Remi Álvarez Quartet

Live at Vision Festival
ReKonsttruct re: 058

Remi Álvarez/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten

First Duet Live

JaZt Tapes CD-034

Probably no North American improv scene is as unknown as the Mexican one. Sure the major achievements of some Canadian players are underappreciated south of the 49th parallel, but since so many Canadian cities are near the American border, there’s frequent Can-Am interaction. Mexico is another matter. Unlike most Canadians, Hispanic Mexicans are easy to identify – ask the police in Arizona – limiting the number of quasi-legal gigs in the U.S. Undaunted though, a small community of musical experimenters survives. These CDs capture one veteran – reedist Remi Álvarez – in different American settings. During his almost 30 year career, Álvarez, who is a saxophone and jazz workshop professor at UNAM’s National School of Music , has travelled internationally, led a variety of bands and recorded with the likes of bassists Mark Dresser and drummer Harvey Sorgen

First Duet Live finds the Mexican reedist in San Antonio, in a duo setting with Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, who now lives in Houston. Well-travelled and always busy, Håker Flaten often works with other saxophonists including Joe McPhee and Mats Gustafsson. As frenetic as the Texas session is laid back, Live at Vision Festival puts Álvarez in the company of three of New York’s busiest players, guitarist Dom Minasi, bassist Ken Filiano and drummer Michael T.A. Thompson, who singly or together have played with everyone from saxophonist Charles Gayle to pianist Connie Crothers.

Leaving enough space for Álvarez’s skills on tenor saxophone and flute, the New Yorkers bring out his most piercing and comprehensive playing, constantly moving forward with intense snorts, honks, yelps and shrieks. With textures rotating around one another, the drummer smacks, chops, ruffs and drags; the bassist squeezes and rubs abrasive vibrations from the top and bottom of his strings, using both focused fingering and slip-sliding bowing; while the guitarist bends and slurs his strings when his fleet comping isn’t backing up the saxophonist.

The second improvisation reaches its climax when Filiano turns from wide-bowing to a walking bass line and Thompson’s cymbal bops and press rolls take on a Latinesque tinge, perhaps in honor of the guest saxophonist. Álvarez’s surprising squeaky flute solo and vocal cries are quickly traded in for tenor saxophone. Playing it his irregular vibrations are both mercurial and mellow; melding with Filiano’s angled stopping. Minasi continues with shuddering chord patterns as well as finger picking as Thompson’s smacks and chips knit together any dangling sequences.

Using tenor saxophone alone in San Antonio, 18 months previously, Álvarez’s vibrating split tones, tongue slaps and elongated flutters provide the staccato tension that sets off bassist Håker Flaten’s omni-directed rubs and stops. A portrait in moderation, the bassist has a rare ability to showcase staccato string stretches and ratcheting pops while maintaining a stentorian pulse. Meanwhile, like a cross border Martin & Lewis act, the saxophonist explosively and animatedly overblows, so that the resulting multiphonics encompass additional horn and breath partials. Meanwhile his original horn part is moving from dog-whistle-like altissimo to snarling glossolalia. Chiming bass strokes and linear reed trills link the two sections.

Judging from the evidence here, Álvarez can easily hold his own with the best Europe and New York has to offer. He should get out more often.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Live: 1. Improv #1 2. Improv # 2 3. Improv #3

Personnel: Live: Remi Álvarez (tenor saxophone and flute); Dom Minasi (guitar); Ken Filiano (bass) and Michael T.A. Thompson (drums)

Track Listing: First: 1. Introduction 2. First Duet 3. Second Duet 4. Third Duet

Personnel: First: Remi Álvarez (tenor saxophone) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass)

November 26, 2012

Charles Gayle Trio

Streets
Northern Spy NSCD018

By Ken Waxman

By now the tale of how the mid-‘70s “discovery” of homeless street musician Charles Gayle, whose unfettered saxophone playing breathed new life into jazz’s so-called avant-garde, has as much apocryphal currency as how toothless trumpeter Bunk Johnson’s ‘40s re-emergence supposedly energized traditional jazz.

In truth, as his exceptional improvising on this CD attests, regardless of his storied background, Gayle, like Johnson before him, is a notable player on his own merits. Whereas some New Thing veterans have returned to playing with disappointing results, at 72 Gayle is creating at as high a level as when he first recorded. Furthermore as his sympathetic relationship here with Boston bassist Larry Roland and New York mainstay, drummer Michael TA Thompson attests, free-form improvising, like classic jazz, has always been around. The bassist and drummer, who both spent years played with other below-the-radar experimenters like saxophonist Ras Moshe and trumpeter Raphe Malik, would confirm that.

Those who hear this combo as an updated version of the revolutionary Albert Ayler trio are likewise missing the point. Expressing himself on these intermezzos with exaggerated glossolalia, skyscraper-high altissimo and irregular snorts for Gayle is as much extending the ongoing jazz tradition here as his piano playing does with its quirky variations on standards.

The most obvious clue is “Doxology”, the album’s lengthiest track. With a title that conflates Sonny Rollins “Doxy” and Milt Jackson’s “Bluesology”, Gayle’s split tone solo includes quotes from other tunes that flash by at supersonic speeds while his superimposition of bugle-call-like brays on a gospel-styled head references both Ayler brothers. Roland’s flamenco-like strums could come from Jimmy Garrison, while the rolls and smacks that are part of Thompson’s solo practically update freebop.

The saxophonist’s intention to meld his song-oriented asides with knife-sharp double tonguing that asserts itself throughout, most notably on the title tune, proves that Streets is no energy music copy. Instead Gayle’s speech-like slurs, splutters and cries fit so perfectly with the drummer’s barrage of rattles, slaps and cymbal pops and the bassist’s durable and uncomplicated string power plucked and bowed that the trio becomes an original entity unto itself.

It would appear that Gayle has created one of his most remarkable sessions by subtly positioning himself and his musicians within the jazz continuum as his playing continues to evolve.

Tracks: Compassion I; Compassion II; Glory & Jesus; Streets; March of April; Doxology; Tribulations

Personnel: Charles Gayle (tenor saxophone); Larry Roland (bass) and Michael TA Thompson (drums)

--For New York City Jazz Record June 2012

June 5, 2012

Dennis González

A Matter of Blood
Furthermore Recordings 003

Dennis González Connecticut Quartet

Songs of Early Autumn

No Business Records NBCD 6

One of those unifying figures who maintains an enthusiasm for pure improvised music and encourages others, trumpeter Dennis González has been following this path towards experimentation almost single-handedly for over 30 years in his hometown of Dallas.

