FAB (Fonda/Altschul/Bang)

Live at the Iron Works, Vancouver
Konnex KCD 5158

Thomas, Storrs and Sarpolas
Time Share
Louie Records 036

Filled with flowing fancy fiddling, these West-Coast recorded CDs showcase the initial and most recent violinist from the long-running String Trio of New York.

They offer much more than that, of course and despite a similarity in personnel, the discs couldn’t be more different. An Eugene, Ore.-native on visit to Corvallis, Ore., violinist Rob Thomas slides through a set of spontaneous compositions in the company of local drummer – and label owner – Dave Storrs, plus other New York visitors, fellow Pacific Northwest expat, bassist Dick Sarpola and his son, percussionist George Sarpola. Thus the TS&S name. Backyard snapshots in the booklet testify to the informality of the session: everyone is wearing shorts and sandals and a nearby table is heaped with chips, dips and soft drinks.

On the other hand, Thomas’ long-ago antecedent, Billy Bang, works over six compositions and improvisations with the other members of the jocularly and alphabetically designated FAB trio, in a Vancouver, B.C. concert. Besides B, or Bang, F is Joe Fonda, who has performed with players as varied as pianist Michael Jefrey Stephens and Chinese guzheng player Xu Fengxia; while A is legendary drummer Barry Altschul, who backed Anthony Braxton long before percussionist Sarpola’s birth.

Along with Leroy Jenkins, Free Jazz’s pre-eminent violinist, Bang’s list of collaborators ranges from the late Memphis saxophonist Frank Lowe – honored on the second tune here – to Chicago percussionist Kahil El’Zabar and New York bassist William Parker. Less high profile, Thomas, associate professor of Strings at Boston’s Berklee College, is also a member of drummer Greg Bendian’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, and has worked with The Jazz Passengers and The Soldier String Quartet.

Relaxing into the homey vibe, his playing on Time Share is noteworthy, but all-and-all there’s a certainly sameness to the five tracks. Storrs lays down a strong beat as does the bassist, but the ratcheting percussion from Sarpola Junior often sounds vestigial, while overall it’s often hard to distinguish the improvisations on one track from those on the next.

Featuring one original each from Bang and Fonda, plus four group compositions, the skills and techniques of the veteran players on Live however, not only demarcate tunes that reflect FAB’s identity, but also present them with a variety of musical strategies.

For instance the nearly 14-minute “Tune for Barry”, features the drummer’s terpsichorean exposition of extended nerve beats, press roll, flams, paradiddles and ruffs, expressed with cross sticking and counter-crosswise rhythms. Yet this percussion extravaganza merely sets up sprawling, sharp screeches from Bang’s violin, that quote “Take the A Train” in a flurry of flying triple stopping, as Fonda slaps his strings as accompaniment. Continuing to outline the ostinato, the bassist’s pulses underline the fiddler’s work, which tapped and plucked with either hand moves from claw-hammer-like banjo strokes to flanging vibrations

More low-key, “For Frank Lowe” is built up from a basso bottom and cymbal quivers to chromatic bull fiddle strums, serpentine sul ponticello lines from Bang and break beats from Altschul. Exhausting in the fashioning of unique oscillating lines in honor of his former combo-partner, Bang eventually picks up the tempo along with the number of strings he vibrates. Meanwhile Fonda walks powerfully and the drummer colors the proceedings. While almost turning around the beat with rim shots and shattering cymbal feints, he martially gooses the rhythm by the composition’s finale.

Often working in tandem with the bassist, Bang not only holds up his part in polyphonic exchanges, but also melds his tremolo movements so the ricocheting pumps and patterns take on koto-like echoes as well as the more common guitar and banjo suggestions.

Climax is achieved on “Song For My Mother”, the Fonda-penned, nearly 16-minute final track. An intermezzo of deep bass notes and slap rhythms, the composition finds the bassist working his way on the strings from the tuning pegs to below the bridge as Altschul bounds and bounces and Bang exposes erhu-like textures for theme variations. In near-hoedown mode, Bang’s playing is tonic, legato and dance-like, with Fonda shadowing his every time shift. Accentuating watery undulating lines as he concludes his solo, Bang allows the drummer’s low-key irregular beats and the bassist’s fading single strokes to make the final comments.

Featuring song titles even further out than FAB’s, you get the feeling that TS&S’ free-form antics resulted in track naming after the fact. As accomplished in instrument manipulation as FAB, the veteran trio’s polyrhythm and contrapuntal interaction keeps the five tunes from dragging, while tyro Sarpola judiciously adds sonic colors from what sound like lightly smacked bongo drums, rattled maracas and undifferentiated drum heads.

The most accommodating of pals, the bassist and drummer are similarly unobtrusive. Keeping the rhythmic emphasis going with pumping bass pulses and clattering pops and chops from the drum set, they allow Thomas to be the cynosure, while subtly guiding him away from exhibitionism.

On his own, the violinist adapts multiphonic sideswipes and carefully focused legit phrasing with the same ease. Frequently double-stopping, as on the title tune, he alternates breakneck pizzicato strumming with gypsy-fiddle-like spiccato at such blinding speeds that you often don’t realize he’s shifted from fingers to bow and vice-versa until that motion has already concluded. Allegro is a favored pace and agitato a preferred performance directive.

Throughout, whether Thomas shuffle bows, triple stops or saws staccato-like, Storrs plus Sarpola and son are there with the proper blunt rhythm or cascading vibration to frame his bravura patterning. Teamwork even allows for the subtle mitosis of the three dividing the beat into its component parts without altering the size and shape of the tune.

However as educational as it must have been to expose the younger Sarpola to profound free-form improv, and as much fun as it allowed the older musicians to renew their association in a smaller forum than Storrs’ Tone Sharks band, discipline is lacking. With every track a showpiece – especially for Thomas’ impressive technique – the ebb and flow goes missing.

Storrs describes it this way: “We talked about a session for a few years … And finally …we went out to the studio and played for a few hours.” Spectacular in some of the cooperation and soloing, a better strategy would have involved more shape and focus like FAB’s CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Time: 1. It’s Not Always Pretty 2. Clay Hippopotamus 3. Time Share

4. Tut Tut Tudala 5. Helping Hand

Personnel: Time: Rob Thomas (violin); Dick Sarpola (bass); Dave Storrs (drums); George Sarpola (percussion)

Track Listing: Live: 1. FAB 2. For Frank Lowe 3. B.B. 4. Tune for Barry 5. For Don Cherry 6. Song For My Mother

Personnel: Live: Billy Bang (violin); Joe Fonda (bass); Barry Altschul (drums)

November 7, 2006

Thomas, Storrs and Sarpolas

Time Share
Louie Records 036

FAB (Fonda/Altschul/Bang)
Live at the Iron Works, Vancouver
Konnex KCD 5158

Filled with flowing fancy fiddling, these West-Coast recorded CDs showcase the initial and most recent violinist from the long-running String Trio of New York.

They offer much more than that, of course and despite a similarity in personnel, the discs couldn’t be more different. An Eugene, Ore.-native on visit to Corvallis, Ore., violinist Rob Thomas slides through a set of spontaneous compositions in the company of local drummer – and label owner – Dave Storrs, plus other New York visitors, fellow Pacific Northwest expat, bassist Dick Sarpola and his son, percussionist George Sarpola. Thus the TS&S name. Backyard snapshots in the booklet testify to the informality of the session: everyone is wearing shorts and sandals and a nearby table is heaped with chips, dips and soft drinks.

On the other hand, Thomas’ long-ago antecedent, Billy Bang, works over six compositions and improvisations with the other members of the jocularly and alphabetically designated FAB trio, in a Vancouver, B.C. concert. Besides B, or Bang, F is Joe Fonda, who has performed with players as varied as pianist Michael Jefrey Stephens and Chinese guzheng player Xu Fengxia; while A is legendary drummer Barry Altschul, who backed Anthony Braxton long before percussionist Sarpola’s birth.

Along with Leroy Jenkins, Free Jazz’s pre-eminent violinist, Bang’s list of collaborators ranges from the late Memphis saxophonist Frank Lowe – honored on the second tune here – to Chicago percussionist Kahil El’Zabar and New York bassist William Parker. Less high profile, Thomas, associate professor of Strings at Boston’s Berklee College, is also a member of drummer Greg Bendian’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, and has worked with The Jazz Passengers and The Soldier String Quartet.

