, but doesn’t. Working in double counterpoint, the massed strings join to produce a barrage of notes, with Fields sounding as if he’s playing microtonally and Gramss slapping a backbeat. Meanwhile Lobo’s flams precede an intermezzo for ringing guitar licks. Note clusters are lobbed between the players on “You Used to Say I Love You but So What Now”. But the strategy is different. Fields’ contrapuntal chording skirts C&W picking, while Gramss resonates handfuls of low-pitched timbres. Eventually as the bassist settles on legato pacing, Fields wraps up with echoing, blues-based licks.

Gramss’ bass work owes its suppleness to sonic extensions from older bass specialists such as New York’s Mark Helias, who has recorded in Toronto. His Open Loose band includes drummer Tom Rainey and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby.

On Strange Unison, Radio Legs RL 013, while the three interlock instrumentally, Helias’ bass nevertheless set the pace, with resonations ranging from traditional slap bass to staccatissimo runs. Master of understatement, Rainey blunts the backbeat, relying on cymbal cracks and cross-pulsating drags. Skirting atonality with flutter tonguing and pressurized overblowing, Malaby digs into each composition. “Silent Stutter”, for example, finds him masticating hard and heavy slurs into clusters which are subsequently expelled as foghorn blats. In contrast, “Blue Light Down the Line” is taken mid-tempo. As the bassist’s walking is succeeded by mercurial stopping, Malaby builds concentrated phrases. Soon physicality is replaced by moderato coloration as timbres puffed by the saxophone are doubled with arco swipes.

Another vibrant improvised music scene is Chicago’s, spearheaded by reedist Ken Vandermark, a frequent Canadian visitor. Like other established players, Vandermark mentors younger players, one of whom is bass clarinetist Jason Stein. A Calculus of Loss Clean Feed CF 104 CD demonstrates what Stein can do on his own, backed by Kevin Davis’s cello and Mike Pride’s percussion.

As cohesive as the other groups here, one of the trio’s advantages is that Davis takes either the front-line guitar or rhythm-section bass role. The other is that Pride’s percussion includes resonating vibraphone tinctures, cantilevered cymbal patterns plus standard drum beats.

Compositions such as “Caroline and Sam” and “That’s Not a Closet” confirm the three are as comfortable with New music as new Swing. Balanced on vibes reverberations and scratched cello strings, the former connects a near-madrigal melody with extended techniques as Stein sounds an intractable phrase in his body tube ignoring key movement. Based on mood, rather than rhythm, the result is contemplative without sinking to lugubriousness. On the other hand, “That’s Not…” is sprightly enough to suggest mainstream swing, although Stein’s roistering coloratura lines alternating with jagged runs aren’t a standard scenario. Melodious, variations moderate the pace so Davis’ plinks and Pride’s cymbal pops are audible in its resolution.

Some of these players may be on stage this month; others may take a while to visit the area. All are worth hearing.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #9

June 6, 2008

Scott Fields

Bitter Love Songs
Clean Feed CF 102 CD

Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley

A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves

Another Timbre at06

Kidd Jordan/Kali Z. Fasteau

LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland

Flying Note FNCD 9012

Open Loose

Strange Unison

Radio Legs RL 013

Jason Stein

A Calculus of Loss

Clean Feed CF 104 CD

By Ken Waxman

Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch.

Someone who has been on the cutting edge since the 1960s, British saxophonist Evan Parker brings his questing spirit to the emblematically titled A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves, Another Timbre at06 Parker’s soprano saxophone is framed by shimmering, pulsating and whirling percussion and electronics. The other musicians – all British – are Mark Wastell playing tam-tam, metal percussion and harmonium, Graham Halliwell using computer and electronics; and Max Eastley on arc, an electro-acoustic monochord.

The unyielding drones from arc and harmonium create the sonic bed on which these improvisations rest. Additional electronic prestidigitation from Halliwell means that Parker’s carefully measured vibrations are seconded by lyrical trills reconstituted from his own output.

Although the saxophonist’s unhurried modulations announce their distinctive presence as they peep from among the seeping tones, all the players reach resolution on “The Chessboard Cherry Tree”. Here turbidity is shattered by ear-wrenching percussion abrasions and crackling electronic wave forms. Most distinctively, Parker’s aviary slurs coagulate and multiply with circular breathing. Utilizing ghost notes and flutter tonguing, his phrases color and connect the proceedings. Eventually the others’ blurred harmonies bond with understated reed trills for a satisfying climax.

If Parker finesses his polyphonic tones than New Orleans-based tenor-saxophonist Kidd Jordan burns through his with molten energy. Unlike Parker, Jordan performs infrequently in Canada. You can hear why this is a loss on LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland Flying Note FNCD 9012, where his unbridled improvising is showcased. Associates of the septuagenarian saxophonist are percussionist Newman Taylor Barker and Kali Z. Fasteau, who expresses herself on mizmar, piano, flute, cello, synthesizer, violin, drums and soprano saxophone.

Announcing themselves on “Trance Dance”, Baker rumbles, pops and rebounds, as Fasteau scrapes, stops and strums the piano’s strings before turning to modal chording. For his part, Jordan divides his sheets of sound between screeching that abuts dog-whistle territory, and slurred, subterranean growls.

Additional mass is added elsewhere when Fasteau packs performances with thick synthesizer reverberations, screechy cello lines or, drumming, joins Baker in producing press rolls. Meanwhile Jordan ratchets from his horn’s top to tip in a nanosecond, utilizing vibrated split tones, double-tongued flattement and side-slipping. With Jordan expelling staccato, free-form patterns and Fasteau utilizing her soprano saxophone’s pinched, ney-like tone, “Sound Science” is another effective track; timbres brush up against one another as identical notes appear in different pitches.

Another improviser who tours as frequently as Parker is guitarist Scott Fields. Chicago-born, Fields moved to Köln, Germany a few years back. On the witty Bitter Love Songs Clean Feed CF 102 CD, he leads a trio completed by a Portuguese rhythm section: bassist Sebastian Gramss and drummer João Lobo. Fields’ compositions, which match liquid guitar runs, slinky bass lines and on-the-beat drumming, are still at variance with their sardonic titles.

For instance “My Love is Love, Your Love is Hate” features a spinning staccato theme from Fields that is stretched with slurred fingering until it seems that it will rupture, but doesn’t. Working in double counterpoint, the massed strings join to produce a barrage of notes, with Fields sounding as if he’s playing microtonally and Gramss slapping a backbeat. Meanwhile Lobo’s flams precede an intermezzo for ringing guitar licks. Note clusters are lobbed between the players on “You Used to Say I Love You but So What Now”. But the strategy is different. Fields’ contrapuntal chording skirts C&W picking, while Gramss resonates handfuls of low-pitched timbres. Eventually as the bassist settles on legato pacing, Fields wraps up with echoing, blues-based licks.

Gramss’ bass work owes its suppleness to sonic extensions from older bass specialists such as New York’s Mark Helias, who has recorded in Toronto. His Open Loose band includes drummer Tom Rainey and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby.

On Strange Unison, Radio Legs RL 013, while the three interlock instrumentally, Helias’ bass nevertheless set the pace, with resonations ranging from traditional slap bass to staccatissimo runs. Master of understatement, Rainey blunts the backbeat, relying on cymbal cracks and cross-pulsating drags. Skirting atonality with flutter tonguing and pressurized overblowing, Malaby digs into each composition. “Silent Stutter”, for example, finds him masticating hard and heavy slurs into clusters which are subsequently expelled as foghorn blats. In contrast, “Blue Light Down the Line” is taken mid-tempo. As the bassist’s walking is succeeded by mercurial stopping, Malaby builds concentrated phrases. Soon physicality is replaced by moderato coloration as timbres puffed by the saxophone are doubled with arco swipes.

Another vibrant improvised music scene is Chicago’s, spearheaded by reedist Ken Vandermark, a frequent Canadian visitor. Like other established players, Vandermark mentors younger players, one of whom is bass clarinetist Jason Stein. A Calculus of Loss Clean Feed CF 104 CD demonstrates what Stein can do on his own, backed by Kevin Davis’s cello and Mike Pride’s percussion.

As cohesive as the other groups here, one of the trio’s advantages is that Davis takes either the front-line guitar or rhythm-section bass role. The other is that Pride’s percussion includes resonating vibraphone tinctures, cantilevered cymbal patterns plus standard drum beats.

Compositions such as “Caroline and Sam” and “That’s Not a Closet” confirm the three are as comfortable with New music as new Swing. Balanced on vibes reverberations and scratched cello strings, the former connects a near-madrigal melody with extended techniques as Stein sounds an intractable phrase in his body tube ignoring key movement. Based on mood, rather than rhythm, the result is contemplative without sinking to lugubriousness. On the other hand, “That’s Not…” is sprightly enough to suggest mainstream swing, although Stein’s roistering coloratura lines alternating with jagged runs aren’t a standard scenario. Melodious, variations moderate the pace so Davis’ plinks and Pride’s cymbal pops are audible in its resolution.

Some of these players may be on stage this month; others may take a while to visit the area. All are worth hearing.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #9

June 6, 2008

Open Loose

Strange Unison
Radio Legs RL 013

Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley

A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves

Another Timbre at06

Kidd Jordan/Kali Z. Fasteau

LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland

Flying Note FNCD 9012

Scott Fields

Bitter Love Songs

Clean Feed CF 102 CD

Jason Stein

A Calculus of Loss

Clean Feed CF 104 CD

By Ken Waxman

Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch.

Someone who has been on the cutting edge since the 1960s, British saxophonist Evan Parker brings his questing spirit to the emblematically titled A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves, Another Timbre at06 Parker’s soprano saxophone is framed by shimmering, pulsating and whirling percussion and electronics. The other musicians – all British – are Mark Wastell playing tam-tam, metal percussion and harmonium, Graham Halliwell using computer and electronics; and Max Eastley on arc, an electro-acoustic monochord.

The unyielding drones from arc and harmonium create the sonic bed on which these improvisations rest. Additional electronic prestidigitation from Halliwell means that Parker’s carefully measured vibrations are seconded by lyrical trills reconstituted from his own output.

