Label Spotlight:

Gligg Records
By Ken Waxman

Perhaps Martin Schmidt could be thought of as a Mark Zuckerberg with improvised music cred. A German mandolinist and electric bassist who has been gigging since the ‘80s, he was able to start gligg records and the Spielraum recording studio because his love for advanced mathematics plus the growth of social networking presented a unique opportunity.

In 1996, Schmidt, who had previously been a full-time musician, usually in groups with trombonist Christof Thewes, decided to pursue a long-time ancillary interest in physics, mathematics and computer programming. In 1999 he helped create a comprehensive, world-wide social network for scientists using a system he invented and patented. By 2009, when the network was sold to Elsevier Science, B.V., the world’s leading science information provider, it had registered more than 400,000 scientists and had 1.8 million scientific profiles

“The sale gave me the chance to step out of that business and get back to music,” Schmidt recalls, “and it explains where the financing for gligg records and the studio comes from: I decided to invest a good part of the money into long lasting and sustainable platforms, specializing in music that always suffers from lack of money.”

Founded with an investment of 100,000€, the high-end Spielraum studio does no commercial productions and is a separate entity from gligg. However Schmidt is owner and managing director of both, is Spielraum’s chief engineer and so far has played on seven gligg CDs. Thewes is on 12. Spielraum and gligg are both located in Schiffweiler/Heiligenwald, about 150 miles from Frankfurt. In local dialect “spielraum” means playroom, while “gligg” means luck. Also “gligg” is intentionally unusual to easily appear on internet search engines.

This mixture of the local and the futuristic characterizes gligg’s releases. Committed to the most up-to-date standards of fidelity; physical, download and streaming distribution; focused marketing and publicity; and a five-year plan to establish the label; the initial CDs feature musicians Schmidt has played with over the years. “We started with what existed and what was ready to be released first, bands that were mostly driven by Christof or both of us,” Schmidt explains. “We then extended our network to include many Berlin-based musicians. There will always be music by us on gligg, but over time it will balance with other artists.” A dozen CDs make up gligg’s first set of releases, with the second another 12. “There’s more going on than current labels are willing to publish so too many things lack documentation,” avers Schmidt. “That drove me to build a studio for documentation first and then a label to get things published.”

Although gligg’s first projects were built around Schmidt’s and Thewes’ Undertone ensembles, subsequent releases feature, among others, such players as Japanese drummer Shoij Hano; Australian bassist Clayton Thomas, American cellist Thomas Ulrich and Greek pianist Antonis Anissegos.

“The reason I appear so frequently in gligg’s first production phase is that Schmidt and I realized a lot of projects, which could now be released via the label,” remembers Thewes. “In addition I recorded a couple of projects which could be released by gligg in very small editions. With these records Schmidt could experiment with the design, colors and picture-selection without being under time pressure – which is important for the start of a label. I hope I can go on to record in the Spielraum studio in the future and publish via gligg, but the number of CDs will definitely decrease – although I still have material for another 50 or so,” he jokes.

As for gligg’s musical identity: “There’s no hard definition of what gligg publishes, but the core spreads definitely from avant-garde and experimental jazz through free improvisation to contemporary music, which will come with two records dedicated to John Cage’s compositions performed by percussionist Dirk Rothbrust,” Schmidt elaborates. “These genres fit nicely together and overlap in many cases. I see no problem to publish any genre, as long as there’s a good portion of innovation in it.”

“It was [bassist] Jan Roder who first came up with the idea to record our trio Die Dicken Finger in Martin’s studio,” notes Berlin-based guitarist Olaf Rupp, featured on four gligg CDs. “Later [trombonist] Matthias Müller offered Martin a recording we made in Berlin; and it was [saxophonist] Frank-Paul Schubert who invited me to a recording session there. Die Dicken Finger was difficult to record, because of band-sound was more akin to hardcore and rock, so I drove to Schiffweiler to do the mix together with Martin. I brought my guitar and on the third day we recorded some duos.

“The big problem with improvised music in Europe has been that there are so few private sponsors and we depend so much on the benevolence of public cultural budget administrators. With the rise of turbo-capitalism this benevolence ended and financial support has gone down to almost zero. It’s very special that in a small village in the countryside something is possible that was never possible here among the arrogant and shattered Berliner improvising scene. I can’t tell you how much I was surprised when I heard about Martin's plans to start a new label in my old home region. I like Martin’s well-thought-out grass-roots approach. He’s planning everything very carefully and realistically. I hope I can travel many times to the hilly countryside of Saarland and do many recordings for gligg.”

Gligg can record, mix and master a CD plus provide a cover design and publishing at a cost far less than musicians could do on their own, notes Schmidt. Since “musicians never make CDs without the need of at least 150 for themselves, we split the costs for the initial release.”

Adds Thewes: “The main advantage of gligg is the connection to a first-class recording studio. Selected musicians who do not receive payments for recording sessions can use the studio without any costs for their productions, recording, editing, mixing, mastering and finally publishing via gligg. Musicians are only bound to the label for that particular production and can publish with other labels.”

Still Schmidt is realistic about improvised music’s place in the business world. “Sales don’t yet play any serious role, as this kind of music only finds a very small audience around the world,” he adds. “But the idea is to build on the image over the next years to establish gligg in the world wide community of enthusiasts.” The label’s multi-focus will continue with projected CDs including a quartet helmed by trumpeter Axel Dörner and a one matching pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach with the Undertone trio.

So is this ambitious five-year plan to establish an important creative music imprint while running a high-end recording studio enough to occupy Schmidt’s time? Not really. Since 2009, he has been studying for a bachelor’s degree in physics from a UK-based distant learning university and expects to have it completed in 2014.

--For New York City Jazz Record November 2012

November 6, 2012

Jason Kao Hwang/Spontaneous River

Symphony of Souls
Mulatta MUL 022

Chocolate fetishists often have such a strong attachment to the sweet that to secure their business restaurants will describe a cocoa-infused desert as Death by Chocolate. While those who love stringed instruments as much as others love chocolate will find much to savor on Symphony of Souls, one would hope that the expansive sound picture created by violinist Jason Kao Hwang’s conduction of his composition is appreciated in less thanotological terms. Maybe the most appropriate recasting of the title should be Depth of Strings.

All together 38 string players, including Hwang, are represented, with drummer Andrew Drury alone providing the percussive flow for the 11-movement composition. Including multiple violins, violas, celli, double basses and guitars, the composer takes advantage of the improvisational sophistication of these New York-based players, whose familiarity with Jazz, Blues, so-called Classical and New Music is necessary for appropriate dialoguing and individual sonic actions. Accustomed to moving among these genres, Hwang has also composed a chamber opera as well as being a member of various combos which emphasized the improvisational qualities of Asian music.

Febrile but not particularly formalistic, Symphony of Souls could be described as possessing Klangfarbenmelodie. Propulsive and polyphonic, the themes encompass near-impressionism at points, as well as muscular thumping at others, with the percussive beats coming as much from massed string motions as Drury’s drum kit. Besides the percussionist, notable rhythmic impetus comes from bassist Ken Filiano who often works with the violinist in smaller configurations. Solos per se are few and unidentified, although it’s likely the composer who takes all of the fiddle interludes. With six of the city’s most accomplished six-stringers on board however it’s impossible to single out soloists on that instrument.

Most of the time however the slippery and shuddering created by harmonized string groups are what is showcased. Sprawling violin glissandi, six-part bass slaps, doleful cello pumps and guitar finger plucks and string snaps make their appearance; so do staccato and agitated contrapuntal challenges between the same instruments or among sections. Sometimes individual variants swell to cacophonous, strained atonality that return to legato pacing following cymbal pops or wood-block pumps.

Credibly the climatic sequences arrive with “Movement 3” and “Movement 4” where the timbral development is divided among tremolo motions while the bassist and drummer producing a Jazz-like walking pulse. Interruptions in the form of a solo that has an almost hillbilly fiddle jump to it are later smoothed over as stacked harmonies from the multiple violinists make it seems as if they’re all playing a single mammoth stringed instrument. “Movement 4”, which includes staccato agitation from the celli plus intervallic asides from the violas and violins, includes an extended episode when the massed strings accompany the soloists. Singular guitar strums, sharp spiccato violin pressure with erhu-like timbres and an intense double bass slap move forward, then fade among the sympathetic stopping and pumping from the other strings. With its finale devoted to romantic counterpoint between two violin sequences, the blueprint for ping-ponging between dissonance, expressed in the subsequent suite movement by shakes and stops from many of the strings, and completed by legato concordance is firmly established.

By the ultimate variations, as contrapuntal, sharp dissonance and connective silky glissandi are confirmed as the opposite poles of Symphony of Souls; angled, bowed string motions, rasgueado guitar flails and sul ponticello slides are established as different elaboration formulae. Eventually the polyphonic interface gives way to a final violin solo. Initially sweetly romantic, it shatters into wood clanks, angled stops and staccato jumps before fading away.

