Ember

Aurona Arona
Creative Sources CS 167 CD

OM

Willisau

Intakt CD 170

Acknowledged as one of the most accomplished architects of unique reed timbre treatments within improvised music Luzern, Switzerland-based saxophonist Urs Leimgruber’s playing is outstanding in both solo and group situations.

Someone who rarely limits himself when seeking musical partners in ensemble situations, Leimgruber’s strategies are particularly notable on these CD. A nod to the saxophonist’s past, Willisau, recorded in 2008 at the Jazz festival in the Swiss city of the same name, is a reunion gig by the original members of OM, the electrified-Free Jazz quartet which existed from 1972-1982. Recorded four months earlier in Leipzig at another festival, the other CD matches Leimgruber’s skills with those of three younger German players.

Aurona Arona is actually a live follow-up to a fine earlier CD with the same personnel from 2006. Moving force behind Ember and other differently constituted improvised ensembles is keyboardist/percussionist Oliver Schwerdt, who has also recorded with German drummer Günter “Baby” Sommer. However during the two years that separate the Ember discs, Alexander Schubert, who still plays percussion and electronics, has morphed from being a guitarist to a violinist. Furthermore drummer Christian Lillinger has moved to Berlin and now works as part of the Hyperactive Kid trio as well as the bands of clarinetist Rolf Kühn and trombonist Gerhard Gschlöbl.

Varied experiences such as these are noticeable in Lillinger’s playing on the Ember CD. With the pieces evolving quickly and cerebrally, the drummer must be instantaneously prepared to patch together an accompaniment encompassing variegated patterns and resonations culled from bass drum bumps, snare drums rattles and rim shot strokes on one hand, as well as cymbal shrieks and clatters and vibraphone or marimba-like pings with the other.

Timbre exploration from the other musicians is in the forefront from all sides as well. For starters there are Leimgruber’s emotional bleats, multiphonic tongue fluttering, circular breathing and nearly soundless reed expansions. Schubert not only adds skittering fiddle spiccato, but also electronic shimmy and/or granular whooshes to every one of the five tracks. These meandering voltage clangs exist as blurry undercurrents to all the improvisations as well as providing commentary on Schwerdt’s playing. Additionally and on his own, Schwerdt’s distinctive playing ranges from calming, low-frequency patterning to kinetic and metronomic keyboard runs plus electrified harpsichord-like tone fanning and electric organ-like reverberations. Often hard objects are pressed against the piano’s inner strings producing stretches, stops and slides.

For instance, pulsating dual keyboard chording characterizes “Etherlorbien”. Yet these tones appear at the same time as the internal strings clatter percussively. Those unexpected rebounds are the result of hard balls being mashed against or soft mallets striking the wound strings. Simultaneously Lillinger contributes distanced drum beats and cymbal shakes, while Leimgruber’s narrowed trills make up a broken-octave interface that may include additional abrasive scrapes along the outside of his horn. When the piano line downshift to mock-serious processional chording, cymbal squeezes signal the tune’s finale.

Elsewhere, contrapuntal timbral slurs and splatters are inflated. But the ensemble cooperates so well that the result is as much a product of Schubert’s patched shimmies and Lillinger’s percussive prestidigitation as Leimgruber’s tongue-and-air strategies. The pianist fans his keys and plucks internal strings, the drummer exposes ratamacues and rumbles and the saxophonist’s parts range from strident vibrations and peeping split tones to double-tongued polyphony. During the course of “Begen Bginn Fllt” for instance, voltage pitch changes and granular whooshes from Schubert, high-frequency piano syncopation, the drummer’s nerve beats and rim shots, plus bird-twittering from the reedist produce an unmatched textural improvisation. By the final variant, inchoate nonsense syllables mouthed by one or more of the players are added to further thicken the improvisational interface.

Mouth and tongue vocal improvisations are present as well during the exposition for the 12-part suite that make up OM’s reunion concert and CD. Vying with Bronx cheers, onomatopoeia and whistles is rapid verbalization in English and German which eventually foreshadows similar noisy discourses from the quartet’s instruments. Harsh vamping squeaks characterize the saxophonist’s playing here; rattles, splats and shudders make up drummer and percussionist Fredy Studer’s contributions; bassist Bobby Burri outputs a speedy sul tasto bass line; and guitarist Christy Doran produces ringing, choked string licks.