Although the saxophonist’s unhurried modulations announce their distinctive presence as they peep from among the seeping tones, all the players reach resolution on “The Chessboard Cherry Tree”. Here turbidity is shattered by ear-wrenching percussion abrasions and crackling electronic wave forms. Most distinctively, Parker’s aviary slurs coagulate and multiply with circular breathing. Utilizing ghost notes and flutter tonguing, his phrases color and connect the proceedings. Eventually the others’ blurred harmonies bond with understated reed trills for a satisfying climax.

If Parker finesses his polyphonic tones than New Orleans-based tenor-saxophonist Kidd Jordan burns through his with molten energy. Unlike Parker, Jordan performs infrequently in Canada. You can hear why this is a loss on LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland Flying Note FNCD 9012, where his unbridled improvising is showcased. Associates of the septuagenarian saxophonist are percussionist Newman Taylor Barker and Kali Z. Fasteau, who expresses herself on mizmar, piano, flute, cello, synthesizer, violin, drums and soprano saxophone.

Announcing themselves on “Trance Dance”, Baker rumbles, pops and rebounds, as Fasteau scrapes, stops and strums the piano’s strings before turning to modal chording. For his part, Jordan divides his sheets of sound between screeching that abuts dog-whistle territory, and slurred, subterranean growls.

Additional mass is added elsewhere when Fasteau packs performances with thick synthesizer reverberations, screechy cello lines or, drumming, joins Baker in producing press rolls. Meanwhile Jordan ratchets from his horn’s top to tip in a nanosecond, utilizing vibrated split tones, double-tongued flattement and side-slipping. With Jordan expelling staccato, free-form patterns and Fasteau utilizing her soprano saxophone’s pinched, ney-like tone, “Sound Science” is another effective track; timbres brush up against one another as identical notes appear in different pitches.

Another improviser who tours as frequently as Parker is guitarist Scott Fields. Chicago-born, Fields moved to Köln, Germany a few years back. On the witty Bitter Love Songs Clean Feed CF 102 CD, he leads a trio completed by a Portuguese rhythm section: bassist Sebastian Gramss and drummer João Lobo. Fields’ compositions, which match liquid guitar runs, slinky bass lines and on-the-beat drumming, are still at variance with their sardonic titles.

For instance “My Love is Love, Your Love is Hate” features a spinning staccato theme from Fields that is stretched with slurred fingering until it seems that it will rupture, but doesn’t. Working in double counterpoint, the massed strings join to produce a barrage of notes, with Fields sounding as if he’s playing microtonally and Gramss slapping a backbeat. Meanwhile Lobo’s flams precede an intermezzo for ringing guitar licks. Note clusters are lobbed between the players on “You Used to Say I Love You but So What Now”. But the strategy is different. Fields’ contrapuntal chording skirts C&W picking, while Gramss resonates handfuls of low-pitched timbres. Eventually as the bassist settles on legato pacing, Fields wraps up with echoing, blues-based licks.

Gramss’ bass work owes its suppleness to sonic extensions from older bass specialists such as New York’s Mark Helias, who has recorded in Toronto. His Open Loose band includes drummer Tom Rainey and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby.

On Strange Unison, Radio Legs RL 013, while the three interlock instrumentally, Helias’ bass nevertheless set the pace, with resonations ranging from traditional slap bass to staccatissimo runs. Master of understatement, Rainey blunts the backbeat, relying on cymbal cracks and cross-pulsating drags. Skirting atonality with flutter tonguing and pressurized overblowing, Malaby digs into each composition. “Silent Stutter”, for example, finds him masticating hard and heavy slurs into clusters which are subsequently expelled as foghorn blats. In contrast, “Blue Light Down the Line” is taken mid-tempo. As the bassist’s walking is succeeded by mercurial stopping, Malaby builds concentrated phrases. Soon physicality is replaced by moderato coloration as timbres puffed by the saxophone are doubled with arco swipes.

Another vibrant improvised music scene is Chicago’s, spearheaded by reedist Ken Vandermark, a frequent Canadian visitor. Like other established players, Vandermark mentors younger players, one of whom is bass clarinetist Jason Stein. A Calculus of Loss Clean Feed CF 104 CD demonstrates what Stein can do on his own, backed by Kevin Davis’s cello and Mike Pride’s percussion.

As cohesive as the other groups here, one of the trio’s advantages is that Davis takes either the front-line guitar or rhythm-section bass role. The other is that Pride’s percussion includes resonating vibraphone tinctures, cantilevered cymbal patterns plus standard drum beats.

Compositions such as “Caroline and Sam” and “That’s Not a Closet” confirm the three are as comfortable with New music as new Swing. Balanced on vibes reverberations and scratched cello strings, the former connects a near-madrigal melody with extended techniques as Stein sounds an intractable phrase in his body tube ignoring key movement. Based on mood, rather than rhythm, the result is contemplative without sinking to lugubriousness. On the other hand, “That’s Not…” is sprightly enough to suggest mainstream swing, although Stein’s roistering coloratura lines alternating with jagged runs aren’t a standard scenario. Melodious, variations moderate the pace so Davis’ plinks and Pride’s cymbal pops are audible in its resolution.

Some of these players may be on stage this month; others may take a while to visit the area. All are worth hearing.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #9

June 6, 2008

Jason Stein

A Calculus of Loss
Clean Feed CF 104 CD

Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley

A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves

Another Timbre at06

Kidd Jordan/Kali Z. Fasteau

LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland

Flying Note FNCD 9012

Scott Fields

Bitter Love Songs

Clean Feed CF 102 CD

Open Loose

Strange Unison

Radio Legs RL 013

By Ken Waxman

Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch.

Someone who has been on the cutting edge since the 1960s, British saxophonist Evan Parker brings his questing spirit to the emblematically titled A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves, Another Timbre at06 Parker’s soprano saxophone is framed by shimmering, pulsating and whirling percussion and electronics. The other musicians – all British – are Mark Wastell playing tam-tam, metal percussion and harmonium, Graham Halliwell using computer and electronics; and Max Eastley on arc, an electro-acoustic monochord.

The unyielding drones from arc and harmonium create the sonic bed on which these improvisations rest. Additional electronic prestidigitation from Halliwell means that Parker’s carefully measured vibrations are seconded by lyrical trills reconstituted from his own output.

Although the saxophonist’s unhurried modulations announce their distinctive presence as they peep from among the seeping tones, all the players reach resolution on “The Chessboard Cherry Tree”. Here turbidity is shattered by ear-wrenching percussion abrasions and crackling electronic wave forms. Most distinctively, Parker’s aviary slurs coagulate and multiply with circular breathing. Utilizing ghost notes and flutter tonguing, his phrases color and connect the proceedings. Eventually the others’ blurred harmonies bond with understated reed trills for a satisfying climax.

If Parker finesses his polyphonic tones than New Orleans-based tenor-saxophonist Kidd Jordan burns through his with molten energy. Unlike Parker, Jordan performs infrequently in Canada. You can hear why this is a loss on LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland Flying Note FNCD 9012, where his unbridled improvising is showcased. Associates of the septuagenarian saxophonist are percussionist Newman Taylor Barker and Kali Z. Fasteau, who expresses herself on mizmar, piano, flute, cello, synthesizer, violin, drums and soprano saxophone.

Announcing themselves on “Trance Dance”, Baker rumbles, pops and rebounds, as Fasteau scrapes, stops and strums the piano’s strings before turning to modal chording. For his part, Jordan divides his sheets of sound between screeching that abuts dog-whistle territory, and slurred, subterranean growls.

Additional mass is added elsewhere when Fasteau packs performances with thick synthesizer reverberations, screechy cello lines or, drumming, joins Baker in producing press rolls. Meanwhile Jordan ratchets from his horn’s top to tip in a nanosecond, utilizing vibrated split tones, double-tongued flattement and side-slipping. With Jordan expelling staccato, free-form patterns and Fasteau utilizing her soprano saxophone’s pinched, ney-like tone, “Sound Science” is another effective track; timbres brush up against one another as identical notes appear in different pitches.

Another improviser who tours as frequently as Parker is guitarist Scott Fields. Chicago-born, Fields moved to Köln, Germany a few years back. On the witty Bitter Love Songs Clean Feed CF 102 CD, he leads a trio completed by a Portuguese rhythm section: bassist Sebastian Gramss and drummer João Lobo. Fields’ compositions, which match liquid guitar runs, slinky bass lines and on-the-beat drumming, are still at variance with their sardonic titles.

For instance “My Love is Love, Your Love is Hate” features a spinning staccato theme from Fields that is stretched with slurred fingering until it seems that it will rupture, but doesn’t. Working in double counterpoint, the massed strings join to produce a barrage of notes, with Fields sounding as if he’s playing microtonally and Gramss slapping a backbeat. Meanwhile Lobo’s flams precede an intermezzo for ringing guitar licks. Note clusters are lobbed between the players on “You Used to Say I Love You but So What Now”. But the strategy is different. Fields’ contrapuntal chording skirts C&W picking, while Gramss resonates handfuls of low-pitched timbres. Eventually as the bassist settles on legato pacing, Fields wraps up with echoing, blues-based licks.

Gramss’ bass work owes its suppleness to sonic extensions from older bass specialists such as New York’s Mark Helias, who has recorded in Toronto. His Open Loose band includes drummer Tom Rainey and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby.

On Strange Unison, Radio Legs RL 013, while the three interlock instrumentally, Helias’ bass nevertheless set the pace, with resonations ranging from traditional slap bass to staccatissimo runs. Master of understatement, Rainey blunts the backbeat, relying on cymbal cracks and cross-pulsating drags. Skirting atonality with flutter tonguing and pressurized overblowing, Malaby digs into each composition. “Silent Stutter”, for example, finds him masticating hard and heavy slurs into clusters which are subsequently expelled as foghorn blats. In contrast, “Blue Light Down the Line” is taken mid-tempo. As the bassist’s walking is succeeded by mercurial stopping, Malaby builds concentrated phrases. Soon physicality is replaced by moderato coloration as timbres puffed by the saxophone are doubled with arco swipes.