Hwang’s Symphony of Souls provides not only mesmerizing listening but also an exemplar for promoting intense improvisations by many multiples of string players

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Movement 1 2. Movement 2 3. Movement 3 4. Movement 4 5. Movement 5 6. Movement 6 7. Movement 7 8. Movement 8 9. Movement 9 10. Movement 10 11. Movement 11

Personnel: Trina Basu, Sarah Bernstein, Charles Burnham, Julianne Carney, Fung Chern Hwei, Mark Chung, Rosi Hertlein, Jason Kao Hwang, Gwen Laster, Marlene Rice, Dave Soldier, Curtis Stewart, Midori Yamamoto and Helen Yee (violins); Leanne Darling, Nicole Federici, Judith Insell, Eric Salazar and David Wallace (violas); Cristian Amigo, Bradley Farberman, James Keepnews, Dom Minasi, David Ross, Tor Snyder and Hans Tammen (acoustic guitars); Martha Colby, Loren Dempster, Daniel Levin, Tomas Ulrich and Shanda Wooley (cellos); Michael Bisio, Ken Filiano, Francois Grillot, Clifton Jackson, Tom Zlabinger and James Ilgenfritz (bass)and Andrew Drury (drums)

April 16, 2012

Musikverein Hellijewald

Call Me Cake
Gligg Records 003

Libre(s) Ensemble

Libre(s) Ensemble

IMR 003

Molding a seven-piece group to possess the flexibility of a small band while utilizing supplementary timbres available from a bigger ensemble is the aim of these discs. Each follows a different path to reach its goals which determines how much these sessions can be appreciated.

The mostly German Musikverein Hellijewald situates itself in the channel where Jazz improvising overlaps with Free Music on seven compositions by trombonist Christof Thewes, known for his work with pianist Ulrich Gumpert. Besides his flutter-tongued yet unobtrusive brass work, his sound vehicle here is divided among two reeds, three strings and a drummer. Libre Ensemble’s main man, drummer Bruno Tocanne leads his mostly French band through 10 tunes that ingests the percussive flavors of Rock music and ethnic percussion, while keeping Free Jazz and Swing as main courses. Tocanne, whose earlier discs have included a salute to Syd Barrett, as well as straight-ahead Jazz with Canadian bassist Michael Bates, is also as self-effacing as Thewes. While he may be Libre(s) Ensemble’s artistic director, he only co-wrote one of the CD’s 10 tracks. Four were composed by trumpeter Rémi Gaudillat; three by guitarist Philippe Gordiani; one by a non-band member and one is a group improv.

Similarly, although Gaudillat and Gordiani are long-time Tocanne associates, the CD only contains so many guitar and brass solos because each man has a doppelganger – trumpeter and flugelhornist Fred Roudet and guitarist Fred Meyer. To emphasize further liberation, the first two tracks on the CD swell the band to an octet, adding and featuring bass clarinetist Elodie Pasquier, who is in another Lyon-based trio with percussionist Arnaud Laprêt. This material also depends on flutter tonguing from the trumpets, thick guitar riffs and layered reed counterpoint with bass clarinet lines and snorting saxophone vibratos from Damien Sabatier. Especially notable is “Bruno Rubato”, composed by the drummer plus pianist Sophia Domancich. Here slanted guitar chords avoid Jazz textures to contrast with Tocanne’s Boppish paradiddles. Overall the piece is humorous and high spirited; Sabatier’s alto lines are suitably intense, while Pasquier’s moderato, woody textures are simultaneously chalumeau and fortissimo.

Another stand out for the septet formation is Gordiani’s “Dans la coupe de Tiresias”. With the guitarists producing a rasgueado ostinato and the percussionists’ rhythm that could come from batás and dumbeks, the horn-harmonized theme is further decorated with baroque touches from the trumpets. Standing out is a vamp that squirms beneath fleet-fingered guitar licks. In the meantime the session’s centrepiece is the four-part Suite for Libre Ensemble, with three of the four sections composed by Gaudillat and the remaining one – “Free for Ornette” – a group improv. Among the overlapping capillary cries, nasal split tones from the saxophonist and continuous rumbles, pops and ruffs from the percussionists is a simple folksy narrative. Sounding at times like “Red River Valley”, string interpretations run from slurred fingering to vibrated fuzztones.

Without a guitar, fuzztones and splayed licks are at a minimum on Call Me Cake, although the skills of German mandolinist Martin Schmidt and New York-based cellist Tomas Ulrich are such that inferences from many members of the string family make their way into the compositions. More common strategies are emphasized on pieces such as “Stranger In A Strange Land”, where gruff plunger trombone lines mix it up with underlying slurps from Hartmut Osswald’s baritone saxophone until the cello adds a more lyrical construct to the previous broken-octave interface. Later mandolin strums and a walking line from bassist Jan Oestreich plus distinctive press rolls from drummer Dirk-Peter Kölsch provide enough momentum to allow Schmidt to express himself with clunking, clawhammer strokes, mated with similar descending slurs from Thewes and intercut with staccato tongue stops from Osswald.

Individualistic expression doesn’t end there however. With Berlin-based bass clarinettist Rudi Mahall in the front line, Thewes and the band have a reed chameleon who can invest his every appearance with the same fervor, whether he’s turning out polyphonic swoops that bring Eric Dolphy to mind on the first track, or seemingly channeling the dancing trills that one would expect from a Barney Bigard when melodic fare such as “Eine Problematische, Weil Eingebildete Taube Auf Dem Dach” or “Medium Me Up, Bebobby” arrive. The former with its walloping melody that seems to want to be “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” is advanced with contralto tonguing from Mahall, with Thewes’ contrapuntally sputtering in the trombone’s highest range, and is wrapped with a folksy fiddle-like run from the cellist. The latter features the front-line stuttering the choruses as if it was part of an updated Dixieland jam session. Schmidt’s strong plectrum rhythms could relate to Freddy Guy’s banjo-playing with Duke Ellington’s Jungle Band, while Thewes’ tailgate slurring and capillary guffaws exposes his inner Kid Ory. Bouncing along and recapping simple sequences over and over again. Mahall brings sophisticated sweeping clarinet trills to the arrangement.

Using all the colors available from an expanded – but not bloated – line-up, plus fusing slices of other musics onto a Jazz-Improv base, both these Continental ensembles create noteworthy discs.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Cake: 1. Ein Widerwärtiger Dompfaff 2. Esscake From New York 3. Stranger In A Strange Land 4. Eine Problematische, Weil Eingebildete Taube Auf Dem Dach 5. Bildstock Bleibt Rot 6. Honulullu Neutrum Speciale 7. Medium Me Up, Bebobby

Personnel: Cake: Christof Thewes (trombone); Rudi Mahall (bass clarinet); Hartmut Osswald (tenor and baritone saxophones); Martin Schmidt (mandolin); Tomas Ulrich (cello); Jan Oestreich (bass) and Dirk-Peter Kölsch (drums)

Track Listing: Ensemble: 1. La Foley* 2. Bruno Rubato* |Suite for Libre Ensemble: 3. Q.L 4. No Way 5. Free for Ornette 6. La révolte des Canuts | 7. Le Chant des Marais 8. Free KC to Gawa 9. Dans la coupe de Tiresias 10. Crépuscule avec Nelly

Personnel: Ensemble: Fred Roudet (trumpet and flugelhorn); Rémi Gaudillat (trumpet); Elodie Pasquier (clarinet and bass clarinet)*; Damien Sabatier (soprano, alto and baritone saxophones), Philippe Gordiani and Fred Meyer (guitars); Bruno Tocanne (drums) and Arnaud Laprêt (percussion)

January 30, 2012

Dom Minasi String Quartet

Dissonance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
Konnex KCD 5235

More than 10 years after his re-emergence as a committed improviser, New York-based guitarist Dom Minasi continues to go from triumph to triumph. With his earlier come-back CDs proclaiming his mastery of the small and large group idioms in his own fashion – having fled a major label commercial makeover in the early 1970s – with this band the guitarist tackles the mid-ground between notated and improvised music.

True to the title, the seven tracks, composed and arranged by Minasi, show off the dissonant textures available from violin, cello and bass as much as the complementary licks he pulls from his nylon-string guitar. There shouldn’t be any surprise in this strategy, since the string section consists of equally versatile players.

Besides being part of Minasi’s bands since 2001, bassist Ken Filiano has worked with everyone from trumpeter Dennis González to saxophonist Avram Fefer; cellist Tomas Ulrich has worked in large groups with guitarist Hans Tammen and small bands with saxophonists Ivo Perelman and Fefer; while violinist Jason Kao Hwang may be the busiest fiddler in downtown New York in various ensembles of bassist William Parker, among others, and with his own trans-Asian bands.

Ignoring any hints of exotic Oriental string techniques here, Hwang instead is usually the protagonist of atonality during the majority of these improvisations. If Minasi’s playing strategy encompasses bluesy licks, lyrical chording and percussive twangs than it’s the violinist’s spiccato and/or sul ponticello stopping and angling which define the compositions’ unconventionality. Although Hwang’s very capable of exhibiting elegant lyricism – slipping into the realm of syrupiness occasionally – this tendency is held in check. More-often-than-not then, Hwang’s catgut strains, scrubs and splintering that predominate.

Once the scene has been set, Ulrich weighs in with mid-range sul tasto sweeps, frequently triple or double-stopped and repetitive. These serve in many cases as an echoing chorus to the other two string players’ chromatic progressions. Meanwhile Filiano's bass is the anchor, thumping, bumping and rhythmically walking. Additionally, no matter how divorced from the theme the improvisational interludes become, there always seems to be variations of a turnaround in the penultimate minutes that recap and refer back to the composition’s exposition.

Unprepossessing, Minasi still interjects string sleight-of-hand whenever he can. At certain points it appears as if he’s using banjo-type frailing to advance the piece – a method that hooks him up with tremolo old-time fiddle moves from Hang. At others it’s as if he’s playing slack-tone guitar, using slurred fingering to make his point micro-tonally as the bass and cello unite in impressionistic bowed concordance.

Although a goodly portion of Minasi and his string quartet’s philosophy is expressed in the title tune as guitar frails, contrapuntal fiddle lines and triple-stopping cello shuffles are layered in contrapuntal call-and-response with woody double bass strokes, many of the other pieces are as revealing.

