Archie Shepp

The New York Contemporary Five
Delmark DE 409

New York Art Quartet

Old Stuff: October 1965

Cuneiform Records RUNE 300

Back in the turbulent days of the early 1960s when the New Thing was really new, North American gigs for the pioneers of Free Jazz were at the same premium that they are for advanced players today. That’s when the wholesale exodus to work in Europe for longer or shorter stays began. These prime slices of birthing Energy Music capture two acclaimed, ostensible New York bands, performing to wider acclaim in Copenhagen.

Part of the reason for this location is that a member of both The New York Contemporary Five (NYC5) and the New York Art Quartet (NYAQ) was Danish-Congolese alto saxophonist John Tchicai, who spent his youth in the Danish capital and secured the club and concert engagements heard here. Both co-op bands, the NYC5 CD from 1963, features, along with Tchicai, four New Yorkers: cornetist Don Cherry, who had just left Ornette Coleman’s quartet; tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp, basking in his first fame; bassist Don Moore, who would later join the NYAQ; and drummer J.C. Moses, who ended up moving to Copenhagen later in the decade. To pinpoint just how new the music was at this time, the set list is made up of originals by each of the horn men, two Coleman lines and one by Thelonious Monk.

Fast forward two years later and the only composition not written by the NYJQ’s horn men is another Monk tune. At the same time this was a new configuration of the quartet which in the interim had released one LP for ESP Disk. For a start, Tchicai, who in the time between this CD and the other had worked with Shepp and John Coltrane, had moved back to Denmark. Additionally, only NYAQ co-leader Rudd, who regularly played with saxophonists Steve Lacy and Shepp at the time made this European gig. That meant that the supposedly New York quartet was filled out by advanced Danish bassist Finn von Eyben, who is now a prominent bio-medical researcher, plus expatriate South African drummer Louis Moholo, at the beginning of a long career in Europe.

In truth with Rudd’s avant-tailgate smears and whinnies plus Tchicai’s tart flutter-tonguing and tone slithers extant, this NYAQ didn’t sound that different from the Manhattan-original. Considering that the repertoire included the distinctive themes and voicing which the two horn men had worked out for the combo, these 11 tracks are a welcome addendum to the NYAQ’s earlier work.

Tunes such as the altoist’s “Cool Eyes” and the trombonist’s “Karin’s Blues” also demonstrate the pick-up band evolving musically as it advanced the NYAQ style. Thick pedal point from von Eyben holds together the first tune, which is also notable for stutters and wide vibrations from Rudd plus shrill liquid tone expansions from Tchicai. Eventually the ostinato gives way to a dramatic finale, as the saxophonist’s quivering trills mix it up with the trombonist’s huffing and puffing grace notes. Moholo’s drum break as a coda is part-and-parcel of the sort of swinging feel of other numbers such as “Karin’s Blues”. Here walking bass and chiming cymbals serve as a backdrop to Rudd’s low-pitched grace notes and sliding slurs, followed by near-the-scroll twangs from the bassist, and finally lyrical horn counterpoint including some of the saxman’s favorite licks.

These licks get more exposure on other pieces including the title tune, Tchicai’s “Pà Tirsclag” and Rudd’s “Rosmosis”. The first two presenting opposite glimpses of the quartet. “Old Stuff” is built on expanded Dixieland harmonies expanded from contrapuntal horn work and a recapped head that includes slinky reed bites and honks plus double-and triple-stopping bass work. In contrast, “Pà Tirsclag” uses Moholo’s clip-clops and rim fidgeting to set up a series of horn vamps until the tine is deconstructed by the trombonist’s tailgate slurs and splayed parlando from the saxman. With stop-time and tempo changes “Rosmosis” is probably the NYAQ’s most characteristic piece. Tchicai accompanies Rudd’s plunger brays with a blistering obbligato while the bassist’s resonating stops and Moholo’s cymbal shakes keep the excitement mounting for more than 15 minutes.

Tchicai and the other members of the NYC5 were in an earlier state of development two years earlier, and so was recording equipment, which is boxier than it is in 1965. Moses is more in a Roach-Blakey bag than Moholo would be and Moore rarely steps forward. Shepp’s original, “The Funeral” is appropriately adagio with processional drum rolls and powerful bass slaps, but so-called avant-garde effects only appear with Cherry’s tightly stretched grace notes and the composer’s spluttered glottal punctuation and false register split tones. Similarly the performance of Tchicai’s “Mik”, is pretty straightforward. The bassist walks, the drummer pops and rebounds and the theme statement is harmonized by the horns. Tchicai’s astringent tongue flutters and peeps resemble Coleman’s work, and again it’s Cherry’s heraldic power which seems most assured.

With most of the program taken up by Coleman tunes and Cherry’s original, it’s evident that the Coleman influence can’t be escaped. At least “O.C.” is taken more staccato than Coleman would, although walking bass, over-recorded drum rolls and riffing R&B styled horn parts relate more to 1950s Hard Bop than Coleman’s harmolodics. Blustery stutters from Shepp add some taut diffidence to the performance, however. Cherry’s “Cisum” may suffer from over-enthusiastic drumming as well – complete with bomb-dropping – not to mention an expected recapped head, but the cornetist’s peeps and flutter-tongued respite plus the fortissimo serrated and glottal textures from both saxmen make it memorable.

Like early Bebop records, too few documents of Free Jazz’s foundation exist and these CDs add more glimpses into the music in its seminal stage. Both are interesting musically as well as historically and would probably be massively enjoyed by fans of the genre. Yet precisely because revolutions – sonic and otherwise – commonly move at wrap speed, the two additional years of cogitating and practicing give the NYAQ and edge on the NYC5.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Old: 1. Rosmosis 2. Sweet Smells 3. Old Stuff 4. Panonica 5. Kvintus T 6. Pà Tirsclag 7. Old Stuff 8. Cool Eyes 9. Sweet V 10. Karin’s Blues 11. Kirsten

Personnel: Old: Roswell Rudd (trombone); John Tchicai (alto saxophone); Finn von Eyben (bass) and Louis Moholo (drums)

Track Listing: New: 1. Cisum 2. Crepuscule with Nellie 3. O.C. 4. When Will The Blues Leave 5. The Funeral 6. Milk

Personnel: New: Don Cherry (cornet); John Tchicai (alto saxophone); Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone); Don Moore (bass) and J.C. Moses (drums)

December 19, 2010

New York Art Quartet

Old Stuff: October 1965
Cuneiform Records RUNE 300

Archie Shepp

The New York Contemporary Five

Delmark DE 409

Back in the turbulent days of the early 1960s when the New Thing was really new, North American gigs for the pioneers of Free Jazz were at the same premium that they are for advanced players today. That’s when the wholesale exodus to work in Europe for longer or shorter stays began. These prime slices of birthing Energy Music capture two acclaimed, ostensible New York bands, performing to wider acclaim in Copenhagen.

Part of the reason for this location is that a member of both The New York Contemporary Five (NYC5) and the New York Art Quartet (NYAQ) was Danish-Congolese alto saxophonist John Tchicai, who spent his youth in the Danish capital and secured the club and concert engagements heard here. Both co-op bands, the NYC5 CD from 1963, features, along with Tchicai, four New Yorkers: cornetist Don Cherry, who had just left Ornette Coleman’s quartet; tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp, basking in his first fame; bassist Don Moore, who would later join the NYAQ; and drummer J.C. Moses, who ended up moving to Copenhagen later in the decade. To pinpoint just how new the music was at this time, the set list is made up of originals by each of the horn men, two Coleman lines and one by Thelonious Monk.

Fast forward two years later and the only composition not written by the NYJQ’s horn men is another Monk tune. At the same time this was a new configuration of the quartet which in the interim had released one LP for ESP Disk. For a start, Tchicai, who in the time between this CD and the other had worked with Shepp and John Coltrane, had moved back to Denmark. Additionally, only NYAQ co-leader Rudd, who regularly played with saxophonists Steve Lacy and Shepp at the time made this European gig. That meant that the supposedly New York quartet was filled out by advanced Danish bassist Finn von Eyben, who is now a prominent bio-medical researcher, plus expatriate South African drummer Louis Moholo, at the beginning of a long career in Europe.