Initially organized before the excesses of Jazz-Rock Fusion hardened into clichés, the OM quartet continues overall to emphasize good taste and compositional construction. Albeit this is done in an atmosphere where Studer, now part of Koch-Schütz-Studer’s Hard Core Chamber Music and Doran, whose most recent band with the percussionist involves Jimi Hendrix tunes, are allowed some pseudo rock-star posturing. At times the guitarist leans into the whammy bar to create distorted flanges and reverb, while the drummer specializes in tough frails, hard cymbal resonation and rolls, strokes and drags. Unexpectedly in one instance Leimgruber adds to the fray, using flutter-tonguing and flattement for tenor saxophone licks that could come from a 21st Century King Curtis.

Fortunately most of the time, Leimgruber continues to work out parts that are either flat-line legato or incorporate an atonal vocabulary of dog-whistle squeals and bear-like growls. Meanwhile, almost oblivious to the sonic shenanigans of the others, Burri maintain a steady rhythmic pace with his sluicing bass line. He carries this regularizing into his solo work, which granted, is spiced with a few sul ponticello runs.

Proving that he too isn’t limited by Fusion strictures, at one juncture Studer bounces out a Latinesque beat, which is swiftly met by expressive pitch variations, flutter tonguing and side-slipping reed bites from Leimgruber, which is a rugged contrast to his usual and more cerebral solo work. Further differentiating his solos from those of most reedists who play in this style however, Leimgruber adds elements of commitment and menace. Ferocious agitato bleats and sound barrier-breaking squeals posit that these forays into the so-called mainstream aren’t that different from his usual styling.

Multiphonic extensions from all concerned occur once the suite moves into its final phrases. Fittingly as well, Leimgruber’s harsh obbligatos are matched with spiky guitar reverb and amp distortion from Doran plus brutal stokes and backbeat pounding from Studer. With the reedist’s continuous peeps add to the shimmering lines created by the others, “Willisau” concludes with a satisfying polytonal thump.

Proving his versatility once again, Leimgruber fully expresses two sides of his personality as a saxophonist on these notable sessions. Hopefully they will lead those unexposed to his multi-talents – perhaps OM’s Fusion-oriented fans – to seek out other and different instances of Leimgruber’s extensive work.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Willisau: 1. Willisau Part I 2. Willisau Part II 3.Willisau Part III 4. Willisau Part IV 4 5. Willisau Part V 6. Willisau Part VI 7. Willisau Part VII 8. Willisau Part VIII 9. Willisau Part IX 10. Willisau Part X 11. Willisau Part XI 12. Willisau Part XII

Personnel: Willisau: Urs Leimgruber (soprano and tenor saxophones); Christy Doran (guitar and devices); Bobby Burri (bass and devices) and Fredy Studer (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Aurona: 1. Aruna Aurora 2. Flaudanne Cllltk 3. Oud Shhd Aiier 4. Begen Bginn Fllt 5. Etherlorbien

Personnel: Aurona: Urs Leimgruber (soprano and tenor saxophones); Oliver Schwerdt (piano, organ and percussion); Alexander Schubert (violin and electronics) and Christian Lillinger (drums and percussion)

July 23, 2010

EUPHORIUM_freakestra

2 Trios & 2 Babies
EUPHORIUM Records EUPH 009

Wadada Leo Smith/Günter Baby Sommer

Wisdom in Time

Intakt CD 128

Nicknamed “Baby” by an early reviewer, who likened his playing to that of traditional New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds, East German percussionist Günter “Baby” Sommer shares his namesake’s instrumental inventiveness. But as these sessions prove, he isn’t limited by anyone’s definition of jazz or improvised music.

Interestingly enough, the CDs are almost the converse of one another – Wisdom in Time is reductive, while 2 Trios & 2 Babies is augmentative. Both those adjectives relate to the personnel rather than the music however. The first features Dresden-based Sommer improvising alongside sympathetic American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The reductive part comes about because the two were initially part of a trio with the late bassist Peter Kowald, memorialized on the track “Brass-Star Hemispheres”.

