Jason Adasiewicz’ Rolldown

Varmint
Cuneiform Rune 292

Aram Shelton’s Fast Citizens

Two Cities

Delmark DE 590

Organizing many bands with shifting, but similar, local personnel seems to be a factor uniting the newest generation of Chicago improvisers, with earlier jazz folk from territory towns like Chicago and Detroit. Unlike places such as New York, Los Angeles and Toronto where every player seems to be from somewhere else and may soon be heading elsewhere, Windy City folk have an overriding sense of place – even if they eventually move on.

Take these fine quintet and sextet CDs. Each shares three musicians in common – drummer Frank Rosaly, cornetist Josh Berman and reedist Aram Shelton. Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm on Two Cities also works with Varmint’s bassist Jason Roebke in his own trio; while bassist Anton Hatwich from Two Cities was in a band led by saxophonist Dave Rempis with Rosaly; vibist Jason Adasiewicz has worked in bands led by multi-reedist Ken Vandermark, who also employs Lonberg Holm; and Hatwich, Adasiewicz and Jackson are also featured on Berman’s own CD, Old Idea (Delmark DE 588). And the interconnections go on and on.

The power of this mutual respect among peers is evident in both CDs. Adasiewicz initially composed most of the tunes for Rolldown while living in Madison, Wisc. and working on a vegetable farm [!]; while Shelton has actually relocated to Oakland, Calif. – the other city of the two cities title. Fast Citizens, founded in 2002, usually function as Jackson’s working band in Chicago and has recorded under the tenor man’s name as well. Despite these similar separations, both ensembles function as if the members practice collectively every day.

On Two Cities’ nine tracks, for instance, whether Shelton, Jackson, Lonberg-Holm or Hatwich composes the line, sonic cohesion is the same, as is the equally powerful solos and section work. Shelton’s title track for instance, is initially built on call-and-response hocketing from the unison horns and tough rat-tat-tats and press rolls from the drummer. But soon the piece opens up with extended flutter tonguing from the alto saxophonist, sul ponticello bass work and squeaking and slinky cello runs. When Jackson takes over the lead, he adds irregular vibrato and locked tongue stops as Berman smears grace notes. Finally Rosaly’s hand drumming is cushioned by a speedy recap of the head. Experimenting coupled with respect for the tradition is reflected in the tracks by Jackson, the band’s other main composer. On “Easy”, the final track, he boldly snorts the thematic line as his tone thins to expose split tones and altissimo runs. Meanwhile the cello picks and plinks frailing timbres and the bassist walks solidly atop press rolls from the drums.

In between that, two of Shelton’s tunes, “In Cycles” and “the Twenty-Seven” are particularly noteworthy. On the later, Lonberg-Holm’s legato smoothness is contrasted with chirping split tones from the composer on alto and rubato peeps from Berman., alternating between slurred grainy textures and translucent blasts. Before the cornetist wraps up the piece with metallic scaling and cat-like yowls, sul ponticello cello lines sweep across the sound picture then turn to a strumming undertow as the horns vamp and peck. “In Cycles” moves in broken phrases that nevertheless refer back the reverberating exposition. As the bassist decisively pops his strings, Shelton stutters clarinet trills on top of massed horn lines that gradually modulate from andante to allegro. Leaving enough space to outline Hatwich’s and Rosaly’s rhythmic thumps, the conclusion showcases the combined brass and reeds and make each pass more staccato and aleatoric until the wrap-up.

If space is what is exhibited here, than Adasiewicz’ upfront vibraphone resonance supplies that factor to Varmint. With one fewer horn and only one stringed instrument, the quintet still manages to showcase interludes of pure airiness. Although the solos may be linked to various Blue Note sessions by vibist Bobby Hutcherson, reedist Eric Dolphy and pianist Andrew Hill – whose “The Griots” is the only cover on either CD – the architecture of many tracks also reflects the West Coast horns and vibes experiments of stylists like Emil Richards, Teddy Charles and Victor Feldman.

The most obvious link is on “Punchbug”, a chamber-like tune featuring Shelton’s clarinet slurps and squeaks moving chromatically in time with slowly turning vibrations from the vibraphone motor. As the reed man inches ahead with coloratura trilling, the rhythm section starts and stops behind him as Berman’s adds crackling triplet and plunger whinnies. Although almost pulse-less, the tune still retains legato coloration remaining linear as the cornet and clarinet lines parallel.