In truth with Rudd’s avant-tailgate smears and whinnies plus Tchicai’s tart flutter-tonguing and tone slithers extant, this NYAQ didn’t sound that different from the Manhattan-original. Considering that the repertoire included the distinctive themes and voicing which the two horn men had worked out for the combo, these 11 tracks are a welcome addendum to the NYAQ’s earlier work.

Tunes such as the altoist’s “Cool Eyes” and the trombonist’s “Karin’s Blues” also demonstrate the pick-up band evolving musically as it advanced the NYAQ style. Thick pedal point from von Eyben holds together the first tune, which is also notable for stutters and wide vibrations from Rudd plus shrill liquid tone expansions from Tchicai. Eventually the ostinato gives way to a dramatic finale, as the saxophonist’s quivering trills mix it up with the trombonist’s huffing and puffing grace notes. Moholo’s drum break as a coda is part-and-parcel of the sort of swinging feel of other numbers such as “Karin’s Blues”. Here walking bass and chiming cymbals serve as a backdrop to Rudd’s low-pitched grace notes and sliding slurs, followed by near-the-scroll twangs from the bassist, and finally lyrical horn counterpoint including some of the saxman’s favorite licks.

These licks get more exposure on other pieces including the title tune, Tchicai’s “Pà Tirsclag” and Rudd’s “Rosmosis”. The first two presenting opposite glimpses of the quartet. “Old Stuff” is built on expanded Dixieland harmonies expanded from contrapuntal horn work and a recapped head that includes slinky reed bites and honks plus double-and triple-stopping bass work. In contrast, “Pà Tirsclag” uses Moholo’s clip-clops and rim fidgeting to set up a series of horn vamps until the tine is deconstructed by the trombonist’s tailgate slurs and splayed parlando from the saxman. With stop-time and tempo changes “Rosmosis” is probably the NYAQ’s most characteristic piece. Tchicai accompanies Rudd’s plunger brays with a blistering obbligato while the bassist’s resonating stops and Moholo’s cymbal shakes keep the excitement mounting for more than 15 minutes.

Tchicai and the other members of the NYC5 were in an earlier state of development two years earlier, and so was recording equipment, which is boxier than it is in 1965. Moses is more in a Roach-Blakey bag than Moholo would be and Moore rarely steps forward. Shepp’s original, “The Funeral” is appropriately adagio with processional drum rolls and powerful bass slaps, but so-called avant-garde effects only appear with Cherry’s tightly stretched grace notes and the composer’s spluttered glottal punctuation and false register split tones. Similarly the performance of Tchicai’s “Mik”, is pretty straightforward. The bassist walks, the drummer pops and rebounds and the theme statement is harmonized by the horns. Tchicai’s astringent tongue flutters and peeps resemble Coleman’s work, and again it’s Cherry’s heraldic power which seems most assured.

With most of the program taken up by Coleman tunes and Cherry’s original, it’s evident that the Coleman influence can’t be escaped. At least “O.C.” is taken more staccato than Coleman would, although walking bass, over-recorded drum rolls and riffing R&B styled horn parts relate more to 1950s Hard Bop than Coleman’s harmolodics. Blustery stutters from Shepp add some taut diffidence to the performance, however. Cherry’s “Cisum” may suffer from over-enthusiastic drumming as well – complete with bomb-dropping – not to mention an expected recapped head, but the cornetist’s peeps and flutter-tongued respite plus the fortissimo serrated and glottal textures from both saxmen make it memorable.

Like early Bebop records, too few documents of Free Jazz’s foundation exist and these CDs add more glimpses into the music in its seminal stage. Both are interesting musically as well as historically and would probably be massively enjoyed by fans of the genre. Yet precisely because revolutions – sonic and otherwise – commonly move at wrap speed, the two additional years of cogitating and practicing give the NYAQ and edge on the NYC5.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Old: 1. Rosmosis 2. Sweet Smells 3. Old Stuff 4. Panonica 5. Kvintus T 6. Pà Tirsclag 7. Old Stuff 8. Cool Eyes 9. Sweet V 10. Karin’s Blues 11. Kirsten

Personnel: Old: Roswell Rudd (trombone); John Tchicai (alto saxophone); Finn von Eyben (bass) and Louis Moholo (drums)

Track Listing: New: 1. Cisum 2. Crepuscule with Nellie 3. O.C. 4. When Will The Blues Leave 5. The Funeral 6. Milk

Personnel: New: Don Cherry (cornet); John Tchicai (alto saxophone); Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone); Don Moore (bass) and J.C. Moses (drums)

December 19, 2010

Aki Takase

A Week Went By
psi 10.03

Tama

Rolled Up

Jazz Werkstatt JW 067

Recorded less than a year apart, either of these discs by pianist Aki Takase appropriately demonstrates the distinguishing traits of her mature style. A permanent resident of Berlin since 1987, the Japanese-born Takase appears to have no traces of the Orient in her playing.

Expecting some form of Eastern sound from her however may be churlish or naïve, since Takase’s keyboard conception is completely her own. Her preference is for extended cadences and fantasia which rely more on the piano’s lower register than do most players. Plus her version of the now-standard stopping and plucking of the piano’s inner strings usually includes resting implements upon them, whose tonal asides and sometimes literal appearances create distinctive textures. Someone whose playing partners over the years her have included sound explorers such as saxophonist Evan Parker and singer Lauren Newton, she equally committed to Jazz’s ongoing tradition, evidenced by projects dedicated to Ornette Coleman and Fats Waller among others.

Here, with two different rhythm sections, and, on one track of A Week Went By a saxophone guest, she continues to furrow a groove midway between avant garde and modern mainstream. Some of the tracks deal with extended techniques and internal string excitement; others take on a Boppish cast, with echoes of Thelonious Monk’s playing. That too shouldn’t be a surprise, since her husband and fellow pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach is a specialist in the interpretation of Monk tunes.

The chief difference between these two CDs is that bassist Jan Roder on Rolled Up seems much more withdrawn in his contributions than John Edwards does on the other disc. Considering that drummers Oliver Steidle and Tony Levin are equally prominent; and that Roder is upfront enough on other gigs; and considering Tama is a working group, it may be that Takase told him to lay back.

That’s unfortunate because the most impressive of Tama’s 13 tracks are when the trio is firing full force on three cylinders rather than two. For instance “Back Stone” is a fine example of kinetic triple counterpoint, with pluck and pushes on the bass strings, dramatic pressure from the keyboard and echoing cymbal ratchets. Similarly when the bassist expresses heightened atonality with sul ponticello swipes leading to tones that could come from window opening and the pianist moves her internal string stopping to measured tonality on “The Last Drop”, the partnership appears complete.

Conversely on more conventional tracks such as “Breaking Eggs” and “Smoke Ball” – both composed by Takase but sounding like a Hard Bop line or a Latin showcase respectively – Roder retreats to standard time-keeping. On the former, his string-stopping relates more to 1956 than anything since, as the pianist clips some doubled Monk-styled notes; on the later his string slaps are nearly lost amid Steidle’s upfront clanks and press rolls plus Takase’s key pumps which accelerate into tremolo patterns.

Finally, tunes such as Takase’s “Perlin” and a group improv on “Ein Hoher Baum Fängt Viel Wind” appear to only be, in the first case, more an exercise in layered piano harmonies, or in the later a showcase for the drummer’s and pianist’s ability to add swing to a near-military beat. Additional colors are added to “Perlin” by Steidle alternating simple cymbal raps with bell ringing, as Takase sneaks upwards to forte and presto glissandi from a hitherto gentle pulse. Glissandi as well as other techniques are featured on A Week Went By, which matches the pianist with Levin, the veteran drummer, who started s a Hard Bopper, and Edwards, a bassist who seems to have worked with everyone in Free Music from harpist Rhodri Davies to saxophonist John Butcher.

Two immediate examples of this trio effectiveness are on “Cell Culture” and the title track. On the former squeaking bass spiccato and Levin’s blunt strokes create the sort of polyrhythms that frame Takase’s speedy chording, downward keyboard rappelling and resonating high-frequency pounding. Edwards’ spidery strategies are even more prominent on “A Week Went By” as he stops and strums the strings with equal facility –

and nearly simultaneously. Moving to slaps and scrubs as Takase strokes and Levin ruffs, it’s Edwards who turns to walking, eventually creating a full-fledged Jazz line. Dynamic movements from the pianist, which include splayed key pulsing eventually gives way to a sprawling, half-speed beats from Edwards.