Another vibrant improvised music scene is Chicago’s, spearheaded by reedist Ken Vandermark, a frequent Canadian visitor. Like other established players, Vandermark mentors younger players, one of whom is bass clarinetist Jason Stein. A Calculus of Loss Clean Feed CF 104 CD demonstrates what Stein can do on his own, backed by Kevin Davis’s cello and Mike Pride’s percussion.

As cohesive as the other groups here, one of the trio’s advantages is that Davis takes either the front-line guitar or rhythm-section bass role. The other is that Pride’s percussion includes resonating vibraphone tinctures, cantilevered cymbal patterns plus standard drum beats.

Compositions such as “Caroline and Sam” and “That’s Not a Closet” confirm the three are as comfortable with New music as new Swing. Balanced on vibes reverberations and scratched cello strings, the former connects a near-madrigal melody with extended techniques as Stein sounds an intractable phrase in his body tube ignoring key movement. Based on mood, rather than rhythm, the result is contemplative without sinking to lugubriousness. On the other hand, “That’s Not…” is sprightly enough to suggest mainstream swing, although Stein’s roistering coloratura lines alternating with jagged runs aren’t a standard scenario. Melodious, variations moderate the pace so Davis’ plinks and Pride’s cymbal pops are audible in its resolution.

Some of these players may be on stage this month; others may take a while to visit the area. All are worth hearing.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #9

June 6, 2008

Evan Parker-Mark Wastell-Graham Halliwell-Max Eastley

A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves
Another Timbre at06

Kidd Jordan/Kali Z. Fasteau

LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland

Flying Note FNCD 9012

Scott Fields

Bitter Love Songs

Clean Feed CF 102 CD

Open Loose

Strange Unison

Radio Legs RL 013

Jason Stein

A Calculus of Loss

Clean Feed CF 104 CD

By Ken Waxman

Arguments exist as to the commercial benefits of free trade agreements. But musicians wish similar treaties existed for their trade. In the period since NFTA, for instance, the ability of performers to travel across borders has become worse. That’s what makes festival season important. Foreign performers ranging from respected veterans to savvy tyros get Canadian exposure. Recent CDs here capture older jazzers’ alchemy and suggest newer players to watch.

Someone who has been on the cutting edge since the 1960s, British saxophonist Evan Parker brings his questing spirit to the emblematically titled A Life Saved By a Spider and Two Doves, Another Timbre at06 Parker’s soprano saxophone is framed by shimmering, pulsating and whirling percussion and electronics. The other musicians – all British – are Mark Wastell playing tam-tam, metal percussion and harmonium, Graham Halliwell using computer and electronics; and Max Eastley on arc, an electro-acoustic monochord.

The unyielding drones from arc and harmonium create the sonic bed on which these improvisations rest. Additional electronic prestidigitation from Halliwell means that Parker’s carefully measured vibrations are seconded by lyrical trills reconstituted from his own output.

Although the saxophonist’s unhurried modulations announce their distinctive presence as they peep from among the seeping tones, all the players reach resolution on “The Chessboard Cherry Tree”. Here turbidity is shattered by ear-wrenching percussion abrasions and crackling electronic wave forms. Most distinctively, Parker’s aviary slurs coagulate and multiply with circular breathing. Utilizing ghost notes and flutter tonguing, his phrases color and connect the proceedings. Eventually the others’ blurred harmonies bond with understated reed trills for a satisfying climax.

If Parker finesses his polyphonic tones than New Orleans-based tenor-saxophonist Kidd Jordan burns through his with molten energy. Unlike Parker, Jordan performs infrequently in Canada. You can hear why this is a loss on LIVE at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland Flying Note FNCD 9012, where his unbridled improvising is showcased. Associates of the septuagenarian saxophonist are percussionist Newman Taylor Barker and Kali Z. Fasteau, who expresses herself on mizmar, piano, flute, cello, synthesizer, violin, drums and soprano saxophone.

Announcing themselves on “Trance Dance”, Baker rumbles, pops and rebounds, as Fasteau scrapes, stops and strums the piano’s strings before turning to modal chording. For his part, Jordan divides his sheets of sound between screeching that abuts dog-whistle territory, and slurred, subterranean growls.

Additional mass is added elsewhere when Fasteau packs performances with thick synthesizer reverberations, screechy cello lines or, drumming, joins Baker in producing press rolls. Meanwhile Jordan ratchets from his horn’s top to tip in a nanosecond, utilizing vibrated split tones, double-tongued flattement and side-slipping. With Jordan expelling staccato, free-form patterns and Fasteau utilizing her soprano saxophone’s pinched, ney-like tone, “Sound Science” is another effective track; timbres brush up against one another as identical notes appear in different pitches.

Another improviser who tours as frequently as Parker is guitarist Scott Fields. Chicago-born, Fields moved to Köln, Germany a few years back. On the witty Bitter Love Songs Clean Feed CF 102 CD, he leads a trio completed by a Portuguese rhythm section: bassist Sebastian Gramss and drummer João Lobo. Fields’ compositions, which match liquid guitar runs, slinky bass lines and on-the-beat drumming, are still at variance with their sardonic titles.

For instance “My Love is Love, Your Love is Hate” features a spinning staccato theme from Fields that is stretched with slurred fingering until it seems that it will rupture, but doesn’t. Working in double counterpoint, the massed strings join to produce a barrage of notes, with Fields sounding as if he’s playing microtonally and Gramss slapping a backbeat. Meanwhile Lobo’s flams precede an intermezzo for ringing guitar licks. Note clusters are lobbed between the players on “You Used to Say I Love You but So What Now”. But the strategy is different. Fields’ contrapuntal chording skirts C&W picking, while Gramss resonates handfuls of low-pitched timbres. Eventually as the bassist settles on legato pacing, Fields wraps up with echoing, blues-based licks.

Gramss’ bass work owes its suppleness to sonic extensions from older bass specialists such as New York’s Mark Helias, who has recorded in Toronto. His Open Loose band includes drummer Tom Rainey and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby.

On Strange Unison, Radio Legs RL 013, while the three interlock instrumentally, Helias’ bass nevertheless set the pace, with resonations ranging from traditional slap bass to staccatissimo runs. Master of understatement, Rainey blunts the backbeat, relying on cymbal cracks and cross-pulsating drags. Skirting atonality with flutter tonguing and pressurized overblowing, Malaby digs into each composition. “Silent Stutter”, for example, finds him masticating hard and heavy slurs into clusters which are subsequently expelled as foghorn blats. In contrast, “Blue Light Down the Line” is taken mid-tempo. As the bassist’s walking is succeeded by mercurial stopping, Malaby builds concentrated phrases. Soon physicality is replaced by moderato coloration as timbres puffed by the saxophone are doubled with arco swipes.

Another vibrant improvised music scene is Chicago’s, spearheaded by reedist Ken Vandermark, a frequent Canadian visitor. Like other established players, Vandermark mentors younger players, one of whom is bass clarinetist Jason Stein. A Calculus of Loss Clean Feed CF 104 CD demonstrates what Stein can do on his own, backed by Kevin Davis’s cello and Mike Pride’s percussion.

As cohesive as the other groups here, one of the trio’s advantages is that Davis takes either the front-line guitar or rhythm-section bass role. The other is that Pride’s percussion includes resonating vibraphone tinctures, cantilevered cymbal patterns plus standard drum beats.

Compositions such as “Caroline and Sam” and “That’s Not a Closet” confirm the three are as comfortable with New music as new Swing. Balanced on vibes reverberations and scratched cello strings, the former connects a near-madrigal melody with extended techniques as Stein sounds an intractable phrase in his body tube ignoring key movement. Based on mood, rather than rhythm, the result is contemplative without sinking to lugubriousness. On the other hand, “That’s Not…” is sprightly enough to suggest mainstream swing, although Stein’s roistering coloratura lines alternating with jagged runs aren’t a standard scenario. Melodious, variations moderate the pace so Davis’ plinks and Pride’s cymbal pops are audible in its resolution.

Some of these players may be on stage this month; others may take a while to visit the area. All are worth hearing.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #9

June 6, 2008

Simon Nabatov-Tom Rainey

Steady Now
Leo CD LR 463

Reducing their 15-year association in larger groups to its essence, Russian-American pianist Simon Nabatov and American drummer Tom Rainey combine for this nine-track recital, which skirts keyboard glibness to exhilarate.

Prodigiously educated, Nabatov so dominates his instrument – which here is extended with preparations and primitive electronics – that it’s often difficult for him to hold back. Considering he’s held his own with heavy hitters like German trombonist Nils Wogram and Dutch drummer Han Bennink that’s no surprise. Resonating note clusters, slinky vamps and contrapuntal passing chords ooze from his fingers along with key clipping, basso explorations plus struck and strummed internal string patterns. On “Não Olhe Para Trás”, a quasi bossa nova for instance, he affixes stride variations and atonal contrasting dynamics onto the Latinesque theme. Elsewhere he references Romantic Era crescendos, Monkish note-bending and pumping ragtime lines – sometimes on the same track.

Accomplished back-up for saxophonist Tim Berne and bassist Mark Helias, Rainey’s the perfect foil. Actively rumbling, striking, slapping and bouncing his foreshortened beats, contrapuntally he encourages the pianist, yet simultaneously restrains him.

Listed at 6:14, but really more than 14 minutes long, “Fare Well” is the CD’s high point. After Nabatov organizes a smattering of slower phrases into a vibrating near- bluesy line, he spends time unraveling the repetitive theme. Following a one-minute pause, as Rainey sounds bongo-like rhythms, the pianist deconstructs the exposition with flashing tremolo passages, scrambling from fortissimo runs to rickety-tick slaps until the tune quietly evaporates.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For CODA Issue 330

January 1, 2007

MALABY/SANCHEZ/RAINEY

Alive in Brooklyn Vol. 2
Sarama Records No #

MARK HELIAS' OPEN LOOSE
Atomic Clock
Radio Legs RL 012

By Ken Waxman

What a difference one musician makes. Both these sessions were recorded two months apart in the same Brooklyn club by the same engineer and with two of three players on both discs. So why then does ATOMIC CLOCK tick with barely repressed animation, while ALIVE IN BROOKLYN seems to meander?