Airy and rococo, “Hide” gains its distinctiveness from the stacking of instrumental textures. Here Shelton’s repeated phrases that slip from high to low pitches are matched in contrapuntal accord by Berrman’s buzzing trills and rubato slurs. Meanwhile Adasiewicz’ staccato slaps and patting ring peals parallel to the others’ tonal extensions. The recapped head after the turnaround confirms the piece’s melodic traditionalism.

More spiky and polyphonic are pieces such as the title track and “Green Grass”. Spacious rebounds from the vibes on the later track stack up against unison chromatic horn riffs as Roebke walks and Rosaly raps the sides of his drums. Then Shelton lets loose with side-slipping chromaticism as his multi-mallets ring contrapuntally. As for “Varmint”, although straightforwardly tonic in his approach, the cornetist also flutters broken octave lines that bond with high-pitched swoops from the altoist plus strokes and bounces from the vibraphonist. Ruffs and clanks from the drums eventually match Adasiewicz’ double- and triple-stopping patterns, leading to a satisfying finale.

With an impressive wide dynamic range in both their composing and performing capabilities, a newer generation of Chicago craftsmen prove with CDs such as these that there’s still plenty of musical inventiveness in the Windy City.

And most players don’t have to move to properly express it.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Cities: 1. Two Cities 2. Big News 3. Western Promenade 4. VRC#9 5. In Cycles 6. I am Here, You are There 7. the Twenty-Seven 8.Wontkins 9. Easy

Personnel: Cities: Josh Berman (cornet); Aram Shelton (alto saxophone and clarinet); Keefe Jackson (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello); Anton Hatwich (bass) and Frank Rosaly (drums)

Track Listing: Varmint: 1. Green Grass 2. Varmint 3. Dagger 4. Hide 5. I Hope She is Awake 6. Punchbug 7. The Griots

Personnel: Varmint: Josh Berman (cornet); Aram Shelton (alto saxophone and clarinet); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone); Jason Roebke (bass) and Frank Rosaly (drums)

May 12, 2010

Regenorchester XII

Town Down
Red Note RN 14

Rob Mazurek Quintet

Sound Is

Delmark DE 586

Although these similarly structured quintets play what could loosely be termed electric jazz, the complex patterns and unexpected strategies shouldn’t be confused with clichéd fusion sounds.

For a start the chief protagonists aren’t guitarists, but brass players – Sao Paulo via Chicago’s cornetist Rob Mazurek on one, Vienna’s Franz Hautzinger on the other. Another reason is that the inspiration for these sound-collages was as one way out of a conundrum, not towards fusion. As a matter of fact Sound Is doesn’t even feature jazz-rock’s most distinctive icon: a six-string electric guitar.

Briefly, Mazurek has put together different variations of his Chicago Project to free himself from the constraints of contemporary mainstream jazz. Hautzinger on the other hand, had become so involved in the minutia of unorthodox solo techniques that he almost lost contact with cooperative musicality. He’s trying to work his way towards playing well with others with this band and his trio with saxophonist Bertrand Gauguet and synthesizer player Thomas Lehn.

In truth, both of the discs are fusion efforts relating to the real meaning of the word, since many other sonic currents are present along with so-called jazz.

On Sound Is, for instance, percussionist John Herndon is a member of Tortoise, plus bass guitarist Matthew Lux and bassist Josh Abrams are affiliated with different Midwestern post-rock bands. Vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz has done his share of non-jazz playing as well. Meanwhile The Regenorchester includes bassist Luc Ex, familiar from his appearances with the anarcho-punk-improv band The Ex; turntablist/guitarist Otomo Yoshihide, who leads his own New Jazz Ensemble; The Necks drummer Tony Buck; plus guitarist Christian Fennesz better known for his forays into electronica

In short, kinetic string flanges, contrapuntal harmonies and arena rock-style pummeling can’t be escaped on Town Down. However the challenge the five face lies in shaping the material. For instance on “37rd Rainday” the opaque pulses and drones are reconstituted into cross-pulsed sequences while different currents of brass braying are heard – as if an entire trumpet section was present. Moderato and allegro most instruments’ pulses seep into one another as the result is further muddied by agitated loops and guitar distortion. Eventually singular trumpet grace notes materialize out of the sonic mulch.

In contrast to the vociferous percussion rebounds, rasping needle scratches on vinyl and ringing guitar licks that characterize other tracks, “SSS” is built up from nearly inaudible crackles, clinks and cracks from the turntable and blurry electronic loops plus spatial dislocation from one channel to another of Aboriginal-like drum beats. Faint Harmon-muted trumpet slurs become more prominent as Hautzinger’s tonguing is framed by twin guitar frails and delay. Finally dissipating the collective tension, the percussionist introduces gamelan-orchestra-styled pinging that is quickly matched with speedy tongue trills from Hautzinger. Finally programmed tape flanges bury the affiliated note flurries.

