Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet

Inner Constellation Volume One
Nemu 007

By Ken Waxman

Taking up most of the CD with his almost 47½-minute Inner Constellation suite, Manhattan-based guitarist Bruce Eisenbeil structures his composition to take advantage of the cohesive layered textures available from each section of his mini-orchestra. With the strings Jean Cook’s violin, Tom Abbs’s bass, and his own guitars; the horns trumpeter Nate Wooley and saxophonist Aaron Ali Shaikh; plus Nasheet Waits drums, the through-composed work is properly represented, while individual improvisations are showcased as well.

Most impressive among the contrapuntal theme comments are Cook’s angled, spiccato glissandi, with the flying staccato often straddling a walking bass line – when not creating pedal-point refraction by itself or exposing tremolo palpitations, echoed by unison horns. Wooley’s chortling runs are expressed open horn, while his quivering shakes and distinct multiphonics seem forced from his horn’s deepest reaches. Elsewhere, the brassman contributes heraldic tutti flourishes when needed, or in contrast, makes space for Abbs to discontinue his tandem time-keeping with Waits’ bouncing ruffs or wood-block resonation, for the bassist to showcase double-stopped, beneath-the-bridge scrapes and near wood-cracking slides.

Inner Constellation is resolved when the atmospheric polyphony of stop-time cries from the saxophone and whinnying asides from the trumpet uncover a sprightlier and speedier rhythmic variation from the guitarist’s supple finger styling. As the composition dissolves with a defining rasgueado from the composer, the promise of a Volume Two appears very inviting.

In MusicWorks Issue #100

April 3, 2008

Ken Waxman’s Top CDs for 2007

[In alphabetical order]
For CODA Issue 337

1. Muhal Richard Abrams, Vision Towards Essence Pi Recordings Pi23

2. Johannes Bauer/Thomas Lehn/Jon Rose, Futch Jazzwerkstatt JW 010

3. Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet, Inner Constellation Volume One. Nemu 007

4. Exploding Customer, At Your Service Ayler aylCD-063

5. Scott Fields Ensemble, Beckett Clean Feed CFO69 CD

6. Frank Gratkowski/Misha Mengelberg, Vis-à-vis Leo CD LR 476

7. François Houle, Evan Parker, Benoît Delbecq La Lumière de Pierres psi 07.02

8. Lucas Niggli Big Zoom, Celebrate Diversity Intakt CD 118

9. Quartestski Does Prokofiev, Visions Fugitives OP. 22 Ambiances Magnétiques AM 171 CD

10. Elliott Sharp & Reinhold Friedl, Feuchtify EMANEM 4133

Plus Two reissues:

• Charles Mingus, Music Written for Monterey, 1965 Not Heard … Played Live in Its Entirety at UCLA Sue Mingus Music/Sunnyside SSC 3041

• Andrea Centazzo Mitteleuropa Orchestra, The Complete Recordings Collection 1980-1981; The Complete Recordings Collection 1982-1983 Ictus Records Special Collection Vol. 1-3, Vol. 4-6

January 15, 2008

Carnival Skin

Carnival Skin
Nemu 003

By Ken Waxman

Blending extended techniques from a variety of genres – including modern notated composition – with elements of Ornette Coleman-like free jazz, Carnival Skin proclaims its individuality in instrumentation.

That’s because the German-American quintet has as one lead voice, Bruce Eisenbeil’s guitar – an instrument whose sinuous fills and rough chording aren’t often heard in hard-core free improv situations. Similarly the overall instrumentation is less than commonplace.

German drummer Klaus Kugel, who works with New York trombonist Steve Swell; and bassist Hillard Greene, who has backed pianist Cecil Taylor; provide the proper rhythm, yet often simultaneously function as complementary soloists. Meanwhile the so-called front line includes the guitar of Eisenbeil, who has also partnered with Swell; the trumpet and piccolo trumpet of younger Peter Evans, who also performs contemporary classical and electro-acoustic music; and veteran clarinetist Perry Robinson, whose affiliation with the New Thing goes back to the early 1960s. Improvising together in twos and threes worked so well that the five decided to attempt this band session.