However facile the answer may seem, responsibility shouldn’t rest with Angelica Sanchez, who plays electric piano in place of Mark Helias’ bass, featured on the first disc. Sanchez, a fine pianist and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s spouse, obviously has a close bond with him. Drummer Tom Rainey, the last member of the trio has played with both husband and wife for years. In truth there’s also some sameness on ATOMIC CLOCK since, except for one track, where Open Loose is joined by Ellery Eskelin, its previous tenor player, there aren’t that many textures that three instruments can wring from a limited sound field.

What does separate the two dates is duration and conception. One hour long, the fully improvised ALIVE IN BROOKLYN finds the trio zigzagging through four over-long pieces, the briefest of which is slightly less than 12 minutes. ATOMIC CLOCK showcases 10 shorter numbers – all but one written by Helias – in less than 56 minutes with the lengthiest fewer than nine minutes. But there’s more to the disconnect than that.

While Open Loose is the long-time working group of Helias, the other trio appears to be conceived of as a snug respite from the road. Since Sanchez has toured with drummers Kevin Norton and Susie Ibarra, and Rainey works with everyone from altoist Tim Berne to trumpeter Herb Robertson, this local gig may be a little too homey.

Filled with fluttering split tones in the saxophonist’s case and broken octave accompaniment from the other two, the playing seems spread too thin, Disconnected and distracted tones are daubed onto the creations as with a butter knife, but they lack the sharp pointed pressure of cutting improvisation.

Phrasing with gritty flutters and split tones, Malaby’s sonic exposition seems almost endless here. Reed biting, hissing and growling his choked tones modulate from widely vibrated Trane-like distortions to thin squealing slurs. In response, Rainey often confines himself to rumbles, shuffles and rolls while popping and rubbing his drum tops. Sanchez’s chording may be organic, but it’s low-frequency as well. Slurred harmonies seep from the electric Wurlitzer along with cadenzas of impressionistic mini-melodies.

With quicker tempos, like some of Sonny Rollins’ 1960s trio work, the tunes on ATOMIC CLOCK lope along with the three players in polyphonic unison. More animated here, Malaby’s output bounds from slurred tugboat-like honks pulsated from the ocean floor up to split tone and pitch-sliding tremolo yelps. Rainey supplies rebounding ratamacues and press rolls – some apparently smacked by palms not drum sticks – while the bassist appears double-gaited. His staccato double stopping accelerates to flamenco-like strumming, while his arco interface is usually sul ponticello or col legno.

On his own, the tenor saxophonist’s tone references pre-modern Lester Young- with slurry tongue stops. Frequently too he slides into a groaning mid-register until it splinters into abrasive reed-shattering timbres and groans. “Modern Scag”, which adds Eskelin, is more of the same. No pitched tenor battle in the Lockjaw Davis-Johnny Griffin or even Al Cohn and Zoot Sims mould, both horn tones are breathy. Placid, and melodious, the two play side-by-side with Malaby’s distinctive pinched flattement confirming his identity.

Even “Plantini”, the climatic longest track doesn’t vary much from the formula. Moving at a canter, it features Malaby’s alto-pitched vamping lines in harmony with Helias’ walking bass. Eventually on top of rhythmic loops from Rainey, the saxman upticks to shredded spit tones and irregular punctuation, followed by a sweeping rubato line that squeaks from high pitches down to overblowing and mouth tremors.

Awash with more emotion than the other CD, ATOMIC CLOCK may attract listeners who follow any of the players. Still it would seem that more passion and color would improve both sessions.

Track Listing: Alive: 1. Ventriliquism 2 …the other ear 3. L’avenir 4. Pincherama

Personnel: Alive: Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone); Angelica Sanchez (electric piano); Tom Rainey (drums)

Track Listing: Atomic: 1. Subway 2. Chavez 3. Cinematic 4. Momentum Interrupted 5. Modern Scag* 6. Atomic Clock 7. Plantini 8. What Up 9. Zerphyr 10. Many Nows

Personnel: Atomic: Tony Malaby and Ellery Eskelin* (tenor saxophones); Mark Helias (bass); Tom Rainey (drums and percussion)

September 25, 2006

HERB ROBERTSON NY DOWNTOWN ALL STARS

Elaboration
Clean Feed CF042 CD

Organized to bring out the best qualities of trumpeter Herb Robertson’s more-than-48-minute composition when it was performed at the Vancouver (British Columbia) Jazz Festival, the NY Downtown All Stars is no misnomer.

Each of he players has a long history with one another, and all – with the exception of drummer Tom Rainey – have frequently recorded as leaders. Alto saxophonist Tim Berne has been had his own bands since the early 1980s, around the time he first met the drummer and the brassman, both of whom have played in his combos. Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, who has a long-standing affiliation with another downtowner, violinist Mark Feldman, has worked with Robertson since the mid-1990s. As for bassist Mark Dresser, now teaching at the university level in California, his associations on both coasts run the gamut from multi-reedman Anthony Braxton to pianist Satoko Fujii – and everyone in between.

Not as well known as he should be, Robertson, who plays trumpet, cornet, mutes and megaphone here, has lived in both Europe and the United States and contributed distinctive brass tones to ensembles ranging from British bassist Barry Guy’s orchestra to the New Winds with flutist Robert Dick and woodwind player Ned Rothenberg to drummer Gerry Hemingway’s combos.

An all-out player and writer, ELABORATION is a particularly memorable showcase for his talents. Made up of tutti, thematic passages, as well as places where the quintet divides into different duos and trios, it uses all the variables implicit in the quintet’s playing without every lapsing into a string of flamboyant solos. Voiced so that the ensemble sounds as if it’s much larger than a mere five pieces, equal attention is focused on each member of the band.

With an exposition made up of wiggling blocs of reed tones and low-frequency piano cadences, “Elaboration” soon segues into a duet between Courvoisier’s chording and Robertson blowing plunger tones. Double-tongued, smeared vibrations from Berne mix with a walking bass line from Dresser, interrupted for col legno swipes, succeeds the initial duet. As the piece develops, the bassist’s double stopping and prepared piano scrapes and soundboard clinks and clicks make room for whining megaphone textures and reed tongue slaps.

A demarcation of protracted silence one-third of the way through finds the pianist soloing with recital hall correctness until understated drum bounces and harmonized trumpet and alto saxophone lines cut the tempo in half. Eventually triple counterpoint, call-and-response from the horns and double bass develop, until a martial figure from Rainey redirects the piece towards patterning piano and growled brass. This continues as a sub-motif beneath the major articulated theme inflated by Courvoisier’s vamps that literally shake items inserted in the instrument’s speaking length.

Berne’s repetition of the thematic figure here in an almost tenor saxophoneish timbre contrasts nicely with Robertson’s piercing plunger elaboration of the same motif. The pianist’s extended shifting dynamics coalesce into a solo that finds her working from one side of the keyboard to the other, sonorously darkening the lowest quadrant, then subsequently giving way to widely spaced growls and whinnies from Robertson’s cornet. Around them are calm-shattering reedy trills and tongue slaps from Berne and Rainey producing bare-handed conga drums-like bounces and ruffs.

Preparing for the resolution, the distinctive instrumental textures in the concluding section divide into sluiced glottal punctuation from the saxophone, mouthpiece tongue kisses from Robertson, spiccato lines from Dresser, rumbles and slaps from Rainey and flashing harmonic patterns from Courvoisier. Building up to a tutti finale, both the trumpeter and pianist append a single note coda.

Robertson may be helped by his friends here, but his composing and playing shape their contributions into a imposing whole.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Elaboration

Personnel: Herb Robertson (trumpet, cornet, mutes and megaphone); Tim Berne (alto saxophone); Sylvie Courvoisier (piano and prepared piano); Mark Dresser (bass); Tom Rainey (drums)

January 23, 2006

BIG SATAN

Souls Saved Hear
Thirsty Ear THI 5751.2

MS4
Smash the Tomatoes
ILK q04.1

Catapulting drum rhythms, chiming guitar runs and inventive saxophone lines unite this American trio and Danish quartet. But each has worked out its own way to mold the excitement of rock and adroit improvisations without falling into the trap of splashy fusion.

The secret of success seems to involve original compositions from more than one band member, an imaginative fretman, a laid-back drummer and a subtle reedist. Yet interestingly enough, the young Danes and slightly older Americans are affiliated in such a way that the MS4 could be siblings of Big Satan.

Both guitarist Mark Solborg and reedist Anders Banke lived in New York -- Big Satan’s stomping ground -- before returning to Copenhagen. In the Apple they were part of the so-called downtown scene that includes Satan’s saxist Tim Berne, drummer Tom Rainey and sometimes guitarist Marc Ducret. Berne himself has done projects with Danish musicians, including saxophonist Lotte Anker who also employs Solborg. Meanwhile, Paris-based Big Satanist Ducret is featured on MS4’s drummer Stefan Pasborg’s first solo CD, TOXIKUM (ILK TCB 004).

One shouldn’t make too much of the connection however. After all, MS4’s bassist Jeppe Skovbakke, one of the busiest in Copenhagen, plays with a clutch of local groups, as well as visitors like American saxist George Garzone. Banke’s gigs include a long-time commitment to Pierre Dørge’s Jungle Orchestra. On his own, Ducret has played with everyone from French drummer Daniel Humair to American tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby.

All and all though, it’s the taste exhibited by each guitarist and drummer that fully defines the two sessions. SMASH THE TOMATOES’ title tune for instance just skirts head banging. But Pasborg performs a bombast bypass with a shuffle that’s half Reggae and half Second Line, while Solborg introduces distorted lines that simultaneously reflect country picking. Flutter tonguing and reed-biting, Banke adds some sluicing buzzes on top.

