Pau Sola Masafrets / Ab Baars / Ig Henneman / George Dumitiu

Ab Baars/Meinrad Kneer/Bill Elgart

Thrīe Thēo Drī

Jazz Werkstatt JW 215

Like those albums in the past which offered up two sides of a musician’s work, these CDs do the same for Ditch reedman Ab Baars. In fact the creativity on each is so antithetical that it could be from two separate players. Context is everything though. The 11 Amsterdam-recorded tracks of Aforismen Aforisme Aforismes are designed to show off a chamber quartet. Besides Baars on clarinet and shakuhachi, the ensemble includes his partner Ig Henneman on viola, Romanian George Dumitiu playing violin and viola; and Catalan Pau Sola Masafrets on cello. From a Berlin date 19 months later, Thrīe Thēo Drī is unabashed Free Jazz. Adding tenor saxophone to his other reeds, Baars plays energetically on the eight tracks alongside German bassist Meinrad Kneer and longtime American-in-Germany drummer Bill Elgart.

The Dutch disc is based around echoes and sweeps from the strings intersecting with reed peeps and puffs. As the suite evolves, staccato string lines become busier and busier. Sometimes the cellist produces Jazz-like walking as the others concentrate strops and strums into drone variations for additional power. Tracks such as “Arena” demonstrate Baars’ contrapuntal response to the others with pressurized intensity in the form of extended squawks and split-tone trills. As these parameters are established, any tendency towards formalized string playing is transformed into spiccato scratches and swills with occasional col legno percussiveness, Equivalent peeps from clarinet or shakuhachi resonate enough to add intermediacy to the output. By the penultimate and final tracks, “Zeeklei” and “Cernoziom” however, straightforward coordination is established among all four with layered timbres including altissimo clarinet lines. Finally the program slides into a melodic finale with moderated strings stretched alongside reed peeps.

If Aforismen Aforisme Aforismes is somewhat tepid, then Thrīe Thēo Drī is a keen application of energetic unbridled improvisation. Perhaps Baars’ addition of the tenor saxophone is one reason, another could be the drummer replacing strings. Considering Elgart, who has played with everyone from Paul Bley to Sadao Watanabe, is the most self-effacing of percussionist, maybe it just musical chemistry. Certainly the reedist’s moody floating clarinet connects markedly with Kneer’s studied double and triple stopping and Elgart’s subtle cymbal pings and drum shakes. Even when Baars attains altissimo shrieks, the tone refracts within linear expression. The shakuhachi is mostly there for coloration, though its bird-like whistle is part of connective motifs as well.

There’s also more humor here than on the other session. At least on “The Duck Stays Between The Teeth” Baars is liberated enough to unscrew the mouthpiece from his saxophone to create duck calls. Returning to irregular reed vibrations his gurgling cries mix persuasively with stops and strains from the bass and drum ruffs, Bass drum pops are also a feature of “All Other Forms of Matter and Energy” and “Verticality”, the session’s defining performances. The longest and most dissonant, the first is a showcase for Baars creating irregular tones and pitches that evolve from clarion slurs and are suspended above cymbal clatter and staccato string bowing. The conclusion evolves from laboratory to lyrical. Meanwhile the ending of “Verticality” parses the exposition into slower-paced intersections based around renal reed slurs and conventional bass string plucks. But the introduction sets up the track and the session with unexpected string flanges, drum top smashes and high-pitched shrieks and whinnying squeezes from the saxophone.

A more satisfying exhibition of reed skills than the other disc, both still confirm Baars versatility in different settings.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Aforismen: 1. Rendzine 2. Paarse Hei 3. Pizarra 4. Estepa 5. Arena 6. Laagveen 7. Dune 8. Aiguamoll 9. Brun Roşcate-10. Zeeklei 11. Cernoziom

Personnel: Aforismen: Ab Baars (clarinet, shakuhachi); George Dumitiu (violin, viola); Ig Henneman (viola) and Pau Sola Masafrets (cello)

Track Listing: Thrīe: 1. Verticality 2. High Rider 3. Boulder City Movement No. 1 4.The Duck Stays Between The Teeth 5. Aletrnative Experimental Assembly X 6.A Day Like Any Other 7. All Other Forms of Matter and Energy 8. Aerolith

Personnel: Thrīe: Ab Baars (tenor saxophone. clarinet, shakuhachi); Meinrad Kneer (bass) and Bill Elgart (drums)