James Carney Group

Ways & Means
Songlines SGL SA 1580-2

Steve Lehman Octet

Travail, Transformation, and Flow

Pi Records P130

At least since the flexibility of a little big band was demonstrated in Miles Davis’ 1949 Birth of the Cool sessions musicians have utilized that formation when they want to expand their compositional reach without getting involved in the sometimes ponderous arrangements needed for an official big band.

Two stellar examples of the adaptable colors and rhythms available from seven- or eight-piece bands are these CDs by New York-based improvisers. Although both impressively extend sonic visions through the solos of some of Manhattan’s top players and crafty arrangements, overall alto saxophonist Steve Lehman’s Travail, Transformation, and Flow has the edge. Concerned with displaying the nuanced harmonics and overtones available from an assimilation of spectral music, the freshness of his arrangements and compositions trumps keyboardist James Carney’s scores on Ways & Means. Not that Carney’s conceptions are anyway second rate. It’s just that the compositions are shaped and performed in a contemporary jazz fashion in such a way that the results are expected and almost too familiar. You can almost see the parts clank and shudder into place. Perhaps “see” is the key word here as well, since Carney describes the Chamber Music America-commissioned Ways & Means as designed to be a movie in sound.

Perhaps then “Legal Action”, which is set up as a double concerto for tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby and trumpeter Ralph Alessi should be pictured as one of those buddy flicks. Certainly from the first, the trumpeter’s repeated grace notes and rubato harmonies stay close to the slide-slipping split tones from the tenor saxophonist. Additionally, while neither soloist is particularly atonal, the rhythm section, abetted by Carney’s synthesizer buzzes, warrants that the melody remains chromatic during this cinematic intermezzo. Eventually the piece climaxes when Carney’ piano adds choruses of dynamic cadences and note clusters. Speeding up his comping, the pianist meets echoing trumpet bites head on, then wraps up the narrative with sliding key emphasis.

This innate lyricism – the musical equivalent of Technicolor perhaps – floats through nearly all of the CD’s nine selections, with churning horn parts often layered on top of bouncing piano harmonies. The languid “Squatters” for instance, exposes a different style of sonic character development with percussive piano patterns succeeded by quivering electric piano throbs – also from Carney – eventually making way for Peter Epstein’s glossy soprano saxophone tongue flutters. Again while Chris Lightcap’s walking bas and Mark Ferber’s drums combine to goose the tempo from adagio to andante, Epstein appears unperturbed. His timbres turn repetitive, but not dissonant. Josh Roseman’s uncharacteristically glossy trombone slurs surmount the other horns’ harmonies in the tune’s final variation, confirming the swing feeling of the piece – and Carney’s compositional smarts.

If Ways & Means reflects Carney’s background scorning films, then Travail, Transformation, and Flow works from Lehman’s fascination with the physics of sound. The saxophonist, who teaches in New York’s Columbia University’s music department, uses his extensive formal background to divide particularized tones among the eight musicians for harmonic distinctiveness. While computer analysis is often used to assign each instrument’s microtonal spots in the arrangement, happily this doesn’t produce a domineering formalism in the sounds from the ensemble and/or soloists. One overriding leitmotif is the chiming percussiveness of Chris Dingman’s vibes which make their presence felt on nearly every track.

Furthermore a tune such as “Waves”, with its thick percussive rhythms and quivering broken-octave harmonies, is as much shaped by solos as spectralism. While the tonality of the off-kilter, four-horn harmonies that abut clattering bells plus pops and drags from percussionist Tyshawn Sorey may have a technical definition, the piece progresses as much due to

Lehman’s downward tongue fluttering on alto saxophone and Jonathan Finlayson’s distant trumpet tattoos.

Heretical as it may sound conceptually, with committed soloists playing their personal best, “Alloy” – which is described as explicitly less spectral than “Waves” – doesn’t sound that far off from more technical pieces. Polyphony displayed on “Alloy” is as impressive; so are the individual interpolations from sprinkled vibraphone textures, low-pitched tuba burps from Jose Davilia and grace notes from trombonist Tim Albright. Eventually when Lehman’s sharpened alto tone spins out a raunchy vamp, doubled by Mark Shim’s tenor saxophone and an adagio trumpet flourish, melody overcomes methodology.