Compare that to “Mr. Subliminal” on SOULS SAVED. Written by Berne, it shoehorns many time and tempo changes into the barely more than seven-minute track. Ducret starts things off double flanging with chromatic guitar runs that have plenty of echo. The alp horn-like echoes from the top portion of Berne’s sax soon break into split tones and squeaks so that it almost sounds as if he’s playing the bagpipes. Following that, there’s the intermingling of a second theme that’s all spiky horn lines and slurred guitar tones. Gradually, over a steady undercurrent of paradiddles from Rainey, the guitarist works his way to country music-like licks, while the altoist seems to be sounding out nursery rhyme melodies.

It’s Rainey’s taste and subtly that mute any power trio tendencies on the part of the others. Plus he brings that same restraint to his compositions. “Hostility Suite”, for instance, is a misnomer. Although initially designed as a showcase for Ducret’s wah-wah pedal and his exploration of tapered echoes that could be pre-programmed from a computer, guitar lines and stops and smears from Berne combine into an intermezzo of eiderdown-smooth pulsations and extended legato tones.

Throughout the three demonstrate polyrhythmic accord and overriding numerous counterpoint. Lines intersect and break apart as Rainey’s ratcheting rim shots accompany peeps, flattement and doits from Berne -- to take one example. Or Ducret’s heavy feedback distortion and finger slides meet the drummer’s double time ruffs and flams.

Snaky lines are tossed back-and-forth as on “Ce sont les noms des mots”, where draws back to extended acoustic guitar finger-picking from the fretman finally reveal the theme in legato smears from Berne. Rainey’s understated pulse balance’s the saxist’s altissimo smears and honks plus the guitarist’s distorted reverb until ringing chords complete the hardening and slackening of the theme.

That lead off track has echoes in the CD’s final number, a strategy similar to what unrolls on SMASH THE TOMATOES. More POMO however, both the Danish band’s first and final tracks are constructed out of loops and sine-wave space ship sounds sourced from elsewhere and re-imagined by the guitarist.

Banke’s reed arsenal gives MS4 more scope than Berne’s single horn in Big Satan however. “Toast”, for instance, is a full bore rocker featuring bottom-feeding baritone sax snorts and distorted reverb from the guitar, while “Slow Motion” floats chalumeau clarinet lines on top of strumming guitar fills and spreading ride cymbal textures.

“Unspoken”, a slower-moving power ballad, provides the best showcase for Pasborg’s drumming which moves from chain rattling and manipulation of unselected cymbals to bata-like resonation and eventual metallic cymbal scrapes and faux tam tam rattles. With Banke exhibiting sluicing coloratura clarinet work, Solborg demonstrates his jazzy fingerpicking on “Don Goppel”. Sounding more like Jim Hall than Jimi Hendrix, his work adds to strength to the straightforward, happy number that is held together by Skovbakke’s bass line and could be ascribed to the Hot Club of Denmark.

Skovbakke’s underutilization in anything but a supporting role is one CD weakness, though. The other shortcoming confirms the MS4’s comparative youth. “Bromf”, despite reed-biting squeals and tremolo traffic-jam reverb from the guitarist ends up as an “Iron Man” soundalike, meandering to rock rhythms not the superior jazz-like pulse the band maintains elsewhere.

Still everyone is allowed a few growing pains early in his career. Both these discs prove that harder and faster beats plus electric overtones can create fine discs as long as excesses are held in check.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Smash: 1. Welcome 2. Toast 3. Slow Motion 4. Smash the Tomatoes 5. Two Train Sleepers 6. Bromf 7. Unspoken 8. Don Who? 9. Don Goppel 10. Great Barrier

Personnel: Smash: Anders Banke (alto, tenor and baritone saxophone and clarinets); Mark Solborg (guitar); Jeppe Skovbakke (bass); Stefan Pasborg (drums)

Track Listing: Souls: 1. Ce sont les noms des mots 2. Hostility Suite 3, Geez 4. Rampe 5. Emportez-moi 6. Deadpan 7. Mr. Subliminal 8. Property Shark 9. Plantain Surgery

Personnel: Souls: Tim Berne (alto saxophone); Marc Ducret (acoustic and electric guitars); Tom Rainey (drums)

November 22, 2004

ANGELICA SANCHEZ

Mirror Me
OmniTone 12203

TONY MALABY
Apparitions
Songlines SGL SA 1545-2

Commentators often ascribe a certain innate togetherness to the playing of married couples who record together, which in reality is no more than the sort of sympatico feelings band members can express for one another. More critically, husband and wife musicians can and should develop separate musical personalities.

That’s the fascination and interest in MIRROR ME and APPARITIONS. For while Jersey City, N.J. saxophonist Tony Malaby and pianist Angelica Sanchez have been married since 1998 and together for years before that, their albums aren’t that much similar than any two others by a pianist and saxophonist. The tenor and soprano man may play on his better half’s CD, in fact, but the outcome is different.

Seconded by bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tom Rainey, both of whom have a long-time association with Tim Berne, the pianist’s CD has more of a lyrical quality than Malaby’s. This perhaps relates to her background as a Mexican-American from Arizona who adored Elton John as a teenager and is still a big fan of traditional country music icons like Merle Haggard and Loretta Lynn.

Ethnicity can’t be used as an explanation of everything of course. For Malaby is also a Mexican-American from Tucson. Yet his CD is more hard-edged, with the reedist, best-known for his tenure in bassist Mark Helias’ Open Loose trio, constantly on -- producing reed-testing exhibition along the lines of earlier tenor men like Booker Ervin and Dexter Gordon.

APPARITIONS also lacks the gentling hand of his wife’s piano output. While the highly inventive and subtle Rainey is present so is another drummer, Michael Sarin, who usually splits percussion duties with Rainey in Open Loose. Also, not surprising for a saxist used to playing with first-class bassists like Helias and Mark Dresser, the bass chair here is held down by Drew Gress, whose versatility lands him gigs with players ranging from romantics like pianist Fred Hersch to drummer John Hollenbeck’s post-modern Claudia Quintet.

It’s Gress’s rock-solid bass undercurrent that holds together the 10 tunes on Malaby’s disc, all self-composed, as are the eight pieces on Sanchez’s CD. Unconsciously perhaps echoing those New Thing bands of the 1960s that had two percussionists, the saxman says he used the double trap sets because playing in this structure is “like taking a warm bath, just being surrounded by that sound and falling into it”.

But that means that as early as “Picacho”, Gress’s four square bass line must anchor the serpentine theme as both percussionists bounce cascading rhythms around and back-and-forth -- sometimes sounding as if they’re hand drumming -- and Malaby snorts, rhythmically note bends, and uses semi-squeals to expand his improvisational field.

This southwestern sense of space, visualized both externally and internally helps give some compositions such as the title track a certain borderlessness. Built around an irregular drumbeat and shaking, maracas-like timbres from the percussionists, eventually the four players appear to split into two duos. Gress and Malaby are the second duo, reacting to one another like a couple of ballroom dancers. Although the split tones and whistles Malaby formulates seem to come from his gooseneck more than any other part of his horn, the bassist’s cello-register sweeps and high-on-the-neck plucks amplify and extends the other’s reed work until the crowing theme is reprised.

Living up to its title, “Fast Tip” gets its momentum from the drummers’ supercharged bounces, ruffs and cymbal crashes, while Malaby with his flinty bop-toned honks in double time moves back and forth between chesty centre horn emphasis and light-fingered, frequently expelled squeals.

His ability to spin out chorus after chorus of impenetrable tough tenor timbres à la Ervin is framed in a more traditional setting on “Mambo Chueco”. Rainey and Sarin pound behind him, Gress double stops and Malaby’s airy swing and pronounced slurs evolve into digressions on thematic variations. Among the cross rhythms from the percussionists though, there seems to be a sophisticated display of trading fours until the saxman ends with a foghorn-like vibration.

Recorded 16 months earlier, it appears that Malaby is on hand to toughen up what could be heard as the straightforwardness in Sanchez’s compositions. On “Ajo Comino”, for instance, the line seems to flow on its own momentum until the saxist introduces some offside, obtuse murmuring that livens up what almost sounds like equal temperament from the pianist. Soon she’s splashing out concise, right-handed octaves adding subtle inflections from her left hand every so often. His double tonguing and note squeezes amplify her steady comping throughout.

“Tragón” -- which certainly doesn’t paint a sound picture of her translation of the Spanish as “big slob” -- is another tune based on rolling piano arpeggios. As her fingers skip over the keyboard adding syncopated, seesaw piano lines with striking pedal pressure. Rainey contributes nerve beats and rim shots, Malaby andante alto-like trills and Formanek a speedy doubled-stopping bass solo that moves around the strings until settling into a steady plucked Paul Chambers-like pace.

Here and on his own disc Malaby shows off his reed prowess. Besides regular, well-proportioned tones from his tenor, he’s able to make his soprano and even the bigger horn variously resemble an alto saxophone, a clarinet or a flute. His wavering clarinet tone is especially noticeable on “Mirror me” as is his indefatigable ability to keep sounding variations on the theme. Rainey’s snare and rim shot stylings are as impressive as always, both here and on Malaby’s CD. But he’s such an understated drummer that he doesn’t get the same sort of accolades that routinely go to flashier players.

Other tunes revolve on the counterpoint that the pianist and saxman can produce playing together. However, there’s still the uneasy feeling throughout that if he -- or someone else -- didn’t push her she wouldn’t loosen up hers soloing. That’s why the flashing octave runs she snakes out on “Quick Tipper” are so welcome.

On the downside however there’s one balladic piece and another track where her soloing is half-ECM-like float and half restrained mainstream swing. These are so mired in low frequency vibrations and softer dynamics that they never inspire.