That such disparate backgrounds should interlock so completely is a tribute both to the players and the material, with the CD including one tune from each band member and the short, group-improvised title track. It features wide intervals floated on Robinson’s rubato upper register warbles, high-note slurs from Evans’ piccolo trumpet and Eisenbeil’s ostinato strumming.

So at ease with jazz language that he at various times suggests Grant Green’s bristling funk-like single-note picking and at others the accelerated slurred fingering and flanged delays that various plectrumists in Coleman’s Prime Time bands aimed at, Esenbeil is no monomaniacal guitar hero.

Instead a more common strategy is blending his cascading fills and sandpaper-like string abrasions with the horn players’ polyphonic output. On the brassman’s “Monster” for instance, the guitarist’s string snapping meets Evans’ quickly vibrated triplets and Robinson’s narrowed tongue squeaks. Elsewhere the trumpeter expresses himself in harder and faster bent notes or plunger choruses and the clarinetist does the same with flute-like whistles or emphasized smears.

Fixated on solid time-keeping throughout, Greene also provides the CD’s most ambitious piece in the almost-12-minute “Iono”. Written as a series of near-concertos, the modal-like melody showcases ringing and resonating guitar rasgueado; low intensity but steady arco lines from the bass; press rolls from Kugel; and backward moving discordant triplets and slurs from the horns, which climax with Robinson’s buzzy, low-pitched solo.

Melodic and discordant at various times – often within the same composition –

Carnival Skin, the band, meets all the compositional challenges presented to it. Carnival Skin, the CD, confirms that unhackneyed, contemporary improvisation can be created no matter the instrumentation or the players’ age or background.

In MusicWorks Issue #96

November 21, 2006

FLINN/EISENBEIL/WREN

Keep The Meter Running
9 Winds NWCD 0246

One of the most exciting parts of group improvisation for me is that sense of not quite being sure whether what you can hear is you or not,” declares veteran British bassist Tony Wren. And this exciting session, featuring Wren, New York-based guitarist Bruce Eisenbeil and Los Angeles’ drummer Stephen Flinn exhibits this in spades.

A first time meeting between the two string players, the startling sounds produced attest to the versatility of the trio members, not one of whom is satisfied with the conventional sounds usually created with his respective instrument. All through these series of duo and trios, it’s not only sometimes impossible to ascribe a certain sound to a certain musician, although you can attest with certainty that either no one or all three are really percussionists.

Consisting of 16 improvisations on a CD of less than 49 minutes duration, KEEP THE METER RUNNING resembles a Ramones record in its brevity, That is as long as you remember that Wren was established on the BritImprov scene before the punk-rockers even learned their three guitar chords. Early on the bassist was part of such 1970s groups as Chamberpot with violinist Phil Wachsmann, and more recently his playing partners have included British cellist Mark Wastell and Swedes, saxophonist Martin Küchen and drummer Raymond Strid.

Younger, though more hair follicle challenged than Wren, the guitarist and drummer build on this history, offering a mid-Atlantic fillip to the English fashion of subdued improv. A Left Coaster, Flinn has worked with tenor saxophonist Marcello Blanco; while Eisenbeil’s conspicuously unique approach to the six string has been recognized by musicians ranging from masters, such as pianist Cecil Taylor and drummer Milford Graves to contemporaries like trombonist Steve Swell and vibist Gregg Bendian.

You can note Flinn and Eisenbeil’s intimacy on the duo tunes where the guitarist alternates amp buzzes and string scrapes to match cymbal sounds being extended with a moistened finger or a violin bow. There’s even a point at the very end when Eisenbeil creates some Balkan-style, outer space melodies to meet Flinn’s wiggling percussion.

Elsewhere, the four-string and six-string partnerships either turns into a symphony of scrapes, leading to animal-like reverberating wails, or are used as an opportunity for one player to appropriate the percussion function with bow strikes against the strings, while the other -- probably Wren -- produces brief arco tones. The sole bass-percussion meeting appears to feature reverberating sticks carefully placed between his bass strings, before the bassist probes those same chords with fingers and palms. In response kit crashes follow a introduction that sounds as if the percussionist is wiping his equipment with a clean cloth. However, that tune also illuminates the set’s only weakness. Some of the pieces in the one-to-three minute range sound truncated, as if they could have gone further.