An artists and educator with a home studio, over time he has established links with similarly inclined players in New Orleans, California and in Europe. Recently in fact his gigs in the Eastern United States have become more frequent. These notable CDs, for instance – featuring two different sets of playing partners – are the results of the trumpeter’s recent eastward treks.

Although González brings the same distinctive mixture of melodic invention, high-class technique, contrafact creation and quote elaboration to both sessions, each is oriented towards a different configuration. It may be that A Matter of Blood has deeper Free Jazz blood lines, since one of the participants is bassist Reggie Workman, whose associations include membership in an early John Coltrane quartet. Pianist Curtis Clark spent time in Amsterdam and has recorded with everyone from fiddler Billy Bang to saxophonist Sean Bergin. Meanwhile drummer Michael T. A. Thompson has recorded with González in the past, as well as with bassist William Parker and saxophonist Kidd Jordan.

If Brooklyn-recorded A Matter of Blood is a Free Jazz variant on the Miles-Davis-with-rhythm-section concept, then the Connecticut-created Songs of Early Autumn relates to the two-horn-two-rhythm dates that became legion after the New Thing emerged in the mid-1960s. Among the other players here is Joe Morris, a long-time advanced guitarist who has turned himself into an estimable bassist. Saxophonist Timo Shanko was part of the Fully Celebrated Orchestra, while drummer Luther Gray has worked with pianist Steve Lantner and saxophonist Rob Brown.

On A Matter of Blood, the trumpeter’s lyrical qualities are brought out by the pianist’s light-fingered, romantic tendencies. But Workman’s powerful strumming as well as Thompson’s mixture of regular time-keeping plus bravura manipulation of various parts of his kit keeps any softening slides in check. The bassist’s double-stopped and carefully angled bass lines are most likely to set the scene, while octave jumps, key slides and tremolo invention are exhibited throughout.

González’s “Arbyrd Lumenal” for instance evolves in such a way that Clark’s patterning cadences are hardened with key fanning and picking so as to extend Workman’s muscular chiming and González’s double-tongued slurs. As the trumpeter moves up the scale chromatically he’s chased by cascading piano lines plus shuffles and bounces from the drummer. Workman’s ability to keep the beat while also creating sul tasto rubs are also highlighted. But this discordance leaves ample room for the trumpeter’s grace notes to sound with maximum lyricism.

“Chant de la Fée” in contrast is taken andante and fortissimo, built around stabbing piano keys, spiccato bass strings and brass reverb. As the composition’s evolving color scheme shifts, Clark’s pianism involves parallel construction where nearly every stroke is matched by another in a complementary key. Making his own way among this undertow of ringing arpeggios and reverberating soundboard textures, Thompson shakes and quivers small percussion implements as well as crash cymbals.

Collective culmination, each quartet member distinguishes himself on the title track. This collaboration involves Thompson’s thick rim shots and bass drum pumps; Workman’s doubled picking and carefully measured strokes; Clark’s cross-pulsed riffs which work up to sharp and kinetic chording; as well as González’s plunger riffs and undulating mellow timbres. Before the finale of downward shifting piano arpeggios mixed with flowing bass strokes, the trumpeter fires off triple-tongued, tremolo tones backed by the drummer’s opposite sticking and cymbal snapping.

Quixotically more atonal, yet more obviously wedded to the tradition, Songs of Early Autumn subtly bows to the song form as Energy Music. “Loft”, the very first tune, for instance, may balance on sharpened reed bites, screams and honks from Shanko; rebounds and ratamascus from Gray; and triple-tongued connections from the trumpeter, but González also manages to repeatedly work a few quotes from “April in Paris” into his solos.

In a similar fashion “Those Who Came Before” – how’s that title for a clue as to the musicians’ sentiments? – includes a hint of Spanish melancholy in the midst of Morris’ solo. Expanding verbal yodeling with mocking cries and dense reed-biting from his tenor saxophone, earlier on Shanko harmonizes his reed phrasing with smooth, grace notes from the trumpeter. When the tonal centre shifts to ragged-and-rough contrapuntal horn blowing during the instant composition’s mid-section, the two echo one another’s cries on top of triple-stopping from the bassist plus cymbal cracks from Gray. Moving into the home stretch, the piece is divided between double-stopped, bent and strummed notes from Morris and echoing flutters from both horns. The rubato and rococo concordance worked up by the saxophonist and trumpeter finds Shanko growls and flutter-tonguing paying homage to Albert Ayler, while González’s capillary narrative is more technically sophisticated than anything played by Donald Ayler.

Shanko’s frequent reaffirmations of Ayler’s influence throughout are tempered by his chromatic forays into perpendicular Latinesque runs – encouraged by rough tonguing from the trumpeter as on “Bush Medicine”. Completing the improvisations so that the tune ends up being more variations then theme Gray’s snare strokes and cross-sticking precede surging flutters from the trumpeter before the saxman snorts the head one final time. “Lamentation” is a group improv that slides from mellow to mercurial as González’s whinnies and tongue slaps and Shanko’s wiggles and slurs. After the horns circle each other concentrically they attain harmonic unison.

González’s more frequent forays away from his home base are beginning to produce a series of memorable collaborations with other players. On the evidence here, add two more dates to that collection.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Songs: 1. Loft 2. Acceleration 3. Bush Medicine 4. Idolo 5. In Tallation 6. Lamentation 7. Those Who Came Before 8. Loyalty

Personnel: Songs: Dennis González(C trumpet); Timo Shanko (tenor saxophone); Joe Morris (bass) and Luther Gray (drums)

Track Listing: Matter: 1. Alzar La Mano 2. Interlude: Untitled 3. Arbyrd Lumenal 4. Interlude: Fuzzy's Adventure 5. A Matter of Blood 6. Anthem for the Moment 7. Interlude: 30 December 8. Chant de la Fée

Personnel: Matter: Dennis González (C trumpet and B cornet); Curtis Clark (piano); Reggie Workman (bass) and Michael T. A. Thompson (drums)

December 27, 2009

Dennis González Connecticut Quartet

Songs of Early Autumn
No Business Records NBCD 6

Dennis González

A Matter of Blood

Furthermore Recordings 003

One of those unifying figures who maintains an enthusiasm for pure improvised music and encourages others, trumpeter Dennis González has been following this path towards experimentation almost single-handedly for over 30 years in his hometown of Dallas.

