Humair Blaser Känzig: Helveticus

Ükya
We Come for an Experience of Presence
Nakama Records NKM 025

Together these two examples of thoughtful creative music provide a mini history of Jazz trombone in a trio setting. Neither is an archival session, but the three veteran Swiss players on Our Way, who are well-versed in the intricacies of contemporary improvisation, include tracks which salute some of Jazz’s earliest brass model. Meanwhile the young Norwegians who make up Ükya tweak their instruments’ timbres so that the extended techniques touched on by Helveticus become the driving force shaping We Come for an Experience of Presence.

Our way unites musicians of three generations, drummer Daniel Humair, 85, bassist Heiri Känzig, 66 and trombonist Samuel Blaser, 42. Dean of Swiss modern Jazz since the late 1960s, the drummer is known for his work with Phil Woods and Dave Liebman. The bassist has played with everyone from John Scofield to Thierry Lang. Blaser, whose skills encompass performing more atonal sounds, works regularly with Marc Ducret and even organized a reggae band.

Dedicated continentalists they include a lullaby soft version of “Träume der Liebe”, a schlanger favorite and recast a “Mazurka” from dance tempo to a ballad with Känzig’s guitar-like strums, Humair’s echoing percussion colors and a straightforward buzz from Blaser. The trombonist also interprets Classic Jazz warhorses, the ODJB’S “Tiger Rag” and Duke Ellington’s “Creole Love Call’. Stripping the hokeyness from the first, Blaser ranges up and down the scale with triplet peeps, plunger snores and unexpected variations. The latter tune is also stripped of prettiness, as Humair Beboppy pulse challenges Känzig’s slap bas, while the trombonist uses his plunger mute to emphasize snorty runs as well as Bluesy finger-snapping variations.

The trio’s variations on Thelonious Monk’s “Bemsha Swing” and “Jackie-Ing” show a similar POMO reconstitution. The first is recast as a slow moving Blues with a spectacular slide down the scale by the trombonist emphasizing grace notes and fine squeezes. The second has Blaser’s tongue jiu-jitsu speeding through a reed reflective exposition to guttural growls and brass multiphonics as Känzig walks and Humair grounds the variations with bass drum smacks.

Helveticus isn’t a cover or revival group however and other tracks demonstrate the members’  sophisticated modernism. “Hook” is Känzig’s showpiece., with buzzing spiccato arco strokes evolving at the same time as he maintains the beat with pizzicato thumps. , Having experienced more music than the others, Humair is suitably restrained, limiting himself to positioned clatters, strokes, ruffs and cymbal resonations, and the them remains horizontal despite Blaser’s rippling triplets.

Otherwise when he isn’t promulgating themes with muted grace notes or balanced breaths, Blaser uses extended techniques. He can replicate Swiss hunting horn blasts, produce whinnies and gutbucket smears and then turn around and propel smooth portamento effects to preserve linear flow. He and the others demonstrate quick changes on the extended multi-tempo “Genevamalgame”. Rasping the exposition forward, Blaser quickly adds plunger slurs and speedy tonguing, inner tube snores, piccolo-pitched flutters and finally moderated tonguing so that his part joins with the bassist’s tandem plucks.

Substituting a guitar for a bass isn’t the only different between Ükya and Helveticus. The Norwegians almost completely avoid the song form, synthesize single track narratives into one another and don’t bother with track titles, just numbers. They’re not complete tyros either. Trombonist Emil Bø has worked with Paal Nilssen-Love; guitarist Kristian Enkerud Lien was in the Circulasione Totale Orchestra; and drummer Michael Lee Sørenmo has a duo with a pipa player.

Actively switching from quiet to mid-range note-bending to concentrated narratives, the three try to avoid expected expositions. Lien can produce finger-style lyricism and light picking, but most of the time leans onto his lowest strings for a double bass-like pulse. Sørenmo can rattle paradiddles, shake, shuffles and clinking rumbles, but concentrates on cymbal scratches, drum top slashes and tolling beats. Bø’s output centres  almost completely on inner tube snuffles, brass bites, toneless breaths, forced air gurgles and watery growls.

These are heard at greatest length in the penultimate sequences. Here quiet drum rumbles introduce half-valve brass stops and suddenly cut off blasts until back-of-throat brittle tones are converted into under-the-breath triplets. With drum shake backing, Bø introduces prestissimo circular breathing that vibrates along with guitar picking and drum pops until the program finally upsurges into brassy honks and gurgles.

There are similar instances throughout the set with strained metal string twangs from the guitarist; multiple sounds extracted from cymbal abrasions; and understated brass snorts and growls. But besides all that, the members of Ükya maintain connection. Since We Come for an Experience of Presence is a program of sounds not a technical demonstration record, horizontal evolution isn’t neglected.

The venerable trombone has taken on many guises during the past 100 plus years. These sessions highlight many of them.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Our: 1. IRA 2. Jackie-Ing 3. Mazurka 4. Heiri’s Idea 5. Genevamalgame 6. Chara lingua della mamma 7. Tiger Rag 8. Warming up 9. Bemsha Swing 10. Root Beer Rag 11. Hook 12. Creole Love Call 13. Träume der Liebe

Personnel. Our. Samuel Blaser (trombone); Heiri Känzig (bass) and Daniel Humair (drums)

Track Listing. We 1. One 2. Two 3. Three 4. Four 5. Five 6. Six

Personnel. We: Emil Bø (trombone); Kristian Enkerud Lien (guitar) and Michael Lee Sørenmo (drums)