Relaxing into the homey vibe, his playing on Time Share is noteworthy, but all-and-all there’s a certainly sameness to the five tracks. Storrs lays down a strong beat as does the bassist, but the ratcheting percussion from Sarpola Junior often sounds vestigial, while overall it’s often hard to distinguish the improvisations on one track from those on the next.

Featuring one original each from Bang and Fonda, plus four group compositions, the skills and techniques of the veteran players on Live however, not only demarcate tunes that reflect FAB’s identity, but also present them with a variety of musical strategies.

For instance the nearly 14-minute “Tune for Barry”, features the drummer’s terpsichorean exposition of extended nerve beats, press roll, flams, paradiddles and ruffs, expressed with cross sticking and counter-crosswise rhythms. Yet this percussion extravaganza merely sets up sprawling, sharp screeches from Bang’s violin, that quote “Take the A Train” in a flurry of flying triple stopping, as Fonda slaps his strings as accompaniment. Continuing to outline the ostinato, the bassist’s pulses underline the fiddler’s work, which tapped and plucked with either hand moves from claw-hammer-like banjo strokes to flanging vibrations

More low-key, “For Frank Lowe” is built up from a basso bottom and cymbal quivers to chromatic bull fiddle strums, serpentine sul ponticello lines from Bang and break beats from Altschul. Exhausting in the fashioning of unique oscillating lines in honor of his former combo-partner, Bang eventually picks up the tempo along with the number of strings he vibrates. Meanwhile Fonda walks powerfully and the drummer colors the proceedings. While almost turning around the beat with rim shots and shattering cymbal feints, he martially gooses the rhythm by the composition’s finale.

Often working in tandem with the bassist, Bang not only holds up his part in polyphonic exchanges, but also melds his tremolo movements so the ricocheting pumps and patterns take on koto-like echoes as well as the more common guitar and banjo suggestions.

Climax is achieved on “Song For My Mother”, the Fonda-penned, nearly 16-minute final track. An intermezzo of deep bass notes and slap rhythms, the composition finds the bassist working his way on the strings from the tuning pegs to below the bridge as Altschul bounds and bounces and Bang exposes erhu-like textures for theme variations. In near-hoedown mode, Bang’s playing is tonic, legato and dance-like, with Fonda shadowing his every time shift. Accentuating watery undulating lines as he concludes his solo, Bang allows the drummer’s low-key irregular beats and the bassist’s fading single strokes to make the final comments.

Featuring song titles even further out than FAB’s, you get the feeling that TS&S’ free-form antics resulted in track naming after the fact. As accomplished in instrument manipulation as FAB, the veteran trio’s polyrhythm and contrapuntal interaction keeps the five tunes from dragging, while tyro Sarpola judiciously adds sonic colors from what sound like lightly smacked bongo drums, rattled maracas and undifferentiated drum heads.

The most accommodating of pals, the bassist and drummer are similarly unobtrusive. Keeping the rhythmic emphasis going with pumping bass pulses and clattering pops and chops from the drum set, they allow Thomas to be the cynosure, while subtly guiding him away from exhibitionism.

On his own, the violinist adapts multiphonic sideswipes and carefully focused legit phrasing with the same ease. Frequently double-stopping, as on the title tune, he alternates breakneck pizzicato strumming with gypsy-fiddle-like spiccato at such blinding speeds that you often don’t realize he’s shifted from fingers to bow and vice-versa until that motion has already concluded. Allegro is a favored pace and agitato a preferred performance directive.

Throughout, whether Thomas shuffle bows, triple stops or saws staccato-like, Storrs plus Sarpola and son are there with the proper blunt rhythm or cascading vibration to frame his bravura patterning. Teamwork even allows for the subtle mitosis of the three dividing the beat into its component parts without altering the size and shape of the tune.

However as educational as it must have been to expose the younger Sarpola to profound free-form improv, and as much fun as it allowed the older musicians to renew their association in a smaller forum than Storrs’ Tone Sharks band, discipline is lacking. With every track a showpiece – especially for Thomas’ impressive technique – the ebb and flow goes missing.

Storrs describes it this way: “We talked about a session for a few years … And finally …we went out to the studio and played for a few hours.” Spectacular in some of the cooperation and soloing, a better strategy would have involved more shape and focus like FAB’s CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Time: 1. It’s Not Always Pretty 2. Clay Hippopotamus 3. Time Share

4. Tut Tut Tudala 5. Helping Hand

Personnel: Time: Rob Thomas (violin); Dick Sarpola (bass); Dave Storrs (drums); George Sarpola (percussion)

Track Listing: Live: 1. FAB 2. For Frank Lowe 3. B.B. 4. Tune for Barry 5. For Don Cherry 6. Song For My Mother

Personnel: Live: Billy Bang (violin); Joe Fonda (bass); Barry Altschul (drums)

November 7, 2006

RICH HALLEY TRIO

Mountains and Plains
Louie Records 035

MICHAEL BLAKE TRIO
Right Before Your Very Ears
Clean Feed CF 044CD

Two saxophonists from the Pacific Northwest – one of whom relocated to New York City years ago – disprove the old saw about “you can take a boy out of the country, but …”

Portland, Oregon-based soprano and tenor saxophonist Rich Halley, who is also a field biologist, brings a West Coast spaciousness to the nine originals that make up the appropriately titled MOUNTAINS AND PLAINS CD. Saxophonist Michael Blake, who grew up in Vancouver, B.C., yet relocated to Manhattan in 1987, offers up a program replete with Big Apple speed and toughness.

Both saxophonists are seconded by sympathetic associates. In Halley’s case, his long-stand trio is filled out by bassist Clyde Reed, who is also an economics professor at Simon Fraser University in a Vancouver, B.C. suburb, and Louie Records’ recording engineer and proprietor, drummer Dave Storrs. The reedist and drummer have performed together for over 30 years in many different contexts including one most generic for this date, Halley’s Outside Music Ensemble, which was formed in 1999 to perform creative music in interesting outdoor settings.

Meanwhile Blake’s partners for RIGHT BEFORE YOUR VERY EARS are fellow members of the musician-run Jazz Composers Collective, a non-profit, organization dedicated to presenting the original works of composers. Bassist Ben Allison also has his own groups, Medicine Wheel and Peace Pipe, in which saxman also participates, while drummer Jeff Ballard has worked with both mainstreamers and downtowners.

Oddly – or is it appropriately – enough, both horn men in intonation and execution are strongly influenced by Sonny Rollins. On balance, after all, it was Rollins in trio configuration, who created the definitive urban portrait “East Broadway Rundown”, and also recorded the legendary geographic specific WAY OUT WEST LP.

Happily Halley and Blake aren’t really opposite sides of the Rollins coin, but very much their own men, creators of equally notable dates. Blake may have a slight edge, but that’s because he seems more ardent here and willing to stretch himself further.

During the course of his CD, he even tackles a version of Rollins’ associate Thelonious Monk’s “San Francisco Holiday”, with both his horns – sometimes simultaneously. However his rubato layering and trilling slurs and glissandi suggests none of Monk’s horn partners. Blake also exits with a reading of “Careless Love” that’s almost primordial in its artlessness. Ballard shuffles like Baby Dodds and Blake’s reed conception is almost completely pre-modern, except for an extended, unaccompanied turnaround that intensifies the improvisation and heats up the bass and drum accompaniment. “Mt. Harissa”, the set’s slow change-of-pace, is treated uniquely, so that it ping-pongs between a contrafact of “Round Midnight” and an Appalachian ballad.

Other than that, the self-composed originals that make up the rest of the disk bristle with contrapuntal color and POMO strength, skronk-jazz if you need a term. During the course of the CD, Blake introduces curved, Ayleresque vibrations on some tunes and accelerating split-tones on others. In some compositions, he spins out a series of squeaking runs, in others emphasizing careful phrasing for a time then unexpectedly jumping into altissimo. On the smaller horn he can be nasal, but is also able to export rounded textures.

Modern, with a full command of col legno and spiccato runs, nonetheless Allison is capable of slapping a bass line that would have made Pops Foster proud. He and Blake often communicate in broken octaves or double counterpoint. Meanwhile Ballard thumps rolls, bounces and pulses as the occasion demands.

Probably the most self-descriptive moments on RIGHT BEFORE YOUR VERY EARS occur on “All of This is Yours”, the penultimate track, where the saxophonist sets up an unaccompanied call-and-response section with himself, alternating high-pitched vibrations and honking bass notes, then finally, after luring the other two into the dance, exits with staccato smears and a reverberating body tube vibrato.