Additionally, “No Neighborhood Rough Enough”, which modulates through swelling spectral harmonies, may line up as individual parts and verses are fit together with microtonal precision. Yet Drew Gress’s floating bass line, Dingman’s clanking vibe resonation and horn solos predominate. After honking in the exposition, Shim’s sprawling, free-form sax vibrations follow their own logic and easily meld with the trumpeter’s repeated grace notes.

Travail, Transformation, and Flow is memorable because Lehman has managed to wedge an academic concept within a performance of high-class composition and improvisation without flaunting his technical game plan. Ways & Means is also notable. But despite the high level of soloing, its cinematic output comes secondary to Lehman’s tech strategy. That’s because like the whir of a projector in an otherwise hushed movie theatre, Carey’s compositional mechanics are a little too obvious.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Travail: 1. Echoes 2. RudreshM 2. As Things Change (I Remain the Same) 4. Dub 5. Alloy 6. Waves 7. No Neighborhood Rough Enough 8. Living in the World Today

Personnel: Travail: Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet); Tim Albright (trombone); Jose Davila (tuba); Steve Lehman (alto saxophone); Mark Shim (tenor saxophone); Chris Dingman (vibraphone); Drew Gress (bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums)

Track Listing: Ways: 1. Nefarious Notions 2. Squatters 3. Champion of Honesty 4. Onondaga 5. The Business End 6. Legal Action 7. Fallout 8. Pow Wow 9. Gargoyles

Personnel: Ways: Ralph Alessi (trumpet); Josh Roseman (trombone); Peter Epstein (soprano and alto saxophones); Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone); James Carney (acoustic and electric pianos, analog synthesizer and glockenspiel); Chris Lightcap (bass) and Mark Ferber (drums)

January 11, 2010

Steve Lehman Octet

Travail, Transformation, and Flow
Pi Records P130

James Carney Group

Ways & Means

Songlines SGL SA 1580-2

At least since the flexibility of a little big band was demonstrated in Miles Davis’ 1949 Birth of the Cool sessions musicians have utilized that formation when they want to expand their compositional reach without getting involved in the sometimes ponderous arrangements needed for an official big band.

Two stellar examples of the adaptable colors and rhythms available from seven- or eight-piece bands are these CDs by New York-based improvisers. Although both impressively extend sonic visions through the solos of some of Manhattan’s top players and crafty arrangements, overall alto saxophonist Steve Lehman’s Travail, Transformation, and Flow has the edge. Concerned with displaying the nuanced harmonics and overtones available from an assimilation of spectral music, the freshness of his arrangements and compositions trumps keyboardist James Carney’s scores on Ways & Means. Not that Carney’s conceptions are anyway second rate. It’s just that the compositions are shaped and performed in a contemporary jazz fashion in such a way that the results are expected and almost too familiar. You can almost see the parts clank and shudder into place. Perhaps “see” is the key word here as well, since Carney describes the Chamber Music America-commissioned Ways & Means as designed to be a movie in sound.

Perhaps then “Legal Action”, which is set up as a double concerto for tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby and trumpeter Ralph Alessi should be pictured as one of those buddy flicks. Certainly from the first, the trumpeter’s repeated grace notes and rubato harmonies stay close to the slide-slipping split tones from the tenor saxophonist. Additionally, while neither soloist is particularly atonal, the rhythm section, abetted by Carney’s synthesizer buzzes, warrants that the melody remains chromatic during this cinematic intermezzo. Eventually the piece climaxes when Carney’ piano adds choruses of dynamic cadences and note clusters. Speeding up his comping, the pianist meets echoing trumpet bites head on, then wraps up the narrative with sliding key emphasis.