Despite this the couple has produced two agreeable CDs. With is strength and bluster, Malaby’s is stronger. But it’s very likely that Sanchez’s outlook has also toughened up in the 2½ years since her debut disc. Both continue to be young musicians to watch -- and hear.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Apparitions: The Mestizo Suite: 1. Picacho 2. Humo 3. Mambo Chueco 4. Talpa 5. Voladores 6. Fast Tip 7. Apparitions 8. Dos Caminos 9. Jersey Merge 10. Tula

Personnel: Apparitions: Tony Malaby (soprano and tenor saxophones); Drew Gress (bass); Michael Sarin (drums); Tom Rainey (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Mirror: 1. Fresh Hell 2. Wisteria 3. Mirror Me 4. Tragón 6. Quick Tipper 7. Weirdo 8. Ajo Comino

Personnel: Mirror: Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone); Angelica Sanchez (piano); Michael Formanek (bass); Tom Rainey (drums)

February 23, 2004

TIM BERNE

The sublime and. Sciencefrictionlive
Thirsty Ear RHI 57139.2

MARC DUCRET
Qui parle?
Sketch SKE 333038

Leaving well enough alone has never had particular appeal to those involved in creating electrified jazz/rock fusion music. Why keep the volume control knob turned to nine when it can reach 10? And why play for a few minutes when a half-hour or so is available?

Alto saxophonist/composer Tim Berne -- who has proven his talents in many situations ranging from working in standard-size jazz combos to writing for a classical sax quartet -- flirts with excess on this two-CD set, recorded live in Switzerland. While he and drummer Tom Rainey stick to acoustic instruments, the allure of showing off the textures available from Marc Ducret’s guitar(s) and effects and Craig Taborn’s electric piano, laptop computer and virtual organ evidentially prove too seductive. Although in total the Science Friction band session clocks in at 109 minutes, it includes three tunes in the 20-minute range and one that rocks on for more than 30.

Sure the guitarist, keyboardist and saxist are impressive soloists in many contexts, but the acres of aural space seem to encourage combative immoderation, Because of this, Rainey, who is the most understated percussionist in other groups led by Berne or bassist Mark Helias, comes off best here. While his beat is as unflagging as it is inventive, he keeps his kit action under control, wallowing for only split seconds in the sort of jarring John Bonhamism that seem to be stock-in-trade for authentic fusion drummers.

Rainey may avoid Bonham comparisons, but there are points here that with his distortion phasers and flangers turned on full blast that Ducret appears to be trying to trump not only Bonham’s Led Zepplin partner Jimmy Page, but the effects master Page replaced in the Yardbirds: Jeff Beck.

The situation is slightly more balanced on the guitarist’s solo disc, QUI PARLE? But as hinted at by the title, there are often times you wonder just who is speaking ... or improvising. Featuring more than a dozen additional musicians in various combinations working with Ducret and his usual rhythm section of bassist Bruno Chevillon and percussionist Éric Échampard, the guitarist seems intent on existing as musical fish, fowl and most mammals in between somewhere on the 10 tracks. There are plenty of examples of the rock-jazzer who loves Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, but more impressively there are also bouncy gigues, flirtations with electronica and musique concrète, plus voices weaving in and out of several tracks as sound sources or reading excerpts from French literature.

On THE SUBLIME, Ducret restraint means that “Jalapeño Diplomacy/Traction” comes across as the best selection. Even at 20 minutes plus, he fittingly restricts himself to merely showcasing his effects rather than trumpeting the wretched excess of which his axe is very capable. A groove tune with a freer tempo, it features a guitar showcase that include reverb lines morphing into duple picking in both treble and bass registers, steady flat picking in an almost Country music style and Ducret flailing away on portions of the strings below the bridge. Here, Berne, who earlier plays at the top of his range, then takes off on a stop time display of slurred reed biting, split tones and irregular vibrato, with only Rainey’s pounding behind him. When he introduces brassy spetrofluctuation and textures seemingly pushed out of the sax bow, these mix with Taborn’s flashing octaves and are given an organ vamp from his electronics and nerve beats from the drummer. Finally the tempo slows to chiming chord patterns with a rolling backbeat shading Berne’s almost endlessly repeated lines.

On the other hand, at more than 30 minutes alone -- the length of some single LPs -- “Mrs. Subliminal/Clownfinger” unrolls at an excessive length and is literally exhausting. Maybe live the vibe was more exciting. On disc though, the tune starts off slowly with chirruped a cappella sax notes, then as the tempo gradually picks up, keyboard continuum and double time rattles and cymbal reverberations appear. Soon Ducret takes over, introducing loud, pulsing sequencer delays that turn to resonating, Sputnik-type signals. Sounding out abrasive, bottleneck tones, the guitarist seems to be using a phaser to double and triple his feedback. Taborn wedges in fleet, but fleshy electric piano timbres and Berne sounds out a repeated 15-note pattern, that is given added weight by Ducret’s flanging. Rainey tries to move the piece away from onanism by playing a broken rhythm tattoo on his rims, which encourages more assured and abstract smeared tones from Berne. But with Ducret reentering with the volume and protrusion of a jet plane landing, the guitarist’s arching feedback and quivering wah-pedal distortion encourages more sax squeaks and surmounted keyboard electronic impulses. Soon the droning pulses and lead guitar shimmies coalesce into a mass of chunky strums and pinched reed trills.

“Stuckon U” -- semi-balladic, but “not the Elvis version”, according to Berne -- at least gives Taborn some space for faint organ-like tremolos, some outer-spacey oscillating distortions from the electronic parts of the keyboard and some high-pitched celeste-like sounds. But again his two hands, Rainey’s tick-tock drumming and Berne’s rounded tones are no match for Ducret’s reverb or fuzztones that seem to have migrated over from a Yardbirds’ session.

“The Shell Game” at a tich below 24 minutes, is more of the same, with Taborn’s harpsichord approximations and Berne’s relaxed chirps and breezy lines intermittently audible among Ducret’s chiming, echoing riffs. In response to an irregular drumbeat, at the point when Berne introduces rough reed-biting tones and doits, Ducret turns up his volume knob and almost doubles the tempo. Riffs flash through the amplifiers as if the guitarist was channeling Alvin Lee’s speedy performance at the Woodstock Festival, and Taborn vamps organ-like chords. Even Rainey begins hitting parts of his kit individually, working out on the rims for a time, pounding the bass drum at another and coming up with what sounds like a whirl drum at another juncture. Heavy as a metal band’s output, the sounds reach a crescendo than fade away without resolution.

On his own Ducret has created a 75-minute CD that gets progressively more impressive as it goes along. Yet the convincing experimentation of the disc’s second half may not be enough to negate the self-indulgence that mars first few tunes.

Starting form the top, “Double Entendre” is nearly 12½ minutes of bouncy syncopation along the lines of what you’d expect from Continental little big bands. With both Échampard and second percussionist François Verly laying down what could be two-beat Dixieland drumming, the guitar licks and electric piano vamps from Benoît Delbecq and Allie Delfau float along on a continuum provided by Chevillon’s slap bass and Michel Massot’s huffing tuba. Then, while the snaking tempo speeds up, trumpeter Alain Vankenhove waves his plunger mute and bends his notes. Soon as the oral instruments unite in the approximation of a 19th century brass choir, the pianos stay in the 21st, creating off-centre, high frequency glisses and slides. Above all, with percussion ratcheting behind him, Ducret buzzes out some distorted lead guitar riffs.

Also impressive are the two time-traveling versions of “Emportez-moi”, which clock in at more than 11 minutes each. The first features Chevillon’s low-tone arco inventions that are amplified with cello-like legato lines from second bassist Hélène Labarrière. With simple drum and cymbal patterns in the background, Ducret picks out a simple folkloric melody made up of finger patterns and near blues tones on his acoustic. The pre-suicide correspondence of Henriette Vogel and Heinrich von Kleists from 1811 is read in French by Leslie Sévenier and Philippe Agaël to the melancholy, pedal point accompaniment of Thierry Madiot’s bass trombone, ending the piece with a brass respiration and a bass pluck.

In contrast, the composition’s second run through is definitely POMO. Beginning with Anne Magouët singing the poem of Henri Michaux (1899-1984), a Belgian-born, experimental painter, journalist, and poet, dual acoustic pianos spin out accompaniment potentially designed for plainsong. Then the piece opens up to showcase contorted electronic guitar riffs. As a secondary theme is sounded by bass trombone, double-stopping bass and shaded electric piano ostinato, a dramatic male voice reads an existential passage from Dans la labyrinthe, Alain Robbe-Grillet’s nouveau roman.

Somehow linked to buzzing rhythm box textures courtesy of Verly, mirrored electric piano tone and a cowbell emphasized montuno rhythm, another labyrinthe passage appears on “Ce sont les noms des mots”. But what it has to do with buzzing, sampler sine waves, pinpointed flat-picking from Ducret and a harsh syncopated melody is anyone’s guess.

Then there’s “Double, Simple”, where Ducret, playing simple rhythm guitar licks and Dominique Pifarély playing highly amplified, near-operatic violin glissandos prove that amplification and good ideas don’t make them Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grapelli. Plus there’s “L’Annexe (rural)”, which simply proves that Ducret can produce a bottleneck blues solo.

That’s not the least of the downhill turns. Abrasive guitar chording, artillery battalion drumming and slushy keyboard fill that role on other tracks, often appearing as if they migrated in from a 1970s Herbie Hancock session. Longest piece, “L’Annexe” evidentially tries to squeeze almost every influence together at once; the result is similar to trying to shove an elephant through a meat grinder. Africanized hand percussion, rock-style drumming, thumping bas guitar and riffing Stax-Volt horns make their appearance, with the guitar so abusing the pulsating delay effects and extended fuzztones that he almost drowns out everyone else. When the counter theme twists itself into a boogaloo, the brass and reed players contort themselves into retching out fowl (sic) cries and monkey gibbering. The end finds Ducret abusing his delay pedal to outline some cavernous, echoing solid state color.