West Coaster Halley does nothing as ear-catching as that, but his outdoor-oriented CD, enhanced with photographs of – you guessed it – mountains and plains, is more organic and earthly, but far from vanishing into New Age solipsism.

Perhaps the most evocative tune is the full band improvisation, “Three Way Shapes”, where each man works out his proper musical description. Here, on soprano saxophone, Halley’s wiggling, Steve Lacy-inflected chirps meet in double counterpoint with the steady bass work of Reed and are punctuated by blunt, echoing strokes from Storrs. With the bass playing appropriately woody and the sax hocketing textures, the piece is a three-way dialogue to the end.

Although he does come up with the odd col legno or sul ponticello passage, Reed is a more prosaic bassist than Allison, preferring to limit himself to producing a steady lope, walking powerfully but unobtrusively in the background. More flamboyant – although his vocalizations and whistling wouldn’t give Phil Minton or even Phil Collins pause – Storrs creates irregular waves of rhythm, wallops and shuffles as often as cross-sticking and drum rattling.

Certain tunes introduce unusual percussion as well. While “Before Dawn” matches what appears to be the resonation of a toy xylophone with buzzing bass lines and winnowing, musette-like soprano runs, other sounds suggest Aboriginal percussion. Halley’s straight-ahead tone is encouraged to spetrofluctuation and concentrated altissimo passages on “Long Valley” with shaken objects and hand percussion that brings to mind Native Indian tom-toms and Yaqui gourd rattles. And that’s not the only spot where the saxophonist’s masculine tenor saxophone tone is aided and abetted by expanded indigenous-American sounding percussion.

On the most quote, avant-garde, end quote, tune, Halley’s “Distant Peaks”, Storrs whistles and ratchets what sound like tubular bells to join with Reed’s chromatic bass strums. Together this interrupts the reedist’s balanced breathy, slurred textures.

More often than not, as on the more-than-10½-minute “The Rub” and other pieces, Halley pegs himself as a Rollins man. Biting off swaggering, double-tongued, staccato lines he expels note after note, each one tougher than the next. Dramatically he also exults in upturned sibilant tones that move from stop-time to squeals and reverberations.

Like John Denver, Halley is still a country boy, while Blake a confirmed urbanite. But both they and their trios have created CDs that can be admired in rural, urban and even suburban circumstances.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Mountains: 1. Problematic 2. Long Valley 3. The Rub 4. Before Dawn 5. Three Way Shapes 6. Mountains and Plains 7. Intermountain Rhumba 8. Distant Peaks 9. Winter Sky

Personnel: Mountains: Rich Halley (tenor and soprano saxophones, percussion); Clyde Reed (bass); Dave Storrs (drums, percussion, whistling and vocals)

Track Listing: Right: 1. Run for Cover 2. Funhouse 3. Mt. Harissa 4. Right Before Your Very Ears 5. Flip 6. Fly with the Wind 7. San Francisco Holiday 8. All of This is Yours 9. Careless Love

Personnel: Right: Michael Blake (tenor and soprano saxophones); Ben Allison (bass); Jeff Ballard (drums)

February 20, 2006

THE NECKS

The Boys - music for the feature film
ReRNECKS4

HOUSE BAND
Cycle Maintenance
Louie Records 033

Coming from completely different places -- not to mention continents -- because of a similar instrumental make up, these CDs end up with more similarities than differences.

What is even odder, however, is that THE BOYS is a studio amplification of the music Australian trio The Necks improvised for the 1998 feature film of the same name, while CYCLE MAINTENACE resulted from spontaneous sessions from a quartet of Portland, Ore. musicians early in 2004.

Both CDs have a similar number of short and medium length tunes -- a departure for the Necks who usually play one composition for an hour at a time -- and all 15 pieces encompass the same sort of rhythmic impetus. With overdubbing the Necks play a couple of instruments each -- Chris Abrahams piano and organ, Lloyd Swanton bass and electric bass and Tony Buck drums and percussion. That gives the group similar textures to those produced by the House Band featuring Mark Bjoklund on piano, keyboard and percussion, Page Hundemer on bass and loops, Mike Klobas on drums and Dave Storrs on drums, keyboard and briefly trombone.

In the end, however, BOYS is a more pleasurable listen than MAINTENANCE. Shorter by almost 18 minutes, soundtrack demands seem to have given the trio a shape and structure often missing in the American quartet’s live work. Described as being the results of “recorded sessions” that took place from January to April, judicious editing could have produced a much stronger disc.

Not unlike what would happen at a Necks performance today, the soundtrack CD’s main theme is stated by Abrahams’ piano. But the short, hypnotic cadenzas keep repeating and recapitulating here because of soundtrack necessities. Furthermore, in retrospect, it appears that the sound is more wedded to early jazz-rock than what the band produces today.

Because of this concept, Swanton adds echoing fuzz-tone electric bass lines at certain junctures, while Buck’s rat-tat-tat percussion includes the sort of strident back beat he would now avoid. Oscillating reverb from add-on electronics is still part of his repertoire, though, and here it brings additional color to the alternately menacing and atmospheric tones that outline the theme.

What’s most surprising, though germane to the performance, is the organ washes that the keyboardist uses as pedal point ostinato beneath his trebly chord groupings. Scene setting, the quivering tones bring back memories of 1960s rock organists, most intimately the riff construction of Traffic’s Stevie Winwood.

Recapitulation of the sparse four-note theme extended by floating piano chords saves the CD from a faux rock banality. A lighter rhythmic impetus courtesy of Swanton’s unvarying bass line and Buck’s shaken and scraped percussion add sophistication to the foot tapping.

Foot tapping and plenty of percussion adventures characterize the other CD as well. But as proficient as some of the playing is, the overlong structure and constant noodling from all concerned weaken the performance. Especially unfortunate is the decision to let the pieces on the second half of the CD run overly long. Nine minutes plus is pushing it for the penultimate three, while 16 minutes is far too long for the final track.

Close associates, the four musicians have been involved in local rock, pop, jazz and improv contexts over the past 20-odd years. Each is more than a fewer steps elevated from journeyman rockers, which is what also makes a track like “Commotion in the Ocean” so frustrating. Between the wah-wah bass line, keyboard glissandi and overcooked drum pulse you’d think one of those rock-funk-(pseudo)jazz bands like the Dixie Dregs or Sea Level had been reborn. Going from foot tapping to head banging is a poor strategy for the four and nothing -- not even Storrs’ brief, spewing trombone solo -- can rescue a tune whose every note seems electronically overloaded.

Luckily among the incessant vamps there are some memorable moments. If “Push and Pull” didn’t appear to want to camp out in jam band territory most of the time, there could be more appreciation of its virtues. These include Native Indian-like percussion slaps and the rattles of cymbals and small instruments, not to mention phrase-making comping from one keyboardist and high frequency riffs from another. And are those references to John Coltrane’s “Cousin Mary” and Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” that are briefly audible among the licks?

Spooky lines that merge tick-tocking concussions with glass armonica-like sounds are elsewhere as are portamento pitchsliding from the dual keyboards and extended percussion workouts on woodblocks, gongs and bells that bring forth suggestions of gamelan ensembles and other ethnic groupings. Additionally, Bjoklund’s showcases on his own and the group compositions highlight some bright, impressionistic cadenzas. He’s very capable of producing flashing lines and contrasting dynamics, whose seesaw rhythms are set off by sine wave reverb from higher pitched keyboards vamps, plus percolating friction and scratches from the double drummers. But too often when his output isn’t wedded to standard funk patterns, it turns dainty and impressionistic, downshifting the entire band to disconnected licks.

All of the musicians -- especially Storrs -- have been involved in superior sessions. It would appear that the maintenance needed for this cycle should have included more of a game plan. That organization is likely what make THE BOYS, while imperfect as well, much more notable.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Boys: 1. The Boys I 2. He Led Them Into the Wold 3. Headlights 4. The Boys II 5. The Steps of Champions 6. Fife and Drum 7. The Boys III

Personnel: Boys: Chris Abrahams (piano and organ); Lloyd Swanton (bass and electric bass); Tony Buck (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Cycle: 1. Wide Wise 2. Sideways Portal 3. Commotion in the Ocean 4. Wind Down Summit 5. Push and Pull 6. See Look Stare There 7. Big Stretch 8. Full Cycle

Personnel: Cycle: Mark Bjoklund (piano, keyboard and percussion); Page Hundemer (bass and loops); Mike Klobas (drums); Dave Storrs (drums, keyboard and trombone)

January 17, 2005

KLOBAS/STORRS/HUNDEMER

An Hour of Now
Louie Records 031

SUSIE IBARRA & MARK DRESSER
Tone Time
Wobbly Rail WB014

Hearing double bass and percussion as more than just the components of a rhythm section is something for which most listeners -- and quite a few musicians -- never develop a comfort level. Yet these two uncommon, yet flawed, CDs show that it can be done.