This innate lyricism – the musical equivalent of Technicolor perhaps – floats through nearly all of the CD’s nine selections, with churning horn parts often layered on top of bouncing piano harmonies. The languid “Squatters” for instance, exposes a different style of sonic character development with percussive piano patterns succeeded by quivering electric piano throbs – also from Carney – eventually making way for Peter Epstein’s glossy soprano saxophone tongue flutters. Again while Chris Lightcap’s walking bas and Mark Ferber’s drums combine to goose the tempo from adagio to andante, Epstein appears unperturbed. His timbres turn repetitive, but not dissonant. Josh Roseman’s uncharacteristically glossy trombone slurs surmount the other horns’ harmonies in the tune’s final variation, confirming the swing feeling of the piece – and Carney’s compositional smarts.

If Ways & Means reflects Carney’s background scorning films, then Travail, Transformation, and Flow works from Lehman’s fascination with the physics of sound. The saxophonist, who teaches in New York’s Columbia University’s music department, uses his extensive formal background to divide particularized tones among the eight musicians for harmonic distinctiveness. While computer analysis is often used to assign each instrument’s microtonal spots in the arrangement, happily this doesn’t produce a domineering formalism in the sounds from the ensemble and/or soloists. One overriding leitmotif is the chiming percussiveness of Chris Dingman’s vibes which make their presence felt on nearly every track.

Furthermore a tune such as “Waves”, with its thick percussive rhythms and quivering broken-octave harmonies, is as much shaped by solos as spectralism. While the tonality of the off-kilter, four-horn harmonies that abut clattering bells plus pops and drags from percussionist Tyshawn Sorey may have a technical definition, the piece progresses as much due to

Lehman’s downward tongue fluttering on alto saxophone and Jonathan Finlayson’s distant trumpet tattoos.

Heretical as it may sound conceptually, with committed soloists playing their personal best, “Alloy” – which is described as explicitly less spectral than “Waves” – doesn’t sound that far off from more technical pieces. Polyphony displayed on “Alloy” is as impressive; so are the individual interpolations from sprinkled vibraphone textures, low-pitched tuba burps from Jose Davilia and grace notes from trombonist Tim Albright. Eventually when Lehman’s sharpened alto tone spins out a raunchy vamp, doubled by Mark Shim’s tenor saxophone and an adagio trumpet flourish, melody overcomes methodology.

Additionally, “No Neighborhood Rough Enough”, which modulates through swelling spectral harmonies, may line up as individual parts and verses are fit together with microtonal precision. Yet Drew Gress’s floating bass line, Dingman’s clanking vibe resonation and horn solos predominate. After honking in the exposition, Shim’s sprawling, free-form sax vibrations follow their own logic and easily meld with the trumpeter’s repeated grace notes.

Travail, Transformation, and Flow is memorable because Lehman has managed to wedge an academic concept within a performance of high-class composition and improvisation without flaunting his technical game plan. Ways & Means is also notable. But despite the high level of soloing, its cinematic output comes secondary to Lehman’s tech strategy. That’s because like the whir of a projector in an otherwise hushed movie theatre, Carey’s compositional mechanics are a little too obvious.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Travail: 1. Echoes 2. RudreshM 2. As Things Change (I Remain the Same) 4. Dub 5. Alloy 6. Waves 7. No Neighborhood Rough Enough 8. Living in the World Today

Personnel: Travail: Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet); Tim Albright (trombone); Jose Davila (tuba); Steve Lehman (alto saxophone); Mark Shim (tenor saxophone); Chris Dingman (vibraphone); Drew Gress (bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums)

Track Listing: Ways: 1. Nefarious Notions 2. Squatters 3. Champion of Honesty 4. Onondaga 5. The Business End 6. Legal Action 7. Fallout 8. Pow Wow 9. Gargoyles

Personnel: Ways: Ralph Alessi (trumpet); Josh Roseman (trombone); Peter Epstein (soprano and alto saxophones); Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone); James Carney (acoustic and electric pianos, analog synthesizer and glockenspiel); Chris Lightcap (bass) and Mark Ferber (drums)

January 11, 2010

Andrew Green

Narrow Margin
Microphonic Records No #

Striking sounds can result from a combination of a sprain and serendipity. At least that’s the genesis of this uncommon musical salute to post-Second World War film noir. Featuring eight distinctive compositions given an unusual post-modern Cool Jazz lilt, Narrow Margin also reveals a hitherto unknown side of guitarist Andrew Green.