On her own on “Ima wa Mukashi” Takase varies her bulky touch with selected episodes where she digs inside the instrument’s action to pluck the strings. She also jangles aluminum pie plates placed on the strings, works the results up to staccato disconnections and then turns the resulting textures into low-pitched cluster chords.

Her meeting with Danish alto saxophonist John Tchicai, whose experience goes back to the birth of the New Thing, also reaches that mid-point between experimentation and tradition. As she accompanies him with doubled plinks and metronomic pops, the saxophonist expels intense trills with a swelling vibrato before heading off into irregular split tones. Her replication of piano-roll-like chording seems to orient his playing in a traditional direction, so that he’s soon quoting “Epistrophy” and “Manteca” before downshifting to honks, overblowing and eventual rapprochement with the piano chords.

Takese’s playing and composing is appropriately showcased on both of these notable CDs. A Week Went By has a slight edge though because of Roder’s uncharacteristic reticence.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Rolled 1. Rolled Up 2. Ball of Yarn 2. Glass Beads 4. Smoke Ball 5. The Last Drop 6. Point 3 7. Black Stone 8. Round Table 9. Drehühne 10. Ein Hoher Baum Fängt Viel Wind 11. Breaking Egg 12. Perlen 13. Schöne Edelsteine

Personnel: Rolled: Aki Takase (piano); Jan Roder (bass) and Oliver Steidle (drums)

Track Listing: Week: 1. Surface tension 2. A week went by 3. Steinblock 4. Just drop in* 5. 57577 6. Ima wa Mukashi 7. Cell Culture 8. Men are shadows 9. Yumetamago

Personnel: Week: John Tchicai (alto saxophone)*; Aki Takase (piano); John Edwards (bass [all but 4, 5, 9]) and Tony Levin (drums [all but 4, 5, 9])

October 22, 2010

Shibolet/Josephson/Baker/Looney/Smith

Untitled (1959)
Kadima Collective KCR 09

Slava Ganelin-Vladimir Volkov

Ne Slyshno

Auris Media Aum 012

Slava Ganelin-Neil Rothenberg

Falling Into Place

Auris Media Aum 007

Various

White Nights Festival Tel Aviv 2006

Kadima Collective KCR 11

Secure in its position as the one true democracy in the Middle East, cosmopolitan elements in Israel have long encouraged the growth of an indigenous jazz scene. Only in the past decade-and-a-half however, have improvisers on the Israeli scene elicited more than local interest. At the same time, associations between many Israelis and musicians in other countries has meant that a Diaspora of improvisers from the Jewish state has set up shop – and garnered fulsome praise – in jazz capitals such as New York.

As the top-flight music on these CDs demonstrates, not every Israeli improviser has emigrated. However it’s also instructive to note that many of the most notable sounds here result from collaborations between Israeli players and outsiders. Plus with the still-young country actively encouraging Jewish immigration, some of Israel’s more advanced players have non-Israeli origins. To take three at random, baritone saxophonist Steve Horenstein is originally an American; bassist JC Jones comes from France; and keyboardist Slava Ganelin’s Ganelin Trio was probably the most famous avant-garde ensemble in the Cold War era Soviet Block, before the Lithuanian Ganelin immigrated to Israel.

Still an internationalist, Ne Slyshno finds the veteran Ganelin hooked up with a former Russian, bassist Vladimir Volkov, whose past credits include work with the Moscow Composers Orchestra and Moscow Art Trio. Conversant with many styles of music, Volkov’s tough plucking and string-stopping resemble that of mainstreamers like Red Mitchell, while his sul ponticello slides and high frequency tremolo patterns are stylistically avant-garde. Someone who also performs traditional music on the viola de gamba, Volkov’s facility includes the ability to add Roma-like flying staccato runs to his solos.

Completed by short, quieter postludes, which allow Ganelin’s grand piano cadenzas to suggest both Artur Rubinstein-like romantic coloration and dynamics and the key-spanking and plinking that relate to Bud Powell’s bop advances, the improvisations at Ne Slyshn’s centre are both extensive and descriptive.

Instructively, no more than one-quarter of the second track passes before the pianist makes clear that despite his liking for contrasting dynamics à la Cecil Taylor, the swaggering echoes he uses distinctively distance him from the American’s concept. Furthermore among the gouts of notes exposed, his playing is still sensitive enough to make room for Volkov’s staccato squeaks on the higher-pitched strings. While Ganelin’s styling may be modern enough to include internal string scraping, manic boogie-woogie-styling and rough chiming notes appear as well. Then by the tune’s climax his Slavic balladic side asserts itself again.

When the two instruments couple on the third track, the bassist’s subterranean plucks are given added impetus by the pianist’s rolling chords patterns. In fact, Volkov’s double-stopping percussiveness when added to Ganelin’s cross-handed plinking and cymbal slaps – the pianist also plays percussion – almost transforms the two musicians into a bop trio. Just as quickly bird-screeching rappelling on the bull fiddle’s strings splinter the piano’s Europeanized melodies, leaving more space for bell-ringing and the squeaks of plastic toys. Ramping up his keys with foot pedal pressure to full Russian classical mode, Ganelin’s widely splayed forward motion is only moderated by Volkov’s modulated string slapping.

A year previously Ganelin met American multi-reedist Ned Rothenberg for a live concert in Jaffa. It foreshadowed some of his simpatico work with Volkov, but elsewhere seems more distant than any land-sharing proposal from either the Palestinian or Israeli side. Three of the first four numbers expose Rothenberg’s skill on clarinet, bass clarinet and alto saxophone. The fourth is a more-than-34-minute solo tour-de-force from Ganelin called “A Place With The Space”. It’s so self-contained, that “A Place With The Space” could be a Territories settler’s view of the rest of the country.

Throughout, Ganelin seem intent on not only on creating a fantasia of organic piano patterns, but also boost his admittedly rudimentary percussion skills. Later on, he confirm that his synthesizer is capable of replicating any timbre from that of the lumbering bassoon in Peter and the Wolf to thundering E. Power Biggs-like organ stops. Again creating a détente between Romantic-styled cadences and bebop runs on the piano, Ganelin’s pitch-sliding tones and soundboard vibrations are more descriptive than the thumping percussion or the swirling, blurred patterns from the synth.

For his part, Rothenberg, who has held his own in duets with British saxophone master Evan Parker among others, defines versatility. “The Foot In It” exhibits his tongue-slapping chalumeau register and widely spaced multiphonics on bass clarinet. “A Blue Dance” for clarinet shows how harsh trills, legato chirps and flutter tonguing can be built up into rhythmic refractions of continuous breathing with verbalized hocketing and expressive high pitches. Introducing the properties of his alto saxophone’s metal as well as its reed, “Wood In The Metal” is cumulative program of high intensity and extended pitches that by exposing every sibilant tone produce a sound midway between bagpipe chanter and a pan flute.

Somewhat anti-climatic, the set of short duets that follow merely gilds the two sonic lilies that are exhibited singly. More like jousts than meetings, the feeling persists that each player dons his technical armor as a way to push the other to react. Thus at one point flowery and extended European piano echoes lead to mellow bass clarinet runs, snorts and gentling coloration, with tongue slaps and arpeggios stretching to be more connective. Elsewhere, marimba-like internal piano string echoes underscore single, twittering shakuhachi lines.

A similar congruence, but not-quite connection, exists in the extended free improvisation from Ganelin, drummer Arkady Gotesman and Irish guitarist Mark O’Leary on White Nights Festival. Tel Aviv’s 12-hour musical marathon., the live performances mix’n’match Israelis and visitors in ad-hoc groups. With Gotesman laying down a low rumble and the pianist comping, the guitarist appears eager to break things up by varying what initially seems to be Tal Farlow-like picking with long-lined frails and rock-styled vamps. Meeting him with key patting and pounding plus disassociated runs, Genelin’s post-Energy music and O’Leary post-fusion sounds don’t really gel.