Happily, others get more space. On the more than 6½-minute “Soup Line”, for instance, percussion seems to consist of scraping miniature finger cymbals and banging on the front of the guitar strings. Somehow Wren contributes what appear to be bass guitar runs, while penny-whistle tones and wildfowl cackles arise elsewhere. The ending includes what could be the sound of a top spinning and/or the aural replication of miscellaneous mechanical devices let loose on the studio floor.

The rock maple neck and the very heavy strings of Eisenbeil’s electric serve him well on “Absolutely” as tones boomerang and ricochet as he scrapes and lacerates the playing surface. Flinn’s cymbals and bells seem to presage a toyshop explosion with all the playthings resounding every which way as they soar into the air, while Wren bows solidly throughout the proceedings. Between his banjo-like picking and Dobro reverberations, Eisenbeil, with the melody instrument, does hold on to some modicum of harmony. There are even times he manages to create strummed tunelets from among his improv sleight-of-hands.

At other points, the overtones that should result from each of the instruments are used for special effect as cymbals appear to rotate on the floor, typewriter keys are sampled, maracas appear to be shaken, and someone could be blowing into a Tibetan bowl. Plus the CD may have captured the musical sounds that arise when a bass is dragged across the floor.

A mini-essay in trans-Atlantic improv, this CD will probably further confuse the issue of which musician plays which sound. But the end result is worth the puzzlement.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Tenderloin 2. Dots ‘N’ Dashes 3. Absolutely 4. Wow 5. Soup Line 6. Expensive Flight 7. No stars in Dublin 8. Feverish 9. Flake 0 10. Mafia Wife 11. Navel ice 12. Extra Heat 13. Capitalize 14. Nite Cop 15. Belongs to JD 16. Houston St.

Personnel: Bruce Eisenbeil (electric and acoustic guitars); Tony Wren (bass); Stephen Flinn (drums, percussion)

July 14, 2003

STEVE SWELL

Presents Particle Data Group
Cadence Jazz Records CJR 1139

Voicing disparate instruments together in a small group can be a challenge for even the most accomplished arranger. When the context is free improvisation the creation can be even dicier without expected parts to follow.

That this CD of instant compositions hangs together so well is a testament to the cooperative intuition of the three musicians involved. Selfless in terms of deep listening and quick reflexes, each player manages to subsume whatever agenda he follows for the greater good without resorting to New Age noodling.

De facto leader, trombonist Steve Swell, offers the cooperative experience he has gained playing for leaders as different as vibist Lionel Hampton, altoist Tim Berne and bassist William Parker, although the last two probably provided better background for this excursion. Best-known for his spiky jazz-rock excursions with the guitar and drum-playing Cline brothers, vibist Greg Bendian, who also works as a percussionist, has immersed himself in free jazz with bands led by Parker and pianist Cecil Taylor. Iconoclastic guitarist Bruce Eisenbeil has spent the past few years finding a niche for his instrument in freer contexts both in his own bands and with elders like master drummer Milford Graves.

Throughout, the sounds from the Particle Data Group (PDG) range from raucous to restrained, with the former particularly noteworthy. That’s because earlier bands that excelled in drummer-less ensembles, like Red Norvo’s vibes-guitar-bass trio or Jimmy Giuffre’s reeds-trombone-guitar combo, limited themselves to jazz chamber music.

PDG takes things even further out as well. On the this-side-of-New-music “Temporal Resolutions”, Bendian cuts his instrument’s motor to approximate the found sound of banging on real untempered metal before producing a summer rain shower of tiny vibe notes. Apparently unplugged as well, Eisenbeil flaunts his axe as a percussion implement, while Swell’s contribution extends from full-bodied trombone howls to muted internal bell explorations to melismatic smears.