An artists and educator with a home studio, over time he has established links with similarly inclined players in New Orleans, California and in Europe. Recently in fact his gigs in the Eastern United States have become more frequent. These notable CDs, for instance – featuring two different sets of playing partners – are the results of the trumpeter’s recent eastward treks.

Although González brings the same distinctive mixture of melodic invention, high-class technique, contrafact creation and quote elaboration to both sessions, each is oriented towards a different configuration. It may be that A Matter of Blood has deeper Free Jazz blood lines, since one of the participants is bassist Reggie Workman, whose associations include membership in an early John Coltrane quartet. Pianist Curtis Clark spent time in Amsterdam and has recorded with everyone from fiddler Billy Bang to saxophonist Sean Bergin. Meanwhile drummer Michael T. A. Thompson has recorded with González in the past, as well as with bassist William Parker and saxophonist Kidd Jordan.

If Brooklyn-recorded A Matter of Blood is a Free Jazz variant on the Miles-Davis-with-rhythm-section concept, then the Connecticut-created Songs of Early Autumn relates to the two-horn-two-rhythm dates that became legion after the New Thing emerged in the mid-1960s. Among the other players here is Joe Morris, a long-time advanced guitarist who has turned himself into an estimable bassist. Saxophonist Timo Shanko was part of the Fully Celebrated Orchestra, while drummer Luther Gray has worked with pianist Steve Lantner and saxophonist Rob Brown.

On A Matter of Blood, the trumpeter’s lyrical qualities are brought out by the pianist’s light-fingered, romantic tendencies. But Workman’s powerful strumming as well as Thompson’s mixture of regular time-keeping plus bravura manipulation of various parts of his kit keeps any softening slides in check. The bassist’s double-stopped and carefully angled bass lines are most likely to set the scene, while octave jumps, key slides and tremolo invention are exhibited throughout.

González’s “Arbyrd Lumenal” for instance evolves in such a way that Clark’s patterning cadences are hardened with key fanning and picking so as to extend Workman’s muscular chiming and González’s double-tongued slurs. As the trumpeter moves up the scale chromatically he’s chased by cascading piano lines plus shuffles and bounces from the drummer. Workman’s ability to keep the beat while also creating sul tasto rubs are also highlighted. But this discordance leaves ample room for the trumpeter’s grace notes to sound with maximum lyricism.

“Chant de la Fée” in contrast is taken andante and fortissimo, built around stabbing piano keys, spiccato bass strings and brass reverb. As the composition’s evolving color scheme shifts, Clark’s pianism involves parallel construction where nearly every stroke is matched by another in a complementary key. Making his own way among this undertow of ringing arpeggios and reverberating soundboard textures, Thompson shakes and quivers small percussion implements as well as crash cymbals.

Collective culmination, each quartet member distinguishes himself on the title track. This collaboration involves Thompson’s thick rim shots and bass drum pumps; Workman’s doubled picking and carefully measured strokes; Clark’s cross-pulsed riffs which work up to sharp and kinetic chording; as well as González’s plunger riffs and undulating mellow timbres. Before the finale of downward shifting piano arpeggios mixed with flowing bass strokes, the trumpeter fires off triple-tongued, tremolo tones backed by the drummer’s opposite sticking and cymbal snapping.

Quixotically more atonal, yet more obviously wedded to the tradition, Songs of Early Autumn subtly bows to the song form as Energy Music. “Loft”, the very first tune, for instance, may balance on sharpened reed bites, screams and honks from Shanko; rebounds and ratamascus from Gray; and triple-tongued connections from the trumpeter, but González also manages to repeatedly work a few quotes from “April in Paris” into his solos.

In a similar fashion “Those Who Came Before” – how’s that title for a clue as to the musicians’ sentiments? – includes a hint of Spanish melancholy in the midst of Morris’ solo. Expanding verbal yodeling with mocking cries and dense reed-biting from his tenor saxophone, earlier on Shanko harmonizes his reed phrasing with smooth, grace notes from the trumpeter. When the tonal centre shifts to ragged-and-rough contrapuntal horn blowing during the instant composition’s mid-section, the two echo one another’s cries on top of triple-stopping from the bassist plus cymbal cracks from Gray. Moving into the home stretch, the piece is divided between double-stopped, bent and strummed notes from Morris and echoing flutters from both horns. The rubato and rococo concordance worked up by the saxophonist and trumpeter finds Shanko growls and flutter-tonguing paying homage to Albert Ayler, while González’s capillary narrative is more technically sophisticated than anything played by Donald Ayler.

Shanko’s frequent reaffirmations of Ayler’s influence throughout are tempered by his chromatic forays into perpendicular Latinesque runs – encouraged by rough tonguing from the trumpeter as on “Bush Medicine”. Completing the improvisations so that the tune ends up being more variations then theme Gray’s snare strokes and cross-sticking precede surging flutters from the trumpeter before the saxman snorts the head one final time. “Lamentation” is a group improv that slides from mellow to mercurial as González’s whinnies and tongue slaps and Shanko’s wiggles and slurs. After the horns circle each other concentrically they attain harmonic unison.

González’s more frequent forays away from his home base are beginning to produce a series of memorable collaborations with other players. On the evidence here, add two more dates to that collection.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Songs: 1. Loft 2. Acceleration 3. Bush Medicine 4. Idolo 5. In Tallation 6. Lamentation 7. Those Who Came Before 8. Loyalty

Personnel: Songs: Dennis González (C trumpet); Timo Shanko (tenor saxophone); Joe Morris (bass) and Luther Gray (drums)

Track Listing: Matter: 1. Alzar La Mano 2. Interlude: Untitled 3. Arbyrd Lumenal 4. Interlude: Fuzzy's Adventure 5. A Matter of Blood 6. Anthem for the Moment 7. Interlude: 30 December 8. Chant de la Fée

Personnel: Matter: Dennis González (C trumpet and B cornet); Curtis Clark (piano); Reggie Workman (bass) and Michael T. A. Thompson (drums)

December 27, 2009

Saco Yasuma

Another Rain
Leaf Note LNP 0208

Ras Moshe Quartet

Transcendence

KMB Jazz KMB-007

Geography is sometimes an extraneous element when it comes to creativity, as two accomplished New York-based saxophonists demonstrate on CDs with their own bands. Part of the fourth – or is it fifth or sixth (?) – generation of non-mainstream players, reedists Ras Moshe and Saco Yasuma sometimes work together in various ensembles – most notably trombonist Steve Swell’s big band – but their backgrounds couldn’t be more dissimilar.