More sympathetic is the drummer’s low-key contribution to “German Poem”, which also features the walking bass of Shmil Frankel, off-centre tolling piano notes from Olga Magieres plus Harold Rubin’s recitation and rustic tongue slapping and twittering clarinet work. The instrumental section trumps the words however.

However on “Ship of Fools”, an interactive trio of saxophonist Horenstein, bassist Jones and Loic Kessous on computer sound processing, makes better use of bull fiddle and reed timbres. Content to process and spit back the purely instrumental tones, the computer only betrays its presence with the odd shuddering pulse. Overall, the piece is an essay in cooperation. Working up to high intensity, Jones ratchets his bow across the strings producing sul ponticello lines, rough strums and spiccato ricocheting. Meanwhile Horenstein snorts split tones from the baritone’s highest register, steady, low-pitched honks and tongue flutters. Eventually reached is an accord of tremolo tones that mulch portions of computer warbles, saxophone timbres and bass string thumps.

Other saxophonist on hand during White Nights include Danish tenor saxophonist John Tchicai and local Ariel Shibolet. Despite his long history in outside music, Tchicai’s trio with John Bostock on piano and Noam David on drums seems to meander towards adagio ballad territory except for the occasional off-kilter reed squeak. Similarly, Shibolet’s two brief tracks on soprano saxophone with Yoram Lachish’ electronics expose circular breathing and electronic shrilling, but never really gather momentum.

A more impressive showcase for Shibolet is Untitled (1959). Recorded around the same time as White Nights but in Oakland, Calif. it matches the soprano saxophonist with four of his Bay area contemporaries: trombonist Jen Baker, pianist Scott R. Loney – who also recorded, mixed and mastered the CD – bassist Damon Smith and vocalist Aurora Josephson.

All track titles are taken from paintings by Mark Rothko, with the sfumato coloration produced by all quintet members. For instance, “White, Yellow, Red on Yellow” gives Shibolet space for altissimo peeps and irregular vibrations as Baker’s ‘bone notes sluice downwards, Loney twangs and stops the piano’s internal strings and Smith slides acro tones back-and-forth. Eventually Josephson’s choked bel canto tones make common cause with the saxophonist’s circular breathing.

Braying slurs from Baker are the initial defining factor of the title track, soon joined by the saxophonist’s rolling tongue slaps. Double and triple tonguing to a multiphonic display, the trombonist eventually lets loosen with elongated and accumulated trills and tones, almost undifferentiated from Shibolet’s reed bites. Pitter-pattering keyboard lines and Smith’s thick slaps put the solos in context.

Other improvisations encompass air sax runs, keyboard arpeggios and vocal onomatopoeia from Josephson, though “Blue Cloud”, the almost 7½-minute longest track touches on New music. Tough bow slices and near-the-pegs plucks from Smith, crash-and-bang chording from Looney meet undulating wah-wah notes from Baker and colored air breaths and thick, irregular vibrato jumps from the saxophonist. Marshalling her collection of near-inaudible croaks and duck-like growls, Josephson’s quivering throat textures match extended trombone plunger tones and trilling grace notes from Shibolet.

Sanctions and settlements on the West Bank to the contrary, cooperation creates more evolution – musical and otherwise – than isolation. Each of these CDs demonstrates that, in a completely musical way, in one fashion or another.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: White: 1. Improv 1 2. The Holy Coordinator 3. German Poem 4. Untitled 1 5. Ship of Fools 6. Untitled 2 7. Free Improv 8. Improv 1 9. Anima 10. Summit for Albert Ayler

Personnel: White: 1. & 8 Ariel Shibolet (soprano saxophone) and Yoram Lachish (electronics) 2. John Tchicai (tenor saxophone); John Bostock (piano) and Noam David (drums) 3. Harold Rubin (clarinet and voice); Olga Magieres (piano); Shmil Frankel (bass) and Arkady Gotesman (drums) 4. & 6.Wlodzimierz Kiniorski(tenor saxophone and flute); Rafal Mazur (bass) and Markek Choloniewski (electronics) 5. Steve Horenstein (baritone saxophone); JC Jones (bass) and Loic Kessous (computer sound processing) 7. Slava Ganelin (piano and synthesizer); Mark O’Leary (guitar) and Akady Gotesman (drums) 9. Spheres Duo: Arnon Zimra (piano) and Zvi Joffe (vibraphone and percussion) 10. John Tchicai and Albert Berger (tenor saxophones); Steve Horenstein (baritone saxophone) and Noam David (drums)

Track Listing: One: One Slyshno 1. (00:26) 2. (22:10) 3. (26:21) 4. (12:35) 5. (06:26)

Personnel: One: Slava Ganelin (piano and percussion) and Vladimir Volkov (bass)

Track Listing: Untitled: 1. Number 12 2. Homage to Matisse 3. Number 61 (Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue) [t,p,s] 4. Yellow, Orange, Red on Orange [t,p,s] 5. White, Yellow, Red on Yellow 6. Light, Earth and Blue 7. Ochre and Red on Red [t,p,b] 8. White Band (Number 27) [v.t] 9. Three Reds [v,s] 10. Blue Cloud 11. White Cloud 12. Four Reds [t,b,s] 13. Black, Ochre, Red and Red [t,b,s] 14. Red, Gray, White on Yellow 15. Red, Black, Orange, Yellow on Yellow 16. Untitled (1959)

Personnel: Untitled: Jen Baker (trombone); Ariel Shibolet (soprano saxophone); Scott R. Looney (piano); Damon Smith (bass) and Aurora Josephson (voice)

Track Listing: Falling: 1. The Foot In It 2. The Place With The Space 3. A Blue Dance 4. Wood In The Metal 5. First Conversation 6. Steps In Time 7. Luminous Staircase 8. Glassland 9. Encore

Personnel: Falling: Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet and shakuhachi) and Slava Ganelin (piano, synthesizer and percussion)

March 20, 2008

Various

White Nights Festival Tel Aviv 2006
Kadima Collective KCR 11

Shibolet/Josephson/Baker/Looney/Smith

Untitled (1959)

Kadima Collective KCR 09

Slava Ganelin-Vladimir Volkov

Ne Slyshno

Auris Media Aum 012

Slava Ganelin-Neil Rothenberg

Falling Into Place

Auris Media Aum 007

Secure in its position as the one true democracy in the Middle East, cosmopolitan elements in Israel have long encouraged the growth of an indigenous jazz scene. Only in the past decade-and-a-half however, have improvisers on the Israeli scene elicited more than local interest. At the same time, associations between many Israelis and musicians in other countries has meant that a Diaspora of improvisers from the Jewish state has set up shop – and garnered fulsome praise – in jazz capitals such as New York.

As the top-flight music on these CDs demonstrates, not every Israeli improviser has emigrated. However it’s also instructive to note that many of the most notable sounds here result from collaborations between Israeli players and outsiders. Plus with the still-young country actively encouraging Jewish immigration, some of Israel’s more advanced players have non-Israeli origins. To take three at random, baritone saxophonist Steve Horenstein is originally an American; bassist JC Jones comes from France; and keyboardist Slava Ganelin’s Ganelin Trio was probably the most famous avant-garde ensemble in the Cold War era Soviet Block, before the Lithuanian Ganelin immigrated to Israel.

Still an internationalist, Ne Slyshno finds the veteran Ganelin hooked up with a former Russian, bassist Vladimir Volkov, whose past credits include work with the Moscow Composers Orchestra and Moscow Art Trio. Conversant with many styles of music, Volkov’s tough plucking and string-stopping resemble that of mainstreamers like Red Mitchell, while his sul ponticello slides and high frequency tremolo patterns are stylistically avant-garde. Someone who also performs traditional music on the viola de gamba, Volkov’s facility includes the ability to add Roma-like flying staccato runs to his solos.

Completed by short, quieter postludes, which allow Ganelin’s grand piano cadenzas to suggest both Artur Rubinstein-like romantic coloration and dynamics and the key-spanking and plinking that relate to Bud Powell’s bop advances, the improvisations at Ne Slyshn’s centre are both extensive and descriptive.