After years of improvisational progress on many instruments in all sort of combinations, why should the naked bass and drums --or in one of the cases here bass and two drums -- upset so many? In the hands of the right musicians, five of whom are represented on these CDs, there’s enough harmony, polyphony and tonality exhibited to balance the instruments’ commonplace rhythmic function.

Of course AN HOUR OF NOW cheats a little bit. While Oregon-based Mike Klobas and Dave Storrs more-or-less stick to non-electrified drums and percussion, Page Hundemer uses his electric bass and sequencers to suggest guitar and organ tones throughout. In contrast, New York downtowners bassist Mark Dresser and drummer and percussionist Susie Ibarra don’t deviate from the acoustic on the aptly named TONE TIME.

Both discs have much to offer, but both fall victim to the same caprice: an excess of tracks -- 13 on the trio disc, 15 on the duo session -- with too many of the tunes short or medium length. Most of the memorable performances are the most drawn-out ones, which give everyone involved enough space to fully develop ideas.

On the Northwestern session, for instance only “First Now” plus its coda “Got”, as well as the shade over the nine minute “Distorted.org”, really get enough room to grow. On the first, the deliberate bass line helps Klobas and Storrs, who first played together in 1977, create an magnified swinging beat that makes the three sound like a boppy version of Australia’s trance-jazz trio, the Necks. This line is extended when Storrs adds some electronically mutated scat vocalizing to the mix. Hundemer thumps out a steady pulse, while the dual drummers showcase rolls, flams, nerve beats and other kit expansions, ending by bapping away at cowbells, gongs and cymbals for further color. Going right into “Got”, which serves as the preceding tune’s coda, the production ends with distorted wah-wah reverb from the bassman, ratamacues and rebounds from the percussionists, along with sounds emanating from what could be a wooden marimba and a hanging bell tree.

Still, with its sequenced organ tones and buzzing whistles that sound as if they have migrated over from the Small Faces’ “Itchycoo Park”, it takes a gentle swinging snare drum pulse and some rim shots to establish the tune in an improv mode. But it seems to leach from a variation of jazz to rock during its more than nine minute running time. Although there is some powerful Africanized drum work on show, the ostinato bass line is often distorted by what could be a lead guitar part -- from the sequencers? -- organ runs -- ditto -- and wavering sine wave tones.

Then there’s “In Spite of Self”, with a lighter, looser tone than many of the other pieces. Unconsciously or not suggesting a Latin tumbao, with a sequencer line approximating a flute lead and one of the percussionists sounding as if he’s playing timbales, this could be a Herbie Mann riff from the mid-1960s. However, it does end with a bouncy keyboard-led freeboppy line.

As for the rest of the disc, the three players prove their expertise in many improv, jazz, and rhythm-based styles, using everything at hand from thumb pops to amp distortions. Too often, however, space is lacking to strengthen licks and vamps into something more. Maybe these few drawbacks will be overcome next time out.

Dresser and Ibarra too suffer from this insistence on condensation, especially in the later half of their disc. When they don’t let themselves get too po-faced, the two are best when the drummer concentrates on sounding percussion paraphernalia as the bassist unveils his formidable technique.

“The Weaver”, for instance, finds Ibarra rolling out mallet-driven cymbal, snare and tom-tom rhythms, as Dresser’s POMO response involves duetting with himself -- plucking some parts and bowing others. Ibarra then begins swabbing out odd tones on the drum top then turns to flams as the bassman introduces higher, guitar-like flat-picking tones in tandem with bass line strokes on his lower strings.

Rubbing her drum tops with what seems to be a cloth is one strategy adopted by Ibarra on “Metatone”, that is, after she has begun the piece sounding a set of unselected and unattached cymbals, extending the tones with bell ringing and tiny mallet hits. Meanwhile Dresser’s hearty arco lifts move slowly downward as he strokes the bottom strings with his bow.

Apart from his tough Mingusian thumps, showcased when he finds it necessary, Dresser can also let loose with a strong rhythmic pulse -- as can Ibarra. On the appropriately named title track, the two define a finger-snapper, with a heavy blues-based thwack from the bassist and kettle drum-like steady beats from the percussionist. “Jump” has a foot-tapping Bo Diddley-like beat, with Ibarra using rim shots to emphasize the time. With concurrent strokes Dresser slides up the neck for note variations, as she changes tempo to decorate the beat.

Contrast this to “Surrealm”, which begins with almost dead silence until a

cymbal resonation introduces bowed bass frottage. As Dresser moves the tune forward, Ibarra bends notes from a bell tree and selected cymbals. This shaking is met with strongman’s yanks and quasi-flat picking from the bassist, until her loosened up time-feel, become almost transparent and shimmers away.

Bass’n’drums fanciers of any genre will find much of interest on these two discs. Fewer, longer tracks and more focus could have worked better for the rest of us, though.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Hour: 1.Under It 2. First Now 3. Got 4. Distorted.org 5. Morphed Out of My Mind 6. Hora Hey 7. Swungd 8. It Already Has 9. Yah Yah 10. In Spite of Self 11. Forward Going 12. Twa Wa (Tuna Awe) 13. Second Now

Personnel: Hour: Page Hundemer (electric bass and sequences); Mike Klobas (drums and percussion); Dave Storrs (drums, percussion and vocals)

Track Listing: Tone: 1. Protone 2. Jump 3. Metatone 4. Simmer 5. The Subterrain 6. The Weaver 7. Untold 8. Tone Time 9. Surrealm 10. Slipinstyle 11. Sphere A 12. Sphere B 13. Sphere C 14. Sphere D 15. Epitone

Personnel: Tone: Mark Dresser (bass); Susie Ibarra (drums and percussion)

March 15, 2004

RICH HALLEY QUARTET

The Blue Rims
Louie Records 030

ALBERTO PINTON/CLEAR NOW
Terraferma
m.m.p. CD 008

Alternately ascribing a European and an American sensibility to these quartet sessions is a bit simplistic. But the fact remains that it’s more than serendipity that makes two CDs recorded live in the studio with nearly identical instrumentation about one month apart, both first rate, yet so different.

Perhaps it’s the combined experience of the musicians in each band, coupled with the fact that tenor saxophonist Rich Halley’s four blows flat out on six lengthy compositions, while baritone saxophonist Alberto Pinton’s quartet spread its music among 14 much-shorter selections.

It may also be cohesion. Halley, bassist Clyde Reed and drummer Dave Storrs have played together in and around Portland, Ore. for many years, in a variety of settings. Cornetist Bobby Bradford, the ringer here, is also one of the most adaptable of serious musicians. How else can you explain the dexterity of someone whose brass tones sounded equally at home as part of saxophonist Ornette Coleman’s spiky, iconoclastic bands and in the formal, yet blues-rooted quartet of the late clarinetist John Carter?

On THE BLUE RIMS, the brassman easily integrates himself into the Halley-Reed-Storrs trio as if his presence was a regular occurrence. Pinton’s Clear Now is also a regularly constituted band, or at least as regular as one can be where one member, Venice-born Pinton, lives in Stockholm, and the others, bassist Salvatore Maiore, drummer Roberto Dani and Indianapolis-born brassman Kyle Gregory live in Italy.

Recorded in less than four hours, the Oregon session is one of those that distinguish jazz from other kinds of music. With the ADAT machines turned on the morning after an evening concert by the four, they just played -- with a break for sandwiches and stories. The result is the sort of spontaneous and exciting CD that Nashville sweeteners and Los Angles multi-trackers try to duplicate during several months of studio time and usually fail to equal.

“Shards of Sky”, for instance, finds Storrs beating out a modified march tempo, with the tune itself reminiscent of early Ornette -- and pre-Bradford -- themes. With Reed providing the bottom, the cornetist slurs out a series of bent notes, the tenor man chromatically works his way up his horn to altissimo trills and the drummer adds enough

tambourine sounds to call out the Sally Ann. When Storrs begins worrying his cymbals, Bradford squeals his way upwards in such as way as to recall “Work Song” until both hornmen turn to a faster, Spanish style vamp. A false ending precedes a coda back in march time.