Oddly titled, the second CD finds Sommer and/or his protégé, fellow percussionist Christian Lillinger, in different combinations with the members of two drummer-less trios. M9 consists of trumpeter Matthias Mainz, cellist Matthias Lorenz and bassist Michael Haves; the GSN trio is tenor saxophonist Fabian Niermann, pianist Oliver Schwerdt and Konrad Grüneberg on bass. Leipzig-based Lillinger and Sommer not only amplify the others’ work with their rhythmic talents, but have a one track face-off, descriptively titled “2 Babies”.

Since, at points both bassists the cellist and the pianist play percussively, with all the mixing-and-matching going on, it often seems as if you need a scorecard to figure out who exactly is playing what with whom.

That isn’t the case on “2 Babies”. With hand drumming techniques crossing with bass and snare drum patterns, the percussionists play off one another, using rolls and ruffs that are paced allegro, adagio and andante. Added into the mix are resonating wooden pops that could come from a djembe, bell pealing, maraca-like shakes and a jew’s harp twang. When Sommer displays his reverberating rolls and backbeat, Lillinger counters with rim shots and concussive thumps; and so it goes round-and-round. Eventually the piece ends distinctively as the older “Baby” sounds his police whistle.

This whistle is also unexpectedly brought into play midway through “Geformter Dampf”, when Sommer suddenly brings the GSN trio improvisation to a halt when he has to tie his shoelaces. Earlier, among his snaps, ruffs and bounces, Niermann’s honking and growling tenor saxophone runs and Schwerdt’s metronomic piano patterning, the band steams ahead with a fiery approximation of pianist Cecil Taylor’s combos that featured free-form drummer Sunny Murray. Gathering his forces after another Reveille-like whistle blast returns his percussion to the fray, the drummer uses a series of rolling slaps and snap to herd the others’ ragged inventions into shape.

Proving that the twenty-something Lillinger, who has also worked with such respected figures as pianist Joachim Kühn and reedist Urs Leimgruber, has learned his lessons well, “Wie du willst…” is another percussion tour-de-force.

Played with the GSN three, Lillinger makes common cause with the pianist. Wooden pitter-patter, bass pedal pounding and more restrained timbres that sound as if a swizzle stick is striking a glass test tube, meld with Schwerdt’s portamento coloration and internal piano string snapping, stretching and stroking. If saxophonist Niermann’s tone is more moderato and segmented than elsewhere, the piece is still advanced with percussion slaps, pops and tingles. Meantime, the pianist speeds up his part to such an extent that at one point he seems to be playing a staccatissimo version of “Chopsticks”. Before the reedist’s summation – which also seems to be a reed-biting variation of “Taps” – bassist Grüneberg is heard briefly and faintly.

Grüneberg’s touch is tougher elsewhere, as is that of Haves, since on a tune like “2 Trios”, it’s up to them to provide the rhythmic impetus when the two percussionists lay out. Considering trumpeter Matthias Mainz, who has also worked with tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch, usually prefers whispy, lyrical serpentine lines and cellist Lorenz sul ponticello sawing, only the two basses and Schwerdt’s struck-and-stopped string set keep the diffuse themes from vanishing beneath squeaking textures.

Percussive scrapes and rumbles, brassy wah-wahs and double tongued reeds, spiccato sweeps and piano glissandi characterize the almost 10-minute finale, as all eight players collaborate in a dissonant free-for-all that positions the drummers on either side of the trios and squeezes contrapuntal inventions out of each group. Unrolling with quivering intensity, the clipping clapping and rumbling are goosed still further by Schwerdt’s kinetic key fanning and chording. Widening and narrowing sibilant reed slurs and blunt rim shots bump and ricochet against one another until the percussionists nerve beat action signal the climax.

On its own the GSN Trio constructs an enigmatic coda that’s all vocalized brass retches, timbre evacuation from deep in the piano’s bowls and pressured obbligatos from the saxophonist. A conclusive dagger-like col legno thrust from a suddenly emboldened Grüneberg brings these expansive interactions to a satisfactory close.