Instructively, no more than one-quarter of the second track passes before the pianist makes clear that despite his liking for contrasting dynamics à la Cecil Taylor, the swaggering echoes he uses distinctively distance him from the American’s concept. Furthermore among the gouts of notes exposed, his playing is still sensitive enough to make room for Volkov’s staccato squeaks on the higher-pitched strings. While Ganelin’s styling may be modern enough to include internal string scraping, manic boogie-woogie-styling and rough chiming notes appear as well. Then by the tune’s climax his Slavic balladic side asserts itself again.

When the two instruments couple on the third track, the bassist’s subterranean plucks are given added impetus by the pianist’s rolling chords patterns. In fact, Volkov’s double-stopping percussiveness when added to Ganelin’s cross-handed plinking and cymbal slaps – the pianist also plays percussion – almost transforms the two musicians into a bop trio. Just as quickly bird-screeching rappelling on the bull fiddle’s strings splinter the piano’s Europeanized melodies, leaving more space for bell-ringing and the squeaks of plastic toys. Ramping up his keys with foot pedal pressure to full Russian classical mode, Ganelin’s widely splayed forward motion is only moderated by Volkov’s modulated string slapping.

A year previously Ganelin met American multi-reedist Ned Rothenberg for a live concert in Jaffa. It foreshadowed some of his simpatico work with Volkov, but elsewhere seems more distant than any land-sharing proposal from either the Palestinian or Israeli side. Three of the first four numbers expose Rothenberg’s skill on clarinet, bass clarinet and alto saxophone. The fourth is a more-than-34-minute solo tour-de-force from Ganelin called “A Place With The Space”. It’s so self-contained, that “A Place With The Space” could be a Territories settler’s view of the rest of the country.

Throughout, Ganelin seem intent on not only on creating a fantasia of organic piano patterns, but also boost his admittedly rudimentary percussion skills. Later on, he confirm that his synthesizer is capable of replicating any timbre from that of the lumbering bassoon in Peter and the Wolf to thundering E. Power Biggs-like organ stops. Again creating a détente between Romantic-styled cadences and bebop runs on the piano, Ganelin’s pitch-sliding tones and soundboard vibrations are more descriptive than the thumping percussion or the swirling, blurred patterns from the synth.

For his part, Rothenberg, who has held his own in duets with British saxophone master Evan Parker among others, defines versatility. “The Foot In It” exhibits his tongue-slapping chalumeau register and widely spaced multiphonics on bass clarinet. “A Blue Dance” for clarinet shows how harsh trills, legato chirps and flutter tonguing can be built up into rhythmic refractions of continuous breathing with verbalized hocketing and expressive high pitches. Introducing the properties of his alto saxophone’s metal as well as its reed, “Wood In The Metal” is cumulative program of high intensity and extended pitches that by exposing every sibilant tone produce a sound midway between bagpipe chanter and a pan flute.

Somewhat anti-climatic, the set of short duets that follow merely gilds the two sonic lilies that are exhibited singly. More like jousts than meetings, the feeling persists that each player dons his technical armor as a way to push the other to react. Thus at one point flowery and extended European piano echoes lead to mellow bass clarinet runs, snorts and gentling coloration, with tongue slaps and arpeggios stretching to be more connective. Elsewhere, marimba-like internal piano string echoes underscore single, twittering shakuhachi lines.

A similar congruence, but not-quite connection, exists in the extended free improvisation from Ganelin, drummer Arkady Gotesman and Irish guitarist Mark O’Leary on White Nights Festival. Tel Aviv’s 12-hour musical marathon., the live performances mix’n’match Israelis and visitors in ad-hoc groups. With Gotesman laying down a low rumble and the pianist comping, the guitarist appears eager to break things up by varying what initially seems to be Tal Farlow-like picking with long-lined frails and rock-styled vamps. Meeting him with key patting and pounding plus disassociated runs, Genelin’s post-Energy music and O’Leary post-fusion sounds don’t really gel.

More sympathetic is the drummer’s low-key contribution to “German Poem”, which also features the walking bass of Shmil Frankel, off-centre tolling piano notes from Olga Magieres plus Harold Rubin’s recitation and rustic tongue slapping and twittering clarinet work. The instrumental section trumps the words however.

However on “Ship of Fools”, an interactive trio of saxophonist Horenstein, bassist Jones and Loic Kessous on computer sound processing, makes better use of bull fiddle and reed timbres. Content to process and spit back the purely instrumental tones, the computer only betrays its presence with the odd shuddering pulse. Overall, the piece is an essay in cooperation. Working up to high intensity, Jones ratchets his bow across the strings producing sul ponticello lines, rough strums and spiccato ricocheting. Meanwhile Horenstein snorts split tones from the baritone’s highest register, steady, low-pitched honks and tongue flutters. Eventually reached is an accord of tremolo tones that mulch portions of computer warbles, saxophone timbres and bass string thumps.

Other saxophonist on hand during White Nights include Danish tenor saxophonist John Tchicai and local Ariel Shibolet. Despite his long history in outside music, Tchicai’s trio with John Bostock on piano and Noam David on drums seems to meander towards adagio ballad territory except for the occasional off-kilter reed squeak. Similarly, Shibolet’s two brief tracks on soprano saxophone with Yoram Lachish’ electronics expose circular breathing and electronic shrilling, but never really gather momentum.

A more impressive showcase for Shibolet is Untitled (1959). Recorded around the same time as White Nights but in Oakland, Calif. it matches the soprano saxophonist with four of his Bay area contemporaries: trombonist Jen Baker, pianist Scott R. Loney – who also recorded, mixed and mastered the CD – bassist Damon Smith and vocalist Aurora Josephson.

All track titles are taken from paintings by Mark Rothko, with the sfumato coloration produced by all quintet members. For instance, “White, Yellow, Red on Yellow” gives Shibolet space for altissimo peeps and irregular vibrations as Baker’s ‘bone notes sluice downwards, Loney twangs and stops the piano’s internal strings and Smith slides acro tones back-and-forth. Eventually Josephson’s choked bel canto tones make common cause with the saxophonist’s circular breathing.

Braying slurs from Baker are the initial defining factor of the title track, soon joined by the saxophonist’s rolling tongue slaps. Double and triple tonguing to a multiphonic display, the trombonist eventually lets loosen with elongated and accumulated trills and tones, almost undifferentiated from Shibolet’s reed bites. Pitter-pattering keyboard lines and Smith’s thick slaps put the solos in context.

Other improvisations encompass air sax runs, keyboard arpeggios and vocal onomatopoeia from Josephson, though “Blue Cloud”, the almost 7½-minute longest track touches on New music. Tough bow slices and near-the-pegs plucks from Smith, crash-and-bang chording from Looney meet undulating wah-wah notes from Baker and colored air breaths and thick, irregular vibrato jumps from the saxophonist. Marshalling her collection of near-inaudible croaks and duck-like growls, Josephson’s quivering throat textures match extended trombone plunger tones and trilling grace notes from Shibolet.

Sanctions and settlements on the West Bank to the contrary, cooperation creates more evolution – musical and otherwise – than isolation. Each of these CDs demonstrates that, in a completely musical way, in one fashion or another.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: White: 1. Improv 1 2. The Holy Coordinator 3. German Poem 4. Untitled 1 5. Ship of Fools 6. Untitled 2 7. Free Improv 8. Improv 1 9. Anima 10. Summit for Albert Ayler

Personnel: White: 1. & 8 Ariel Shibolet (soprano saxophone) and Yoram Lachish (electronics) 2. John Tchicai (tenor saxophone); John Bostock (piano) and Noam David (drums) 3. Harold Rubin (clarinet and voice); Olga Magieres (piano); Shmil Frankel (bass) and Arkady Gotesman (drums) 4. & 6. Wlodzimierz Kiniorski(tenor saxophone and flute); Rafal Mazur (bass) and Markek Choloniewski (electronics) 5. Steve Horenstein (baritone saxophone); JC Jones (bass) and Loic Kessous (computer sound processing) 7. Slava Ganelin (piano and synthesizer); Mark O’Leary (guitar) and Akady Gotesman (drums) 9. Spheres Duo: Arnon Zimra (piano) and Zvi Joffe (vibraphone and percussion) 10. John Tchicai and Albert Berger (tenor saxophones); Steve Horenstein (baritone saxophone) and Noam David (drums)