Another suggestion of how Bradford might have sounded with Coleman, “Rat Trap Blues” showcases a mixture of walking bass and bouncy drumbeats. Storrs contributes some bass drum accents and Halley introduces a breathy Ben Webster-like tone, complete with a tough vibrato, then doubles the tempo as cornet obbligatos appear. The subtle, professional he is, Storrs’ drum solo is a brief episode in snare and tom tom foolery without slowing the tune down. Returning to the head, the front line adds variations then exits in higher keys.

The four can be even more outside. “Old Fields” finds Storrs sounding as if he’s producing his percussion underpinning from hand drums while Halley, much freer than elsewhere, constructs a solo that seems to want to find the midpoint between “Bags Groove” and some of Arthur Doyle’s drooling sax ejaculations; he even gets into squealing multiphonics at one point. After Reed brings the tempo down with a canon-like bass line, Bradford appears to quote lyrical Italian opera-like arias, while the drummer brings out the triangle and other miscellaneous percussion.

Miscellaneous percussion also makes an appearance on “The Stalk” where, largo, Storrs almost appears to be sounding Tibetan bells until fleet-fingered Reed turns the piece andante. As Halley elaborates the theme, Bradford sounds as if he’s leading a fox chase. Finally, he ends his chromatic trills with a brassy flourish as his rolling liquid tones mate the saxman’s mid-range horn honks.

As on its first outing, COMMON INTENT, Clear Now still seems intent on providing more for the consumer’s dollar, playing 14 tunes in less than 49 minutes. This may be admirable, but as on the band’s first CD, it seems that the longer tunes that give the members more room to stretch are superior to the shorties.

For instance, as good as Pinton’s fleet fingered and flutter tonguing a cappella baritone digressions resonant on “Variation On a Ballad Theme”, when the tune runs into “One Of a Kind” (sic), the balladic imagery suggested by the grace notes flowing from the flugelhorn, unhurried plucked bass accompaniment and subtle cymbal pressure give it added strength.

Ditto for “Stoneface”, where Pinton’s pedal point bari outpourings, and near Philly Joe Jones bop lines from Dani allow Gregory to sail over the changes. Bringing out his bass clarinet, the reedist unites his tone with low-key muted brass for an Eastern European-style sound excursion as Maiore’s bass slinks cat-like through the composition.

Or take “Dark Déjà Vu”, where the drummer’s chinging triangle recalls a freebop version of the Jazz Messengers. Playing with the facility of a tenor saxophonist, Pinton manipulates his baritone to produce smooth multiphonic cadenzas. Gregory contributes sky high trills -- is he using the piccolo trumpet here? -- and the entire track suggests what would have happened if Lee Morgan and Pepper Adams had been transmutated to the 21st century.

On the other hand, Dani’s composition, “Canzone Per Max” and Pinton’s “Calm” reference European free music avant garde, something Halley & Co. avoid. The drummer, who has played with such outstanding theorists in that field as tubaist Michel Godard and clarinetist Louis Sclavis, has constructed a slow moving, contrapuntal line, which has only the barest hint of percussion and ends in almost complete silence. Similarly, the reedman’s piece is pastorally reminiscent of pre-20th century music, relying as it does on the arco scraping of the double bass.

Whether you like your improv Yank or Continental, there’s much to like on both of these discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Blue: 1. The River’s Edge is Ice 2. Shards of Sky 3. The Blue Rims 4. Old Fields 5. The Stalk 6. Rat Trap Blues

Personnel: Blue: Bobby Bradford (cornet, percussion); Rich Halley (tenor saxophone, percussion, whistling); Clyde Reed (bass); Dave Storrs (drums; percussion, whistling)

Track Listing: Terraferma: 1. Paint By Heart 2. Marching Man 3. Untitled 4. Stoneface 5. Fast Forward 6. Variation On a Ballad Theme 7. One Of a Kind 8. Dark Déjà Vu 9. Calm 10. Fragment 11. Open 12. Paradox 13. Canzone Per Max 14. Paint By Heart II

Personnel: Terraferma: Kyle Gregory (trumpet, flugelhorn, Bb piccolo trumpet); Alberto Pinton (baritone saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute); Salvatore Maiore (bass); Roberto Dani (drums)

June 30, 2003

THE TONE SHARKS

Intention
Louie 029

SS PUFT
Seems Sometimes People Undergo Full Transformation
Solponticello SP 008

Wishing won’t make it so, is the homey maxim that the members of SS Puft may consider hanging on the wall of their practice space(s). For while the young Athens, Ga. band may consider what it creates as innovative avant chamber music, the end product sounds more like an uneven amalgam of jazzy ProgRock mixed with New Age conceits.

Expert free music results from more than merely allowing yourself and your friends to play as you feel, without considering how you fit within the jazz/improv continuum. That’s what separates the Puffs from the Tone Sharks of Portland, Ore. Although more overly mainstream, the Sharks not only have played together for a while, but also appear to have thought long and hard about how to define themselves in terms of other sounds and aggregations.

Centred in their community, which is musically best known for having produced the rock band R.E.M., each Puft seems to have a variety of other local projects on the go, whether it’s playing with bands in other genres, studying improvised music or (shudder) teaching jazz and theory. Right now the band’s most unique feature is the H’arpeggione of Erik Hinds. An 18-string, fretted cello/guitar hybrid named for the Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle and the Baroque Arpeggione, this guitar-shaped instrument has six main strings tuned in fifths and 12 sympathetic strings that can play quarter tones. It takes the place of a guitar or bass on the eight selections here.

Novelty is one thing, but unlike say, Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s use of the equally unique manzello and stritch, the H’arpeggione doesn’t seem to add many tones that couldn’t have easily come from standard stringed instruments. In fact, when all 24 strings in the band combine on some tunes, the results at times resemble those produced by a dulcimer in folksy New Age settings, or the sort of Westernized sitar playing popular in psychedelic raga-rock.

Then again, that sound may be more palatable than what’s exhibited on other tracks. On these the most prominent sounds come from drummer Blake Helton, who describes himself as a ProgRock aficionado, but who resembles someone who has just worked his way out of the Buddy Rich fake books to a modified Bill Bruford style; and trumpeter Jeff Crouch, who is studying with Wadada Leo Smith, but who proffers an adenoidal tone that appears to move between suggestions of Clifford Brown and the Tijuana Brass. Add some swirling, long-lined vamps from guitarist Colin Bragg and Hinds and a foot-tapping, but often overpowering beat and you may be reminded of discs by the rock-jazz fusion band the Dixie Dregs, that hailed from Georgia as well.

One hates to be excessively negative, however. It could be said that the music making on this disc is actually superior that on the band’s debut CD, LIVE AT EARTHSHAKING MUSIC (Solponticello SP 001-2). There, the excitement of working with Chicago alto saxophonist Dave Rempis, a member of the Vandermark 5, compounded the group’s already apparent weaknesses. Those tunes are stretched over two self-indulgent CDs’ lengths rather than the compact (sic) almost 65 minutes here.

SS Puft’s musical situation may soon improve even more. The band members are starting to play with visiting improv musicians and outside of their own bailiwick. Hopefully brushing up against advanced thinkers and stylists from elsewhere will change their music for the better. After all, the Beatles were one of the few bands made up completely of hometown players who succeeded. And even that foursome changed its drummer at one point.

If one of the adjective that comes to mind when describing SS Puft is “heavy”, then it’s “light” which best sums up the Tone Sharks’ appeal. That’s not light as in lightweight, but light as in nimble and airy. These 11 instant compositions with ichthyological titles don’t promise more than they deliver. But without trumpeting far-outness, the delivery is nearly faultless. With Portland almost as far out of the improv loop as Athens, the band members keep busy in a variety of local bands, many of which record on the Louie label.

Just as Puft’s Hinds runs the Solponticello label, the Shark Tones’ unpresuming drummer Dave Storrs is behind Louie and its affiliated recording studio. Storrs has also worked with everyone from local sax hero Rich Halley to Italian multi-woodwindist Carlos Actis Dato. Alto saxophonist Tom Bergeron is a professor at Western Oregon University and a member of Whirled Jazz with the drummer, while bassist Page Hundemer, a graduate of Boston’s Berklee College, also has many Louie sessions under his belt -- or is that beneath his fingers? Most of the time here, by the way, it sounds like Hundemer is playing an electric bass rather than an acoustic one, but he doesn’t knock anyone over with Jaco Pastorius runs. Finally, guitarist Tom McNalley is new to the Sharks. But his agile Jim Hall-like facility combines fittingly on several tuns with Bergeron’s tone, that this time out seems to suggest unruffled soloists like Paul Desmond or Bud Shank in their younger days.