“The Dark Side” for instance, builds up to a cornucopia of polyphonic textures as the string resonations suggest a dramatic, almost horror-movie styled atmosphere. As the timbres echo back-and-forth, harsh string scrubs are moderated by equivalent nimble lyricism. Meantime, thickening polytones from the arco instruments fill in any widening gaps created by the guitarist’s curlicue licks and asides.

Reshaping the structure and definition of string quartet, Minasi demonstrates that it is yet another formation in which he can innovative creatively.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. The Pasadena Two Step 2. The Dark Side 3. Green! Green! They’re Green! 4. Dissonance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder 5. Slow Dance in the Bottomless Pit 6. Tumorology 7. Zing, Zang, Zoom!

Personnel: Dom Minasi (acoustic guitar); Jason Kao Hwang (violin); Tomas Ulrich (cello) and Ken Filiano (bass)

April 24, 2010

Hans Tammen Third Eye Orchestra

Live At Roulette
Innova 225

Expanding his electro-acoustic expertise to a creation for large ensemble, on this CD German-born, New York-based endangered guitarist Han Tammen presents two mesmerizing suites from his 13-piece Third Eye Orchestra.

Apparently unfazed by the superstition about 13, Tammen doesn’t perform, but instead conducts and arranges in real time. Likewise ignoring the superstitious angle, some of Manhattan’s most accomplished and innovative musicians – and one ringer – handle with aplomb Tammen’s creation which calls for equal facility with improvisation and notated music, acoustic instrumental techniques and familiarity with electronic excursions. Although billed as two, six-part versions of the same piece – “Antecedent” and “Consequence” – it’s a tribute to all concerned that neither version mirrors the other. While the separately titled tracks exhibit certain homogeneity, soloists never eschew individuality even while blending with the others in section work or contrasting passages.

The ringer here is trombonist Detlef Landeck, a musical associate of Tammen’s from the Fatherland. Having flown from Germany especially for the concert, his contributions are particularly expressive. On “Antecedent: Part III: Mdina Experience” for instance, the measured dual keyboard pulsations and backbeat percussion cushion a contrapuntal duet between Stomu Takeishi’s thumb-popping electric bass and Landeck’s wide-ranging brays and blurts that finally swell to full-fledged gutbucket slurs. Mixing Trad Jazz-style wah-wahs and New music-like staccato tonguing on “Consequent: Part I: Istres Control”, Landeck matches Briggan Krauss’ baritone saxophone growls which in themselves proceed chromatically with the single-mindedness and strength of a boar searching for truffles. Then as part of Consequent’s finale, the last measures of pitch-sliding strings plus percussionist Satoshi Takeishi’s dense backbeat are superseded by dexterous tongue slaps and unaltered air forced through Landeck’s s horn’s body tube, adumbrating the concluding silence.

Overall nearly every sonic incursion corresponds with Tammen’s game plan, and eventually becomes interlocking parts of the whole. Hear Krauss’ work for other instances. Not just a low-pitched sax specialist, on alto saxophone he contributes jagged glissandi that at times balance the subtle murmuring from Dafna Naphtali’s sound-processed voice and elsewhere provide altissimo comments on metronomic piano chording. Meanwhile, Robert Dick’s sharp flute shrills moderate Krauss’ low-pitched sax lines at points and in another instance operate alongside spiccato slides from the string quartet.

Among the other textures in use by members of the lucky 13 are mercurial pitch-sliding and sharp, dissonant string slices from cellist Tomas Ulrich; zither-like twanging and rebounding from Denman Maroney’s prepared piano; plus Ursel Schlicht double-timed syncopation that expands from pecking, clipping and popping whether she plays acoustic piano or electric keyboard.

Not that some instruments’ traditional tones are neglected either. “Antecedent: Part V: Verrano” for example, begins with a violin solo from Mark Feldman that is almost classically pure in execution. As Maroney’s keyboard contributes further flowing patterns, the result resembles a chamber recital – especially when the other strings join with unison romantic glissandi.

Taken as a whole, both versions of the composition abound with similar connections and contrasts. “Consequent: Part IV: Intentionally Left Blank” for one, layers abrasive and shuddering multi-stops from the strings alongside vamping horn timbres and burbling, motor-driven electronic whizzing, held together by a solid bass line. But to isolate the praiseworthy skill that goes into the band members creating yet another slithering keyboard run or a bit of flying spiccato from a fiddler would be pointless.

More generic to the session is the realization that as a conductor, arranger and conceptualizer, Tammen now appears to have equaled his skill as an instrumentalist. One would hope that more large-scale works are planned for the future.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Antecedent: 1. Part I. Opening 2. Part II. Death Clock I 3. Part III: Mdina Experience 4. Part IV Coup d’Archet 5. Part V: Verrano 6. Part VI: Triadic Closure Consequent: 7. Part I: Istres Control 8. Part II: Subtle Inconsistencies 9. Part III: Zipangu 10. Part IV: Intentionally Left Blank 11. Part V: Treadmill 12. Part VI: Red Eye

Personnel: Detlef Landeck (trombone); Briggan Krauss (alto and baritone saxophones); Marty Ehrlich (bass clarinet, alto saxophone and flute); Robert Dick (flute and, contrabass flute); Mari Kimura and Mark Feldman (violins); Stephanie Griffin (viola); Tomas Ulrich (cello); Stomu Takeishi (electric bass); Ursel Schlicht and Denman Maroney (piano and keyboard); Satoshi Takeishi (percussion); Dafna Naphtali (voice and live sound-processing) and Hans Tammen (concept and real-time arrangement)

December 17, 2009

Carlos Zíngaro/Dominique Regef/Wilbert De Joode String Trio

Spectrum
Clean Feed CF 110CD

ZPF Quartet

Ulrichsberg München Musik

Bruce’s Fingers BF 67

T.E.C.K. String Quartet

T.E.C.K. String Quartet

Clean Feed CF 089CD

Three plus one times two or two plus one times one. These may seem like ambiguous mathematical formulae, but they’re actually the personnel make-up of these exceptional string-informed CDs.

The “one” here, is Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro. His associates include three different bassists: American Ken Filiano (on T.E.C.K.), Englishman Simon H Fell (on Ulrichsberg) and on Spectrum, Wilbert De Joode from the Netherlands; two different cellists: London-based Marcio Mattos (on Ulrichsberg) and New York’s Tomas Ulrich (on T.E.C.K.); plus odd-ball instruments – for string groups – of drums (London’s Mark Sanders on Ulrichsberg); acoustic guitar (New York’s Elliott Sharp on Spectrum); and hurdy-gurdy (France’s Dominique Regef on Spectrum).

Divorced from the conventions of even modern chamber-music ensembles, the three CDs realize a variety of propositions, Each confirms that sophisticated, string compositions are still being crafted – even if the genesis involves instant composition; that profound string-oriented chamber pieces don’t have to be limited to the standard quartet instrumentation that has remained unchanged since the 18th century: first and second violin, viola, and cello; and that Zingaro’s inventiveness is unfazed by numerous situations.

The Lisbon-based fiddler, who has had lengthy or briefer associations with fellow sound explorers such as French bassist Joëlle Léandre and American composer Richard Teitelbaum plus developed scores for theatre, dance and film projects, adapts without strain to the presence of unconventional chamber music instruments.

Of course the percussive asides from Sanders are rather individual themselves, considering that the drummer usually makes a point finding a place for himself within other advanced settings, such as in saxophonist Evan Parker’s bands. Furthermore, on Ulrichsberg, the other three players use extended techniques and electronics to expose and alter the tessitura of the strings, exposing partials and overtones as well as the expected timbres and dynamics.

That frequently means that wood block pops, resonating configurations of bells and gongs plus cymbal clattering and the gentle patting of stretched skin tops replaces steady beat patterns on the percussionist’s part. This dovetails harmonically with the others’ output which includes angled spiccato from Zingaro; sul ponticello lines from Mattos – whose background includes work with dance companies and electronic ensembles – and low-pitched slaps and cumulative adagio sweeps from Fell, who has also composed notated works and is a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra.

The resulting striated polytones and abrasive string action provide intermittent thematic alteration to the sometimes chiaroscuro interface. Eventually though, as the strings’ timbres veer towards higher pitches and become more fragmented, the bassist’s pedal-point stopping leads to a harmonic convergence of four-way, multi-part affiliation.

Similar bonding strategies appear from the different cast on T.E.C.K., although the non-chamber quartet instruments are played by Sharp, a guitarist with extensive immersion in contemporary New music as well as blues and jazz; plus bassist Filiano, who not only plays in improvising groups with Zingaro and Portuguese reedist Rodrigo Amado but is bassist of choice for a number of American jazz men. Additionally, cellist Ulrich, the other string-slinger, holds his own in bands including the likes of Léandre and Zingaro.

T.E.C.K.’s nine selections provide additional wave form scope for everyone, especially the violinist, whose sounds often take on the trilling character of woodwinds. For his part Sharp’s protracted bottleneck-like rasps and chromatic rasgueado prove more rhythmic than anything Sanders projected on the preceding CD, while the larger stringed instruments pile on sul tasto strokes, thick and striated pitch-slides and tough, focused passing chords. The results range from discordant double-and-triple-stopping to a striated intermezzo of grinding oscillations, colored by splintered clinks and pinched, fortissimo runs.

When the four simultaneously decide to investigate the pizzicato mode, the resulting mash-up metaphorically at least suggests the sounds those swollen, 100-instrument balalaika or mandolin philharmonics of the late 19th or early 20th Century made. However the harsh resolution, broken octaves, down-stroked frail and snapped ricochets are definitely post-modern and 21st Century.