Japanese-born, Yasuma, who plays alto saxophone and xaphoon or bamboo saxophone on Another Rain, took up saxophone when she moved to New York a dozen years ago in order, she says, to reflect her voice and breath. Moshe, who plays tenor and alto saxophones, clarinet and flute on Transcendence is in the ecstatic tradition of John Coltrane and Frank Wright, is a proud Brooklynite and has been one since birth.

His quartet is divided between veterans and tyros. Bassist Shayna Dulberger is a well-schooled player, who also plays in other New York groups such as the Introscopic Music Ensemble. A Bostonian who played with drummer Dennis Warren’s FMRJE, guitarist Dave Ross is also a member of the Synergy band with Moshe and Yasuma. Drummer Rashid Bakr, on the other hand has been part of many Free Jazz combos since he first worked with pianist Cecil Taylor in the 1970s.

Bakr, and brassman Roy Campbell, who is featured on Yasuma’s CD, are part of the co-op Other Dimensions in Music combo. Other Another Rain participants include bassist Ken Filiano, who works with bands on both American coasts and internationally; pianist Andrew Bemkey, who has played with Campbell and bassist William Parker; and percussionist/producer Michael T.A. Thompson, another associate of Campbell and Parker.

A defining characteristic of both CDs – recorded by happenstance one month apart in the same Brooklyn studio – is their rhythmic accessibility. Avoiding heavy back-beat emphasis, the tempo arises generically from the performances themselves, with the rhythm sections – especially the bassists – holding down the pulse and serving as connective tissue for the improvisations.

This is most apparent on Transcendence’s “Turtles All The Way Down”, which contrapuntally matches the slap-bass lines of composer Dulberger, swelling reed bites from Moshe and note-crunching, slurred fingering from Ross. Although the guitar part is a bit too upfront in the mix – as it is throughout the session – Ross’s display of intricate finger picking follows its own path as Barkr strikes small percussion instruments and Moshe sounds a Tranesque line.

Echoes of Trane – and one of his disciples on “Flute Peace for Charles Lloyd” – permeates the saxophonist’s playing on the CD, and never more so than on the 10½-minute “All Flow”. Encompassing scene-setting, Jimmy Garrison-like bass work, Bakr throwing down ratamacues, rolls and bell rattles, plus distinctive acoustic guitar comping from Ross, this is Moshe’s showcase from beginning to end. Tonguing double and triple flutters from his tenor, the saxman turns to side-slipping obbligatos and extended arpeggios that intensify as they expand. After bowed bass and distorted, slack-key guitar frails distend the compositional shape still further, Moshe re-enters the fray with a reed-biting variation of the theme – which he then proceeds to shred with altissimo shrieks and falsetto growls. On top of widening downstrokes from Ross, the saxophonist finally relaxes his lip enough to restate the head.

Despite numerically more instrumental firepower, there isn’t the same contrast between light and darkness, buoyancy and bulk on Another Rain, Yasuma’s debut disc. Working further into the tradition than Transcendence, the CD features frequent call-and-response passages between the front line and the rhythm section. Additionally, the rolling chords that often characterize Bemkey’s accompaniment vary from McCoy Tyner-like modal runs to the sort of advanced Freebop comping that was a specialty of 1960s and 1970s pianists on Blue Note sessions.

However some unique touches frequently move the nine tracks – all of which except for one group improvisation are written by Yasuma – away from her influences and into their own realm. “Calm Water”, for instance, not only matches bowed bass and trumpet lines to contrast with Yasuma’s wispy, vibrated flute-like timbres – likely from the xaphoon – but adds Bemkey’s lowing bass clarinet for additional color. Thompson contributes Africanized tree-drum rhythms, Filiano slides out snaky, oud-like pattering and Campbell’s muted horn accompanies the adagio drumming.

Elsewhere Thompson interrupts the overly-smooth exposition on the title track with thumping batá drum-like hand slaps, encouraging the pianist’s notes to transform first into folksy licks than to introduce hints of gospel chording. Eventually Yasuma’s own relaxed climatic line circles back to the head.

Then there’s “The Fifth Season”. Taken andante, the piece mates harsher piano accents with a reed output that migrates from ethereal bamboo sax lines to triple-tongued Free Jazz intensity. Bemkey’s modal exposition and strummed dynamics are seconded by Filiano’s sul tasto squeezes and scrapes plus Thompson’s drum and cymbal chinks. Subsequently each part bonds for the echoing crescendo.

While neither CD is so outstanding that it’s likely to broadcast the reputation of either saxophonist beyond the confines of the non-mainstream, each shows considerable degrees of style and originality. Remember for instance, how many sessions Coltrane and Jackie McLean recorded before they became standard bearers. Similar maturing and style codification characterize these early efforts by both saxophonists.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Rain: 1. Invisible Matters 2. Liquid Entity 3. Fat Orange Moon* 4. The Fifth Season 5. Calm Water 6. Labyrinth 7. Straight Upwards 8. A Wind Blew Into My Hands 9. Another Rain

Personnel: Rain: Roy Campbell (trumpet and flugelhorn [not #4 and #9]); Saco Yasuma (alto saxophone and xaphoon [bamboo saxophone]); Andrew Bemkey (piano); Ken Filiano (bass) and Michael T.A. Thompson (sound rhythm percussion) plus Golda Solomon (words)*

Track Listing: Transcendence: 1. Transcendence 2. Far Sight 3. If You See Something, Say Something 4. Sun Room 5. Flute Peace for Charles Lloyd 6. All Flow 7. Carol Not Christmas 8. Interstellar Brooklyn 9. Turtles All The Way Down

Personnel: Transcendence: Ras Moshe (alto and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet and flute); Dave Ross (guitar); Shayna Dulberger (bass) and Rashid Bakr (drums)

November 23, 2007

Ras Moshe Quartet

Transcendence
KMB Jazz KMB-007

Saco Yasuma

Another Rain

Leaf Note LNP 0208

Geography is sometimes an extraneous element when it comes to creativity, as two accomplished New York-based saxophonists demonstrate on CDs with their own bands. Part of the fourth – or is it fifth or sixth (?) – generation of non-mainstream players, reedists Ras Moshe and Saco Yasuma sometimes work together in various ensembles – most notably trombonist Steve Swell’s big band – but their backgrounds couldn’t be more dissimilar.

