Devin Gray & Gerald Cleaver

Vincent Glanzman/Gerry Hemingway
Composition O
Fundacja Sluchaj FSR 03/2020

These accomplished percussion duets arising from strategies designed to bolster idiophone colors, are dissociated in more ways than that being recorded in different countries. Three of the participants are Americans. Yet 27 Licks by New York-based drummers Devin Gray and Gerald Cleaver is a free music extension of Jazz drum battles made famous by the likes of Max Roach and Buddy Rich, Gerry Hemingway is an American as well. But now a resident of Switzerland, he teams up with Zürich’s Vincent Glanzman for a six-part Free Music suite using extended percussion implements.

Glanzman, who collaborates with artists from diverse fields and Hemingway who has worked with everyone from Anthony Braxton to Samuel Blaser, manipulate vibration and echoes that go beyond expected drum shuffle, rebounding strokes and ruffs to integrate complementary rhythms Underlined with close-miked amplification, added to expected beats are Big Ben-like bell tolling, comb-and-tissue paper like buzzing, barbed jabs and friction expressed when ratchets strike immovable objects. Still the two maintain a dialog, shifting parts from one to the other as they thicken and narrow, amplify and mute the sequences. Preceding a finale of electronically enhanced motifs in which paced echoes resound alongside bell-tree-like clinks and thicker clumps, more textures are exposed on “Composition O Part 5”. Turning from instrumental to mouth percussion Hemingway joins gurgling yodels and tremolo harmonica puffs to strident drum top pops and metallic strikes, all of which is overlaid by a thin film of processed drones. The descriptive climax involves hammering cymbal sets to unearth ratcheting echoes.

For their part Gray, who has recorded with Michael Formanek, and Cleaver who has partnered numerous innovators, announce their commitment to the ongoing Jazz drum tradition with a paced collection of thumps, strokes, scratches and tambourine-on-hi-hat expressions from the first and title track and return to rhythmic crunches on the final, extended “Headbangers”. Along the way they try out timbral detours and drum kit rhythm extensions, but without abandoning interactive grooves. In fact, “Love Conquers Hate” manages to emphasize light patterning with quiet shuffles, wood block slaps and maracas shakes. Other than that, concussive beats encompass curved paradiddles, drum top rubs, rim shots, drum clip clops, resonating cymbal yelping and doubled press rolls. Despite the negative connotations, “Headbangers” is obviously closest to the duo’s hearts. During its more than 20 minutes the two attempt to redefine the term with tandem expositions. Strategies including lug-loosening, slaps on unattached surfaces, rim shot scrapes and crunches, and these are paced with detours into more subtle rolls and rumbles. Distant pops and shakes move to the foreground to involve both players who then intensify resonation in the penultimate sequence. The conclusive fade also maintains a powerful g rhythmic thrust.

Percussion discussions don’t have to be showy exercises in random pummeling or a graveyard for harmonic extensions. Without abandoning rhythmic intensity, these sessions confirm that though energetic interaction.

-Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Composition: 1. Composition O Part 1. 2. Composition O Part 2 3. Composition O Part 3 4, Composition O Part 4 5. Composition O Part 5 6. Composition O Part 6

Personnel: Composition: Vincent Glanzmann (cymbals, floor tom, percussion, controlled amplification) and Gerry Hemingway (cymbals, percussion, harmonica, voice, controlled amplification)

Track Listing: Licks: 1. 27 Licks 2. F Train Drain 3. Headed to Barbès 4. Love Conquers Hate 5. One for Bernie 6. The Long Roll Ahead 7. Shenanigans 8. Headbangers

Personnel: Licks: Devin Gray and Gerald Cleaver (drum sets)