Highly rhythmic and rife with fiery cries that are equally POMO are the interludes from Regef’s hurdy-gurdy on Spectrum. Still when the chordophone instrument isn’t producing peeping spetrofluctuation as if Regef was playing a reed, or sounding organ-grinder-like tremolo drones, the hurdy-gurdy’s history as a vertical viola is evident. Regef, who has used the hurdy-gurdy to accompany singers as well as improvise with saxophonist Michel Doneda among others, impressively – and singularly – adapts the ratcheting recoils of his medieval-styled cranked instrument to modern times.

Here the hurdy-gurdy’s harsh whirring both contrasts and complements Zingaro’s sometimes sweetly legato pulses, while De Joode – who imperturbably plays with everyone from pianist Michiel Braam to saxophonist Ab Baars – merely digs into his instrument’s thick tones to keep the other two on an even keel. Regef’s almost oonomatopoeic impulses frequently swell to become both intense and opaque, which leads the others to create antipodal thumps and strokes.

With the hurdy-gurdy squeezes as pressured as they are buzzing, new strategies emerge. At one point Zingaro triple-stops a protracted pressured line that is as dense and staccato as Regef’s output, while De Joode thumps and walks his bass. These basso chords echo long enough so that they adhere to the cumulative sounds from the others.

Later, as constant chordophone drones reverberate on hard surface, creating a blurry, neo-primitive electro-acoustic texture, the response from the fiddler is lyrical and gently pitched to break up the nearly ceaseless continuum. Then the bassist responds with plucked jazz inflections including finger-tip taps and harmonically advanced bent notes. At the climax the hurdy gurdy’s reverberating overtones first resemble electronically-triggered oscillations, then dissolve into familiar organ-grinder tones, and are finally subsumed by the harmonic union of the real strings.

Whether modern chamber music or Zingaro’s advances are your chief interest, there is much to impress and edify listeners on these discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Spectrum: 1. Spectra 01 2. Spectra 02 3. Spectra 03

Personnel: Spectrum: Carlos Zíngaro (violin); Dominique Regef (hurdy gurdy [or sanfona or vielle à roue]) and Wilbert De Joode (bass)

Track Listing: T.E.C.K.: 1. Levitation 2. Intuitive reduction 3. If not now, when 4. Ripples 5. Swapfield 6. Memory hanging 7. Hard evolution 8. Still not easy 9. As hard as it comes...

Personnel: T.E.C.K.: Carlos Zíngaro (violin); Elliott Sharp (National Tricone guitar); Tomas Ulrich (cello) and Ken Filiano (bass)

Track Listing: Ulrichsberg: 1. Ulrichsberg 1 2. München 3. Ulrichsberg 2

Personnel: Ulrichsberg: Carlos Zingaro (violin and electronics); Marcio Mattos (cello and electronics); Simon H. Fell (bass) and Mark Sanders (drums and percussion)

October 18, 2008

T.E.C.K. String Quartet

T.E.C.K. String Quartet
Clean Feed CF 089CD

Carlos Zíngaro/Dominique Regef/Wilbert De Joode String Trio

Spectrum

Clean Feed CF 110CD

ZPF Quartet

Ulrichsberg München Musik

Bruce’s Fingers BF 67

Three plus one times two or two plus one times one. These may seem like ambiguous mathematical formulae, but they’re actually the personnel make-up of these exceptional string-informed CDs.

The “one” here, is Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro. His associates include three different bassists: American Ken Filiano (on T.E.C.K.), Englishman Simon H Fell (on Ulrichsberg) and on Spectrum, Wilbert De Joode from the Netherlands; two different cellists: London-based Marcio Mattos (on Ulrichsberg) and New York’s Tomas Ulrich (on T.E.C.K.); plus odd-ball instruments – for string groups – of drums (London’s Mark Sanders on Ulrichsberg); acoustic guitar (New York’s Elliott Sharp on Spectrum); and hurdy-gurdy (France’s Dominique Regef on Spectrum).

Divorced from the conventions of even modern chamber-music ensembles, the three CDs realize a variety of propositions, Each confirms that sophisticated, string compositions are still being crafted – even if the genesis involves instant composition; that profound string-oriented chamber pieces don’t have to be limited to the standard quartet instrumentation that has remained unchanged since the 18th century: first and second violin, viola, and cello; and that Zingaro’s inventiveness is unfazed by numerous situations.

The Lisbon-based fiddler, who has had lengthy or briefer associations with fellow sound explorers such as French bassist Joëlle Léandre and American composer Richard Teitelbaum plus developed scores for theatre, dance and film projects, adapts without strain to the presence of unconventional chamber music instruments.

Of course the percussive asides from Sanders are rather individual themselves, considering that the drummer usually makes a point finding a place for himself within other advanced settings, such as in saxophonist Evan Parker’s bands. Furthermore, on Ulrichsberg, the other three players use extended techniques and electronics to expose and alter the tessitura of the strings, exposing partials and overtones as well as the expected timbres and dynamics.

That frequently means that wood block pops, resonating configurations of bells and gongs plus cymbal clattering and the gentle patting of stretched skin tops replaces steady beat patterns on the percussionist’s part. This dovetails harmonically with the others’ output which includes angled spiccato from Zingaro; sul ponticello lines from Mattos – whose background includes work with dance companies and electronic ensembles – and low-pitched slaps and cumulative adagio sweeps from Fell, who has also composed notated works and is a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra.

The resulting striated polytones and abrasive string action provide intermittent thematic alteration to the sometimes chiaroscuro interface. Eventually though, as the strings’ timbres veer towards higher pitches and become more fragmented, the bassist’s pedal-point stopping leads to a harmonic convergence of four-way, multi-part affiliation.

Similar bonding strategies appear from the different cast on T.E.C.K., although the non-chamber quartet instruments are played by Sharp, a guitarist with extensive immersion in contemporary New music as well as blues and jazz; plus bassist Filiano, who not only plays in improvising groups with Zingaro and Portuguese reedist Rodrigo Amado but is bassist of choice for a number of American jazz men. Additionally, cellist Ulrich, the other string-slinger, holds his own in bands including the likes of Léandre and Zingaro.

T.E.C.K.’s nine selections provide additional wave form scope for everyone, especially the violinist, whose sounds often take on the trilling character of woodwinds. For his part Sharp’s protracted bottleneck-like rasps and chromatic rasgueado prove more rhythmic than anything Sanders projected on the preceding CD, while the larger stringed instruments pile on sul tasto strokes, thick and striated pitch-slides and tough, focused passing chords. The results range from discordant double-and-triple-stopping to a striated intermezzo of grinding oscillations, colored by splintered clinks and pinched, fortissimo runs.

When the four simultaneously decide to investigate the pizzicato mode, the resulting mash-up metaphorically at least suggests the sounds those swollen, 100-instrument balalaika or mandolin philharmonics of the late 19th or early 20th Century made. However the harsh resolution, broken octaves, down-stroked frail and snapped ricochets are definitely post-modern and 21st Century.

Highly rhythmic and rife with fiery cries that are equally POMO are the interludes from Regef’s hurdy-gurdy on Spectrum. Still when the chordophone instrument isn’t producing peeping spetrofluctuation as if Regef was playing a reed, or sounding organ-grinder-like tremolo drones, the hurdy-gurdy’s history as a vertical viola is evident. Regef, who has used the hurdy-gurdy to accompany singers as well as improvise with saxophonist Michel Doneda among others, impressively – and singularly – adapts the ratcheting recoils of his medieval-styled cranked instrument to modern times.

Here the hurdy-gurdy’s harsh whirring both contrasts and complements Zingaro’s sometimes sweetly legato pulses, while De Joode – who imperturbably plays with everyone from pianist Michiel Braam to saxophonist Ab Baars – merely digs into his instrument’s thick tones to keep the other two on an even keel. Regef’s almost oonomatopoeic impulses frequently swell to become both intense and opaque, which leads the others to create antipodal thumps and strokes.

With the hurdy-gurdy squeezes as pressured as they are buzzing, new strategies emerge. At one point Zingaro triple-stops a protracted pressured line that is as dense and staccato as Regef’s output, while De Joode thumps and walks his bass. These basso chords echo long enough so that they adhere to the cumulative sounds from the others.

Later, as constant chordophone drones reverberate on hard surface, creating a blurry, neo-primitive electro-acoustic texture, the response from the fiddler is lyrical and gently pitched to break up the nearly ceaseless continuum. Then the bassist responds with plucked jazz inflections including finger-tip taps and harmonically advanced bent notes. At the climax the hurdy gurdy’s reverberating overtones first resemble electronically-triggered oscillations, then dissolve into familiar organ-grinder tones, and are finally subsumed by the harmonic union of the real strings.

Whether modern chamber music or Zingaro’s advances are your chief interest, there is much to impress and edify listeners on these discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Spectrum: 1. Spectra 01 2. Spectra 02 3. Spectra 03

Personnel: Spectrum: Carlos Zíngaro (violin); Dominique Regef (hurdy gurdy [or sanfona or vielle à roue]) and Wilbert De Joode (bass)

Track Listing: T.E.C.K.: 1. Levitation 2. Intuitive reduction 3. If not now, when 4. Ripples 5. Swapfield 6. Memory hanging 7. Hard evolution 8. Still not easy 9. As hard as it comes...