Divide the octet by four and you have the duo that manipulates the nine instant compositions on Wisdom in Time. An understated outing compared to other CD, none of the tracks reach the unfettered exuberance exhibited on 2 Trios & 2 Babies. Yet with Smith’s trumpet and flugelhorn lines multiplied through the use of electronics and Sommer rappelling swiftly through nearly every item in his percussion kit a variety of tones and textures are available. Also, as the title posits, the 64-year-old drummer and the 66-year-old brassman pace the program here to express the accumulated wisdom that comes with time.

For instance, “Woodland Trail to the Giants” gets its initial resonance from rhythmic textures that could arise from melodic pressure on a steel drum. As Smith extends his contribution from deep-inside-the-bell wah-wahs that almost sound synthesized to heraldic growls and slurs, Sommer counters with strokes that could arise from a stitched together mutation of a drum pad and a darbuka.

“Gassire’s Lute” on the other hand melds near Afro-Cuban, bongo-like bounces with a shower of muted grace notes from the flugelhorn. Making the most of a triggered delay available from electronics, Smith’s output slides between open-horn and muted passages. Creating two definite personas, there are points where both are audible simultaneously. Not wishing to upset the mood, Sommer links finger-tip patting and ratamacues to Smith’s growling rubato passages. He then rebounds into connective harmonies as the trumpet seems to be searching for lost notes within his instrument’s lead pipe.

Then there’s the nearly 7½-minute “A Silent Letter to Someone”. Mystically Asiatic, Smith confines himself to altissimo-pitched chromatic note expansion and echoplex-style plunger tones. Meanwhile Sommer busies himself with simple gong-like reverberations and temple bell-like concussions. Nearly timbral twins, each man’s chromatic interplay fades simultaneously.

Fittingly, however, the two musicians most categorically define themselves as a duo with the Kowald threnody, “Bass-Star Hemisphere”. As Sommer, adagio and meditative, pops and thwacks different parts of his kit, vibrating timbres predominate. Chimes resonate and the ride cymbal shrieks as a drum stick is dragged across its surface. Similarly, Smith, whose electronics are used elsewhere to project raw power, constricts his tone. Abstract and melancholy, it almost appears as if the notes are being scraped from the inside of the capillary section a moment before they head towards the mouthpiece. Just when you think the mood can’t darken any further, the pace slows to funereal and the horn man actually sounds as if he’s playing “Taps”.

While the sense of loss may be palpable, the two prove their resolution-partnership with a climatic ending that melds the metallic timbres of the blowing trumpet with metallic striations from the cymbals.

Saddled with an unfortunate nickname at his age, each CD here showcases a different “Baby” Sommer who is long past the tyro stage. And these CDs also prove that in his maturity, this “Baby” plays well with others.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Wisdom: 1. A Sonic Voice Enclosed in the Wind 2. Tarantella Ruticana 3. Pure Stillness 4. Gassire’s Lute 5. Woodland Trail to the Giants 6. Brass-Star Hemispheres (dedicated to P.K.) 7. Rain Cycles 8. Old Time Roll – New Times Goal 9. A Silent Letter to Someone

Personnel: Wisdom: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn and electronics) and Günter “Baby” Sommer (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: 1. Babies: Soujhmar 2. Wie du willst… 3. Mood-schliche on Pancake 4. Chamber chair discussion again 5. Geformter Dampf 6. 2 Trios 7. 7 Wooing Away 8. 2 Babies 9. Dingaling Intermint 10. Konrads Ausprag 11. 2 Trios & 2 Babies 12. Kardiff Canar

Personnel: Babies: Matthias Mainz (trumpet); Fabian Niermann (tenor saxophone); Oliver Schwerdt (piano and percussion); Matthias Lorenz (cello); Michael Haves and Konrad Grüneberg (bass) and Christian Lillinger and Günter Baby Sommer (drums and percussion)

October 19, 2007

Wadada Leo Smith/Günter Baby Sommer

Wisdom in Time
Intakt CD 128

EUPHORIUM_freakestra

2 Trios & 2 Babies

EUPHORIUM Records EUPH 009

Nicknamed “Baby” by an early reviewer, who likened his playing to that of traditional New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds, East German percussionist Günter “Baby” Sommer shares his namesake’s instrumental inventiveness. But as these sessions prove, he isn’t limited by anyone’s definition of jazz or improvised music.