A veteran New York-based musician who has played with everyone from pianist Joanne Brackeen to drummer Matt Wilson as well as authoring three best-selling guitar instruction books, Green’s change to show off his superior composing and arranging chops literally came about by accident; in 2006 he sprained his wrists and couldn’t play for 10 weeks. Spending his time viewing hard-boiled film classics during this hiatus, Green decided to compose themes which reflect that atmospheric genre, yet reinterpret its textures using his knowledge of more contemporary jazz and rock.

That’s more contemporary, not contemporary, since the guitarist and his top-flight sidemen avoid any nods to contemporary pop/jazz. With arrangements designed to make the sextet sound bigger than it is, the group also stays clear of anything remotely atonal, while still creating high-class sounds that would impress any committed jazzer. High standards are no surprise, since Green’s associates are some of New York most accomplished and in demand younger players. Trumpeter Russ Johnson for instance works with bassist Michael Bates; drummer Mark Ferber plays with pianist James Carney; and bassist John Hebert has backed pianist Uri Caine and trombonist Joe Fiedler.

While the bassist sticks to time-keeping throughout, Ferber has a chance to expose his ruffs drags and other percussion decorations. Furthermore many of the compositions are designed to showcase one or another of the players. At points Johnston’s grace notes and burnished triplets get proper workouts, at times shaded and stalked by Green’s ringing guitar vamps or sympathetic comping. Other pieces match slurred note bursts from the guitarist with muted capillary burrs from trombonist JC Sanford. Still others launch a series of chiming guitar that meet up with tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry’s honking and hocketing flutter-tonguing.

“Black Roses,” co-written by co-producer, trumpeter John McNeil – who records in a similar updated retro-Cool style – is probably the CD’s most characteristic piece. Building on sharp guitar licks and band pedal point with the trumpet part portraying a nostalgic timbre, Green’s rasgueado fills provide the proper backing to showcase mellow Sanford riffs and quivering saxophone vibrations. Before the harmonized horns take the melody out, the guitarist’s frenetic chording reintroduce the head and Johnson recaps a variant of his initial solo.

A stylized series of pristine mid-length compositions – as most film noirs were shorter features – Narrow Margin makes its point skillfully without adding superficial fills or the recording studio equivalent of CGI-film effects. One hopes that Green doesn’t become accident-prone, but on the evidence here, his composing and arranging dexterity are at least as impressive – if not more so – as his guitar playing. He should do more.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. .45 Auto 2. Midnight Novelette 3. Miro 4. Narrow Margin Taxi Driver 5. Totally Joe 6. Short Cut 7. Black Roses 8. Honeymoon in Ipswich

Personnel: Russ Johnson (trumpet); JC Sanford (trombone); Bill McHenry (tenor saxophone); Andrew Green (guitar); John Hebert (bass) and Mark Ferber (drums)

October 1, 2009

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup
Red Toucan RT 9331

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest
Drip Audio DA 00272

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

By Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Kartet

The Bay Window
Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

James Carney Group

Green-Wood
Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg
Red Toucan RT 9332

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Albert Mangelsdorff

Triplicity
Skip SKP 9052-2

Joe Fiedler

Plays the Music of Albert Mangelsdorff

Clean Feed CF 049CD

Generally credited as the first European trombonist who by the 1960s had talents that were equal to or superior to American jazzers, Frankfurt native Albert Mangelsdorff (1928-2005) evolved from being a top-ranked bopper to flirting with the avant garde and fusion in the 1970s, The result by the time of his death, was a matchless amalgam of all those styles in his playing.

Although acknowledged as a major stylist as early as 1962, when he recorded with the Modern Jazz Quartet’s pianist John Lewis, this CD by New York trombonist Joe Fiedler is the first recorder tribute the German master of multiphonics. It’s no macabre cash-in either. For Fiedler, whose experience encompasses bands as disparate as Latin- Jazz group Timbalaye, pianist Andrew Hill’s sextet and Philip Johnson’s Fast and Bulbous, recorded the just-released session in November 2003.