Japanese-born, Yasuma, who plays alto saxophone and xaphoon or bamboo saxophone on Another Rain, took up saxophone when she moved to New York a dozen years ago in order, she says, to reflect her voice and breath. Moshe, who plays tenor and alto saxophones, clarinet and flute on Transcendence is in the ecstatic tradition of John Coltrane and Frank Wright, is a proud Brooklynite and has been one since birth.

His quartet is divided between veterans and tyros. Bassist Shayna Dulberger is a well-schooled player, who also plays in other New York groups such as the Introscopic Music Ensemble. A Bostonian who played with drummer Dennis Warren’s FMRJE, guitarist Dave Ross is also a member of the Synergy band with Moshe and Yasuma. Drummer Rashid Bakr, on the other hand has been part of many Free Jazz combos since he first worked with pianist Cecil Taylor in the 1970s.

Bakr, and brassman Roy Campbell, who is featured on Yasuma’s CD, are part of the co-op Other Dimensions in Music combo. Other Another Rain participants include bassist Ken Filiano, who works with bands on both American coasts and internationally; pianist Andrew Bemkey, who has played with Campbell and bassist William Parker; and percussionist/producer Michael T.A. Thompson, another associate of Campbell and Parker.

A defining characteristic of both CDs – recorded by happenstance one month apart in the same Brooklyn studio – is their rhythmic accessibility. Avoiding heavy back-beat emphasis, the tempo arises generically from the performances themselves, with the rhythm sections – especially the bassists – holding down the pulse and serving as connective tissue for the improvisations.

This is most apparent on Transcendence’s “Turtles All The Way Down”, which contrapuntally matches the slap-bass lines of composer Dulberger, swelling reed bites from Moshe and note-crunching, slurred fingering from Ross. Although the guitar part is a bit too upfront in the mix – as it is throughout the session – Ross’s display of intricate finger picking follows its own path as Barkr strikes small percussion instruments and Moshe sounds a Tranesque line.

Echoes of Trane – and one of his disciples on “Flute Peace for Charles Lloyd” – permeates the saxophonist’s playing on the CD, and never more so than on the 10½-minute “All Flow”. Encompassing scene-setting, Jimmy Garrison-like bass work, Bakr throwing down ratamacues, rolls and bell rattles, plus distinctive acoustic guitar comping from Ross, this is Moshe’s showcase from beginning to end. Tonguing double and triple flutters from his tenor, the saxman turns to side-slipping obbligatos and extended arpeggios that intensify as they expand. After bowed bass and distorted, slack-key guitar frails distend the compositional shape still further, Moshe re-enters the fray with a reed-biting variation of the theme – which he then proceeds to shred with altissimo shrieks and falsetto growls. On top of widening downstrokes from Ross, the saxophonist finally relaxes his lip enough to restate the head.

Despite numerically more instrumental firepower, there isn’t the same contrast between light and darkness, buoyancy and bulk on Another Rain, Yasuma’s debut disc. Working further into the tradition than Transcendence, the CD features frequent call-and-response passages between the front line and the rhythm section. Additionally, the rolling chords that often characterize Bemkey’s accompaniment vary from McCoy Tyner-like modal runs to the sort of advanced Freebop comping that was a specialty of 1960s and 1970s pianists on Blue Note sessions.

However some unique touches frequently move the nine tracks – all of which except for one group improvisation are written by Yasuma – away from her influences and into their own realm. “Calm Water”, for instance, not only matches bowed bass and trumpet lines to contrast with Yasuma’s wispy, vibrated flute-like timbres – likely from the xaphoon – but adds Bemkey’s lowing bass clarinet for additional color. Thompson contributes Africanized tree-drum rhythms, Filiano slides out snaky, oud-like pattering and Campbell’s muted horn accompanies the adagio drumming.

Elsewhere Thompson interrupts the overly-smooth exposition on the title track with thumping batá drum-like hand slaps, encouraging the pianist’s notes to transform first into folksy licks than to introduce hints of gospel chording. Eventually Yasuma’s own relaxed climatic line circles back to the head.

Then there’s “The Fifth Season”. Taken andante, the piece mates harsher piano accents with a reed output that migrates from ethereal bamboo sax lines to triple-tongued Free Jazz intensity. Bemkey’s modal exposition and strummed dynamics are seconded by Filiano’s sul tasto squeezes and scrapes plus Thompson’s drum and cymbal chinks. Subsequently each part bonds for the echoing crescendo.

While neither CD is so outstanding that it’s likely to broadcast the reputation of either saxophonist beyond the confines of the non-mainstream, each shows considerable degrees of style and originality. Remember for instance, how many sessions Coltrane and Jackie McLean recorded before they became standard bearers. Similar maturing and style codification characterize these early efforts by both saxophonists.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Rain: 1. Invisible Matters 2. Liquid Entity 3. Fat Orange Moon* 4. The Fifth Season 5. Calm Water 6. Labyrinth 7. Straight Upwards 8. A Wind Blew Into My Hands 9. Another Rain

Personnel: Rain: Roy Campbell (trumpet and flugelhorn [not #4 and #9]); Saco Yasuma (alto saxophone and xaphoon [bamboo saxophone]); Andrew Bemkey (piano); Ken Filiano (bass) and Michael T.A. Thompson (sound rhythm percussion) plus Golda Solomon (words)*

Track Listing: Transcendence: 1. Transcendence 2. Far Sight 3. If You See Something, Say Something 4. Sun Room 5. Flute Peace for Charles Lloyd 6. All Flow 7. Carol Not Christmas 8. Interstellar Brooklyn 9. Turtles All The Way Down

Personnel: Transcendence: Ras Moshe (alto and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet and flute); Dave Ross (guitar); Shayna Dulberger (bass) and Rashid Bakr (drums)

November 23, 2007

WILLIAM PARKER

Luc's Lantern
Thirsty Ear THI 57158.2

WILLIAM PARKER QUARTET
Sound Unity
Aum Fidelity Aum 034

Conventional and unconventional sounds reflecting the improvisational and compositional talents of New York bassist William Parker, both these CDs are noteworthy. What's most surprising though is that the unconventional one is LUC'S LANTERN. Known as one of the prime movers in New York's avant-garde scene, Parker is still able to create a session that could have been put out by such classic 1960s piano trios as Ahmad Jamal's, Bill Evans's or Oscar Peterson's. It's unconventional in its very conventionality.