Interestingly enough, the CDs are almost the converse of one another – Wisdom in Time is reductive, while 2 Trios & 2 Babies is augmentative. Both those adjectives relate to the personnel rather than the music however. The first features Dresden-based Sommer improvising alongside sympathetic American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The reductive part comes about because the two were initially part of a trio with the late bassist Peter Kowald, memorialized on the track “Brass-Star Hemispheres”.

Oddly titled, the second CD finds Sommer and/or his protégé, fellow percussionist Christian Lillinger, in different combinations with the members of two drummer-less trios. M9 consists of trumpeter Matthias Mainz, cellist Matthias Lorenz and bassist Michael Haves; the GSN trio is tenor saxophonist Fabian Niermann, pianist Oliver Schwerdt and Konrad Grüneberg on bass. Leipzig-based Lillinger and Sommer not only amplify the others’ work with their rhythmic talents, but have a one track face-off, descriptively titled “2 Babies”.

Since, at points both bassists the cellist and the pianist play percussively, with all the mixing-and-matching going on, it often seems as if you need a scorecard to figure out who exactly is playing what with whom.

That isn’t the case on “2 Babies”. With hand drumming techniques crossing with bass and snare drum patterns, the percussionists play off one another, using rolls and ruffs that are paced allegro, adagio and andante. Added into the mix are resonating wooden pops that could come from a djembe, bell pealing, maraca-like shakes and a jew’s harp twang. When Sommer displays his reverberating rolls and backbeat, Lillinger counters with rim shots and concussive thumps; and so it goes round-and-round. Eventually the piece ends distinctively as the older “Baby” sounds his police whistle.

This whistle is also unexpectedly brought into play midway through “Geformter Dampf”, when Sommer suddenly brings the GSN trio improvisation to a halt when he has to tie his shoelaces. Earlier, among his snaps, ruffs and bounces, Niermann’s honking and growling tenor saxophone runs and Schwerdt’s metronomic piano patterning, the band steams ahead with a fiery approximation of pianist Cecil Taylor’s combos that featured free-form drummer Sunny Murray. Gathering his forces after another Reveille-like whistle blast returns his percussion to the fray, the drummer uses a series of rolling slaps and snap to herd the others’ ragged inventions into shape.

Proving that the twenty-something Lillinger, who has also worked with such respected figures as pianist Joachim Kühn and reedist Urs Leimgruber, has learned his lessons well, “Wie du willst…” is another percussion tour-de-force.

Played with the GSN three, Lillinger makes common cause with the pianist. Wooden pitter-patter, bass pedal pounding and more restrained timbres that sound as if a swizzle stick is striking a glass test tube, meld with Schwerdt’s portamento coloration and internal piano string snapping, stretching and stroking. If saxophonist Niermann’s tone is more moderato and segmented than elsewhere, the piece is still advanced with percussion slaps, pops and tingles. Meantime, the pianist speeds up his part to such an extent that at one point he seems to be playing a staccatissimo version of “Chopsticks”. Before the reedist’s summation – which also seems to be a reed-biting variation of “Taps” – bassist Grüneberg is heard briefly and faintly.

Grüneberg’s touch is tougher elsewhere, as is that of Haves, since on a tune like “2 Trios”, it’s up to them to provide the rhythmic impetus when the two percussionists lay out. Considering trumpeter Matthias Mainz, who has also worked with tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch, usually prefers whispy, lyrical serpentine lines and cellist Lorenz sul ponticello sawing, only the two basses and Schwerdt’s struck-and-stopped string set keep the diffuse themes from vanishing beneath squeaking textures.

Percussive scrapes and rumbles, brassy wah-wahs and double tongued reeds, spiccato sweeps and piano glissandi characterize the almost 10-minute finale, as all eight players collaborate in a dissonant free-for-all that positions the drummers on either side of the trios and squeezes contrapuntal inventions out of each group. Unrolling with quivering intensity, the clipping clapping and rumbling are goosed still further by Schwerdt’s kinetic key fanning and chording. Widening and narrowing sibilant reed slurs and blunt rim shots bump and ricochet against one another until the percussionists nerve beat action signal the climax.