Serendipitously, a set of never-before available tracks by a Mangelsdorff’s 1979 trio appears. Backed by veteran Swiss drummer Pierre Favre, known for his work with pianist Irène Schweizer; and Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, who now combines traditional folk music and improv; it’s the same configuration as Fiedler’s trio. The trombonist and his associates – bassist John Herbert, who also plays in Hill’s band and drummer Mark Ferber, who has worked with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith – are probably even younger than the Triplicity trio was in 1979. Yet a side-to-side comparison of the two CDs causes neither to suffer.

Ironically, it’s Fiedler, on the aptly-titled “Do Your Own Thing” and the exposition of “Mayday Hymn”, who plays the sort of unaccompanied, multiphonic extravaganza that the older trombonist perfected after his solo display at a 1972 Munich festival. On the first tune, Fiedler reveals grunting split tones, extended with passing vibrations while maintaining a polyrhythmic beat. Preceding the drummer’s and bassist’s entry with patterned hand drumming and sul ponticello strokes, on “Mayday Hymn”, the boneman unveils polyphonic excesses and subterranean growls, letting his abrasive grace notes flow into every sound crevice.

“Zores Mores” even goes further than Mangelsdorff could have imagined. Sounding as if his notes have been shoved through a sequencer – and highlighting with tremolo and legato – Fiedler appears to be playing in double counterpoint with himself. Many other tracks are free-bop lines par excellence, floating on Herbert’s stalwart walking and Ferber’s cadenced cymbal smacks and ratamacues. Combined with the trombonist’s sputtering textures, many of these compositions morph into finger-snappers.

Fiedler’s experience performing with Afro-Cuban stars such as Tito Puente and Nestor Torres also serves him well here, as he adds a Latin tinge to “Now Jazz Ramwong”, an Asiatic tinged piece Mangelsdorff wrote after a tour of the Far East. On top of Ferber’s cross-handed paradiddles, the brassman’s internalized rhythms intensify his blustery tones.

Moving from the honorer to the honoree, what strikes you most about Triplicity is how the trombonist mixes traditional roots with advanced techniques without calling undue attention to himself. And the bassist and drummer follow right along.

Take “Subconscious Skylark” for instance, where his note replication initially fastens on double counterpoint with Andersen. Then when the bassist turns to sul tasto bowing, Mangelsdorff introduces spittle-encrusted prestissimo tone rows, and then triple- tongued triplets and squeals. Favre contributes flashing polyrhythmic rustles as the bassist counters with rasgueado-like rhythms. Layering his pitchsliding solo with one curved triplet after another, the trombonist revels in brassy falsetto buzzes and vibrating triple tonguing. As cross patterns roll from the drum top, Mangelsdorff proffers a final recap of trills and plunger emphasis.

These techniques can also be put to use on more atmospheric numbers like “Green Shadows into Blue” or the raucous “Outhouse” – both written by the bassist. Nearly a nocturne, the first piece features Favre’s press rolls filling the space behind Andersen’s blunt slaps that flamboyantly stretch the strings, eventually revealing flamenco patterning. Confining himself initially to rubato romantic trills, the trombonist ends with a flurry of triple buzzed and tongued notes.

An odd blowsy, bluesy romp from someone identified with the glacial Scandinavian sound, “Outhouse” finds the bass man alternating between flat-picking claw-hammer licks and an extensive walking solo à la Scott LaFaro. Favre’s ruffs toughen the backbeat and among Mangelsdorff’s waterfall of sounds are buzzy chromatic triplets and quadruple-tongued grace notes. Elsewhere his split-tone response is such that without overdubbing the trombonist limns two parallel lines – vibrated, pedal-point tremolos alternated with higher-pitched brays.