More expected, but in truth conventional only if you're very familiar with Free Jazz, SOUND UNITY features the bassman's quartet working out on six exciting tracks recorded live in Montreal and Vancouver. Even though the compositions nod powerfully to Ornette Coleman's legendary 1960s' quartet, they, along with Coleman's work, are really modern mainstream, no matter what musical neo-cons tell you.

Ranging from slightly more than eight to more than 21 minutes, the selections are stylish and graceful. Taking the Coleman comparison a bit further, Parker's measured pacing allow him to assay Charlie Haden's role, while trumpeter Lewis Barnes and alto saxophonist Rob Brown - who both also play in the bassist's Little Huey orchestra - become an updated Don Cherry and a Coleman respectively. However Chicago-based Hamid Drake, who sometimes appears to work with half the improv bands on the planet, is the wild card in the bunch. Sure his drumming is sympathetic, but his power is such that comes across like a combination of Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell, who split drum duties with Coleman.

Less famous than Drake, Michael Thompson who occupies the drum chair on LUC'S LANTERN holds his own when dealing with Parker's stentorian bass playing. That shouldn't be a surprise, since he's worked in combos with the likes of Parker associate, trumpeter Roy Campbell, and reedist Joe Giardullo. This CD's surprising component comes from pianist Eri Yamamoto, usually heard in certified mainstream settings. A native of Kyoto, Japan, Yamamoto has lived in New York City 1996, and on the faculty of The Mannes College of Music. Someone who has worked with other powerful bassists such as Ron McClure and Reggie Workman, her playing here encompasses the impressionism of Bill Evans and the swing and technique of a clutch of hard bop key thumpers.

In a way, this pianistic link to earlier time is quite appropriate to the CD, for some of the 10 Parker compositions honor fallen jazz heroes such as pianists Jaki Byard and Bud Powell, bassist Scotty Holt, and saxophonists Charles Tyler and Booker Ervin.

Not that there's any attempt to recreate anyone's style. As a matter of fact, Parker and Yamamoto throw a monkey wrench into hearing this as a tribute CD, most notably on "Bud in Alphaville". Not only are her hard octave downshifts and double timing key clips closer to Monk than Powell, but the title and accompanying poem reference director Jean Luc Goddard's film Alphaville. Goddard and Powell may have concurrently inhabited Paris, but there's no jazz music in his films.

There's plenty of jazz on this CD though. Often operating contrapuntally, Parker and Thompson could be a bop rhythm section - the bassist walking and the drummer playing a backbeat. But few boppers had the same command of woody spiccato runs that the bassist exhibits, plus the ability to ruffle and sluice patterns up and down his strings sul ponticello. Furthermore, in response to or accompanied by Parker's unvarying pulse and Yamamoto's metronomic note clusters, the drummer often easily lets loose with a post bop romp of dedicated rolls, flams and paradiddles with extra flashy hi hat accents.

Preeminently her own woman, Yamamoto has enough command of jazz's piano literature to streak from one series of near tributes to another - usually within the same piece. Tunes like "Song For Tyler" bring out Evans-like lush voicing and soft glissandi, although she explores the piano's upper quadrants with foreshortened note patterns as effectively as the New Thing saxophonist did with his horn. Meanwhile the title tune features pseudo Peterson-like runs and stabbing note cascades that migrate from Herbie Nichols'style. Channeling McCoy Tyner, she easily counters Parker's hard and heavy bass work with organic patterning into additional overtones.

It's the same with "Mourning Sunset", as her built up key clusters with chordal color start to resemble "All Blues". As Thompson breaks up the time with ratamacues and opposite sticking, and Parker fuses a repeated bass line, her high frequency dynamics turns to taciturn, softer variations.

No one could accuse the Parker Four of being soft and taciturn on "Harlem" and "Groove", - the almost onomatopoeic riffs that conclude SOUND UNITY. Bluesy rhythm tunes that belie the so-called avant garde's reputation for solemnity, the two centre on rock-solid, resonating bass work from Parker and cross sticking and soft-shoe-like rim shots from Thompson. As for the front line, Barnes' choked, dirty pecks could come from Rex Stewart or Roy Eldridge. Meanwhile Brown's pitch vibrations and slurs plus dangling, flutter-tongued altissimo tones go back past Coleman's cries to the country blues that inspired early jazz. Modernly moderato and impassioned polyphonic at the same time, Brown has rarely played better on record.

Earlier on, those Coleman echoes intensify with the head of "Wood Flute Song" sounding like "Focus on Sanity", as Barnes and Brown operate in double counterpoint, resolutely moving up the scale in unison. A short boppy smear inaugurates the shakes Barnes puts into his solo, while Brown squeals irregular vibrations that intensify rather than detract from the tune. Here and elsewhere the bassist directs the beat like a captain navigating a boat through choppy water, as Drake's splash cymbal, hi-hat coloring and snare and bass drum whacks agitate the waters and speed up the tempo.

Balladically Barnes contributes portamento grace note and Brown tongue stops and slurs to other numbers, yet the quartet's stance is so fixed and forceful that story-telling attributes aren't lost no matter the pitch or tempo,

Of course, all these are preludes or postludes to the 21-minute title track. With the main theme set up by Parker's unvarying pulsation plus paradidles, ruffs and cymbal cross sticking from Drake, the first of its variations ping-pong between Brown's stabbing Jackie McLean-like tone and Barnes' speedy hummingbird-like brass bites. Subsequently open horned with comfortable middle-range grace notes, Barnes halves the tempo for his own melody. Thick slurs from Brown interrupt, then lead to mirrored note patterns, first from the trumpeter, then the altoist. Riffing softly behind the bassist, they then yield centrestage to the bassist whose stentorian layering brings out both the designated note and its reverberating nodes. As the horn blowing increases in volume, Drake cross sticks on his toms and snares, reverberates his cymbals with industrial strength and pounds martially. Walking, Parker reprises the theme, aided by trilling alto and muted trumpet until the tune is suddenly cut off.

