Fowler/Strickland/Nagano/Dyer/Filiano/Griffen

Referencing  bird songs, but actually putting together sounds that mix and mulch many strands of human music this ad-hoc meeting of accomplished improvisers create sounds as unique as its instrumentation.  Building on the rhythm teamwork of drummer Anders Griffen and bassist Ken Filiano, long part of New York’s creative music scene, the nine tracks utilize the distractive, but never syrupy timbres of  Sana Nagano’s violin and Melanie Dyer viola. Chad Fowler contributes not only bass flute lowing, but pinched slurs from the stritch, cousin to an elongate alto sax most associated with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. MVP though is Shanyse Strickland, who combines with Fowler for a flute duet on one track, adds wordless yodels and whoops on another, but spends most of her time twisting French horn textures from formal to freeform.

Considering at various time tunes take on romantic shadings, café music suggestions, march tempos and even brief C&W string slivers Strickland has a valuable skill. Hear it most clearly on tracks like “Good And Tomorrow (Take 2)” and “N-Beam”. On the first Strickland’s timbral horn extensions join with string pulse and stritch bites to move an initial slow theme into challenging polyphony and even more so on the latter where horn vamps and double tonguing set up a mood-altering string interlude and back its completion to spiccato double and triple string slices. Elsewhere her contrapuntal honks, glissandi and gutbucket slides add immeasurably to the narratives

With robust string interjections when needed and responsive reed textures plus bass and drum pulses whenever, this collection of aviary refrain will interest casual birders as well as committed musical ornithologists.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing:1. Traditional Funeral Dance 2. Out Of Town 3. Turnoutbreak 4. Good And Tomorrow (Take 2) 5. Theme For Someone I Probably Wouldn’t Like 6. Crossing The River 7. N-Beam 8. Yatra 9. Good And Tomorrow (Take One)

Personnel: Shanyse Strickland (French horn, flute, vocals); Chad Fowler (stritch, bass flute); Sana Nagano (violin); Melanie Dyer (viola); Ken Filiano (bass) and Anders Griffen (drums)