Probably the most impressive example of the band’s kinship comes on the penultimate tune, “Unchallenged”, whose title could sum up the improvisation here. Beginning with Storrs performing what sounds like a sand dance on his drumheads, this is followed by the bassist’s unvarying line, straight guitar chording and a simple theme exposition from Bergeron. With its strong groove and sequential entry of the players it suggest a hip jazz version of King Curtis’ old “Memphis Soul Stew” hit. As Storrs emphasizes the beat with his woodblock, McNalley expresses himself with light finger- taps on his strings. And before the saxman’s double-tongued excursion ends, it almost appears as if the guitarist is playing two axes at once.

More overtly experimental, on “Buoyancy” you can hear the guitarist’s fingers sliding up his strings and being matched with a subtle, shimmering rustle from what sounds like Storrs manipulating a berimbau. Later, exhibiting a clear cymbal sound and some gentle rim shots, the drummer mixes it up with the altoist, who appears to wheezing out stifled baby cries. Meanwhile the bassist’s moving bass line defines the rhythm.

Although there are points, as on “Falling Morsels” where it literally appears as if the band is trying to decide exactly how to approach the improvisation just as the tapes -- or is it DAT machine now? -- are turned on, most everything on that tune and elsewhere eventually slides almost effortlessly into place. Whether Bergeron, for instance, is playing legato or triple tonguing, and whether Storrs is introducing a simple ruff or a more complicated construction, each man instinctively seems to know just what to play -- and how long to let solos runs. The band members can even handle swinging improvisations in waltz time without making a big thing of it.

Skill and experience go into making this all sound easy and the Sharks’ conception is something that could be studied with benefit by SS Puft. While the Tone Sharks aren’t really breaking any new ground -- is there such a thing as middle of the road experimental music? -- the band has unequivocally produced a pleasant, professional and memorable disc.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Intention: 1. First Intention 2. The School 3. Buoyancy 4. Bubbling Up 5. Flittering Sunfish 6.Lurking 7. Swimming Noses 8. Skates 9. Falling Morsels 10, Unchallenged 11. On Out

Personnel: Intention: Tom Bergeron (alto saxophone); Tom McNalley (guitar); Page Hundemer (bass); Dave Storrs (drums)

Track Listing: Puft: 1.Reunion 2. Just After 5 3. Just Suppose, Juxtapose 4. Blury 5. Put Your Grace in Your Pocket 6. World Waltz 7. Languish No Longer 8. Trance … Language

Personnel: Puft: Jeff Crouch (trumpet); Mike Hough (alto saxophone); Colin Bragg (guitar); Erik Hinds (H’arpeggione); Blake Helton (drums)

February 3, 2003

RICH HALLEY

Objects
Louie 025

TRIO 3
Open Ideas
Palmetto PM 2082

Making any kind of supposition about albums of improvised music is always dangerous, precisely because you’re dealing with sounds created on the spot. So the casual listener, seeing that one CD here features three of jazz’s most accomplished sonic explorers, while the other was created by a trio of West Coast journeymen, may expect a lot more from Trio3 than Rich Halley’s crew.

In fact, the music produced by reedist Rich Halley, the pride of Portland (Oregon) and his band mates, bassist Clyde Reed and drummer Dave Storrs, has just as much -- and in many cases more -- intensity than the session featuring alto saxophonist Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille. Not that both don’t offer up some good music. It’s just that for a variety of reasons, the Left Coasters seem to have a slight edge.

For a start, Lake, Workman and Cyrille are so busy with a myriad of other projects that they don’t get to tour and record often enough as Trio3. Taking the time to schedule a recording session for men who are leaders, featured sidefolk in other bands and also teach, can be a scheduling conundrum. At least OPEN IDEAS offers up hearty unhypenated jazz, unlike some other of the three’s individual projects that have been too precious in the bassist’s case; too diffuse in the saxophonist’s; and too few-and-far-between in the drummer’s.

As a matter of fact, it’s Cyrille whose combination of strength and subtly is most remarkable here. Lake, whose playing, when it isn’t standard bebop, surprisingly sounds like a mirror image of Eric Dolphy’s, seems a bit too complacent here, almost as if he was Sonny Stitt making one more horn-and-rhythm LP. As for Workman, his performance, while steady and sturdy, often sounds no more than Workman-like -- pun very much intended.

What many fans forget is how conventional the three can be. After all, Cyrille jobbed with pianists Junior Mance and Mary Lou Williams and saxist Coleman Hawkins before he joined visionary pianist Cecil Taylor’s group; Workman’s employers included pianist Red Garland and flautist Herbie Mann as well as John Coltrane; and Lake’s Jump Up and steel drum bands have come a lot closer to pop music then the Human Arts Ensemble and the World Saxophone Quartet.

On the other hand, OBJECTS was recorded in drummer Dave Storrs own studio the morning-after-the-night-before when the three musicians played one of their every-six-weeks club dates in Portland. They can’t do so more often. Halley, who trained as a field biologist, also works as a computer programmer and plays with other bands; Storrs has his studio, plus membership in at least half a dozen other musical projects; and Reed’s “slave” is as an economics professor at a university in Vancouver, B.C.

Of course luck has to be taken into consideration as well. All the energy in the world can’t translate into good music if the inspiration isn’t there. It was, and Halley, who wrote all the compositions here but one, seems to blossom in the company of Reed and Storrs, with the thrust of his improvisations more noteworthy than how he plays with other bands like the more diffuse The Lizard Brothers. The three also had time to stretch out with the shortest original almost nine minutes and the longest almost 16 minutes.

Most impressive on tenor saxophone, Halley has a flinty tone, seemingly influenced by the Sonny Rollins of the 1950s, alive with knife-sharp thrusts, sometimes in single notes, sometimes in altissimo clusters. You can hear this on “Grey Stones”, where the occasional Albert Ayler-like split tone intrudes as well. He never loses sight of the melody, though, no matter how staccato his delivery. Additionally, before the piece ends with a quote from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Reed has shown that he can walk with the best of them and Storrs has introduced snare slides and cymbal pops. Frilly ornamentation characterizes Halley’s short reading of “Over The Rainbow”, though, which still comes out pretty straight except for some double timing as the end.

Like Rollins, Halley’s less effective on the soprano saxophone. At least he stays away from legato smooth jazz mush, but his pitch has a bit of a burr in it and many times it comes out with a tone that sounds midway between that of a musette and of someone with a blocked nose. Storrs is busiest on the tunes that feature the straight horn, tinkling triangles, ringing bells, shimmering cymbals, tapping on the high hat with brushes and introducing so-called “little instruments”, which Halley sometimes toys with as well. Reed’s occasional upfront notes show the economy in his accompaniment. And after the tempo increases on “Back to the 400 Club”, doesn’t the tiniest snatch of “A Love Supreme” get played?

With its many tempo changes the almost-16 minute “Thickets/Pavement”, which evokes both rural and urban life, is obviously meant to be the core of the CD. Certainly Storrs on percussion like agogo (sic) and dejeme, plus falsetto vocal interjections, makes his presence felt, while Halley’s wood flute solos are one part Rahsaan Roland Kirk and one part blowing a raspberry. Reed even makes one believe he’s stroking an ethnic stringed instrument not his bass. But the real blood-stirring parts appear when Halley sticks to his tenor and stops and starts the melody long enough to showcase some repeated note patterns, heartfelt honks and dirty smears. He’s usually in comfy mid-range when he does this too.

Mid-range is also the adjective that one could select for Trio3. In fact, only Cyrille, both as a writer and player, seems to rise to the occasion. For a start, it’s likely him who does the sly, Jon Hendricks-like, rapping vocal on “Casino”, a piece of jive that starts off the date. Humorously enumerating the pitfalls of gambling, the piece features the bass and drums loping along with Lake’s alto break out of the Hank Crawford sophisticated-funk school. With its composer banging the cowbell, “Casino” even has a “duh, duh, duh, duuuh” ending which is as old as vaudeville.

Cyrille’s other composition, “5-4-3-2”, is a Latinesque number with a speedy unison theme played by all three musicians. Secure in the catbird seat, it’s Cyrille rhythm that guides the improvisations, with Lake especially, whether he’s smearing notes in the air or honking at the bottom of his sax, returning to the theme for nourishment after each solo foray.