You won't have to do that as long as you keep playing these CDs. Most valuable for the Parker follower, individually and together they will impress everyone, whether the music's thought of as conventional or unconventional.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Sound: 1. Hawaii 2. Wood Flute Song 3. Poem for June Jordan 4. Sound Unity 5. Harlem 6. Groove

Personnel: Sound: Lewis Barnes (trumpet); Rob Brown (alto saxophone); William Parker (bass) and Hamid Drake (drums)

Track Listing: Luc's: 1. Adena 2. Song For Tyler 3. Mourning Sunset 4. Evening Star Song 5. Luc's Lantern 6. Jaki 7. Bud in Alphaville 8. Charcoal Flower 9. Phoenix 10. Candlesticks on the Lake

Personnel: Luc's: Eri Yamamoto (piano); William Parker (bass); Michael Thompson (drums)

September 19, 2005

DENNIS GONZÁLEZ NEW YORK QUARTET

NY Midnight Suite
Clean Feed 20

DENNIS GONZÁLEZ’S INSPIRATION BAND
Nile River Suite
Daagnim CD9

Products of a two-day bushman’s holiday in the Big Apple by Dallas-based trumpeter Dennis González, these CDs should irrefutably proves that non-New Yorkers can show Naked City denizens a thing or two.

González, who is also a schoolteacher and a visual artist, runs a supportive co-op organization in Dallas and in the past has recorded with other advanced hinterland players like New Orleans saxist Kidd Jordan and Chicago bassist Malachi Favors. Taking two suites of compositions with him, the brassman plus local drummer Michael Thompson recorded these two CDs in two days with different bands of New York’s finest.

NY MIDNIGHT SUITE links the two with certified downtowners, who are also leaders on their own: tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and bassist Mark Helias. Longer and more ambitious NILE RIVER SUITE finds González and Thompson, in the company of players who often work with bassist William Parker: multi-reedist Sabir Mateen, recently rediscovered bassist Henry Grimes and brassman Roy Campbell, in whose band Thompson also plays. Both are impressive achievements.

More raucous, MIDNIGHT sounds like Ornette Coleman quartet with Don Cherry or Albert Ayler’s band with his brother trumpeter Donald. But González is a more sophisticated soloist than those men were, while Eskelin’s bent is to append Gene Ammons-like soulfullness to a modern overlay.

This is made most clear on “Dominant Fang”, whose antecedents include Latin ass well as freebop. It sometimes sounds as if what would happen if Sonny Rollins’ “East Broadway Rundown” was recast as a hip cop show theme. Here the tenor man double tongues and produces a crying tone, while González, staying in lockstep with him not only frequently reprises the theme but holds to a gentler, more graceful tone.

Meanwhile, the most descriptive part of the Suite, “Runaway Taxi Uptown” has a definite Manhattan vibe and almost replicates a cab ride. Centred on call-and-response between the saxist’s reed biting and the trumpeter’s high triplets, mellow smears and bent notes, it finds Eskelin deconstructing his tone as he ascends the scale. Behind them Thompson mixes his splintering bounces and flams with sandpaper-like incursions on his drumheads and Helias contributes arco punctuation. Ending finds González recapitulating the musical theme as Eskelin sources taxi honks.

On the other hand, “Angels of the Dark Streets”, Part II of the Suite and the unrelated, more-than 18 minute “Hymn for the Elders” showcases a more temperate, style, but with toughness still present. On the first, Eskelin unleashes an atonal, irregularly pitched trill that sounds as it comes straight from the sax bow. With Helias moving from walking bass line to spiccato and Thompson cymbal smashing, the trumpeter unleashes a clutch of triplets, which later on suggest “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. With the front line contrapuntal, both appear to be voicing different parts of the melody, as the saxist finally slows down to lower intensity slurred vibrations.

Polytonal counterpoint enlivens “Hymn” as well, as does unaccompanied cadenzas from Eskelin at the top, a resounding bass drum tone and ground bass lines from Helias. Spurting a few broken grace notes González moves lazily up the scale, encouraging the reedist to spew colored air, the drummer to scour his cymbal and the bassist to slide portamento across his strings. Harmonically muted legato tones from both hornmen gradually curve and double tongue to the quiet ending.

“The Nile Runs through New York (Part IB)” and The Nile Runs through My Heart (Part II)”, two parts of the Nile suite which also run into one another, demonstrate what the composer-trumpeter can do with additional aural colors. The entire CD was recorded the day following the previous session.

On the first tune, Mateen’s vamping flute and Grimes’ bowed bass buffer González’s bravura performance, which logically from the performer comes with a certain Spanish-tinged majesty. Muted, the trumpeter faces off with sluicing clarinet work from Mateen, whose flutter-tongued obbligatos add a certain folksiness to the proceedings. Using soaring moderato grace notes, the composer’s contrapuntal resolution ends the piece with a woody growl. Bridged by a slow-paced bass solo, the second track showcases Campbell amplifying González’s solo, but identifying himself by squeezing, staccato valve work, producing spirals of growls and bleats.

Elsewhere, as on the more than 18 minute “Lyons in Lyon”, named for the altoist Jimmy and the French city, Grimes’ unvarying bass pulse sometimes threatens to push the band back to the anthematic 1960s. But Mateen’s raspy overblowing on alto and Campbell’s looping, vocalized triple tonguing prevents the tune from becoming too chant-like. Soon González adds wiggling counterlines to the other oracular horns, eventually leading one brassman to concentrate on the modulated mid-range as the other shrills higher notes. The bassist offers up a metallic, ponticello tone, Mateen vibrates clarinet pitches and Thompson’s rolls, flams and rebounds on snares and toms help the piece moderate and becomes softer with more unison octave harmonics.

Ultimately the CD is brought to the end with “Hymn for the Ashes of Saturday”. But it’s one religious song whose mixed secular/sacred reference includes a “Night Train”-like shuffle head that’s extended with march tempo rat-tat-tats from Thompson. Meanwhile, as González pecks ahead of the beat on his horn, the other horns riff behind him. Following a ratamacue-ready solo from the drummer that ratchets the wooden parts of his kit, the bands exits as the trumpeter plays a bugle-call-like reveille and Mateen twists and smears his reed into a double timed ending.

As the song goes, “If you can make it here/You can make it anywhere” and González has proven that statement with some help from the locals. Judging from his skills as a composer, arranger and player, what’s really needed is for New Yorkers and other urbanites to pay more attention to his scene in Dallas.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: NY: Suite: 1. (III) Sketch the Wings of Midnight 2. (II) Angels of the Dark Streets 3. (I) Runaway Taxi Uptown 4. Hymn for the Elders 5. Dominant Fang 6. New Short Song

Personnel: NY: Dennis González (trumpet); Ellery Eskelin (tenor saxophone); Mark Helias (bass); Michael Thompson (drums)

Track Listing: Nile: 1. Lyons in Lyon 2. Sand Baptist 3. The Nile Runs through New York (Part IA) 4. The Nile Runs through New York (Part IB) 5. The Nile Runs through My Heart (Part II) 6. The Nile Runs through Us All (Part III) 7. Hymn for the Ashes of Saturday

Personnel: Nile: Dennis González (trumpet); Roy Campbell Jr. (trumpet, pocket trumpet, flugelhorn and flute); Sabir Mateen (alto and tenor saxophones, flute, alto and Bb clarinets); Henry Grimes (bass); Michael Thompson (drums and percussion)

October 18, 2004

JOE GIARDULLO/SANGEETA MICHAEL BERARDIS

Art Spirit
Boxholder BXH 028

LANGUAGE OF SWANS
Language of Swans
Drimala DR 02-347-05

Now that jazz is supposedly in one of its periodic boomlets of almost-popularity, the public is starting to take notice of exploratory improvisers who have been plugging away on their own for many years.