No turntables are in use on Sound Is, although as in Town Down some post-production legerdemain is involved. Mazurek does introduce the occasional brass riffs, plus some of the less identifiable tones are from Herndon’s Tenori-on. It’s a matrix instrument whose 16 layers of 16 tracks allow sounds to be input, stored, combined or separated and switched instantaneously.

Nevertheless, the most persistent sound heard are silvery mallet resonation from Adasiewicz’s vibes, Abrams’ or Mazurek’s piano comping or chording and the feathery timbres of Mazurek’s cornet. It may come as a surprise to the brass man, but the performance would probably be described as jazz-like by even the most conservative listener. A track such as “Microraptagonfly”, for instance, taken largo, features lyrical cornet grace notes that float above programmed tone blocks, lazily bringing out sfumato-like timbres without stress. “The Hill” on the other hand, includes a heavy shuffle beat, a contiguous walking bass line plus slurring color waves vibrating, as Mazurek fires off choruses of presto-patterned triplets. Painting the melody in tremolo whorls and circles, the measures advanced by Mazurek are further toughened with rim shots, as simultaneously Lux picks out a counter melody on the strings of his bass guitar.

Finally “Dragon Kites” and “The Star Splitter” which follow one another encompass a catalogue of effects. There are patterns bowed from the bass; the twinge and slides of electronic delay; scattered steel-drum-like rebounds and clicks; plus rococo tonguing from the brass man. As one piece dissolves into the next and the lyricism seems endemic, repeated hand-clapping and vibraphone thwacks toughen the beat and speed the tempo up a half step. Soon ringing bells, slapped bass strings and rhythmic piano comping shove the melody to a higher pitch then down again, with the synchronized climax blending bass and piano timbres.

Both Mazurek and Hautzinger have evidentially worked their way out of their respective sound conundrums. With the exceptional help of equally proficient friends they have done so while producing notable music.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Sound: 1. As if an Angel Fell from the Sky 2. The Earthquake Tree 3. Dragon Kites 4. The Star Splitter 5. The Hill 6. Le Baiser (The Kiss) 7. The Lightning Field 8. Cinnamon Tree 9. The Dream Rocker 10. Beauty Wolf 11. Microraptagonfly 12. Aphrodite Rising 13. The Field 14. Nora Grace.

Personnel: Sound: Rob Mazurek (corner, synthesizer and piano); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone); Josh Abrams (bass and piano); Matthew Lux (bass guitar) and John Herndon (drums, percussion and Tenori-on)

Track Listing: Town: 1. Town Down 2. Delis 3. 37rd Rainday 4. BBB 5. Sand 6. SSS

Personnel: Town: Franz Hautzinger (trumpet); Christian Fennesz (guitar and electronics); Otomo Yoshihide (turntables and guitar); Luc Ex (bass) and Tony Buck (drums)

December 12, 2009

Rob Mazurek Quintet

Sound Is
Delmark DE 586

Regenorchester XII

Town Down

Red Note RN 14

Although these similarly structured quintets play what could loosely be termed electric jazz, the complex patterns and unexpected strategies shouldn’t be confused with clichéd fusion sounds.

For a start the chief protagonists aren’t guitarists, but brass players – Sao Paulo via Chicago’s cornetist Rob Mazurek on one, Vienna’s Franz Hautzinger on the other. Another reason is that the inspiration for these sound-collages was as one way out of a conundrum, not towards fusion. As a matter of fact Sound Is doesn’t even feature jazz-rock’s most distinctive icon: a six-string electric guitar.

Briefly, Mazurek has put together different variations of his Chicago Project to free himself from the constraints of contemporary mainstream jazz. Hautzinger on the other hand, had become so involved in the minutia of unorthodox solo techniques that he almost lost contact with cooperative musicality. He’s trying to work his way towards playing well with others with this band and his trio with saxophonist Bertrand Gauguet and synthesizer player Thomas Lehn.

In truth, both of the discs are fusion efforts relating to the real meaning of the word, since many other sonic currents are present along with so-called jazz.

