Joëlle Léandre/Miya Masaoka/Robert Dick

Lotz of Music
Live at JazzCaseel
Negocito Records eNR 071

Accomplished in nuanced virtuosity when playing multiple transverse instruments, American Robert Dick and German Mark Alban Lotz bring their flute collection and singular approach to improvisation to these group sessions. Although both move among many musical genres, Lotz’s quintet session is anchored to Jazz while Dick and associates create a dozen expert but unvarnished improvisations.

Eclectic as one can be in this setting, Lotz and his mostly Netherlands-based group ensure that the proper combination of backbeat and lyricism is emphasized during eight Lotz compositions. Besides the composer’s flutes, the band is pianist Albert van Veenendaal, cellist Jörg Brinkman, percussionist Alan “Gunga” Purves plus guest, Swiss clarinetist Claudio Puntin. An ad-hoc meeting among virtuosos, Solar Wind also features French double bassist Joëlle Léandre and American koto player Miya Masaoka.

Surprisingly faint echoes of Soca, and other beat-oriented musics hover over the Lotz session, especially when Purves’ collection of idiophones not only encompasses drum ruffs and drum stick nerve beats, but bell-ringing, implement rattling wood-block concussion, slinky stop-time, metal bar reverberation and a strange, unidentified bonging Add to this coloratura clarinet peeps and transverse whistles that could emanate from outer-space, and it’s up to Brinkman’s walking bass line and equivalent ground bass pumping from van Veenendaal to maintain a steady groove.

While there are points at which the rhythmic set up gets too close to 1970s’ Jazz-Fusion, tracks such as “Nistru” and the giveaway titled “Improvisation” prevent surrender to the simple. On the first tune, Lotz uses bass flute tones to produce the ostinato, leaving the pianist free to roll out swing variations and the clarinetist to harmonize with the flutist in such a way that extended flutter tonguing and growling tongue stops energize the piece until it ends with downwards air twists. Peeps and beeps from both horns plus an assortment of percussion strategies characterize “Improvisation”. Brinkman’s power plucking later steadies the narrative so that the final section is wide, expansive and melodic. Finally the pre-encore “Tamago” mixes exploration and equilibrium to the extent that dramatic keyboard throbs, crushing percussion pummels and ear-piercing trills from flute and clarinet end up attaining a straight-ahead balance from positioned cello pulses and gentle inner-string piano sliding and strumming.

Sliding and strumming are used by the bassist and kotoist on the trio disc, but Léandre and Masaoka also showcase other inventive string motions. With surging energy the two ratchet up enough momentum to emulate any conventional rhythm section. Plus the bassist’s pizzicato and arco rappelling from scroll to spike and the kotoist’s ability to pluck her multiple strings so that twanging continuum is present as pinpoint individual solo strategies. Dick who is flute’s Thomas Edison, having invented the glissando headjoint, which increases the instrument’s range, creates multiphonic links with the other players here, whether it’s low-pitched propelling to combine the bassist’s basso sweeps on “Chronotype” or burbling tongue slaps which torque upwards to contrast with Masaoka’s pitch-descending koto strums on “Blue Fugates”. While Léandre has never been shy to vocalize nonsense syllables during her improvisations, the Sonny to her Cher here is Dick, whose angry yowls and throaty humming add an extra dimension to the proceedings. Masaoka’s percussion frails often maintain the tunes’ bottom, but that doesn’t stop her from exhibiting distinctive slack guitar-like picking or using a bow to tap or stroke a multitude of colors from the koto. Intense technical expansion with staccatissimo pacing doesn’t preclude a touch of lyricism however. “On Time’s Edge” and the title tune for instance, among the polyrhythmic tickling and swabs from the string players, Dick manages to inject a touch of melody along with timbre propelling. Among the polyphonic trawling double bass tones, koto string drones and fripple vibrating, the trio member are sophisticated enough to display, “Friends of the Sun” depends on bass-pitched glissandi from the flutist serving as pulsating accompaniment to an outpouring of vocal puffs, gurgles. grunts and yowls Meanwhile the final “Adiabatic” goes one step further. Cramming supple slices and staccato plunks from both stringed instruments into connective pulses that are seasoned with delicate flute fluttering, the end result is a moderated and satisfying double-stopped finale,

Like other inventive instrumentalists who have extended the range of their instruments, Lotz and Dick do so with the flute family. And these CDs are proof of what can be accomplished in the right circumstances and with the proper company.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Live: 1.Of Royal Herring 2. Quasimodo 3. Nistru 4.Waiting for Prey 5. Strollin’ a Reef 6. Improvisation 7. Tamago 8. The Egg Jam Encore.

Personnel: Live: Mark Alban Lotz (piccolo, c, alto, bass, PVC contrabass flutes, voice, FX); Claudio Puntin (clarinet, bass clarinet, jaw harp, voice, FX); Albert van Veenendaal (piano, prepared piano); Jörg Brinkman (cello, FX); Alan “Gunga” Purves (drums, percussion, brim bram, other surprising sound objects)

Track Listing: Solar: 1. Whispering of the Stars 2. Speed of Silence 3. Chronotype 4. Pagophagia 5. Dinoflagellates 6. Prepsychotic Philosophers 7. Blue Fugates 8. Solar Wind 9. On Time’s Edge 10. How old is Your Shadow? 11. Friends of the Sun 12. Adiabatic

Personnel: Solar: Robert Dick (glissando, bass, contrabass flutes, piccolo, voice); Joëlle Leandre (bass, voice) and Miya Masaoka (koto, percussion)