Personnel: T.E.C.K.: Carlos Zíngaro (violin); Elliott Sharp (National Tricone guitar); Tomas Ulrich (cello) and Ken Filiano (bass)

Track Listing: Ulrichsberg: 1. Ulrichsberg 1 2. München 3. Ulrichsberg 2

Personnel: Ulrichsberg: Carlos Zingaro (violin and electronics); Marcio Mattos (cello and electronics); Simon H. Fell (bass) and Mark Sanders (drums and percussion)

October 18, 2008

ZPF Quartet

Ulrichsberg München Musik
Bruce’s Fingers BF 67

T.E.C.K. String Quartet

T.E.C.K. String Quartet

Clean Feed CF 089CD

Carlos Zíngaro/Dominique Regef/Wilbert De Joode String Trio

Spectrum

Clean Feed CF 110CD

Three plus one times two or two plus one times one. These may seem like ambiguous mathematical formulae, but they’re actually the personnel make-up of these exceptional string-informed CDs.

The “one” here, is Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro. His associates include three different bassists: American Ken Filiano (on T.E.C.K.), Englishman Simon H Fell (on Ulrichsberg) and on Spectrum, Wilbert De Joode from the Netherlands; two different cellists: London-based Marcio Mattos (on Ulrichsberg) and New York’s Tomas Ulrich (on T.E.C.K.); plus odd-ball instruments – for string groups – of drums (London’s Mark Sanders on Ulrichsberg); acoustic guitar (New York’s Elliott Sharp on Spectrum); and hurdy-gurdy (France’s Dominique Regef on Spectrum).

Divorced from the conventions of even modern chamber-music ensembles, the three CDs realize a variety of propositions, Each confirms that sophisticated, string compositions are still being crafted – even if the genesis involves instant composition; that profound string-oriented chamber pieces don’t have to be limited to the standard quartet instrumentation that has remained unchanged since the 18th century: first and second violin, viola, and cello; and that Zingaro’s inventiveness is unfazed by numerous situations.

The Lisbon-based fiddler, who has had lengthy or briefer associations with fellow sound explorers such as French bassist Joëlle Léandre and American composer Richard Teitelbaum plus developed scores for theatre, dance and film projects, adapts without strain to the presence of unconventional chamber music instruments.

Of course the percussive asides from Sanders are rather individual themselves, considering that the drummer usually makes a point finding a place for himself within other advanced settings, such as in saxophonist Evan Parker’s bands. Furthermore, on Ulrichsberg, the other three players use extended techniques and electronics to expose and alter the tessitura of the strings, exposing partials and overtones as well as the expected timbres and dynamics.

That frequently means that wood block pops, resonating configurations of bells and gongs plus cymbal clattering and the gentle patting of stretched skin tops replaces steady beat patterns on the percussionist’s part. This dovetails harmonically with the others’ output which includes angled spiccato from Zingaro; sul ponticello lines from Mattos – whose background includes work with dance companies and electronic ensembles – and low-pitched slaps and cumulative adagio sweeps from Fell, who has also composed notated works and is a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra.

The resulting striated polytones and abrasive string action provide intermittent thematic alteration to the sometimes chiaroscuro interface. Eventually though, as the strings’ timbres veer towards higher pitches and become more fragmented, the bassist’s pedal-point stopping leads to a harmonic convergence of four-way, multi-part affiliation.

Similar bonding strategies appear from the different cast on T.E.C.K., although the non-chamber quartet instruments are played by Sharp, a guitarist with extensive immersion in contemporary New music as well as blues and jazz; plus bassist Filiano, who not only plays in improvising groups with Zingaro and Portuguese reedist Rodrigo Amado but is bassist of choice for a number of American jazz men. Additionally, cellist Ulrich, the other string-slinger, holds his own in bands including the likes of Léandre and Zingaro.

T.E.C.K.’s nine selections provide additional wave form scope for everyone, especially the violinist, whose sounds often take on the trilling character of woodwinds. For his part Sharp’s protracted bottleneck-like rasps and chromatic rasgueado prove more rhythmic than anything Sanders projected on the preceding CD, while the larger stringed instruments pile on sul tasto strokes, thick and striated pitch-slides and tough, focused passing chords. The results range from discordant double-and-triple-stopping to a striated intermezzo of grinding oscillations, colored by splintered clinks and pinched, fortissimo runs.

When the four simultaneously decide to investigate the pizzicato mode, the resulting mash-up metaphorically at least suggests the sounds those swollen, 100-instrument balalaika or mandolin philharmonics of the late 19th or early 20th Century made. However the harsh resolution, broken octaves, down-stroked frail and snapped ricochets are definitely post-modern and 21st Century.

Highly rhythmic and rife with fiery cries that are equally POMO are the interludes from Regef’s hurdy-gurdy on Spectrum. Still when the chordophone instrument isn’t producing peeping spetrofluctuation as if Regef was playing a reed, or sounding organ-grinder-like tremolo drones, the hurdy-gurdy’s history as a vertical viola is evident. Regef, who has used the hurdy-gurdy to accompany singers as well as improvise with saxophonist Michel Doneda among others, impressively – and singularly – adapts the ratcheting recoils of his medieval-styled cranked instrument to modern times.

Here the hurdy-gurdy’s harsh whirring both contrasts and complements Zingaro’s sometimes sweetly legato pulses, while De Joode – who imperturbably plays with everyone from pianist Michiel Braam to saxophonist Ab Baars – merely digs into his instrument’s thick tones to keep the other two on an even keel. Regef’s almost oonomatopoeic impulses frequently swell to become both intense and opaque, which leads the others to create antipodal thumps and strokes.

With the hurdy-gurdy squeezes as pressured as they are buzzing, new strategies emerge. At one point Zingaro triple-stops a protracted pressured line that is as dense and staccato as Regef’s output, while De Joode thumps and walks his bass. These basso chords echo long enough so that they adhere to the cumulative sounds from the others.

Later, as constant chordophone drones reverberate on hard surface, creating a blurry, neo-primitive electro-acoustic texture, the response from the fiddler is lyrical and gently pitched to break up the nearly ceaseless continuum. Then the bassist responds with plucked jazz inflections including finger-tip taps and harmonically advanced bent notes. At the climax the hurdy gurdy’s reverberating overtones first resemble electronically-triggered oscillations, then dissolve into familiar organ-grinder tones, and are finally subsumed by the harmonic union of the real strings.

Whether modern chamber music or Zingaro’s advances are your chief interest, there is much to impress and edify listeners on these discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Spectrum: 1. Spectra 01 2. Spectra 02 3. Spectra 03

Personnel: Spectrum: Carlos Zíngaro (violin); Dominique Regef (hurdy gurdy [or sanfona or vielle à roue]) and Wilbert De Joode (bass)

Track Listing: T.E.C.K.: 1. Levitation 2. Intuitive reduction 3. If not now, when 4. Ripples 5. Swapfield 6. Memory hanging 7. Hard evolution 8. Still not easy 9. As hard as it comes...

Personnel: T.E.C.K.: Carlos Zíngaro (violin); Elliott Sharp (National Tricone guitar); Tomas Ulrich (cello) and Ken Filiano (bass)

Track Listing: Ulrichsberg: 1. Ulrichsberg 1 2. München 3. Ulrichsberg 2

Personnel: Ulrichsberg: Carlos Zingaro (violin and electronics); Marcio Mattos (cello and electronics); Simon H. Fell (bass) and Mark Sanders (drums and percussion)

October 18, 2008

Amado/Zíngaro/Ulrich/Filiano

Surface
European Echoes 002

Photographer as well as saxophonist, Lisbon-based Rodrigo Amado frames this CD as a salute to the work of one lensman he admires: Stephen Shore known for his deadpan depiction of banal American scenes and object. Decorating the booklet with four of his own photos of New York, Amado combines with three string players for a restrained interface which is much more low-key than anything you’d find in Manhattan.

Perhaps reflects the incongruity of recording 13 free improvisations in Portugal’s capital that try to create a sound picture of everyday New York, the participants are split between New York and Lisbon residents. Besides Amado who plays alto and baritone saxophone, the other Portuguese is viola and violinist Carlos Zíngaro. The two Americans are cellist Tomas Ulrich and bassist Ken Filiano.

The saxophonist has recorded with Zíngaro and Filiano in the Lisbon Improvisation Players (LIP). Yet the presence of Ulrich’s cello and the absence of drums and another horn – which in the LIP has included such certified New York downtowners as trombonist Steve Swell and drummer Lou Grassi – means that there’s a tendency toward romantic prettiness in the performance which is in variance with the unvarnished images of both photographers. Luckily Ulrich and Zíngaro especially use extended techniques, both pizzicato and arco, to bring unexpected strength to unison harmonies, as well as playing pointed solos. As powerful an anchor here as he has been for players ranging from multi-reedist Vinny Golia to trumpeter Dennis González, Filiano’s solidly rhythmic walking mostly negates the need for a percussionist.

To this end the string work, while sometimes gently vibrated and aiming for bel canto is heard more-often-than-not staccato and in double or triple counterpoint with the other strings, rather than evolving in harmonic unison. Squirming sul tasto tones saw back and forth from the lower-pitched strings, which often roll, rumble and scratch to mix it up with mellow tongue flutters from the baritone saxophone. Elsewhere Zíngaro’s spiky, squeaking coloration evolves mano à mano with Amado’s strident alto saxophone vibrations. In essence the reedist calls on different models for each of his horns. His mid-range growls and snorty, but very tonal intermezzos, suggest Gerry Mulligan. Meanwhile his disorderly trills and tongue flutters seem to relate to early Ornette Coleman or Jackie McLean of the mid-1960s, when McLean was enamored with Coleman’s style of the time.