However it’s with the 14-minute plus “Warbling Warbler” that Mangelsdorff really exhibits his skills. Based on birdsong which he recorded and listened to at various speeds, the piece is alive with presto and lento variations. As andante capillary tones echo past the slide into sine wave reverb and single-note extensions, he purrs triplets, occasionally hitting freak high-pitched notes – but not enough to create atonality. Meantime Andersen’s speedily keeps steady time, while Favre’s pummelling rolls and ratcheting cymbals add the necessary coloration. Introducing an assortment of cross-handed ruffs and flams, the percussionist joins with the andante walking bass lines to provide ballast behind the trombonist’s aviary-like triple tonguing and heavily vibrated growls. Considering the coda is a cistern-deep exhalation, perhaps some of the warblers were of eagle size or larger.

Triplicity is another reminder of the late German trombonist’s power, while Plays the Music of Albert Mangelsdorff is a fitting memorial to a master stylist.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Triplicity: 1. Triplicity 2. Soulbird 3. Warbling Warbler 4. Outhouse 5. Virgin Green of Spring 6. Green Shadows into Blue 7. Subconscious Skylark 8. Brief Impressions of Brighton 9. Perpetual Lineations 10. Ancore Ex Tempore

Personnel: Triplicity: Albert Mangelsdorff (trombone); Arild Andersen (bass); Pierre Favre (drums)

Track Listing: Plays: 1. Wheat Song 2. Rip Off 3. Now Jazz Ramwong 4. An Ant Steps on an Elephant’s Toe 5. Mayday Hymn 6. Lapwing 7. Zores Mores 8. Wart G’Schwind 9. Do Your Own Thing

Personnel: Plays: Joe Fiedler (trombone); John Herbert (bass); Mark Ferber (drums)

November 12, 2006

JOE FIEDLER TRIO

Plays the Music of Albert Mangelsdorff
Clean Feed CF 049CD

ALBERT MANGELSDORFF

Triplicity

Skip SKP 9052-2

By Ken Waxman

Generally credited as the first European trombonist who by the 1960s had talents that were equal to or superior to American jazzers, Frankfurt native Albert Mangelsdorff (1928-2005) evolved from being a top-ranked bopper to flirting with the avant garde and fusion in the 1970s, The result by the time of his death, was a matchless amalgam of all those styles in his playing.

Although acknowledged as a major stylist as early as 1962, when he recorded with the Modern Jazz Quartet’s pianist John Lewis, this CD by New York trombonist Joe Fiedler is the first recorder tribute the German master of multiphonics. It’s no macabre cash-in either. For Fiedler, whose experience encompasses bands as disparate as Latin- Jazz group Timbalaye, pianist Andrew Hill’s sextet and Philip Johnson’s Fast and Bulbous, recorded the just-released session in November 2003.

Serendipitously, a set of never-before available tracks by a Mangelsdorff’s 1979 trio appears. Backed by veteran Swiss drummer Pierre Favre, known for his work with pianist Irène Schweizer; and Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, who now combines traditional folk music and improv; it’s the same configuration as Fiedler’s trio. The trombonist and his associates – bassist John Herbert, who also plays in Hill’s band and drummer Mark Ferber, who has worked with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith – are probably even younger than the TRIPLICITY trio was in 1979. Yet a side-to-side comparison of the two CDs causes neither to suffer.

Ironically, it’s Fiedler, on the aptly-titled “Do Your Own Thing” and the exposition of “Mayday Hymn”, who plays the sort of unaccompanied, multiphonic extravaganza that the older trombonist perfected after his solo display at a 1972 Munich festival. On the first tune, Fiedler reveals grunting split tones, extended with passing vibrations while maintaining a polyrhythmic beat. Preceding the drummer’s and bassist’s entry with patterned hand drumming and sul ponticello strokes, on “Mayday Hymn”, the boneman unveils polyphonic excesses and subterranean growls, letting his abrasive grace notes flow into every sound crevice.

“Zores Mores” even goes further than Mangelsdorff could have imagined. Sounding as if his notes have been shoved through a sequencer – and highlighting with tremolo and legato – Fiedler appears to be playing in double counterpoint with himself. Many other tracks are free-bop lines par excellence, floating on Herbert’s stalwart walking and Ferber’s cadenced cymbal smacks and ratamacues. Combined with the trombonist’s sputtering textures, many of these compositions morph into finger-snappers.