Even though it’s Cyrille who spots a chapeau in the band picture, it’s also the alto man who appears to be trying on various hats during the course of the nine tunes here. On “Hooray for Herbie”, written by Dolphy’s old associate Mal Waldron, Lake’s running scads of notes up the scale is identical to one of Dolphy’s pet licks, as is his jagged timbre and skittering asides. Bass work is stolid, while it only takes a few flams and rolls for the drummer to show that he can play harder without getting louder.

Workman’s straightahead “Y2 Chaos” truthfully doesn’t sound any more -- or less -- chaotic than the other tunes. But just before its conclusion as the band members are trading fours, Lake’s tone morphs from irregular Dolphy-like yelps to smooth, effortless swing à la Johnny Hodges.

“Prophet’s Path”, another of the bassist’s compositions, is an atmospheric ballad introduced by pensive arco bass. Then, as Lake downshifts into the piece’s core, the growls he produces perfectly match Workman’s methodical, lower-register pizzicato and brush work from Cyrille that resembles the scraping sound of a hoofer’s sand dance. Later, the concluding section of the longest piece on the CD is presaged by some ride cymbal accents and the sort of intense, flamenco pizzicato sound Workman used on “Olé”, during his tenure with Coltrane -- who may very well be the prophet of the title.

Obviously, especially for the many who count themselves fans of any one of Trio3’s members, there are many interesting parts to this disc, both individually and from the group. It’s certainly worth investigating. But the perception and inspiration of Halley’s three is more impressive.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Objects: 1. Objects 2. The Search 3. Grey Stones 4. Back to the 400 Club 5. Over the Rainbow 6. Thickets/Pavement

Personnel: Objects: Rich Halley (tenor and soprano saxophones, wood flute, percussion); Clyde Reed (bass); Dave Storrs (drums, percussion, vocals)

Track Listing: Open: 1. Casino 2. Hooray For Herbie 3. Open Ideas 4. Y2 Chaos 5. Prophet’s Path 6. Valley Sketch 7. Willow Song 8. 5-4-3-2 9. Dance 2

Personnel: Open: Oliver Lake (alto saxophone); Reggie Workman (bass); Andrew Cyrille (drums)

August 5, 2002

CARLO ACTIS DATO

USA Tour/April 2001/Live Splasc (H) CDH 520.2

Someone once said that Benny Goodman didn’t smile that much; it was just his embouchure. In Carlos Actis Dato’s case it’s not his embouchure. As a matter of fact, if all woodwind players had as much fun improvising as he seems to have, then most sitcoms would have wacky saxophonists as next door neighbors.

Although he brings a goofy sense of fun to the proceedings, be aware that Actis Dato is no Louis Prima or Jack Sheldon who treats the music as secondary to his singing and comedy routine. He may get high spirited enough to sing at certain points of these 13 live performances, but he never debases the music in any way. Like Charles Mingus or Rahsaan Roland Kirk, vocalizing is just his way of showing how well things are going.

In reality, USA TOUR is diary of some of the highlights of his American visit in 2001. Recorded at approximately half of his U.S. appearance that year, the tracks find him partnered with jazz-rockers, keyboardist Wayne Horvitz and bassist Rueben Radding in Seattle; freebopers, bassist Clyde Reed and drummer Dave Storrs in Portland, Ore.; and free players, bassist Damon Smith and drummer Gino Robair in Oakland, Calif. Ken Vandermark showed up with his tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet to duet in Chicago, while three outings are solo performances.

Usually wielding his largest horn -- the baritone sax -- Actis Dato excels at these match ups. Think of the colorfully costumed Italian as a lion tamer and his instrument as his feline, and you can hear how he easily puts the king of the reed family through its paces. Making it leap from its highest range down, down to its lowest, then putting it through the hoops of speedy pulsations, pseudo-nursery rhymes and jagged asides, like the best circus performer he does all this without abusing the animal and while communicating his sense of accomplishment.

Double your pleasure -- and fun -- when Vandermark shows up. Sticking to his bottom range and using tongue slaps to cement the rhythmic function, the visitor lets the homie use his higher-pitched axes to slip and slide around these instant compositions. Of course, Actis Dato is a credit to his bass (runs) when he shows that he can still come up with unexpected ways of leading from below. Sometimes, in fact. his tones push Vandermark’s to the side so that the American’s sound begins to dances to his reed ruminations.

Robair and Smith, who have experience interacting with adventurous reedists like Anthony Braxton, John Butcher and Wolfgang Fuchs, embroil Actis Dato’s bass clarinet in pure, non-stop improv. The reedist’s lower register lines are perfectly matched with Smith’s powerful strokes and Robair’s percussion. And the two are quick off the mark. When the reedman leads them into high-pitched, nonsense sounds, the drummer responds in kind -- vocally, with slide whistles, toys, shakers and miscellaneous percussion -- while Smith’s arco work keeps things on an even keel. Actis Dato is even inspired to bring out his tenor sax for a few pseudo Neapolitan operatic swells leading to several minutes of out and out swing.

Portland’s gig is just as interesting. Storrs and Reed are a seasoned bass and drums duo -- check out their trio work with fellow Northwesterner, tenor saxophonist Rich Halley -- and their exuberance clearly inspires Actis Dato. With all three of their numbers given a South American lilt, Actis Dato, on tenor producers a hearty tone midway between playful Sonny Rollins in his West Indian mode and early Gato Barbieri. Vancouver, B.C.-based Reed has played with his share of European explorers and keeps his sound powerful and unvarying, while Storrs shows that a bongo’s martillo torque and hard bop press rolls can equally be adapted to outside sounds.

Probably the weakest meeting is in Seattle, though. Horvitz’s shimmering dance- electronic synthesizer tones sounds more like Manchester (England) pop than committed improv. With Radding far in the background, it’s up to Actis Dato to inject the fortitude and soul into the proceedings, which he does. Imagine a few overdressed New Romantics being swept out of their wine bar as an R&B sax shouter clomps all over their table and you’ll get an idea of what the saxist does here. Sometimes, in fact, it appears as if he’s in a New Thing space all his own and his angry-sounding vocal interjects make be more than japes.

Although these live excursions suffer a bit from dodgy recording, too many fades in Portland and audible (!) audience cross talk on one Seattle piece, they’re a fine showcase of Actis Dato in full flight. In some cases you could say they’re the next best thing to being there.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Blue 2. Green 3. Brown 4. Poulet Fumé 5. Movin’ 6. Marina De Caribe 7. Old Time 8. Wonderful World 9. Clarbas 10. Bariten 11. Clabar 12. Witches 13. The Bay

Personnel: Carlo Actis Dato (tenor and baritone saxophones, bass clarinet); plus Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet) [tracks 9-11]; Wayne Horvitz (keyboards) and Rueben Radding (bass) [tracks 1-3]; Clyde Reed (bass) and Dave Storrs (drums) [tracks 5-7]; Damon Smith (bass) and Gino Robair (drums) [track 13]

July 13, 2002

WHIRLED JAZZ

Mukilteo
Louie Records 020

Negating the old adage that those that can do, those that can’t teach, a couple of Oregon university professors have created this fully professional session, which is as straightforward as it is unpretentious.

Containing elements of post bop, outside sounds and West Coast cool, Whirled Jazz seems to comfortably fit all three elements into its conception. A lot more than an after-school indulgence, Whirled Jazz could easily hold its on anywhere in the Pacific area, but, of course, can’t be compared to full-time, exploratory groups that exist in larger centres like the Bay area and Vancouver, B.C.

Member of the popular, local Tone Sharks band, alto saxophonist and flutist

Tom Bergeron, who also wrote all the music here, has a day job as professor at Western Oregon University (WOU). Also a teacher at WOU, trombonist Keller Coker is even a University of Southern California jazz studies graduate, though that shouldn’t be held against him. Bassist Page Hundemer went to Boston’s Berklee College and has played on most CDs on the Louie label, which happens to be owned by discriminating drummer Dave Storrs, another Tone Shark.

As light and biting as saltwater spray, the music here gets much of its impetus from the trombone-alto saxophone blend. Many times, as on “Pacific Crest” and “Tadasana” --the two longest tracks -- the front liners appear to harmonize on similar notes, octaves apart of course. Here, as elsewhere Bergeron’s tone seems to be 2½ parts Cannonball Adderley, 1½ parts Phil Woods plus a tincture of Ornette Coleman. Flute flights are less impressive since on his one feature, “Radiance”, he doesn’t seem able to transform the almost weightless, practically legit tone he produces. Plus the trombone flute blends sounds awkward, sort of like a tuna mating with a minnow.