Case in point is multi-reedist Joe Giardullo, who first recorded in 1980, and who has been going full tilt as a first-class improviser since the early 1990s. But it’s only in the past half decade or so that he has gained notice for his work in Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Band and in different formations with woodwind/brass master Joe McPhee.

To add substance to the delay between artistry and audience appreciation, both of these newly released CDs date from the late 1990s, ART SPIRIT from 1997, and LANGUAGE OF SWANS from the next year. Not unlike suddenly acclaimed works by prominent visual artists that are discovered and reassessed after the painter gains fame, they show that the inventiveness and technique of 2003’s Giardullo was also in evidence five and six years ago.

Visual metaphors seem to come easily to the reedist. He describes his duets with guitarist Sangeeta Michael Berardi, another neglected experimenter, as “paintings and drawings”, and the trio CD with bassist Chris Sullivan and drummer/pianist Michael Thompson appears to aurally encompass painterly musical colors as well as those suggested by the elegance of those floating fowl. Both discs seem to have been created in a meditative, mystical frame of mind. While there are interesting parts on the two discs, there are times that they become a little too perilously monochromic.

Low-key throughout, LANGUAGE OF SWANS’s 14¼-minute title track shows how the three players interact in a leisurely fashion. Although Thompson and Sullivan have functioned as a rhythm section for the likes of vocalist Barbara Sfraga, nowhere do standard patterns come into play. Instead Giardullo’s dissonant and intermittent bass clarinet reverberations are met with discontinuous drum beats and bass strings constructing short spherical patterns around them. Nuanced and anticipatory the two also cope with dissonant higher overtones from the woodwind, while Giardullo -- on flute-- and Sullivan later show affinity for each other’s conceptions in a passage that allows them to operate in close harmony as the drummer splashes his cymbals swan-like not far away.

Thompson briefly shows off a command of romantic, contemporary piano on “A Tear for the Missing” meshed with delicate alto sax lines, as well as his versatility on bell and box drum on “Rivers”. Carnatic in concept, with the percussionist sounding as if he’s playing a tabla, Giardullo’s simple chirping soprano sax lines cleverly integrates into acoustic sound picture with Sullivan’s bass line more felt than heard.

“Early Spring”, sort of a bebop chamber music piece, is the bassman’s showcase, providing him with an outlet for his string tugs and double-stopping pizzicato. Condensed press rolls and cymbal strokes add to the broken rhythm of the instant composition. High-pitched multiphonics are Giardullo’s contribution, but there are times he strays perilously close to parody snake-charmer territory.

According to Giardullo in ART SPIRIT’s booklet notes, the subject of his collaboration with Berardi “is sound alone, so the brushstrokes are breaths, picks, sustains, silences … the paintings are only completed when they are heard.” All well and good, but some of the tracks show why painting is rarely a dual activity.

In the past, Berardi recorded a session featuring tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp, trombonist Roswell Rudd and drummer Rashied Ali among others. But any trace of the New Thing seems to absent here replaced by a sort of brawny New Age-ism. Perhaps that’s a bit harsh. Yet the guitarist’s influences, which appear to encompass Jimi Hendrix’s flash and Lenny Breau’s subtlety, often seem to result in tracks a little too pure, yet meandering. A linear player, the reedist finds his pace reduced to adagio on most of the tunes here, with techniques like circular breathing, tongue slaps and pitch shifting only able to take him so far.

“Spirit Window”, the final track, is also the CD’s highpoint. Here, Giardullo’s flute tone turns gritty as he solos, while the guitarist produces flailing reverberations and overtones. Advancing at a rousing clip, Berardi creates a waterfall of single notes and Giardullo hits one protracted passage of pure overblowing just before the end. If everything else on this CD had been at the same high level then this would have been an exceptional, must-get disc.

In truth the session does improve as it reaches the end. “Touched” for instance, features shards of high-pitched split tones being passed around by the saxophone until he develops a droning vibrato to match the guitar’s distinctive single note fuzz tones. Trouble is, it sounds as if Berardi is about the break out into Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner” at any moment. The penultimate tune finds the acoustic-sounding guitar accompaniment spiraling from somnolent to speed, allowing Giardullo to wiggle out some harsh, irregular vibratos from his horn.

Earlier though, legato is the name of the game, as small notes are fanned out from the guitarist’s fleet fingers. Right in the middle of the CD, though, things reach a nadir on a couple of tracks where guitar buzzes and sax blasts are subsumed into unsubstantial meandering. Gorgeously pure flute tone colors and swirling string lines take the foreground in pieces both repetitive and languid.

Should the interplay of guitar and woodwinds be your thing -- or if you have an abiding interest in Giardullo’s or Berardi’s earlier efforts -- you may be more impressed with this CD. The reedist’s work with new playing partners and the plectrumist’s technique suggest that a rematch may cause many more sparks to fly. Maybe the added color of another instrument could create a finer aural painting. Right now, though, certainly compared to the other disc, it seems that LANGUAGE OF SWANS shouldn’t be that trio’s swan song.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Swans: 1. Rivers 2. Fledge 3. Early Spring 4. A Tear for the Missing 5. Migrations 6. The Language of Swans 7. Black Swan

Personnel: Swans: Joe Giardullo (soprano and alto saxophones, bass clarinet, flute); Chris Sullivan (bass); Michael Thompson (drums, box drum, bell, piano)

Track Listing: Spirit: 1. Blisterioso 2. Music House 3. Pietrasanta 4. Aspectations 5. Art Spirit 6. Touched 7. Bilbao Curve 8. Spirit Window

Personnel: Spirit: Joe Giardullo (soprano and alto saxophones, bass clarinet, flute); Sangeeta Michael Berardi (guitar)

February 17, 2003