Stephan Crump/James Carney

Echo Run Pry
Clean Feed CF 199 CD

Scott R. Looney & Klaus Janek

1510

Edgetone EDT 4104

Although the piano is the most orchestral of instruments and the double bass initially designed for strictly accompanist or rhythmic functions, in Jazz and Improvised Music keyboard-bass pairings are as common as hearing two guitars and a drum set in Rock. However for this pairing to move beyond the commonplace, extrasensory perception of each partner’s skills is almost obligatory.

This truism is validated on these duo CDs. As sophisticated as it in execution, with some exceptionally connective moments, the meeting of New Yorkers, pianist James Carney and bassist Stephan Crump, betrays its genesis as serendipitous improvisations created when other members missed a rehearsal of the band in which both were involved. Attempts to compensate for the missing musicians may be why the two tracks, which time in at either side of 24 minutes each, drag at points.

Berlin-based bassist Klaus Janek and pianist Scott R. Looney from Oakland are able to express many more textural ideas on the nine shorter tracks on their CD, named for the studio at which it was recorded. Looney, whose playing experience encompasses pure improv, Jazz and electronic music with associates as different as saxophonist Oliver Lake and bassist Damon Smith; and the Italian-born Janek, who is involved in sound research and composition as well as playing with the likes of trombonist Johannes Bauer and trumpeter Paul Brody; began collaborating a year before this date. Conceiving their meeting as a self-contained duo, means that individual or group meditations on sonics and textures are incorporated into the program.

For musicians improvising as a duo for the first time, Crump and Carney aren’t particularly awkward on these tracks, captured by the bassist’s mobile recording equipment. Then again both are involved in similar simpatico situations. The pianist’s own band includes notable bassist Chris Lightcap as well as soloists such as saxophonist Tony Malaby; while Crump is part of pianist Vijay Iyer’s trio and guitarist Liberty Ellman’s quartet. On this CD the idea isn’t so much hitting a groove as finding tonal affiliations and dynamics which can be mirrored, stretched or contrasted. Although some of the results take on an ever more percussive timbres, overall the interface is characterized by more languid and paced string strums and note clusters.

Singular keyboard pops and shaking woody rumbles characterize “Wood Genre” the more extended second track, with Crump managing to furiously but moderately plucks his strings as Carney’s shuffled portamento downshifts to a more moderate pace. Soon the pianist’s ringing arpeggios are blending with the bassist’s plinks and creaks. Light, fanciful key tickles give way to internal string stops and soundboard shakes as Carney attempts to destabilize Crump’s metronomic bass line. Three-quarters of the way through a skittering fantasia turns into a climatic defining moment as pedal-pressured bounces against the piano wood, connect to similar wood thumps and string pressure from the bassist. Key mashing and internal string-striking match up with methodical single note plucks, as the final variant turns to concordance.

While connection through dissonance is a similar leitmotif for Looney and Janek, the result is less catch-can. Unlike the other CD which is a reductionist showcase for creation without additional musicians’ input, the American-German team takes a reverse approach. Both the pianist and the bassist have created notable solo statements in the past, so 1510 becomes a way to meld individual conceptions into a coherent whole.

Strangely enough, despite its prominence on the sleeve, electronic interface is understated throughout. Instead the majority of the distinctive sounds shaping the tracks relate to extended techniques. “Eccentric Lottos” for instance showcases the bell-tree-like reverberations that arise from the prepared piano strings as piezo pickups extend sul ponticello bass lines so that they resemble half electro-pulsations and half chromatic slaps. As foreign objects are shaken by the piano strings upon which they rest, further rattling the capotes and sound board, Janek’s tonal string slaps vibrate alongside. Looney could be whacking his piano’s internal strings with soft mallets as Janek pumps his strings on “Unpaid Asbestos”, as these sustained clanks and crunches somehow presage whistling tones. Oscillating wave form explosions may be present, but it is wood-rending cracks and string pressures which relocate the track’s tonal centre and define the piece.

More clattering implements are audible on “Cantabile Processions”, but here the resulting shrill pitches contrapuntally evolve alongside almost tuba-like tones from the bassist. As Looney’s piano clusters shudder, his voicing moves southwards to burrowing belly tones, with pedal pressure not only widening the results, but also shaking the cymbals or plates resting on internal piano strings. With Janek’s col legno response linear and lower-pitched, conclusive almost violin-like bow pressure atonality cuts through the pianist’s swirling, high frequency cascades. Similarly the tremolo clinks and textural jumps produced by stopped and strummed strings on “Ineffectual Test Knots” echo the bassist’s multiphonic slides and scrubs. When the joint sequences begin to evoke futurist rococo, the friction from Janek’s sul tasto lines helps unravel Looney’s layered harmonies. The result is a final variant that preserves lively parallelism as it fades.

In their first dual recorded effort Crump and Carney demonstrate some memorable moves and suggestions of what they can achieve in the future with tighter timeframes, prior planning and thematic coherence. Further along on that two-man journey, Looney and Janek provide an exemplar of what can be achieved in the piano-bass format.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Echo: 1. Rodeo Gwen 2. Wood Genre

Personnel: Echo: James Carney (piano) and Stephan Crump (bass)

Track Listing: 1510: 1. Antitank Jeep 2. Eccentric Lottos 3. Bonsai Spa 4. Cantabile Processions 5. Stuffed Entente 6. Nearly Wooden 7. Ineffectual Test Knots 8. Unpaid Asbestos 9. Transoceanic Possibilities

Personnel: 1510: Scott R. Looney (prepared piano and electronics) and Klaus Janek (bass and electronics)

May 6, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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