Track Listing: One: One Slyshno 1. (00:26) 2. (22:10) 3. (26:21) 4. (12:35) 5. (06:26)

Personnel: One: Slava Ganelin (piano and percussion) and Vladimir Volkov (bass)

Track Listing: Untitled: 1. Number 12 2. Homage to Matisse 3. Number 61 (Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue) [t,p,s] 4. Yellow, Orange, Red on Orange [t,p,s] 5. White, Yellow, Red on Yellow 6. Light, Earth and Blue 7. Ochre and Red on Red [t,p,b] 8. White Band (Number 27) [v.t] 9. Three Reds [v,s] 10. Blue Cloud 11. White Cloud 12. Four Reds [t,b,s] 13. Black, Ochre, Red and Red [t,b,s] 14. Red, Gray, White on Yellow 15. Red, Black, Orange, Yellow on Yellow 16. Untitled (1959)

Personnel: Untitled: Jen Baker (trombone); Ariel Shibolet (soprano saxophone); Scott R. Loney (piano); Damon Smith (bass) and Aurora Josephson (voice)

Track Listing: Falling: 1. The Foot In It 2. The Place With The Space 3. A Blue Dance 4. Wood In The Metal 5. First Conversation 6. Steps In Time 7. Luminous Staircase 8. Glassland 9. Encore

Personnel: Falling: Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet and shakuhachi) and Slava Ganelin (piano, synthesizer and percussion)

March 20, 2008

Slava Ganelin-Vladimir Volkov

Ne Slyshno
Auris Media Aum 012

Slava Ganelin-Neil Rothenberg

Falling Into Place

Auris Media Aum 007

Various

White Nights Festival Tel Aviv 2006

Kadima Collective KCR 11

Shibolet/Josephson/Baker/Looney/Smith

Untitled (1959)

Kadima Collective KCR 09

Secure in its position as the one true democracy in the Middle East, cosmopolitan elements in Israel have long encouraged the growth of an indigenous jazz scene. Only in the past decade-and-a-half however, have improvisers on the Israeli scene elicited more than local interest. At the same time, associations between many Israelis and musicians in other countries has meant that a Diaspora of improvisers from the Jewish state has set up shop – and garnered fulsome praise – in jazz capitals such as New York.

As the top-flight music on these CDs demonstrates, not every Israeli improviser has emigrated. However it’s also instructive to note that many of the most notable sounds here result from collaborations between Israeli players and outsiders. Plus with the still-young country actively encouraging Jewish immigration, some of Israel’s more advanced players have non-Israeli origins. To take three at random, baritone saxophonist Steve Horenstein is originally an American; bassist JC Jones comes from France; and keyboardist Slava Ganelin’s Ganelin Trio was probably the most famous avant-garde ensemble in the Cold War era Soviet Block, before the Lithuanian Ganelin immigrated to Israel.

Still an internationalist, Ne Slyshno finds the veteran Ganelin hooked up with a former Russian, bassist Vladimir Volkov, whose past credits include work with the Moscow Composers Orchestra and Moscow Art Trio. Conversant with many styles of music, Volkov’s tough plucking and string-stopping resemble that of mainstreamers like Red Mitchell, while his sul ponticello slides and high frequency tremolo patterns are stylistically avant-garde. Someone who also performs traditional music on the viola de gamba, Volkov’s facility includes the ability to add Roma-like flying staccato runs to his solos.

Completed by short, quieter postludes, which allow Ganelin’s grand piano cadenzas to suggest both Artur Rubinstein-like romantic coloration and dynamics and the key-spanking and plinking that relate to Bud Powell’s bop advances, the improvisations at Ne Slyshn’s centre are both extensive and descriptive.

Instructively, no more than one-quarter of the second track passes before the pianist makes clear that despite his liking for contrasting dynamics à la Cecil Taylor, the swaggering echoes he uses distinctively distance him from the American’s concept. Furthermore among the gouts of notes exposed, his playing is still sensitive enough to make room for Volkov’s staccato squeaks on the higher-pitched strings. While Ganelin’s styling may be modern enough to include internal string scraping, manic boogie-woogie-styling and rough chiming notes appear as well. Then by the tune’s climax his Slavic balladic side asserts itself again.

When the two instruments couple on the third track, the bassist’s subterranean plucks are given added impetus by the pianist’s rolling chords patterns. In fact, Volkov’s double-stopping percussiveness when added to Ganelin’s cross-handed plinking and cymbal slaps – the pianist also plays percussion – almost transforms the two musicians into a bop trio. Just as quickly bird-screeching rappelling on the bull fiddle’s strings splinter the piano’s Europeanized melodies, leaving more space for bell-ringing and the squeaks of plastic toys. Ramping up his keys with foot pedal pressure to full Russian classical mode, Ganelin’s widely splayed forward motion is only moderated by Volkov’s modulated string slapping.

A year previously Ganelin met American multi-reedist Ned Rothenberg for a live concert in Jaffa. It foreshadowed some of his simpatico work with Volkov, but elsewhere seems more distant than any land-sharing proposal from either the Palestinian or Israeli side. Three of the first four numbers expose Rothenberg’s skill on clarinet, bass clarinet and alto saxophone. The fourth is a more-than-34-minute solo tour-de-force from Ganelin called “A Place With The Space”. It’s so self-contained, that “A Place With The Space” could be a Territories settler’s view of the rest of the country.

Throughout, Ganelin seem intent on not only on creating a fantasia of organic piano patterns, but also boost his admittedly rudimentary percussion skills. Later on, he confirm that his synthesizer is capable of replicating any timbre from that of the lumbering bassoon in Peter and the Wolf to thundering E. Power Biggs-like organ stops. Again creating a détente between Romantic-styled cadences and bebop runs on the piano, Ganelin’s pitch-sliding tones and soundboard vibrations are more descriptive than the thumping percussion or the swirling, blurred patterns from the synth.

For his part, Rothenberg, who has held his own in duets with British saxophone master Evan Parker among others, defines versatility. “The Foot In It” exhibits his tongue-slapping chalumeau register and widely spaced multiphonics on bass clarinet. “A Blue Dance” for clarinet shows how harsh trills, legato chirps and flutter tonguing can be built up into rhythmic refractions of continuous breathing with verbalized hocketing and expressive high pitches. Introducing the properties of his alto saxophone’s metal as well as its reed, “Wood In The Metal” is cumulative program of high intensity and extended pitches that by exposing every sibilant tone produce a sound midway between bagpipe chanter and a pan flute.

Somewhat anti-climatic, the set of short duets that follow merely gilds the two sonic lilies that are exhibited singly. More like jousts than meetings, the feeling persists that each player dons his technical armor as a way to push the other to react. Thus at one point flowery and extended European piano echoes lead to mellow bass clarinet runs, snorts and gentling coloration, with tongue slaps and arpeggios stretching to be more connective. Elsewhere, marimba-like internal piano string echoes underscore single, twittering shakuhachi lines.

A similar congruence, but not-quite connection, exists in the extended free improvisation from Ganelin, drummer Arkady Gotesman and Irish guitarist Mark O’Leary on White Nights Festival. Tel Aviv’s 12-hour musical marathon., the live performances mix’n’match Israelis and visitors in ad-hoc groups. With Gotesman laying down a low rumble and the pianist comping, the guitarist appears eager to break things up by varying what initially seems to be Tal Farlow-like picking with long-lined frails and rock-styled vamps. Meeting him with key patting and pounding plus disassociated runs, Genelin’s post-Energy music and O’Leary post-fusion sounds don’t really gel.

More sympathetic is the drummer’s low-key contribution to “German Poem”, which also features the walking bass of Shmil Frankel, off-centre tolling piano notes from Olga Magieres plus Harold Rubin’s recitation and rustic tongue slapping and twittering clarinet work. The instrumental section trumps the words however.

However on “Ship of Fools”, an interactive trio of saxophonist Horenstein, bassist Jones and Loic Kessous on computer sound processing, makes better use of bull fiddle and reed timbres. Content to process and spit back the purely instrumental tones, the computer only betrays its presence with the odd shuddering pulse. Overall, the piece is an essay in cooperation. Working up to high intensity, Jones ratchets his bow across the strings producing sul ponticello lines, rough strums and spiccato ricocheting. Meanwhile Horenstein snorts split tones from the baritone’s highest register, steady, low-pitched honks and tongue flutters. Eventually reached is an accord of tremolo tones that mulch portions of computer warbles, saxophone timbres and bass string thumps.