On its own the GSN Trio constructs an enigmatic coda that’s all vocalized brass retches, timbre evacuation from deep in the piano’s bowls and pressured obbligatos from the saxophonist. A conclusive dagger-like col legno thrust from a suddenly emboldened Grüneberg brings these expansive interactions to a satisfactory close.

Divide the octet by four and you have the duo that manipulates the nine instant compositions on Wisdom in Time. An understated outing compared to other CD, none of the tracks reach the unfettered exuberance exhibited on 2 Trios & 2 Babies. Yet with Smith’s trumpet and flugelhorn lines multiplied through the use of electronics and Sommer rappelling swiftly through nearly every item in his percussion kit a variety of tones and textures are available. Also, as the title posits, the 64-year-old drummer and the 66-year-old brassman pace the program here to express the accumulated wisdom that comes with time.

For instance, “Woodland Trail to the Giants” gets its initial resonance from rhythmic textures that could arise from melodic pressure on a steel drum. As Smith extends his contribution from deep-inside-the-bell wah-wahs that almost sound synthesized to heraldic growls and slurs, Sommer counters with strokes that could arise from a stitched together mutation of a drum pad and a darbuka.

“Gassire’s Lute” on the other hand melds near Afro-Cuban, bongo-like bounces with a shower of muted grace notes from the flugelhorn. Making the most of a triggered delay available from electronics, Smith’s output slides between open-horn and muted passages. Creating two definite personas, there are points where both are audible simultaneously. Not wishing to upset the mood, Sommer links finger-tip patting and ratamacues to Smith’s growling rubato passages. He then rebounds into connective harmonies as the trumpet seems to be searching for lost notes within his instrument’s lead pipe.

Then there’s the nearly 7½-minute “A Silent Letter to Someone”. Mystically Asiatic, Smith confines himself to altissimo-pitched chromatic note expansion and echoplex-style plunger tones. Meanwhile Sommer busies himself with simple gong-like reverberations and temple bell-like concussions. Nearly timbral twins, each man’s chromatic interplay fades simultaneously.

Fittingly, however, the two musicians most categorically define themselves as a duo with the Kowald threnody, “Bass-Star Hemisphere”. As Sommer, adagio and meditative, pops and thwacks different parts of his kit, vibrating timbres predominate. Chimes resonate and the ride cymbal shrieks as a drum stick is dragged across its surface. Similarly, Smith, whose electronics are used elsewhere to project raw power, constricts his tone. Abstract and melancholy, it almost appears as if the notes are being scraped from the inside of the capillary section a moment before they head towards the mouthpiece. Just when you think the mood can’t darken any further, the pace slows to funereal and the horn man actually sounds as if he’s playing “Taps”.

While the sense of loss may be palpable, the two prove their resolution-partnership with a climatic ending that melds the metallic timbres of the blowing trumpet with metallic striations from the cymbals.

Saddled with an unfortunate nickname at his age, each CD here showcases a different “Baby” Sommer who is long past the tyro stage. And these CDs also prove that in his maturity, this “Baby” plays well with others.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Wisdom: 1. A Sonic Voice Enclosed in the Wind 2. Tarantella Ruticana 3. Pure Stillness 4. Gassire’s Lute 5. Woodland Trail to the Giants 6. Brass-Star Hemispheres (dedicated to P.K.) 7. Rain Cycles 8. Old Time Roll – New Times Goal 9. A Silent Letter to Someone

Personnel: Wisdom: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn and electronics) and Günter “Baby” Sommer (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: 1. Babies: Soujhmar 2. Wie du willst… 3. Mood-schliche on Pancake 4. Chamber chair discussion again 5. Geformter Dampf 6. 2 Trios 7. 7 Wooing Away 8. 2 Babies 9. Dingaling Intermint 10. Konrads Ausprag 11. 2 Trios & 2 Babies 12. Kardiff Canar

Personnel: Babies: Matthias Mainz (trumpet); Fabian Niermann (tenor saxophone); Oliver Schwerdt (piano and percussion); Matthias Lorenz (cello); Michael Haves and Konrad Grüneberg (bass) and Christian Lillinger and Günter Baby Sommer (drums and percussion)

October 19, 2007