On Sound Is, for instance, percussionist John Herndon is a member of Tortoise, plus bass guitarist Matthew Lux and bassist Josh Abrams are affiliated with different Midwestern post-rock bands. Vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz has done his share of non-jazz playing as well. Meanwhile The Regenorchester includes bassist Luc Ex, familiar from his appearances with the anarcho-punk-improv band The Ex; turntablist/guitarist Otomo Yoshihide, who leads his own New Jazz Ensemble; The Necks drummer Tony Buck; plus guitarist Christian Fennesz better known for his forays into electronica

In short, kinetic string flanges, contrapuntal harmonies and arena rock-style pummeling can’t be escaped on Town Down. However the challenge the five face lies in shaping the material. For instance on “37rd Rainday” the opaque pulses and drones are reconstituted into cross-pulsed sequences while different currents of brass braying are heard – as if an entire trumpet section was present. Moderato and allegro most instruments’ pulses seep into one another as the result is further muddied by agitated loops and guitar distortion. Eventually singular trumpet grace notes materialize out of the sonic mulch.

In contrast to the vociferous percussion rebounds, rasping needle scratches on vinyl and ringing guitar licks that characterize other tracks, “SSS” is built up from nearly inaudible crackles, clinks and cracks from the turntable and blurry electronic loops plus spatial dislocation from one channel to another of Aboriginal-like drum beats. Faint Harmon-muted trumpet slurs become more prominent as Hautzinger’s tonguing is framed by twin guitar frails and delay. Finally dissipating the collective tension, the percussionist introduces gamelan-orchestra-styled pinging that is quickly matched with speedy tongue trills from Hautzinger. Finally programmed tape flanges bury the affiliated note flurries.

No turntables are in use on Sound Is, although as in Town Down some post-production legerdemain is involved. Mazurek does introduce the occasional brass riffs, plus some of the less identifiable tones are from Herndon’s Tenori-on. It’s a matrix instrument whose 16 layers of 16 tracks allow sounds to be input, stored, combined or separated and switched instantaneously.

Nevertheless, the most persistent sound heard are silvery mallet resonation from Adasiewicz’s vibes, Abrams’ or Mazurek’s piano comping or chording and the feathery timbres of Mazurek’s cornet. It may come as a surprise to the brass man, but the performance would probably be described as jazz-like by even the most conservative listener. A track such as “Microraptagonfly”, for instance, taken largo, features lyrical cornet grace notes that float above programmed tone blocks, lazily bringing out sfumato-like timbres without stress. “The Hill” on the other hand, includes a heavy shuffle beat, a contiguous walking bass line plus slurring color waves vibrating, as Mazurek fires off choruses of presto-patterned triplets. Painting the melody in tremolo whorls and circles, the measures advanced by Mazurek are further toughened with rim shots, as simultaneously Lux picks out a counter melody on the strings of his bass guitar.

Finally “Dragon Kites” and “The Star Splitter” which follow one another encompass a catalogue of effects. There are patterns bowed from the bass; the twinge and slides of electronic delay; scattered steel-drum-like rebounds and clicks; plus rococo tonguing from the brass man. As one piece dissolves into the next and the lyricism seems endemic, repeated hand-clapping and vibraphone thwacks toughen the beat and speed the tempo up a half step. Soon ringing bells, slapped bass strings and rhythmic piano comping shove the melody to a higher pitch then down again, with the synchronized climax blending bass and piano timbres.

Both Mazurek and Hautzinger have evidentially worked their way out of their respective sound conundrums. With the exceptional help of equally proficient friends they have done so while producing notable music.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Sound: 1. As if an Angel Fell from the Sky 2. The Earthquake Tree 3. Dragon Kites 4. The Star Splitter 5. The Hill 6. Le Baiser (The Kiss) 7. The Lightning Field 8. Cinnamon Tree 9. The Dream Rocker 10. Beauty Wolf 11. Microraptagonfly 12. Aphrodite Rising 13. The Field 14. Nora Grace.

Personnel: Sound: Rob Mazurek (corner, synthesizer and piano); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone); Josh Abrams (bass and piano); Matthew Lux (bass guitar) and John Herndon (drums, percussion and Tenori-on)

Track Listing: Town: 1. Town Down 2. Delis 3. 37rd Rainday 4. BBB 5. Sand 6. SSS

Personnel: Town: Franz Hautzinger (trumpet); Christian Fennesz (guitar and electronics); Otomo Yoshihide (turntables and guitar); Luc Ex (bass) and Tony Buck (drums)

December 12, 2009

Bill Dixon

17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur
AUM Fidelity AUM 046

Bill Dixon

With Exploding Star Orchestra

Thrill Jockey Thrill 192

More than an elderly lion in winter, 83-year-old trumpeter Bill Dixon seems to have reasserted his place in the jazz firmament during the dozen years since he retired from academe after nearly three decades of teaching at Vermont’s Bennington College.