What this ultimately means for the performances is that between the saxophonist’s split tones and side-slipping plus the spiccato and sliding multiphonics created by the strings, enough connective coloration is exposed to keep any of the pieces from dragging. A consistent level of fortissimo runs and abrasive counterpoint among the foursome also introduces unexpected passages of eventually connective fissures.

The main drawback with the CD however, is that even the lengthiest track seem slightly unfinished. It’s as if the four finally turned to fortissimo cadenzas, creaking cross textures or concurrent thumping and pumping actions to liven up an inconclusive finale.

Taking the CD title literally, Surface doesn’t define the level of improvisations on the disc. Much of it is notable and interesting. But in order to attain with this group the same level of excitement and commitment each of the four has achieved individually or with different aggregations, digging much deeper into the improvisational conception would be necessary.

-- Ken Waxman

Track List: 1. Uncommon Places 2. Natural Bridge 3. The City 4. Luzzara 5. Calculators 6. Room 28 Surface Suite: 7. Eat 8. Talk 9. Look 10. Sleep 11. Walk 12. Trail’s End 13. Art is Truth

Personnel: Rodrigo Amado (alto and baritone saxophones); Carlos Zíngaro (violin and viola); Tomas Ulrich (cello) and Ken Filiano (bass)

February 7, 2008

KEVIN NORTON’S LIVING LANGUAGE

Intuitive Structures
Cadence Jazz Records CJR 1166

LARRY OCHS/JOAN JEANRENAUD/MIYA MASAOKA
FLY, FLY, FLY
Intakt CD 092

Cellos and tenor saxophones have similar timbres, which means that increasingly composers are putting together combos that use this musical blend as a starting point for improvisation.

Even though both CDs here feature that line up as well as four long compositions each, the results couldn’t be more different. That’s because New Jersey-based percussionist Kevin Norton plays up the jazz-orientation of his quartet, while Oakland, Calif.-based saxist Larry Ochs of ROVA Quartet fame, injects his cellist into a musical situation that draws on structured and cued improvisations mixed with elements of so-called New and World music.

A former member of the Kronos String Quartet, Joan Jeanrenaud, who is featured on FLY FLY FLY, has expanded her palate from contemporary classical to improv in the company of players with catholic interests like Ochs and guitarist Fred Frith. INTUITIVE STRUCTURES’ cellist on the other hand is Tomas Ulrich, who is firmly in the jazz orbit working with saxophonist Ivo Perelman, guitarist Don Minasi and for many years with Norton.

FLY’s third participant is kotoist Miya Masaoka, a veteran of through composed and ethnic situations, whose instrument’s 21-strings have blended with the reeds of John Butcher as well as Ochs. Meanwhile Norton’s band is filled out with other Free Jazzers -- bassist John Lindberg, co-founder of the String Trio of New York, and tenor and soprano saxophonist Louie Belogenis, a longtime associate of seminal jazz figures like drummer Rashied Ali. Notwithstanding this, Norton’s prowess on vibraphone, drums and percussion add yet another dimension to his disc.

On its own, the quartet isn’t afraid to turn out its version of swing -- consider there are two run-throughs of Norton’s “Walking the Dogma”. The instrumentation conjures up memories of vibist Red Norvo’s drum-less trio on one hand, and with the cello treated as another horn, Ornette Coleman’s piano-less quartets on the other.

“Etude for Ricky W.” unites these various strands in diverse ways. Soon after the piece begins, for instance, Lindberg’s slinky ponticello lines are followed by double tongued musette-like nasal quacks from Belogenis’ soprano. Shuffle bowing from Ulrich and Pops Foster-like slap bass from Lindberg opens up a soundfield for Norton, who takes advantage of the gap with wood block thwacks, tubular bell resonation, güiro-like scrapes and tones that could come from Kulingtang gongs. As the two string players alternate between walking bass lines and bouncing string patterns at one another, Belogenis on tenor saxophone, smears, soars and split his notes into harsh shards with intense vibrato and squeaking overtones. Norton exits the tune with a quasi march tempo that then dissolves into smacks on a single cymbal plus the sound of what seems to be a cloth wiping the drum tops.

Polyphony and double counterpoint characterize many of the other compositions, whether they start from a through composed section or develop from group improvisations. On vibes Norton combines Gary Burton-like multi-mallet work with the sort of well-paced reverberating timbres you’d associate with Milt Jackson. Of course his concept is more advanced and abstract than either man. It would have to be, since Belogenis’ John Coltrane-influenced attack could bury delicate instruments like the vibes and cello.

During the course of the two “Dogma”s for instance, the reedist’s output moves from floating, slurred pitches to bottom feeder honks and from frenzied note pecking to wider, more vibrato-laden lines that recall Trane’s modal work mixed with a bagpipe-like drone. Lindberg contributes long-lined portamento bowing that touches on legit technique and rock steady pulses. Ulrich’s snaking tones can be positioned with violin-like jettes or swing with convergent arpeggios. On drums Norton rumbles when he has to, or produces a snare and cymbal tap dance, the better to meld with the double stopping bass and cello.

In contrast, FLY’s string section is limited to a single person with Jeanrenaud’s more formal style a sharp contrast to Ulrich’s freer output with Norton. Then again her role on this CD is different as well. Sometimes the tunes depend on her legato sweeps to provide a backdrop upon which the cascading waterfall of koto strings blend -- or at least meet -- harsh, altissimo squeals from Ochs’ sopranino.

In other spots, there are contrapuntal harmonic duets between the quivering tones of Ochs’ sax and lightly pressured arco cello parts. When this happens, it’s Masaoka who provides the comprehensive continuum. The koto isn’t just used as an exotic color organ either. On a blusey section of “Mystery Street”, as the saxman creates irregular vibrations and double tongued trills, Masaoka counters with chromatic flat-picking that could come from a Neapolitan mandolin. Alternately, Ochs mouthpiece buzzing and jagged, shuffle bowing from Jeanrenaud bring forward an assembly line of single strong snaps and sweeps from the koto.

Electronics, anathema to more orthodox Free Jazzers makes its appearance on the final track here. Still, the sine wave treatments, courtesy of Masaoka, merely diffuse the sound or let the koto’s 21 strings resonate with more depth. They don’t become an end in themselves. Providing cyclic accents among the koto’s glissandos, the plug-in moments are weighted against integers of intermittent sopranino squeaks and flutter tonguing plus percussive suggestions from the cello that appear to go beyond col legno and sul tasto to open handed smacks on the ribs.

Central to the session is the appropriately titled more than 23-minute “Heart of the Matter”, with its constant changes in mood, tempo, direction and harmonies. Beginning with bravura sopranino obbligatos, as if it was a folk air, the kotoist provides chromatic strumming and the cellist shuffle bowing.

After Ochs’ air raid siren nasality is moderated into an Arabic sounding theme, a deluge of variations from the koto polyphonically fill the spaces. Jreanrenaud, meanwhile, slides out a pitch that could come from a muted trumpet, finally creating fulsome double stops upon which Ochs introduces glottal punctuation and Masaoka chromatic flat-picking.

Finally, after ponticello strokes from Jeanrenaud, irregular vibrations and false fingering from Ochs and a set of glissandi from Masaoka, slither back-and-forth for emphasis, the climax arrives. It turns out to be breathy, folkloric smears from the saxist and vague classical arpeggios from the cellist, which link the theme to its beginning.

Eastern, Western, notated, cued and improvised musics meet on these two sessions to auspiciously demonstrate how versatile bands that texturally partner saxophone and cellos can be.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Fly: 1. Fly Fly Fly 2. Mystery Street 3. Heart of the Matter 4.It Happened One Night*

Personnel: Fly: Larry Ochs (sopranino and tenor saxophones); Joan Jeanrenaud (cello and sampling*); Miya Masaoka (koto and electronics*)

Track Listing: Intuitive: 1. Walking the Dogma #2 2. Etude for Ricky W. 3. Aquarius 4. Walking the Dogma #1

Personnel: Intuitive: Louie Belogenis (tenor and soprano saxophones); Tomas Ulrich (cello); John Lindberg (bass); Kevin Norton (drums, vibes and percussion)

September 13, 2004

DOM MINASI’S DDT +2

Time Will Tell
CDM Records CDM 1003

Appropriately not content to stop developing his music, guitarist Dom Minasi has made some line-up and conceptional changes in this, the third CD of his so-called comeback.

A jazz lifer who has written guitar technique books, played clubs, studio and theatre gigs, Minasi’s bad experience with a major label kept him away from recording until the late 1990s, when he finally released two enthusiastically received trio discs. TIME WILL TELL takes the concept a bit further with innovations that both add and subtract from the ideal he had set up with his bass and drums trio.

On the plus side, improvising cellist Tomas Ulrich -- who turns up with increasing frequency on exceptional improv CDs, including those featuring percussionist Kevin Norton and bassist Joëlle Léandre -- is added to Minasi’s basic trio; plus the guitarist has included more of his own tunes. Minuses are that John Bollinger, the trio’s new drummer, while a fine accompanist, isn’t the dynamic technician Jackson Krall was, therefore weakening the partnership. More seriously the fretman’s mushy streak is more on display, both on the overlong title tune and a version of “Round Midnight” that features a sentimental vocal by his wife, Carol Mennie.

When they aren’t put in the position of reacting like a mawkish string section, Ulrich and bassist Ken Filiano add a lot more to the proceedings. On “DMP”, for instance, the double-timed, unison cello, bass and guitar lines intermingle to create a sort of hip hoedown. Pizzicato, Ulrich works his way up to fiddle tone, extending his notes with tremolos and breaking the note off into partials. After comping for the others Minasi speedily glides up and down the strings. Finally after a curt cowbell respite from Bollinger, the cellist triple stops and triple times the theme, which ends with the three strings again in unison.