On other tracks, the three express themselves in situations ranging from 59 seconds to almost nine minutes, as they take turns passing the percussive and front line roles from one to another. “Constancy of Motion”, for instance, the longest and most traditional (sic) free jazz outing, features Bendian letting loose with some swift, undulating and shimmering vibe runs, while Swell spews out tart, smeared ’bone discursions. “For Roswell”, obviously dedicated to pioneer free player Roswell Rudd, is more a tribute than an emulation. Still Swell, a trombonist, who has worked in combos beside Rudd, does mirror the single-lined boisterous quasi-Dixieland blasts that distinguish the solos of the other man from his more studied approach.

“Anahad” finds the trombonist reveling in Classic Jazz brass smears and struts, Bendian transfiguring his vibes to something midway between a metal drum and a metal piano, and Eisenbeil performing both bass and guitar functions.

The main criticism of the session, that the guitar’s contributions are often masked by the more upfront soloing of Swell and Bendian, are answered on the appropriately titled “No Bones About It”. A duet for the vibist and guitarist, the former tries to limit himself to a supporting role, producing a vibrato-laden ostinato, while the guitarist charges up and down the frets.

In short, discovering a striking example of how to transform one string, one horn and one percussion instrument into a combo that creates orchestrally rather than in miniatures is no more difficult than finding this CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Anahad 2. For David Bohm 3. Constancy of Motion 4. Dissolution of a Curve 5. Interdependence 6. Congenital Phraseology 7. Diagnostic Placements 8. The Wisdom of Starting Where You Are 9. No Bones About It 10. Sarmad 11. Temporal Resolutions 12. For Roswell 13. Uphill Interactions

Personnel: Steve Swell (trombone); Bruce Eisenbeil (guitar); Gregg Bendian (vibes)

March 1, 2002

BRUCE EISENBEIL

Mural
CIMP #194

A few years ago someone wrote that all major jazzmen are romantics, including such surprising figures as Ornette Coleman and Thelonious Monk. While guitarist Bruce Eisenbeil isn't in their class -- yet -- on the evidence of this CD, he's trying to reflect unsentimental passion while wrestling with the guitar's place in post-modern jazz.

In a way both these tasks ran parallel. For none of the all-original tunes on this session sound like the standard saccharine ballads which have become the bane of mainstream jazzers. At the same time, although New York-based Eisenbeil studied with the likes of Joe Pass and Howard Roberts, his playing no more resembles that of a ordinary lounge plectrumist than Coleman's did Paul Desmond's.

Instead what Eisenbeil tries to do here is come up with an approach that simultaneously displays soloing and accompaniment, often in the course of the same few bars. Considering conventional guitar's enduring popularity in pop music and "standard(s)" jazz, this experimentation is a brave task indeed.

On the atmospheric "Caesar", for instance, a not-quite-blues, the guitarist seems most involved with exploring single line textures, while Sawyer rattles and rumbles around him. Then as the tempo ratchets up, the two become more abstract. "Blue Poles", on the other hand, after its bowed bass introduction -- a consistent leitmotif here -- finds Brunka minutely shadowing Eisenbeil as he finesses his way through the tune.

Anyone who has heard the guitarist's earlier CD, NINE WINGS (CIMP 144), an abrasive guitar/sax/drums, free jazz blow out, may wonder about the placid tone here. But a quick listen to the other session -- while perhaps mentally subtracting Rob Brown's alto saxophone -- will reveal the same measured guitarisms as this one. Paradoxically, they sound more conventional in that context.

If there's criticism that must be directed towards MURAL, however, it's a sameness of approach. More varied tempos and a few additional colors would have enlivened the almost monochromatic sound picture here. Plus CIMP's now infamous engineering, which at intervals causes Brunka to completely disappear, doesn't help matters either.

Eisenbeil is one of those investigators searching for a new way to approach playing the world's most popular instrument. With his CIMP CDs he seems to have exhausted the possibilities of a trio context. His next session will feature many more collaborators in varied settings. Likely, it will provide an even more sympathetic insight into the scope of his philosophy.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Wildflowers 2. Caesar 3. Woman with a Handful of Rain 4. Prelude 5. Habeus Corpus 6. Chris V. Paradise 7. In Memory of A.D. (High Relief) 8. Crucifixion 9. Blue Poles

Personnel: Bruce Eisenbeil (guitar); J. Brunka (bass); Ryan Sawyer (drums)

August 24, 2000