Other saxophonist on hand during White Nights include Danish tenor saxophonist John Tchicai and local Ariel Shibolet. Despite his long history in outside music, Tchicai’s trio with John Bostock on piano and Noam David on drums seems to meander towards adagio ballad territory except for the occasional off-kilter reed squeak. Similarly, Shibolet’s two brief tracks on soprano saxophone with Yoram Lachish’ electronics expose circular breathing and electronic shrilling, but never really gather momentum.

A more impressive showcase for Shibolet is Untitled (1959). Recorded around the same time as White Nights but in Oakland, Calif. it matches the soprano saxophonist with four of his Bay area contemporaries: trombonist Jen Baker, pianist Scott R. Loney – who also recorded, mixed and mastered the CD – bassist Damon Smith and vocalist Aurora Josephson.

All track titles are taken from paintings by Mark Rothko, with the sfumato coloration produced by all quintet members. For instance, “White, Yellow, Red on Yellow” gives Shibolet space for altissimo peeps and irregular vibrations as Baker’s ‘bone notes sluice downwards, Loney twangs and stops the piano’s internal strings and Smith slides acro tones back-and-forth. Eventually Josephson’s choked bel canto tones make common cause with the saxophonist’s circular breathing.

Braying slurs from Baker are the initial defining factor of the title track, soon joined by the saxophonist’s rolling tongue slaps. Double and triple tonguing to a multiphonic display, the trombonist eventually lets loosen with elongated and accumulated trills and tones, almost undifferentiated from Shibolet’s reed bites. Pitter-pattering keyboard lines and Smith’s thick slaps put the solos in context.

Other improvisations encompass air sax runs, keyboard arpeggios and vocal onomatopoeia from Josephson, though “Blue Cloud”, the almost 7½-minute longest track touches on New music. Tough bow slices and near-the-pegs plucks from Smith, crash-and-bang chording from Looney meet undulating wah-wah notes from Baker and colored air breaths and thick, irregular vibrato jumps from the saxophonist. Marshalling her collection of near-inaudible croaks and duck-like growls, Josephson’s quivering throat textures match extended trombone plunger tones and trilling grace notes from Shibolet.

Sanctions and settlements on the West Bank to the contrary, cooperation creates more evolution – musical and otherwise – than isolation. Each of these CDs demonstrates that, in a completely musical way, in one fashion or another.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: White: 1. Improv 1 2. The Holy Coordinator 3. German Poem 4. Untitled 1 5. Ship of Fools 6. Untitled 2 7. Free Improv 8. Improv 1 9. Anima 10. Summit for Albert Ayler

Personnel: White: 1. & 8 Ariel Shibolet (soprano saxophone) and Yoram Lachish (electronics) 2. John Tchicai (tenor saxophone); John Bostock (piano) and Noam David (drums) 3. Harold Rubin (clarinet and voice); Olga Magieres (piano); Shmil Frankel (bass) and Arkady Gotesman (drums) 4. & 6.Wlodzimierz Kiniorski (tenor saxophone and flute); Rafal Mazur (bass) and Markek Choloniewski (electronics) 5. Steve Horenstein (baritone saxophone); JC Jones (bass) and Loic Kessous (computer sound processing) 7. Slava Ganelin (piano and synthesizer); Mark O’Leary (guitar) and Akady Gotesman (drums) 9. Spheres Duo: Arnon Zimra (piano) and Zvi Joffe (vibraphone and percussion) 10. John Tchicai and Albert Berger (tenor saxophones); Steve Horenstein (baritone saxophone) and Noam David (drums)

Track Listing: One: One Slyshno 1. (00:26) 2. (22:10) 3. (26:21) 4. (12:35) 5. (06:26)

Personnel: One: Slava Ganelin (piano and percussion) and Vladimir Volkov (bass)

Track Listing: Untitled: 1. Number 12 2. Homage to Matisse 3. Number 61 (Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue) [t,p,s] 4. Yellow, Orange, Red on Orange [t,p,s] 5. White, Yellow, Red on Yellow 6. Light, Earth and Blue 7. Ochre and Red on Red [t,p,b] 8. White Band (Number 27) [v.t] 9. Three Reds [v,s] 10. Blue Cloud 11. White Cloud 12. Four Reds [t,b,s] 13. Black, Ochre, Red and Red [t,b,s] 14. Red, Gray, White on Yellow 15. Red, Black, Orange, Yellow on Yellow 16. Untitled (1959)

Personnel: Untitled: Jen Baker (trombone); Ariel Shibolet (soprano saxophone); Scott R. Looney (piano); Damon Smith (bass) and Aurora Josephson (voice)

Track Listing: Falling: 1. The Foot In It 2. The Place With The Space 3. A Blue Dance 4. Wood In The Metal 5. First Conversation 6. Steps In Time 7. Luminous Staircase 8. Glassland 9. Encore

Personnel: Falling: Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet and shakuhachi) and Slava Ganelin (piano, synthesizer and percussion)

March 20, 2008

Slava Ganelin-Neil Rothenberg

Falling Into Place
Auris Media Aum 007

Slava Ganelin-Vladimir Volkov

Ne Slyshno

Auris Media Aum 012

Various

White Nights Festival Tel Aviv 2006

Kadima Collective KCR 11

Shibolet/Josephson/Baker/Looney/Smith

Untitled (1959)

Kadima Collective KCR 09

Secure in its position as the one true democracy in the Middle East, cosmopolitan elements in Israel have long encouraged the growth of an indigenous jazz scene. Only in the past decade-and-a-half however, have improvisers on the Israeli scene elicited more than local interest. At the same time, associations between many Israelis and musicians in other countries has meant that a Diaspora of improvisers from the Jewish state has set up shop – and garnered fulsome praise – in jazz capitals such as New York.

As the top-flight music on these CDs demonstrates, not every Israeli improviser has emigrated. However it’s also instructive to note that many of the most notable sounds here result from collaborations between Israeli players and outsiders. Plus with the still-young country actively encouraging Jewish immigration, some of Israel’s more advanced players have non-Israeli origins. To take three at random, baritone saxophonist Steve Horenstein is originally an American; bassist JC Jones comes from France; and keyboardist Slava Ganelin’s Ganelin Trio was probably the most famous avant-garde ensemble in the Cold War era Soviet Block, before the Lithuanian Ganelin immigrated to Israel.

Still an internationalist, Ne Slyshno finds the veteran Ganelin hooked up with a former Russian, bassist Vladimir Volkov, whose past credits include work with the Moscow Composers Orchestra and Moscow Art Trio. Conversant with many styles of music, Volkov’s tough plucking and string-stopping resemble that of mainstreamers like Red Mitchell, while his sul ponticello slides and high frequency tremolo patterns are stylistically avant-garde. Someone who also performs traditional music on the viola de gamba, Volkov’s facility includes the ability to add Roma-like flying staccato runs to his solos.

Completed by short, quieter postludes, which allow Ganelin’s grand piano cadenzas to suggest both Artur Rubinstein-like romantic coloration and dynamics and the key-spanking and plinking that relate to Bud Powell’s bop advances, the improvisations at Ne Slyshn’s centre are both extensive and descriptive.

Instructively, no more than one-quarter of the second track passes before the pianist makes clear that despite his liking for contrasting dynamics à la Cecil Taylor, the swaggering echoes he uses distinctively distance him from the American’s concept. Furthermore among the gouts of notes exposed, his playing is still sensitive enough to make room for Volkov’s staccato squeaks on the higher-pitched strings. While Ganelin’s styling may be modern enough to include internal string scraping, manic boogie-woogie-styling and rough chiming notes appear as well. Then by the tune’s climax his Slavic balladic side asserts itself again.