Both of these big band CDs resulted from a purple patch of creativity in the summer of 2007, when Dixon was able to lead different orchestras in New York and Chicago through some of his extended compositions. Both the 56½-minute “Darfur” suite in New York and the two 18-minute versions of “Entrances” in the mid-West are shaped around a combination of composed work and spontaneously cued solos. The tonal colors emphasized on both are orchestral rather than standard big band arrangements, with woodwinds, strings and miscellaneous percussion prominent.

Recorded live at the Vision Festival, the 16-piece New York ensemble – Dixon is the 17th “searcher” – is sprinkled with younger players, although the majority of the band members are experimental music veterans. A studio date, recorded just after a different 13-piece group performed the material at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Windy City crew leans towards young veterans and tyros. Despite – or perhaps because – of this, each program is individually satisfying and each band equally praiseworthy. The Exploding Star Orchestra also handles cornetist Rob Mazurek’s more-than-24-minute “Constellations For Innerlight Projections (For Bill Dixon)”.

In New York, the 13-part Dafur is performed mostly adagio, suffused with an undercurrent of sorrow for the beleaguered people of the African nation – but, as usual for Dixon’s work, the emotion is acutely understated rather than overt. Overall the composition builds up to and retreats from “Sinopia”, its nearly 24-minute centerpiece. Defined as a reddish brown pigment used in frescos, the suggestion is that Dixon, who is also a visual artist, appropriated the word to define this section’s Klangfarbenmelodie. Following “Contour Three”, a mellow, moderato trumpet intermezzo, the performance canvas is widened and the pitches pushed higher than those intermediate tincture dabs including brass grace notes and reed growls which characterized and colored the preceding theme variations.

Here guttural reed snorts operate as pedal-point contrast to fortissimo brass spirals which seems to sub-divide into alpine echoes from one cornetist (perhaps Stephen Hayes) and irregularly vibrated blasts from another (perhaps Taylor Ho Bynum). As the brass continues with angled and mercurial capillary trills plus tongue stops, swelling reeds adumbrate further variations on the theme. Rondo-like, the direction of the composition then changes as melded, split-tone reed obbligatos and muted trumpet triplets give way to bass saxophonist JD Parran’s rhythmically varied tone colors and multiple pitches distributed among different instruments, most prominently Karen Borca’s slithering bassoon lines, sul ponticello strings, plus friction and thumping concussion from percussionists Warren Smith and Jackson Krall. Balancing delicacy and strength, the low-pitched brass slurs and high-pitched bugle-like brays swell outwards as all players work to a climatic multi-tones crescendo.

Postlude variations include four “Pentimento” tracks, which use elongated lines and contrapuntal matches to alleviate the remaining guttural and altissimo timbres and bring the suite to a polyphonic finale. The earlier exposition and variations work through long undulations encompassing vibrating brass, hissing cymbal tones and reed growls stretched over broken-octave jumps. Most notably “Scattering of the Following” makes its point through pointillism and pitch-sliding, as subterranean slurps from the bassoonist and tubaist Joseph Daley roll out concurrent notes, while above them a series of brass soloists slice apart the main theme with patterns ranging from single-note, off-centre bites to chromatic spit-resonations.

Appropriate brass expression is also on show in Chicago, although New York’s seven-person trumpet-trombone-tuba section shrinks to Jeb Bishop’s trombone, Dixon’s trumpet and the cornets of Mazurek and Josh Berman. However the rhythmic and chordal exposition is intensified with three percussionists, Jeff Parker’s guitar, Jim Baker’s piano, Matthew Lux’s bass guitar and Jason Ajemian’s bass.

In fact both versions of “Entrances” depend more than any part of the Dafur suite on repetitive bass guitar thumps and heavy beats from Mike Reed’s tympani and John Herndon’s drums. Mazurek, who has experimented with electronics in the past isn’t listed as adding wave form distortions anywhere here, but an oscillating sheen can be sensed if not definitely heard. Hocketing and cumulative harmonics accelerate on the climatic “Entrances/One”, with definite roles for soloists Mazurek and Dixon. With contrasting guitar licks ricocheting behind, one brass man produces quicksilver smears and note flurries, while the other speedily tongues grace note and internal resonations. Following a dramatic pause, the theme downshifts to diminuendo in a penultimate variation, before reappearing for the finale.

Dixon’s presence is more obvious on “Entrances/Two” with his solo characteristically hushed and uniquely angled with chromatic lines. More concentric in execution than the first version of “Entrances”, which showcased Parker and Jason Adasiewicz’s vibraphone contrapuntally trading off choruses with pulses from trilling saxophone coloration and tuba snorts; this version differs in other ways as well. Here the protracted silence in the composition precedes a condensed piano nocturne and before the cacophonic finale, layers of walloping tympani and snorting brass are heard.