Excess may succeed in limited situations like live concerts or truncated single releases. But, while no one is disputing their talent, technique or leadership, both Berne and Ducret could have stripped away surplus sounds and notes to produce more satisfying outings instead of the results here.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: sublime: CD1: 1. Van Gundy’s Retreat 2. The Shell Game 3. Mrs. Subliminal/Clownfinger CD 2 1. Smallfry 2. Jalapeño Diplomacy/Traction 3. Stuckon U (for Sarah)

Personnel: sublime: Tim Berne (alto saxophone); Marc Ducret (guitar); Craig Taborn (electric piano, laptop computer and virtual organ); Tom Rainey (drums)

Track Listing: Qui: 1. On new peut pas dancer, là-dessus*+ #& 2. Le menteur*+ 3. L’Annexe (rural) 4. L’Annexe*+ 5. Qui parle?~ 6. Emportez-moi*#&^~$ 7. Double Entendre*+#& 8. Ce sont les noms des mots*#^$ 9. Double Simple 10. Emportez-moi#&^$

Personnel: Qui: Alain Vankenhove (trumpet, bugle)*; Yves Robert (trombone track1); Michel Massot (tuba, serpent, trombone)+; Thierry Madiot (bass trombone [tracks 6 ands 8]); Julien Lourau (tenor saxophone [tracks 1 and 7]); Christophe Monniot (alto and baritone saxophones [tracks 1 and 4]); Marc Ducret (six and 12-string electric, fretless, soprano, baritone and acoustic guitars); Dominique Pifarély (violin [track 9]); Benoît Delbecq#; Allie Delfau& (piano, electric piano, sampler)&; Hélène Labarrière (bass)^; Bruno Chevillon (bass and electric bass [all tracks but 3, 5, 9 and 10]); Éric Échampard (drums and percussion [all tracks but 3, 5, 9 and 10]);); François Verly (percussion and rhythm box [track 8]); Anne Magouët (vocals [track 10]); Leslie Sévenier~, Philippe Agaël$, Laurence Blasco [track 1] (voices)

January 26, 2004

MARK HELIAS’ OPEN LOOSE

Verbs Of Will
Radio Legs RL 011

DAY AND TAXI
Private
Percaso 20

Differences that exist between these two saxophone-bass-and-drums sessions hinge less on the fact that one trio is Swiss and one American, than the comparisons extant from a working group and a newly constituted one.

Bassist Mark Helias’ Open Loose trio has been around for awhile, with tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Tom Rainey filling it out for the past couple of years. VERB OF WILLS is a record of how the three sounded after playing together for weeks on an extended West Coast tour.

Guiding force behind Day & Taxi -- which despite the name always has three members -- is Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio, who composed the 13 pieces here. Over the past 15 years the soprano and alto saxophonist has worked with various rhythm teams and PRIVATE is the first CD featuring new partners, bassist Daniel Studer and drummer Marco Käppeli.

Tight as a drum which Rainey wields with extraordinary sensitivity, Open Loose (the band) is another modern mainstream group, or one that should be heard that way if the neo-cons weren’t so busy turning the clock back musically -- and politically too, come to think of it.

Helias, who has shown his mettle in situations ranging from a bass duo with Mark Dresser to membership in Oliver Lake’s big band, is the rhythmic force here whose presence is more felt than heard. The bassist, who also wrote most of the tunes, invested them with enough tempo changes and alterations to keep things interesting. Saxophonist Malaby, who also leads his own band, varies his tone from smooth, near-alto-like to chesty, traditional tenor, with his playing straightahead as often as it’s experimental.

“Give Up The Ghost”, for instance, is a foot-tapper with a loping beat, that finds the saxman quickly moving from standard phrasing to pauses, slurs, double timing and triple tongue ornamentation. Helias’ expansive bass line holds onto the beat, as Malaby uses his light-toned upper register to initially state and later reprise the theme. “Let’s Roll One”, on the other hand, is freer, with bell vibrations and note shards characterizing the tenorist’s split tones that meet up with quick drum thwacks from Rainey, who has also worked extensively with saxophonist Tim Berne.

More enigmatic, “How ‘Bout It”, the longest composition at nearly eight minutes, has a melody that appears to be midway between that of a TV Cop show theme and Delta blues. Beginning andante, Helias speeds up the tempo for first a walking bass solo, then some plucks with his bow and thumps on his axe’s side and front. Using only the lightest pressure on his cymbals, plus circular wallops on his toms and snare, Rainey is the perfect partner for this output, while also accompanying Malaby’s extended trills.

Then there’s “AKA”, where the reedman floats a surprisingly unruffled and smooth line on top of bowed bass cello-like glissandos. Helias’ piledriver timbres soon transform the tune into a Sonny Rollins-like calypso, including eccentric echoes of “God Save The Queen”. Up in alto range, Malaby also works multiphonics into his solo, but the constantly reprised theme isn’t lost.

Elsewhere Rainey -- understated as always -- approximates the sound of conga drums and wood blocks on “Mistral Angel” where Helias produces buzzing, woody, complementary lines. Meantime Malaby’s usual throaty tone turns quicker and more slurred, shifting into a higher pitch to meet the bull fiddle’s double-stopping pulse.

Leaving North America for Europe, Gallio is someone who says he’s more comfortable in the art scene than the music scene and has close affinity for Continental literature. Here, he has as many dedications for his minimalist tone poems as Ken Vandermark has for his tunes.

Although he has worked with Americans like bassist William Parker and drummer, Rashied Ali, plus Brits like bassist Lindsay Cooper, most of the reedist’s dedications and his orientation is decidedly non-Anglo-American. In terms of comfort level, his wispy Paul Desmond-like alto playing is pretty nondescript, he’s much more individualistic on his tart, Steve Lacy-influenced soprano sax.

Paradoxically, the tunes, ranging from a mere 38 seconds to nearly eight minutes long, are both more experimental than Open Loose’s yet more constrained. But perhaps that’s the Swiss way.

For example, “Quiet Days”, which despite its title is one of the more probing numbers here, finds Gallio expansively furrowing a line more lower-pitched than anything Lacy would imagine, and seeding it with tongue slaps and reed peeps. Studer, who also is part of band that reconstructs standards, slashes at his bass strings, with his bow, while Käppeli, who has also played with countrymen like reedist Hans Koch and cellist Martin Schütz, resorts to rim shots and the clink of his sticks against the side of his drums.

In great contrast, “Laetitia Pop-Corn”, a serpentine, Monk-like melody, was commissioned by a Sicilian label owner for a CD sampler and is dedicated to Swiss porn queen Laetita. Likely using a harder-than-usual reed, Gallio has an onanistic a cappella solos where he trills his ideas until the bowed bass pumps out a suggestion of “It Don’t Mean A Thing...” Studer, who spent nearly 15 years in Rome playing in anarchistic trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini’s quintet ,would likely appreciate this un-Swiss-like humor, as would Käppeli, who has written music for films and theatre and worked as an actor.

A memorial to a drummer-friend who killed himself, “Lament for Matthias” is suitably sombre, built on disconnected drumbeats, wavering soprano line and squeals from the bowed bass. Then there’s “A Postcard for Andreas” and “Save”, two relaxed tone poems alive with the sort of undulating syncopation Helias sometimes creates as well. The second finds Gallio altering his elongated held tone with a bit of spetrofluctuation, smearing out notes in false registers so that its tone begins to resemble that of a taragato. Käppeli’s rhythms on the offbeat add to this Eastern European cast.

The first piece finds the rhythm section initially and metaphorically operating like the caricature of a Swiss pharmaceutical concern under laboratory conditions, with the bassist examining his strings one at a time and the drummer carefully positioning his snare work. It takes the bouncy theme, reprised a few times, to break the serious mood.

Finally “Ann’s Wedding Song” is a joyous ballad using prominent, Latin American-like timbales and a clave pattern, while the bassist tries out a montuno beat. Absorbing Cuban inflections, the reedist plays higher than usual, expresses his emotion with double tonguing and false fingering.

Two trio trysts: each different, each unique and both enjoyable.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Verbs: 1. Detonation 2. Relic 3. How ‘Bout It 4. King Judas 5. AKA 6. Anagram 7. Mistral Angel 8. Give Up The Ghost 9. Let’s Roll One 10. The White Line 11. Hegemony 12. Ekman

Personnel: Verbs: Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone); Mark Helias (bass); Tom Rainey (drums)

Track Listing: Private: 1. Chie 2. Peter Zorro H 3. A Postcard for Andreas 4. Walter & Claudia 5. Save 6. 101 7. Laetitia Pop-Corn 8. Ann’s Wedding Song 9. Quiet Days 10. Emilio’s Party Song 11. Yohji 12. Lament for Matthias 13. Tea for D

Personnel: Private: Christoph Gallio (soprano and alto saxophones); Daniel Studer (bass); Marco Käppeli (drums)

October 27, 2003

XMARSX

XMARSX
Atavistic ALP138CD

TIM BERNE
Science Friction
Screwgun Screwu 013

Just because many -- most? -- of the advances transmitted by jazz-rock fusion had been ground into formula by the early 1980s, doesn’t means that there isn’t scope for exploration with that mixture of highly amplified instruments and improvisation.

Fusion doesn’t have to be what it has become -- bass guitar grandstanding, drummers using more equipment than finesse, and onanistic lead guitar indulgences -- as these two CDs set out to prove. Still its conventions are so strong that you can almost literally hear the musicians struggling to stretch the formula. Whether they prevail is open to interpretation and may depend on your history on the jazz or rock side of the fence.

Interestingly enough, while New York-based alto saxophonist Tim Berne’s crew and Chicago located XMARSX led by tenor saxophonist Mars Williams tackle the conundrum in divergent ways, neither has room for a bass guitar. Jaco Pastorius’ rapid, empty posturing may have retarded the instrument’s growth for many years. Sure Williams has help from Kent Kessler, whose timekeeping would be familiar to the saxophonist from their mutual activity in the NRG Ensemble, Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet and the Vandermark 5. But that bassman merely amplifies his acoustic bass in order to make himself heard, with a band filled out by improv cellist Fred Longberg-Holm and three rockers, most notably charismatic ex-MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, plus guitarist Greg Suran and drummer Dave Suycott of Slam.

Williams has worked both sides of the fence himself. Besides his improv experience, which also included Cinghiale, a reed duo with Vandermark, he was a sidemen with the Psychedelic Furs, Ministry and the Waitresses and now leads the jazz-funk band Liquid Soul.