Honoring Dizzy Gillespie, “Be Op Be Op Be Ah” is a speedy beboppy tune featuring high-pitched, arpeggio-rich, slurred fingering from Minasi. Eventually his repetitive ringing licks join squealing staccato lines from the cellist and the bassist plucking out well-paced short variations on the theme. Ulrich’s talents are also on show with “Waltz For Eric”, where his double stopping to advanced polytonality almost recreates reedist Dolphy’s distinctive tone.

For his part, the guitarist shows how John Coltrane’s legacy can be translated to the guitar with his molasses-slow “John”, a string-driven modification of “Giant Steps”. Using only a tiny bit of reverb, Minasi’s carefully resonated grace notes recall the fact that Wes Montgomery was in Trane’s band for a short time. Elsewhere, reflecting its title, “My Soul Cries Out” melds the cello’s natural mournfulness with arching guitar expansion straight out of the whole note Johnny Smith/Tal Farlow school. Further along, Minasi’s slurred and sliding finger work expresses his morose output in arpeggios, while Ulrich double stops the theme with his lowest strings.

Minasi is adamant that all of his CDs and live performances are group efforts. “It’s not about ego, it’s about the group,” he says. He can be praised for having altered the trio formula that first exposed its artistry. But it would seem that a bit more fine-tuning is needed with this new configuration.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Witch Hunt 2. Time Will Tell 3. DMP 4. My Soul Cries Out 5. Be Op Be Op Be Ah 6. John 7. Waltz for Eric 8. Round Midnight*

Personnel: Dom Minasi (guitar); Tomas Ulrich (cello); Ken Filiano (bass) John Bollinger (drums); Carol Mennie (vocal)*

June 7, 2004

AVRAM FEFER

Shades of the Muse
CIMP #286

ROLAND RAMANAN
Shaken
EMANEM 4081

Matching a horn with a chordal instrument, bass and drums has long been an accepted jazz strategy. But as Free Jazz has muted into Free Music, fresh front lines have replaced the horn-and-guitar or horn-and-piano set up. Case in point these two CDs, one British, and one American, both of which feature a cellist upfront.

Firmly in the new tradition that welcomes new sounds, SHADES OF THE MUSE, the Yank disc is the fourth recent session lead by multi-reedist Avram Fefer. Here he’s partnered by cellist Tomas Ulrich plus Ken Filiano on bass and Jay Rosen on drums, all experienced in the karma of exploratory playing. Across the pond, SHAKEN is the debut disc for trumpeter Roland Ramanan, a full-time educator as well as a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO). His crew of veterans and fellow LIO members is made up of Marcio Mattos on cello and electronics, Simon H. Fell on bass and percussionist Mark Sanders.

Especially when it comes to the understated virtuosity exhibited by the trap men, both sessions are impressive examples of current group improvisation. Fefer’s crew is slightly more palatable though, since its shorter CD has fewer arid spots than Ramanan’s virgin effort.

Unlike some tyros the trumpeter doesn’t try to pack everything he knows into the disc, changing chameleon-like from track to track. Distinctively part of the BritImprov subset, SHAKEN is above all a group effort, with the leader careful to give full scope to the others’ talents. Improvising in different combinations, the disc probably could have been tightened by dropping the one track that features wooden flutes throughout.

One track that’s welcome for its inclusion, though, is literally called “Worth Remembering”. Highlighting a meeting of comparable musical minds, the piece starts with expertly vocalized brassy smears and stresses that meld with solid back up from the plucked cello. Purring brass trills then set up the momentum that welcomes the bass and drums playing an advanced version of jazz time. Soon buzzed rubato output from Ramanan meets long-lined string accompaniment that moves from pizz to arco and back again in split seconds. Finally after he searches his embouchure for le note juste, the brassman ends with high-in-the-valves note scraping mirrored by scratched bird-like whistles from the cello. The triumph here is that it’s often difficult to tell which note arises from the string set and which from the brass bell.

Other all-hands-on-deck pieces don’t reach those heights, as they’re allowed to go on far too long. “Before”, for instance, clocks in at nearly 11 minutes, with part of the space given over to Ramanan’s Amazonian flute intonation, a let down after you hear his brassy, chromatic trumpet lines that are seconded by wiggling drum bits and bell pealing plus legato cello slashes. When the trumpeter introduces half-squealing breaks, cello sutures become more diffuse and dissonant. Like Mikes Davis in the mid-1970s Ramanan holds onto his grace notes as the accompanying undertow from the others becomes wider and more diffuse -- Fell drones out the continuum as electronics apparently extend Mattos’ cello tone.

Experienced in group situations such as pianist Chris Burn’s Ensemble and drummer Eddie Prévost’s quartet, the cellist easily adapts to the unpretentious, jazz-like beat from Sanders, speedily triple-stopping and sounding out short, melodic fills. The trumpeter responds in kind, letting himself go by arching out a brazen, high-pitched solo that includes a screaming, descending pitchslide. There’s no egg shell walking here.

Here and on “The that’s that”, where Ramanan’s instructions direct the number of notes played in a set sequence and how many times the sequence is repeated. Sanders, who has backed up soloists like reedists John Butcher and Evan Parker, shows that he can create polyrhythms as easily from the sides and rims of his kit as the tops. He also colors the proceedings by popping sudden shattering tones from tiny unmatched cymbals, not unlike what Rosen does on the other CD.

On this and other pieces, Ramanan offers up matchless open horned tones, while the others construct irregular pulses around him. Elsewhere his idea pool includes fluttering rubato lines, strangled cries, mouthpiece French kisses and extended Harmon muted tones doubled with arco bass color Of all the musicians, Fell, whose writing includes extended compositions and who has played with most of the major BritImprov stylists, seems the least assertive.

You wouldn’t say that about Filiano on Fefer’s CD. But at the same time SHADES OF THE MUSE is also a group effort, with each man contributing to the overall sound picture. The bassist, whose longtime association has been with California multi-reedist Vinny Golia, easily adapts himself to Fefer’s four horns, providing a jazz-like pulse when needed and more obtuse timbres where they fit. More of a melodist than Ramanan, the reedman has the knack of composing pieces whose themes stay in your head for a while after you’re heard them. He does so in a variety of styles as well, without compromising his playing.

“Gates of Baghdad”, for example, an improvised piece with group notation, relies on the natural mournfulness produced by the arco cello and bass to suggest uncertainty, with the downcast mood commented upon with an irregular pulse and short bell peals from Rosen. As Fefer’s reed intermittently squeals and squawks turn to spetrofluctuation, ghost note vibrations and body tube trills, the percussionist does some of his best work on the CD, with cymbal crashes aimed with the precision of smart bombs and short, swift flams and ruffs. Working with other advanced woodwind players like Joe McPhee and Ivo Perelman has given Rosen a second sense in how to complement such reed flurries.

Ulrich, whose background includes time with Perelman, as well as the likes of drummer Kevin Norton and frequent Rosen partner, bassist Dominic Duval, works in perfect counterpoint to the horn man. By the end his complementary lines ease Fefer’s trills and double tonguing into one intense, elongated note.

“Shepp in Wolves’ Clothing”, honoring saxophonist/educator Archie Shepp, with whom Fefer recorded in Paris, is a buoyant tune linked as much to Shepp’s appreciation of Classic Jazz as his New Thing advances. A nearly 14-minute foot tapper carried on the walking bass and drum’s shuffle rhythm, it features a polyphonic tenor line and blue notes from the cello. Sounding more like Rahsaan Roland Kirk then Shepp at one point, the reedist solos on both his saxophones at once, creating a growly semi-atonal tone from one and a strained, vibrated split tone buzz from the other. With the tempo halved for a sliding bass solo backed by tingles from bells and unselected cymbals, the head is reprised just before the end with the piece going out with a final sax honk.

Cello and reeds voiced together means that a couple of the other tunes resemble the sort of bouncy West Coast pieces turned out in the mid-1950s by drummer Chico Hamilton’s band, the first to feature a cello in the front line. “Oblique Departures” is most notable for Filiano’s solo in a traditional Paul Chambers mode, while the balladic “Love Crept In (Again)” showcases Fefer’s smooth, liquid tone on the clarinet.

Finally Fefer’s versatility comes to the fore on “Brother Ibrahim”, a reminiscence of his trip to Morocco. Mixing Arabic and Eastern European influences, it exhibits a pinched reed tone that could come from a musette that expands to squealing and triple tonguing. It’s as if Booker Ervin had traveled to the Middle East. While Rosen plays a fast shuffle and Filiano navigates the beat, the strings appear to move from oud-like bowed lines to jaunty, freylach-like melodies. Ulrich skims across the strings with a high-pitched whine reminiscent of what Billy Bang can do with a fiddle, and his variations prepare the way for a reprise of the theme.