Adasiewicz’s tubular bells get a work out on Mazurek’s “Constellations For Innerlight Projections”, as do Nicole Mitchell’s chromatic flute buzzes and staccato clarinet trills from Matt Bauer. However the composition, initially envisioned to be performed with video screens, seems musically to be more of a throwback. The arrangements list towards standard big-band-era riffing and the recitation from Damon Locke involves beatnik-like intonation and Sci-Fi imagery. More memorable instrumentally, with distant brass glowering and tongue-splattering, plus engorged Bronx cheer-like textures from the horns in general and pinpoint fills from Parker, the resolution seems to be caught between the ecclesiastical and minimalism.

While Dixon may have been surprised at the form his homage took, minus the recitation “Constellations For Innerlight Projections,” while a lesser work, is certainly palatable. Overall though, both “Entrances” and “Dafur” are superior large-canvas expressions of Dixon’s sometimes constricted tonal language.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Darfur: 1. Prelude 2. Intrados 3. In Search of a Sound 4. Contour One 5. Contour Two 6. Scattering of the Following 7. Darfur 8. Contour Three 9. Sinopia 10. Pentimento I 11. Pentimento II 12. Pentimento III 13. Pentimento IV

Personnel: Darfur: Bill Dixon (trumpet); Graham Haynes, Stephen Haynes and Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet and flugelhorn); Dick Griffin and Steve Swell (tenor trombone); Joseph Daley (tuba); Will Connell Jr. (bass clarinet); Michel Côté (Bb contrabass clarinet); Karen Borca (bassoon); Andrew Raffo Dewar (soprano saxophone); John Hagen (tenor and baritone saxophones); JD Parran (bass saxophone and bamboo flute); Glynis Loman (cello); Andrew Lafkas (bass); Jackson Krall (drums and percussion) and Warren Smith (vibraphone, tympani and drums)

Track Listing: Exploding: 1. Entrances/One 2. Constellations For Innerlight Projections (For Bill Dixon) 3. Entrances/Two

Personnel: Exploding: Bill Dixon (trumpet); Rob Mazurek and Josh Berman (cornet); Jeb Bishop (trombone); Matt Bauer (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Nicole Mitchell (flute and voice); Jim Baker (piano); Jeff Parker (guitar); Matthew Lux (bass guitar); Jason Ajemian (bass); John Herndon (drums); Mike Reed (drums and tympani); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone and tubular bells) and Damon Locke (voice)

December 8, 2008

Bill Dixon

With Exploding Star Orchestra
Thrill Jockey Thrill 192

Bill Dixon

17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur

AUM Fidelity AUM 046

More than an elderly lion in winter, 83-year-old trumpeter Bill Dixon seems to have reasserted his place in the jazz firmament during the dozen years since he retired from academe after nearly three decades of teaching at Vermont’s Bennington College.

Both of these big band CDs resulted from a purple patch of creativity in the summer of 2007, when Dixon was able to lead different orchestras in New York and Chicago through some of his extended compositions. Both the 56½-minute “Darfur” suite in New York and the two 18-minute versions of “Entrances” in the mid-West are shaped around a combination of composed work and spontaneously cued solos. The tonal colors emphasized on both are orchestral rather than standard big band arrangements, with woodwinds, strings and miscellaneous percussion prominent.

Recorded live at the Vision Festival, the 16-piece New York ensemble – Dixon is the 17th “searcher” – is sprinkled with younger players, although the majority of the band members are experimental music veterans. A studio date, recorded just after a different 13-piece group performed the material at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Windy City crew leans towards young veterans and tyros. Despite – or perhaps because – of this, each program is individually satisfying and each band equally praiseworthy. The Exploding Star Orchestra also handles cornetist Rob Mazurek’s more-than-24-minute “Constellations For Innerlight Projections (For Bill Dixon)”.

In New York, the 13-part Dafur is performed mostly adagio, suffused with an undercurrent of sorrow for the beleaguered people of the African nation – but, as usual for Dixon’s work, the emotion is acutely understated rather than overt. Overall the composition builds up to and retreats from “Sinopia”, its nearly 24-minute centerpiece. Defined as a reddish brown pigment used in frescos, the suggestion is that Dixon, who is also a visual artist, appropriated the word to define this section’s Klangfarbenmelodie. Following “Contour Three”, a mellow, moderato trumpet intermezzo, the performance canvas is widened and the pitches pushed higher than those intermediate tincture dabs including brass grace notes and reed growls which characterized and colored the preceding theme variations.