Berne is firmly identified with jazz and improv, having over the years worked with the likes of saxophonists Julius Hemphill and John Zorn plus ROVA’s Figure 8, guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Joey Baron. Drummer Tom Rainey has been part of many bands with Berne and bassist Mark Helias; while keyboardist Craig Taborn has worked with saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and Berne’s trio. French guitarist Marc Ducret has been associated with Berne for more than a decade, as well as gigging with countrymen like drummer Daniel Humair; and manipulator/processor/guitarist David Torn has been behind the console for Berne’s last few CDs.

Starting in the Midwest, XMARSX’s almost 15 minute “Ultraman vs. Alienmetron” seems to sum up how the rock and jazz impulses vie for primacy. One of the few times when it sounds as if Kessler is playing acoustic bass with an electric pick-up, the piece begins with the bassist and cellist bowing in unison with Williams. Suddenly, the tune explodes into a “Bitches Brew”-style bombast with everyone playing at top speed and volume. Williams’ pitch heads skyward, both plectrumists exhibit some Sonny Sharrock-style chops with heavy electronica overtones and a hint of Third-World exotica. Soon guitar feedback and altissimo screeches combine to become a claxon as one guitarist -- Kramer? -- picks out something closely resembling “Purple Haze”. For a time, it seems as if the 1960s have returned as both fretmen create a classic guitar freakout, with the saxist reprising the theme for the coda. Finally, a full minute of silence is brought to an end by telephone signal bleeps and the reintroduction of the thematic vamp played even louder then before. Anyone got a doobie?

In contrast, “Unstuck” -- one of two Suran compositions -- “Punch the Monkey” and “Ratbastard” stay in rock-jazz --as opposed to jazz-rock territory. Before the guitarist exercises his wah wah pedal, the first piece resembles the sort of instrumental heavy metallers would use to break up a set; the next features screaming guitar feedback and frenzied chording duking it out with sax lines. Most impressively, however, the third manages to incorporate country and avant influences into its basic rock structure. Beginning with a stuttering country guitar feel, fuzztones and off kilter drumming are soon added to the mix. Neither Williams’ chorus of reed kisses nor the integration of constantly intersecting guitar lines make it anyway MTV friendly, though.

Alternately, “The Finger” -- written like all the rest of the material by Williams --sonically offers up the sort of riffs the saxophonist and bassist could play with Vandermark. Horn and cello team with a smoky jazz club feel, as Williams’ vocalized vamps recall Windy City funky saxist Gene Ammons. All the while Kessler is strumming a constant pattern and Suycott banging out a shuffle rhythm. In the end, reed tongue slaps meet guitar feedback, the way trace of psychedelica informed soul-jazz LPs of the 1970s.

Another Chicago reedman who was the epitome of soul jazz was tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris. He’s honored here on a piece bearing his name. Highlighting a slinky rhythm that moves the drummer’s flams to the foreground and the guitars to the back, the tune is given added heft by powerful bass intonation. Employing Harris’ favorite trick of constant theme repetition, Williams’ honks as if it was still 1969, while the ending takes another leaf from the EH songbook by reprising the head in double time.

If part of XMARSX references fusion halcyon days, then SCIENCE FRICTION, true to a variation of its title, tries to interpose even more influences into the genre. Traces of Byrds and Fairport Convention-style folk rock suggest themselves -- though Ducret would never be mistaken for a folkie -- and besides Torn’s electronica and cut-and-paste sound manipulation, Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time and Henry Threadgill’s Very, Very Circus bands join BITCHES BREW as an influence, as does so-called World Music.

The clearest indication of this is on the almost 12½-minute “Manatee Woman” -- an Ornette allusion? Starting off with what sound like electrified percussion, it then encompasses rhythmic guitar licks, speedy hand drumming and Berne in a trilling R&B mode. Imposing here as he is elsewhere on the disc -- Ducret sashays from a strict tempo rock vamp to simple flat picking -- reminiscent of The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn -- to an understated amp buzzing. Simultaneously Rainey is slackening and speeding up the theme and Taborn’s contribution varies from electrified keyboard splashes to dancing near acoustic-sounding piano glissandos.

“Sigh Fry” has the same sort of electric piano sprinkles mixed with diminutive trills from the alto saxophone. In this slow moving tune Rainey produces a straightforward rock band texture mixed with Cuban guiro-like scraping, while the droning electric guitar provides the countermelody.

Conversely, “Mikromaus” and “The Mallomar Maneuvre” appear to be as much Torn’s as Berne’s solo statements. On the first the reedman’s high-pitched lines seem to be filtered through processes so that shimmering clouds of sine waves intersect with a whistling flute-like sound. On the later, ethereal saxophone split tones and smears are distilled through stuttering phase-shifting.

Finally there’s “Clown Finger”, which as you can tell from the sardonic title is one of the tunes Berne wrote or co-wrote. It’s an allegro theme based on splayed electric piano notes and a twisting drum beat, often expressed on rims not heads. Soon all that is pushed aside by Berne and Ducret. With the lowest pitches of the saxophone getting a workout, the guitarist constructs light-fingered electric filigree with suggestions of a Neapolitan mandolin. Although Taborn is at his most melodic, his sustained low notes are hemisected by knife-sharp guitar chords.

There you have it, two attempts to reform fusion, give it a more outside character and bring it into the 21st century. Thought-provoking considering the sources, the CDs deserve to be weighed and considered along with both leaders’ acoustic works.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: XMARSX: 1. The Worm 2. The Finger* 3. Unstuck 4. Eddie Harris* 5. Punch the Monkey* 6. Ratbastard* 7. Floaty 8. Nothin’ Butnet 9. Ultraman vs. Alienmetron*

Personnel: XMARSX: Mars Williams (tenor saxophone); Greg Suran and Wayne Kramer* (guitars); Fred Longberg-Holm (cello)*; Kent Kessler (bass); Dave Suycott (drums, effects, loops)

Track Listing: Science: 1. Huevos 2. IHornet 3. Sigh Fry 4. Manatee Woman 5. Mikromaus 6. Jalapeño Diplomacy 7. The Mallomar Maneuvre 8. Clown Finger

Personnel: Science: Tim Berne (alto saxophone); Marc Ducret (electric and acoustic guitars); Craig Taborn (electric keyboards); Tom Rainey (drums); David Torn (processing and manipulation)

February 10, 2003

MARK HELIAS' OPEN LOOSE

New School
Enja ENJ-9413 2

Mark Helias is a relaxed sort of guy. At least that's what you figure when you see him play, and on evidence of the tunes on this fine CD here.

That doesn't mean that the bassist isn't an intense improviser on stage, or a consummate advanced composer. It's just after 25 years in the jazz trenches, working alongside the likes of Ed Blackwell, Dewey Redman, Ray Anderson and Gerry Hemingway, he doesn't have to keep himself front-and-centre all the time.

He's confident enough in his ability that while Open Loose is definitely his band -- he wrote all the tunes and has his name is on top -- there's more than enough space on this CD to show off the skills of drummer Tom Rainey and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby.

Let's deal with Rainey first. A superlative player who has received a NEA grant to compose and perform percussion music, he also powers other trios such as Fred Hersch's and Tim Berne's Paraphrase. Potentially the most abstruse drummer around, he never gets involved with power games or noise saturation.

When he does get solo space, he certainly doesn't wear out his welcome with extended ramblings. On "Gentle Ben", for instance, which Helias earlier recorded in a trio with Italian saxophonist Daniele D'Agaro, when the tempo doubles, Rainey displays one of his favorite devices, beating out the rhythm with his palms on snare and toms, then using mallets rather than sticks to extend the sound. "Pick and Roll", on the other hand, highlights his often-bifurcated beat. Never resorting to bebop cymbal accents or rock's lead-footed bass drumming, he's restrained enough to suggest the beat through muted snare and foot cymbal work. Like an accomplished bicycle rider he can even impress by performing no hands, propelling movement with foot pedals on cymbal and bass drum. He's so self-effacing, though, that there are even times you have to remind yourself that he's actually on the date.

Malaby, who has also recorded at the head of his own quartet, burrows into most of the music with the dogged determinism of a fighting dog. One of his preferences is to tease and menace the melody as if he's a German shepherd confronting an unwelcome alley cat. Figuring out different ways to approach "Dominos", for instance, he collapses it into linked patterns from different angles. Usually a high register specialist, he spends much of his time meandering along with a pitch that could be confused for an alto's. On "Mapa", for instance, the longest track, he gets involved in a protracted, high-pitched scream, which is interrupted every so often for a breath consolidating low blow from his horn. Then on "Question Time (Knitting or Quitting, Pt. 5)" his constant up-and-down tenor slurs are finally succeeded by one long foghorn-like exposition that is echoed by an unrestrained bass rumble from Helias.

With large, expressive fingers, the bassist is comfortable in most registers. He can match high, violin-like arco parts with Malaby on some tunes, while at other times, like "Startle", his throbbing pizzicato work holds the rhythm steady, giving the other two enough space to roam.

Focus here is on Helias the composer as well as soloist. For the pieces on NEW SCHOOL are written, not spur of the moment improvisations hurriedly thrown together for a recording date. Each has a definite theme and distinct conclusion, with protracted solos kept to a minimum to prevent the proverbial solo tail from waging the compositional dog. One of the bassist's favorite compositional devices is voicing the bowed lower tones of his instrument in unison with the tenor saxophone's bottom range. But that doesn't result is excessive gloominess. In fact, if there's an adjective that could easily be applied to Helias' tunes it's "lope", since most move along at an easy pace.

All and all, the session recorded live at a New York concert last year shows how much can be accomplished with only three standard instruments. Still, one wishes there were more money available to composers like Helias. Three instruments are just that, after all, and with funds available to expand his compositional palate beyond three or four pieces some of the monochromes here could be viewed, or more properly heard, in Technicolor.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Molecule 2. Startle 3. Dominoes 4. Mapa 5. Gentle Ben 6. Pick and Roll 7. Question Time (Knitting or Quitting, Pt. 5)

Personnel: Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone); Mark Helias (bass); Tom Rainey (drums)

November 5, 2001