Bergeron’s writing is particularly impressive throughout, however, lightly --there’s that word again -- swinging, and with several pieces switching from a striding to a speeding tempo mid way through.

Lithe, smooth and speedy as if he’s playing a valve instrument, Coker never seems to lose his cool. This is especially apparent on “Tadasana”, where a plunger section suggests clean Pacific water a lot more than the dirty Mississippi river. This tendency is even more apparent on “Frunkin’”, which while well played would never be confused with any tune that arose out of the Chitlin’ Circuit.

Thoroughly modern, Hundemar produces an in-your-face bass line that can easily be heard through the other instruments’ work, though whether that’s the result of his fingers or Storrs’s engineering is another question. Often called upon to introduce the compositions, sometimes he strums his bull fiddle like a guitar. Still he realizes that it’s his job to accompany the soloists, not overpower them with macho Jaco Pastorious-like posturing. Perspicacious and unassuming, Storrs hugs the background as well, usually coloring the proceedings with some buoyant percussion asides rather than full-bore drum artillery.

While MUKILTEO is no world-beater, it’s a pleasant enough romp that will probably be appreciated by many people. More importantly it shows that at least where music is concerned, those who teach, can.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Mukilteo 2. Huan-San 3. Pacific Crest 4. Tadasana 5. Frunkin’ 6. Radiance

Personnel: Keller Coker (trombone); Tom Bergeron (alto saxophone and flute); Page Hundemer (bass); Dave Storrs (drums)

April 12, 2002

ROB BLAKESLEE

Last Minute Gifts
Louie 019

Because of his long tenure in New York, many people forget that Ornette, Coleman and his first associates like Don Cherry, initially forged his influential early quartet style on the West Coast.

Reminiscent of that freebop breakthrough, trumpeter Rob Blakeslee’s CD serves notice that there are still plenty of innovators -- and innovations -- on tap three hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. Firmly in what most non-neo-cons would call the modern mainstream, this session offers six last minute gifts of fine playing and composing.

Blakeslee has spent the past 30 years in the West, adding his trumpet and flugelhorn licks to aggregations led by the likes of reedmen Anthony Braxton, John Carter and especially Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia. His regular rhythm section consists of Vancouver-based bassist Clyde Reed, also a member of that city’s NOW orchestra and Corvallis, Org.-based drummer Dave Storrs. Storrs seems to be able to play with one hand, engineer with the other and run the record label on which this disc was recorded simultaneously.

Sparkplug here, however, is Portland, Ore.-based trombonist Michael Vlatkovich. A Blakeslee associate in Golia’s Large Ensemble, he has performed on TV and movie soundtrack and worked with other exploratory musicians such as drummer Gerry Hemingway and another long-time Coleman associate, cornetist Bobby Bradford.

Tunes on the disc, all composed by Blakeslee, range from the prancing to the plodding, with most dependent on unison lines from the two brassmen, reminiscent of a more modern version of the combo trumpeter Clark Terry and trombonist Bob Brookmeyer co-lead in the early 1960s. Vlatkovich’s style would never be confused with the cool, valve trombone execution of Brookmeyer, however. One of those rare bone surgeons who seemed to have absorbed both gutbucket and free playing while ignoring the mechanical technicians of the bop and cool era, every time he solos he seems to bring out a more aggressive personality from the leader. Chief achievement is the seemingly effortless counterpoint and chorus trading in which they indulge.

Vlatkovich has a sense of humor too. In between his tempo changes on “Moss People” what sounds like a snatch of “Dixie” works its way into his solo, and isn’t that “The Twist” that gets referenced in the midst of a longer improvisation on “Huff Creek Road”? Elsewhere the sounds he produces are more in the trumpet than trombone range.

Most comfortable in mid-range, Blakeslee can also play entire choruses in a high register, but in a logical, song-building way. He’s no showoff Maynard Ferguson clone. Thus when his tone turns sour as it does on “Megan Tugboat”, you know that’s an effect, not intonation problems. Generally he sounds better at quicker tempos as well, often seconded by the bass or as part of the mellow, unison blends he and the trombonist create.

Although many of the performances call to mind Coleman’s earliest bands, with the aggregation returning to snatches of the theme throughout, “Huff Creek Road”, the longest track at almost 12 minutes, actually appears closer to some of Pharoah Sanders early-1970s LPs. Beginning with what sound like bells being rattled, it resolves itself into a steady Africanesque cadence courtesy of Reed’s plucked bass. After the horns jump and skip over one another, it ends with Vlatkovich pumping out a Spanish vamp over bowed bass and wiggling percussion.

The bassist’s buzzy solo there must be another effect, for neither he nor the drummer go in for extended techniques or long solos anywhere else on the disc, preferring to make their points by remaining understated and the background.

LAST MINUTE GIFTS may be the perfect gift for followers of any of the musicians or those that need to be reminded of the healthy scene in the Northwest. However a little more looseness, sweat and variety of tempos would have created a better product. Perhaps the different textures that would have come with a reed player would have negated some of the sameness.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Moss People 2. Megan’s Tugboat 3. Gilmore’s Boys 4. It’s Later Than You Think 5. Huff Creek Road 6 Advice From A Pufferfish.

Personnel: Rob Blakeslee (trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion); Michael Vlatkovich (trombone); Clyde Reed (bass); Dave Storrs (drums, percussion)

December 3, 2001

RICH HALLEY

Coyotes in the City
Louie 021

Untamed beauty typified by mountains, forests and plenty of rain are what most people think about the Pacific Northwest. Yet, judging from this and other sessions from the West Coast Canadian and American population centres, there are as many wild musicians as wild animals in the area.

Consider the three represented on this unadorned but effective CD, who recorded the tracks in one take in a small studio near Portland, Ore. Leader, heavy-toned saxophonist Rich Halley, who was educated as a field biologist and also works as a computer programmer, wrote most of the compositions for open-air concerts he was doing in a nearby nature park. Inventive percussionist Dave Storrs is also a studio owner and recording engineer. He and Haley have played together in the Portland area for about 30 years. Clyde Reed is not only a steady bassist and one of the founders of Vancouver, B.C.'s NOW Orchestra, but also an economics professor at a university in that city.

Only three players means there are plenty of wide-open spaces available to stretch out in on the six compositions. But despite that and the rustic outdoor suggestions of the titles, this is not an environmental recording with sounds designed to reflect Mother Nature. A lot of what's played here simulates the freedoms worked out in smoky East Coast bars and European cabarets, as much as natural settings.

In short, Halley, best-known as leader of the Lizard Brothers, and who has performed in R&B and Latin bands as well as with the likes of Julius Hemphill and Andrew Hill, is an inside-outside player who references tenor titans like Sonny Rollins as much as the coastal mountains.

Most illustrative of the tracks is the title number, which features the reedist on all of his horns. His pastoral wooden flute respires in the middle section, echoed by bass string plunks and cowbell strokes. But that soon give away to piercing, soprano saxophone lines, where he spews out so many notes he threatens to get ahead of the melody. An inventive yet lyrical bass pattern blends with the horn as the percussionist concentrates on cowbells and cymbals. Finally the piece ends with spume of northwestern air blown through the saxophone.

Halley's liquid soprano sound is given a workout on "Crows", backed by a cushion of drumstick rubs then palm strokes on the toms, plus an unvarying bass pattern. When he turns to tenor saxophone, Halley changes the rhythm, doubles the tempo and gets a righteous, raspy buzz in his tone. Articulated single notes may characterize some of his playing, but so do extended passages of glottal split tones.

Malleable in his soloing, the reedman's occasional renal squeaks can suggest the most alienated of energy players, as does his tart tone. However, he can also easily construct gutsy ballads like "Green Dusk" or "Half Light" that appear attached both to standards and Ornette Coleman's earliest LPs, which, after all, came from the West Coast. Seemingly unflappable, Storrs and Reed putter along, no matter what surprises the saxophonist throws their way.

In North America's earliest days, explorers spent a lot of time unsuccessfully searching for a Northwest Passage to the spice route. However if jazz fans are looking for some spicy playing and new musical routes, a passage to the modern Northwest would seem to be more in order.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Green, Brown and Blue 2. Green Dusk 3. Crows 4. Half Light 5. Coyotes in the City 6. Rimrocks

Personnel: Rich Halley (tenor and soprano saxophones, wood flute, percussion); Clyde Reed (bass); Dave Storrs (drums, percussion)

September 24, 2001