Here guttural reed snorts operate as pedal-point contrast to fortissimo brass spirals which seems to sub-divide into alpine echoes from one cornetist (perhaps Stephen Hayes) and irregularly vibrated blasts from another (perhaps Taylor Ho Bynum). As the brass continues with angled and mercurial capillary trills plus tongue stops, swelling reeds adumbrate further variations on the theme. Rondo-like, the direction of the composition then changes as melded, split-tone reed obbligatos and muted trumpet triplets give way to bass saxophonist JD Parran’s rhythmically varied tone colors and multiple pitches distributed among different instruments, most prominently Karen Borca’s slithering bassoon lines, sul ponticello strings, plus friction and thumping concussion from percussionists Warren Smith and Jackson Krall. Balancing delicacy and strength, the low-pitched brass slurs and high-pitched bugle-like brays swell outwards as all players work to a climatic multi-tones crescendo.

Postlude variations include four “Pentimento” tracks, which use elongated lines and contrapuntal matches to alleviate the remaining guttural and altissimo timbres and bring the suite to a polyphonic finale. The earlier exposition and variations work through long undulations encompassing vibrating brass, hissing cymbal tones and reed growls stretched over broken-octave jumps. Most notably “Scattering of the Following” makes its point through pointillism and pitch-sliding, as subterranean slurps from the bassoonist and tubaist Joseph Daley roll out concurrent notes, while above them a series of brass soloists slice apart the main theme with patterns ranging from single-note, off-centre bites to chromatic spit-resonations.

Appropriate brass expression is also on show in Chicago, although New York’s seven-person trumpet-trombone-tuba section shrinks to Jeb Bishop’s trombone, Dixon’s trumpet and the cornets of Mazurek and Josh Berman. However the rhythmic and chordal exposition is intensified with three percussionists, Jeff Parker’s guitar, Jim Baker’s piano, Matthew Lux’s bass guitar and Jason Ajemian’s bass.

In fact both versions of “Entrances” depend more than any part of the Dafur suite on repetitive bass guitar thumps and heavy beats from Mike Reed’s tympani and John Herndon’s drums. Mazurek, who has experimented with electronics in the past isn’t listed as adding wave form distortions anywhere here, but an oscillating sheen can be sensed if not definitely heard. Hocketing and cumulative harmonics accelerate on the climatic “Entrances/One”, with definite roles for soloists Mazurek and Dixon. With contrasting guitar licks ricocheting behind, one brass man produces quicksilver smears and note flurries, while the other speedily tongues grace note and internal resonations. Following a dramatic pause, the theme downshifts to diminuendo in a penultimate variation, before reappearing for the finale.

Dixon’s presence is more obvious on “Entrances/Two” with his solo characteristically hushed and uniquely angled with chromatic lines. More concentric in execution than the first version of “Entrances”, which showcased Parker and Jason Adasiewicz’s vibraphone contrapuntally trading off choruses with pulses from trilling saxophone coloration and tuba snorts; this version differs in other ways as well. Here the protracted silence in the composition precedes a condensed piano nocturne and before the cacophonic finale, layers of walloping tympani and snorting brass are heard.

Adasiewicz’s tubular bells get a work out on Mazurek’s “Constellations For Innerlight Projections”, as do Nicole Mitchell’s chromatic flute buzzes and staccato clarinet trills from Matt Bauer. However the composition, initially envisioned to be performed with video screens, seems musically to be more of a throwback. The arrangements list towards standard big-band-era riffing and the recitation from Damon Locke involves beatnik-like intonation and Sci-Fi imagery. More memorable instrumentally, with distant brass glowering and tongue-splattering, plus engorged Bronx cheer-like textures from the horns in general and pinpoint fills from Parker, the resolution seems to be caught between the ecclesiastical and minimalism.