A fine effort, Fefer is definitely fashioning an unshakable identity. Meanwhile Ramanan’s CD is strong enough to suggest that just a little tweaking and shaping is needed in his concept to turn out as memorable a disc as the other.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Shaken: 1. Before 2. The next 3. Showers 4. Break 5. A kiss 6. Promised 7. The that’s that 8. Of a handshake 9. Worth remembering 10. Forgotten

Personnel: Shaken: Roland Ramanan (trumpet, wooden flutes); Marcio Mattos (cello and electronics); Simon H. Fell (bass); Mark Sanders (percussion)

Track Listing: Shades: 1. Shepp in Wolves’ Clothing 2. Love Crept In (Again) 3. Gates of Baghdad 4. Oblique Departures 5. Brother Ibrahim 6. BC Reverie 7. Sacred Passage (for Syma)

Personnel: Shades: Avram Fefer (tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet and bass clarinet); Tomas Ulrich (cello); Ken Filiano (bass); Jay Rosen (drums)

March 8, 2004

BRETT LARDER/JOËLLE LÉNDRE/KAZUHISA UCHICASHI

No Day Rising
Spool Line SPL-121

KEVIN NORTON/JOËLLE LÉNDRE/TOMÁS ULRICH
Ocean of Earth
Barking Hoop BY-BKH007

Recording studios may have been frequented as often as classrooms during the time French bassist Joëlle Léandre spent as a visiting professor at Oakland, Calif.’s Mills College between September and December 2002. These CDs are just two of the many sessions the peripatetic bassist was involved with during that time.

Not that this reflects opportunism or any lowering of Léandre’s high musical standards however. As a European improviser she welcomed the chance to play with as many non-Europeans as possible. Plus, as a true improviser committed to creativity of the moment, it wasn’t as if studio work took up oodles of time, even if, as in the case of OCEAN OF EARTH, she was away from her California base.

Unlike rock bands which spend weeks, months, and -- in the case of audio procrastinators like Boston -- years in the studio, improvisers often find that an intensive day is often enough time to create an exceptional CD. Unlike rockers as well, they’re sure enough of their creativity and understand their instruments well enough to do this.

Listening to both albums, recorded in October 2002 on subsequent days on opposite American coasts, doesn’t give you any sense of hasty preparation or non-musical tension. What you hear instead is five musicians performing at the height of their powers -- though you may wonder if the bassist has some particular curative for jet lag.

Making NO DAY RISING even more of an international affair, neither of Léandre’s partners is American. Brett Larner, who plays three different kotos here is a transplanted Canadian now in San Leandro, Calif. Someone who spent years in Tokyo studying koto with master Kazue Sawai, Larner, is also involved with electroacoustic improvisations. He has played with composer Anthony Braxton, guitarist Taku Sugimoto and with no imput mixing board stylist Toshimaru Nakamura. Another member of the American/Japanese experimental scene is the CD’s third participant. Guitarist and daxophone player Kazuhisa Uchihashi a former member of Ground Zero, who more recently was in the band R.U.B. with American saxist Ned Rothenberg.

Larner, who reveals that the CD was put together in the 12 hours following Uchihashi’s solo performance at Mills, just after Léandre returned from the East Coast, calls it “a peculiar set of short pieces, almost a pop album”. American Idol fans and improv followers will likely disagree.

Instead what’s here are 13 mid-length pieces ranging from less 90 seconds to more than seven minutes, titled for the time of day at which they were recorded, and dedicated to creating unexpected sounds. Interestingly enough, the daxophone, which when bowed, scraped, tapped or otherwise vibrated can produce a variety of sounds from falsetto to basso is actually used sparingly. It’s the traditional koto, bass and guitar which are most put to use.

Thus on a piece like “11:42 p.m.”, you figure the intermittent beeps probably come from prepared bass koto, the high pitched Appalachian-style fiddling from the top range of the bass strings, and undercurrent of strumming from the guitar -- or do they? In the same way it’s pretty clear that the arching snorts, falsetto cries and dog yowls on “11:01 p.m.” are coming from the dax. But the later dialogue that resembles a wolf howling at the moon meeting a burrowing anteater, is that Uchihashi’s doing, Léandre’s or Larner’s?

On the other hand, cross-cultural and musical asides resonate on a piece like “2:42 a.m.” Here among a collection of pauses and silences, the guitarist seems to reverberating fireside cowboy tune chords and the bassist roughly punishing and scraping her strings, as the bass koto provides a dramatic continuum on the bottom.

Or take “9:15 p.m.”, also the longest track. Beginning with definitely focused arco strokes from the bass that dissolve into bow-tip squeaks, currents resembling electronic impulses hang in the air. Soon, after resonating metal-against-metal scrapes and guitar strumming thumps further muddy the sound, a sudden pacific interlude arises as if bamboo flute tones had leaked into the soundstage. With Uchihashi turning to speedy flat-picking that recreates the tone of a National steel guitar, Larner appears to counter with vibes-like pings from the koto, using the tsume or ivory plectra as mallets.

Other timbres seemingly replicated are as unrelated as bass flute tones, electronic organ crescendos, waterlogged cries, bottleneck guitar runs and ghostly harp glissandos. So describing the music as either Oriental, Occidental, North American, European, Canadian, American, French or even acoustic or electronic seems reductive. Some of it is staccato, some legato. Some involves many notes bunched into a statement, other parts concentrate on the spidery manifestation of a single note.

Keeping you guessing, it illustrates musical rule bending without fear or let down, which is what masterful sustained experimentation should exhibit.

This is even more apparent on OCEAN OF EARTH. Recorded the day before in New Jersey, these 20, more expressively titled tracks are the result of a first-ever musical meeting between Léandre and two Americans, cellist Tomas Ulrich and percussionist Kevin Norton.

Someone who has played in different Braxton ensembles for nearly a decade, Norton has also involved himself in many forms of improv, working with players as different as guitarist James Emery, trombonist Steve Swell and saxist Alfred Harth. Featured on three of Norton’s earlier CDs, Ulrich has also performed with contrasting stylists such as tenormen Joe Lovano and Ivo Perelman, not to mention Braxton and bassist Dominic Duval.

Unambiguously more percussive than the previous disc for obvious reasons, the CD isn’t weighted down with drum action however. Instead Norton’s hands are usually shaping elongated and glinting vibraphone or marimba chords or extracting offbeat rhythmic pulses from what is described as “homemade and store-bought percussion”.

On “Trio for the end of time” he jockeys up and down the metal bars as the bassist saws away effervescently and the cellist double-stops to produce further decoration. When Ulrich’s tone turns more discordant and shrill, and Léandre somehow sound as if she’s broom sweeping with her bull fiddle, Norton lets loose with a protuberance of cymbal whaps then turns his bars into bells and finally back to the vibes. Then the two string players combine for arco swoops.

Legit-sounding unison bowed bass and cello also makes its appearance on “Opposite action”, but expressing himself on toms and snares the drummer’s time is closer to what many would hear as jazz. As the cellist and bassist move up the scale to involve themselves in an Impressionistic fantasia of repeated grace notes and glissandos, Norton varies the tempo to such an extent that they decelerate into low gear, surrounding his final, near military drum tattoo with eddying, squeaking slides.

There are even times as on “Goodbye Blues” when Norton’s ringing vibe timbres and Léandre’s steady pulse could have come from the Modern Jazz Quartet’s Milt Jackson and Percy Heath respectively, so straightforward do they sound. Here as elsewhere, though, Norton appears to favor a multi-mallet Gary Burton approach over Jackson’s concentrated single stick approach. And it’s doubtful that Heath ever murmured pseudo-operatic gibberish and definitely, if not deliberately obscure French syllables while (wo)manhandling the bass as Léandre does on “Saltimbanques/Acrobats”.

With the repertoire of bent notes, extended techniques, tugs, sweeps, shakes, rasps and glisses -- not to mention piercing shrills from Acme slide and non-Acme whistles -- the textures and tones here are extended even further than on the California-recorded session. And surprises abound.

Thus something like “Fairport confusion blues” doesn’t pay homage to the British folk-ballad group of the 1970s, but with powerful cello-plucks resembles the visceral folk-blues that Julius Hemphill often created. Unison pizzicato strings and a steady shuffle beat from the drums would have been familiar to Hemphill, but even he may have wondered which object Norton is striking besides drum rims and wooden blocks to produce what could be the sound of a slinky working its way down the stairs. Then there’s “Edye”, where, without electronic augmentation, the strings manage to replicate a woodwind choir.

Elsewhere arco strings rasp like angry birds, Old-Timey string band suggestions vie for space with Impressionistic chamber trio output as vibes sound like rolling logs and marimbas like a tolling clock.

By the time the clock actually tolls for this session you’re convinced that as long as the mood and pulsation are aligned with the proper participants, there’s no questioning the musical worth of one-off meetings like these.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: No: 1. 5:15 p.m. 2. 5:48 p.m. 3. 6:48 p.m. 4. 8:03 p.m. 5. 9:15 p.m. 6. 11:01 p.m. 7. 11:42 p.m. 8. 1:02 a.m. 9. 2:00 a.m. 10. 2:42 a.m. 11. 4:04 a.m. 12. 5:09 a.m. 13. 5:31 a.m.

Personnel: No: Kazuhisa Uchihashi (electric guitar, daxophone); Joëlle Léandre (bass); Brett Larner (koto, bass koto, prepared bass koto)

Track Listing: Ocean: 1. Océan de terre/Ocean of earth 2. Nous de nous 3. Saltimbanques/Acrobats 4. Pour Guigou, Sophie et Leo 5. Inclusive radiance 6. Goodbye blues 7. Flying blind, seeing everything 8. Edye 9. Pour Eva B 10. A book of great worth and importance 11. Trio for the end of time 12. D Major 13. Opposite action 14. C minor 15. Mai se découvre... 16. Parallel text 17. Je ne vous ai jamais connu 18. Attainable syntactical destinations 19. Fairport confusion blues 20. L’adieu/The farewell

Personnel: Ocean: Tomas Ulrich (cello, voice, non-Acme whistle); Joëlle Léandre (bass, voice); Kevin Norton (drums, vibraphone, marimba, homemade and store-bought percussion (including Acme slide whistle)

January 12, 2004