Steve Swell’s Fire Into Music

A fitting remembrance of alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc (1946-2021)’s talents and a confirmation of trombonist Steve Swell’s Fire into Music (FIM) quartet’s interactive skill, this three CD set inadvertently demonstrates the conditions under which musicians have to labor. Contrast the silent appreciation that greets FIM’s improvisation on the third disc from a concert at 2005’s Guelph Jazz Festival, with the raucous, distracting noise constantly present during a 2004 Marfa Texas roadhouse gig. Not only do audience members yell, cross talk and laugh inappropriately during William Parker’s intense bass solo – a common feature at most Jazz gigs – but the irritating and uncaring buzz is heard throughout the disc. Is it any wonder that the bassist begins his solo with a quote from “Let My People Go”?

Being thoroughgoing professionals means that the four play on at the same high standard as elsewhere however. During the most egregious instances on “Junka Nu”, drummer Hamid Drake’s crunching accents and Swell’s double tongued tailgate slurs keep the theme balanced even as it ascends from andante to allegro while Moondoc’s knife-sharp vibrations and doits may reflect the crowd more than his composition. Eventually double ruffs and hi-hat clangs from the drummer and the bassist’s unvarying pulse help focus the final sequence to allow for broken octave connection between half-valve brass puffs and split tone bites harmonized into steady swing. For comparison Guelph’s “Junka Nu” variation is more reflective as Moodoc slides out the theme with upwards cries and squeaks as Swell’s portamento exposition is spectacularly brassy and bugling. Both Drake and Parker sew pattern variations into their press roll and string droning time keeping , finally reframing the head into a bouncing groove, that concludes with horn vamps and flutters.

This same high quality is expressed on the other live tracks which clock in from almost 12½ minutes – the shortest, not surprisingly at the Marfa gig – to 55 ½ minutes – that take up all of CD1, recorded a week before Marfa in Houston Texas. That track plainly allows each quartet member to outline his talents during the protracted improv. Affiliated and fragmented the program evolves from plunger trombone tones and gentler sax slurs to Moondoc’s unexpected high notes backed by Swell’s sympathetic obbligato. Parker’s arco work finds him buzzing and string-slicing up the scale to triple-stroking splatters until a power pizzicato strum reveals a mellow strain. Bass and drums lay out for mostly a capella intensity made up of shredding tongue stops and blurry triplets until Drake’s cymbal clatter and bass drum bomb dropping ushers in a squeezed swinging narrative where trombone tailgate pumps meet spiccato string rasps for a measured walking finale.

Still the most distinctive performance, again at Guelph is of Swell’s “Box Set”. An initial polyphonic vamp works into harsh portamento from the composer and double-tongue stopping from the saxophonist. As the main theme, perhaps a contrafact of an early Roswell Rudd line, intertwines the musicians’ output, the pace slows down to andante even as Moondoc’s altissimo screech testifies to its non-standard form. Eventually joining deep inner plunger work from Swell and peeps from the saxophonist restate the theme as Parker’s paced thumps preserve the tune’s simple motion.

Essential for those who don’t know or don’t have enough of the music of any of the participants – especially Moondoc – this non-memorial is a veritable soundtrack of a touring music’s activities.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD1: 1. Improvised Music At The El Dorado CD2: 1. Junka Nu 2. Improvised Music At Ballroom Marfa 3. Space Cowboys CD3: 1. Box Set 2. Junka Nu 3. Swimming In A Galaxy Of Goodwill And Sorrow

Personnel: Steve Swell (trombone); Jemeel Moondoc (alto saxophone); William Parker (bass) and Hamid Drake (drums)