While Dixon may have been surprised at the form his homage took, minus the recitation “Constellations For Innerlight Projections,” while a lesser work, is certainly palatable. Overall though, both “Entrances” and “Dafur” are superior large-canvas expressions of Dixon’s sometimes constricted tonal language.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Darfur: 1. Prelude 2. Intrados 3. In Search of a Sound 4. Contour One 5. Contour Two 6. Scattering of the Following 7. Darfur 8. Contour Three 9. Sinopia 10. Pentimento I 11. Pentimento II 12. Pentimento III 13. Pentimento IV

Personnel: Darfur: Bill Dixon (trumpet); Graham Haynes, Stephen Haynes and Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet and flugelhorn); Dick Griffin and Steve Swell (tenor trombone); Joseph Daley (tuba); Will Connell Jr. (bass clarinet); Michel Côté (Bb contrabass clarinet); Karen Borca (bassoon); Andrew Raffo Dewar (soprano saxophone); John Hagen (tenor and baritone saxophones); JD Parran (bass saxophone and bamboo flute); Glynis Loman (cello); Andrew Lafkas (bass); Jackson Krall (drums and percussion) and Warren Smith (vibraphone, tympani and drums)

Track Listing: Exploding: 1. Entrances/One 2. Constellations For Innerlight Projections (For Bill Dixon) 3. Entrances/Two

Personnel: Exploding: Bill Dixon (trumpet); Rob Mazurek and Josh Berman (cornet); Jeb Bishop (trombone); Matt Bauer (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Nicole Mitchell (flute and voice); Jim Baker (piano); Jeff Parker (guitar); Matthew Lux (bass guitar); Jason Ajemian (bass); John Herndon (drums); Mike Reed (drums and tympani); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone and tubular bells) and Damon Locke (voice)

December 8, 2008

Lucky 7s

Farragut
Lakefront Digital LFD-2-006

Close cooperation between New Orleans and Chicago musicians has a history that goes back as far as King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. While the rapprochement lessened during the modern jazz era, better communication and the devastation caused by a certain recent hurricane has created fortuitous couplings like the one captured here.

New Orleans trombonist and tubaist Jeff Albert and Chicago trombonist Jeb Bishop were the catalysts. Looking for a Chi-Town gig for his hometown band, Albert was convinced by Bishop to put together this septet which blends Louisiana and Illinois players. Bassist Mat Golombisky and drummer Quin Kirchner are also from the Big Easy, while cornetist Josh Berman, reedist Keefe Jackson and vibist Jason Adasiewicz are Windy City residents. Miraculously for a first-time match up, the combined ensemble ends up sounding as if they’re long-time band mates.

If nothing else, even a cursory listen to the CD would allow you to guess the New Orleans orientation of Lucky 7s. Scattered among the more modern musical references you can hear slap bass à la Pops Foster, nerve beat stick manipulation, rim shots and hi-hat slaps à la Paul Barbarin, huffing tuba blasts from Albert and raucous gutbucket style trombone solos that pay homage to Kid Ory. As a matter of fact, when the urge hits, Lucky7s isn’t above slipping into Second Line or March time.

About the only unusual – in a Crescent City fashion – sounds are provided by Adasiewicz’s vibes and Jackson’s bass clarinet (he also plays tenor saxophone). However, the vibes’ long-lined, andante polyrhythms usually fit perfectly with tuba pops and strummed bass lines Meanwhile, not only do the swollen licorice stick’s coloratura lines blend with bluesy trombone burrs, but the full-force drone created by Jackson and Kirchner beats give “504 No More …?” a modal implication similar to some of John Coltrane’s compositions.

Referring to New Orleans’ area code, Albert’s composition is invested with appropriate melancholy harmonies to reflect New Orleans’ present geographic dilemma. Still the mournful funeral-like mood is intersected by cross patterned drum beats and extended plunger work, likely from Bishop.

Appropriately enough that dirge is followed by two of the CD’s liveliest tracks which end the session on a high note. Both Bishop’s title track and Albert’s “Bucktown Special” are foot lifters in a fine tradition. The former tune builds up to a rollicking stop-time ending. Before that, the crescendo of vamping horn lines are briefly interrupted by a tension-releasing vibe solo, and followed by a traditional-modern percussion display by the drummer.

More than 12-minutes long, “Bucktown Special” is a slinky Second Line march that takes as much from greasy R&B as Trad Jazz. An unrefined strut, it includes a blues- drenched, rocking tenor sax solo, woody slap bass, hi-hat kicks from Kirchner, riffing Fats Domino band-style horns and a funky plunger trombone outburst – probably from Albert. All this revolves on top of a parade-line beat that’s an appropriate summation of all that went before it.

With such a fine debut, here’s hoping that listeners will be able to hear another Lucky 7s disc before too long.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Stitch 2. Swirling 3. It’s Something To Try. For Today At Least 4. Belgrade 5. 504 No More…? 6. Farragut 7. Bucktown Special

Personnel: Josh Berman (cornet); Jeb Bishop (trombone); Jeff Albert (trombone and tuba); Keefe Jackson (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone); Matthew Golombisky (bass and effects); Quin Kirchner (drums)

October 25, 2006