Fiedler’s experience performing with Afro-Cuban stars such as Tito Puente and Nestor Torres also serves him well here, as he adds a Latin tinge to “Now Jazz Ramwong”, an Asiatic tinged piece Mangelsdorff wrote after a tour of the Far East. On top of Ferber’s cross-handed paradiddles, the brassman’s internalized rhythms intensify his blustery tones.

Moving from the honorer to the honoree, what strikes you most about TRIPLICITY is how the trombonist mixes traditional roots with advanced techniques without calling undue attention to himself. And the bassist and drummer follow right along.

Take “Subconscious Skylark” for instance, where his note replication initially fastens on double counterpoint with Andersen. Then when the bassist turns to sul tasto bowing, Mangelsdorff introduces spittle-encrusted prestissimo tone rows, and then triple- tongued triplets and squeals. Favre contributes flashing polyrhythmic rustles as the bassist counters with rasgueado-like rhythms. Layering his pitchsliding solo with one curved triplet after another, the trombonist revels in brassy falsetto buzzes and vibrating triple tonguing. As cross patterns roll from the drum top, Mangelsdorff proffers a final recap of trills and plunger emphasis.

These techniques can also be put to use on more atmospheric numbers like “Green Shadows into Blue” or the raucous “Outhouse” – both written by the bassist. Nearly a nocturne, the first piece features Favre’s press rolls filling the space behind Andersen’s blunt slaps that flamboyantly stretch the strings, eventually revealing flamenco patterning. Confining himself initially to rubato romantic trills, the trombonist ends with a flurry of triple buzzed and tongued notes.

An odd blowsy, bluesy romp from someone identified with the glacial Scandinavian sound, “Outhouse” finds the bass man alternating between flat-picking claw-hammer licks and an extensive walking solo à la Scott LaFaro. Favre’s ruffs toughen the backbeat and among Mangelsdorff’s waterfall of sounds are buzzy chromatic triplets and quadruple-tongued grace notes. Elsewhere his split-tone response is such that without overdubbing the trombonist limns two parallel lines – vibrated, pedal-point tremolos alternated with higher-pitched brays.

However it’s with the 14-minute plus “Warbling Warbler” that Mangelsdorff really exhibits his skills. Based on birdsong which he recorded and listened to at various speeds, the piece is alive with presto and lento variations. As andante capillary tones echo past the slide into sine wave reverb and single-note extensions, he purrs triplets, occasionally hitting freak high-pitched notes – but not enough to create atonality. Meantime Andersen’s speedily keeps steady time, while Favre’s pummelling rolls and ratcheting cymbals add the necessary coloration. Introducing an assortment of cross-handed ruffs and flams, the percussionist joins with the andante walking bass lines to provide ballast behind the trombonist’s aviary-like triple tonguing and heavily vibrated growls. Considering the coda is a cistern-deep exhalation, perhaps some of the warblers were of eagle size or larger.

TRIPLICITY is another reminder of the late German trombonist’s power, while PLAYS THE MUSIC OF ALBERT MANGELSDORFF is a fitting memorial to a master stylist.

Track Listing: Triplicity: 1. Triplicity 2. Soulbird 3. Warbling Warbler 4. Outhouse 5. Virgin Green of Spring 6. Green Shadows into Blue 7. Subconscious Skylark 8. Brief Impressions of Brighton 9. Perpetual Lineations 10. Ancore Ex Tempore

Personnel: Triplicity: Albert Mangelsdorff (trombone); Arild Andersen (bass); Pierre Favre (drums)

Track Listing: Plays: 1. Wheat Song 2. Rip Off 3. Now Jazz Ramwong 4. An Ant Steps on an Elephant’s Toe 5. Mayday Hymn 6. Lapwing 7. Zores Mores 8. Wart G’Schwind 9. Do Your Own Thing

Personnel: Plays: Joe Fiedler (trombone); John Herbert (bass); Mark Ferber (drums)

September 25, 2006