When the two instruments couple on the third track, the bassist’s subterranean plucks are given added impetus by the pianist’s rolling chords patterns. In fact, Volkov’s double-stopping percussiveness when added to Ganelin’s cross-handed plinking and cymbal slaps – the pianist also plays percussion – almost transforms the two musicians into a bop trio. Just as quickly bird-screeching rappelling on the bull fiddle’s strings splinter the piano’s Europeanized melodies, leaving more space for bell-ringing and the squeaks of plastic toys. Ramping up his keys with foot pedal pressure to full Russian classical mode, Ganelin’s widely splayed forward motion is only moderated by Volkov’s modulated string slapping.

A year previously Ganelin met American multi-reedist Ned Rothenberg for a live concert in Jaffa. It foreshadowed some of his simpatico work with Volkov, but elsewhere seems more distant than any land-sharing proposal from either the Palestinian or Israeli side. Three of the first four numbers expose Rothenberg’s skill on clarinet, bass clarinet and alto saxophone. The fourth is a more-than-34-minute solo tour-de-force from Ganelin called “A Place With The Space”. It’s so self-contained, that “A Place With The Space” could be a Territories settler’s view of the rest of the country.

Throughout, Ganelin seem intent on not only on creating a fantasia of organic piano patterns, but also boost his admittedly rudimentary percussion skills. Later on, he confirm that his synthesizer is capable of replicating any timbre from that of the lumbering bassoon in Peter and the Wolf to thundering E. Power Biggs-like organ stops. Again creating a détente between Romantic-styled cadences and bebop runs on the piano, Ganelin’s pitch-sliding tones and soundboard vibrations are more descriptive than the thumping percussion or the swirling, blurred patterns from the synth.

For his part, Rothenberg, who has held his own in duets with British saxophone master Evan Parker among others, defines versatility. “The Foot In It” exhibits his tongue-slapping chalumeau register and widely spaced multiphonics on bass clarinet. “A Blue Dance” for clarinet shows how harsh trills, legato chirps and flutter tonguing can be built up into rhythmic refractions of continuous breathing with verbalized hocketing and expressive high pitches. Introducing the properties of his alto saxophone’s metal as well as its reed, “Wood In The Metal” is cumulative program of high intensity and extended pitches that by exposing every sibilant tone produce a sound midway between bagpipe chanter and a pan flute.

Somewhat anti-climatic, the set of short duets that follow merely gilds the two sonic lilies that are exhibited singly. More like jousts than meetings, the feeling persists that each player dons his technical armor as a way to push the other to react. Thus at one point flowery and extended European piano echoes lead to mellow bass clarinet runs, snorts and gentling coloration, with tongue slaps and arpeggios stretching to be more connective. Elsewhere, marimba-like internal piano string echoes underscore single, twittering shakuhachi lines.

A similar congruence, but not-quite connection, exists in the extended free improvisation from Ganelin, drummer Arkady Gotesman and Irish guitarist Mark O’Leary on White Nights Festival. Tel Aviv’s 12-hour musical marathon., the live performances mix’n’match Israelis and visitors in ad-hoc groups. With Gotesman laying down a low rumble and the pianist comping, the guitarist appears eager to break things up by varying what initially seems to be Tal Farlow-like picking with long-lined frails and rock-styled vamps. Meeting him with key patting and pounding plus disassociated runs, Genelin’s post-Energy music and O’Leary post-fusion sounds don’t really gel.

More sympathetic is the drummer’s low-key contribution to “German Poem”, which also features the walking bass of Shmil Frankel, off-centre tolling piano notes from Olga Magieres plus Harold Rubin’s recitation and rustic tongue slapping and twittering clarinet work. The instrumental section trumps the words however.

However on “Ship of Fools”, an interactive trio of saxophonist Horenstein, bassist Jones and Loic Kessous on computer sound processing, makes better use of bull fiddle and reed timbres. Content to process and spit back the purely instrumental tones, the computer only betrays its presence with the odd shuddering pulse. Overall, the piece is an essay in cooperation. Working up to high intensity, Jones ratchets his bow across the strings producing sul ponticello lines, rough strums and spiccato ricocheting. Meanwhile Horenstein snorts split tones from the baritone’s highest register, steady, low-pitched honks and tongue flutters. Eventually reached is an accord of tremolo tones that mulch portions of computer warbles, saxophone timbres and bass string thumps.

Other saxophonist on hand during White Nights include Danish tenor saxophonist John Tchicai and local Ariel Shibolet. Despite his long history in outside music, Tchicai’s trio with John Bostock on piano and Noam David on drums seems to meander towards adagio ballad territory except for the occasional off-kilter reed squeak. Similarly, Shibolet’s two brief tracks on soprano saxophone with Yoram Lachish’ electronics expose circular breathing and electronic shrilling, but never really gather momentum.

A more impressive showcase for Shibolet is Untitled (1959). Recorded around the same time as White Nights but in Oakland, Calif. it matches the soprano saxophonist with four of his Bay area contemporaries: trombonist Jen Baker, pianist Scott R. Loney – who also recorded, mixed and mastered the CD – bassist Damon Smith and vocalist Aurora Josephson.

All track titles are taken from paintings by Mark Rothko, with the sfumato coloration produced by all quintet members. For instance, “White, Yellow, Red on Yellow” gives Shibolet space for altissimo peeps and irregular vibrations as Baker’s ‘bone notes sluice downwards, Loney twangs and stops the piano’s internal strings and Smith slides acro tones back-and-forth. Eventually Josephson’s choked bel canto tones make common cause with the saxophonist’s circular breathing.

Braying slurs from Baker are the initial defining factor of the title track, soon joined by the saxophonist’s rolling tongue slaps. Double and triple tonguing to a multiphonic display, the trombonist eventually lets loosen with elongated and accumulated trills and tones, almost undifferentiated from Shibolet’s reed bites. Pitter-pattering keyboard lines and Smith’s thick slaps put the solos in context.

Other improvisations encompass air sax runs, keyboard arpeggios and vocal onomatopoeia from Josephson, though “Blue Cloud”, the almost 7½-minute longest track touches on New music. Tough bow slices and near-the-pegs plucks from Smith, crash-and-bang chording from Looney meet undulating wah-wah notes from Baker and colored air breaths and thick, irregular vibrato jumps from the saxophonist. Marshalling her collection of near-inaudible croaks and duck-like growls, Josephson’s quivering throat textures match extended trombone plunger tones and trilling grace notes from Shibolet.

Sanctions and settlements on the West Bank to the contrary, cooperation creates more evolution – musical and otherwise – than isolation. Each of these CDs demonstrates that, in a completely musical way, in one fashion or another.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: White: 1. Improv 1 2. The Holy Coordinator 3. German Poem 4. Untitled 1 5. Ship of Fools 6. Untitled 2 7. Free Improv 8. Improv 1 9. Anima 10. Summit for Albert Ayler

Personnel: White: 1. & 8 Ariel Shibolet (soprano saxophone) and Yoram Lachish (electronics) 2. John Tchicai (tenor saxophone); John Bostock (piano) and Noam David (drums) 3. Harold Rubin (clarinet and voice); Olga Magieres (piano); Shmil Frankel (bass) and Arkady Gotesman (drums) 4. & 6.Wlodzimierz Kiniorski (tenor saxophone and flute); Rafal Mazur (bass) and Markek Choloniewski (electronics) 5. Steve Horenstein (baritone saxophone); JC Jones (bass) and Loic Kessous (computer sound processing) 7. Slava Ganelin (piano and synthesizer); Mark O’Leary (guitar) and Akady Gotesman (drums) 9. Spheres Duo: Arnon Zimra (piano) and Zvi Joffe (vibraphone and percussion) 10. John Tchicai and Albert Berger (tenor saxophones); Steve Horenstein (baritone saxophone) and Noam David (drums)

Track Listing: One: One Slyshno 1. (00:26) 2. (22:10) 3. (26:21) 4. (12:35) 5. (06:26)

Personnel: One: Slava Ganelin (piano and percussion) and Vladimir Volkov (bass)

Track Listing: Untitled: 1. Number 12 2. Homage to Matisse 3. Number 61 (Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue) [t,p,s] 4. Yellow, Orange, Red on Orange [t,p,s] 5. White, Yellow, Red on Yellow 6. Light, Earth and Blue 7. Ochre and Red on Red [t,p,b] 8. White Band (Number 27) [v.t] 9. Three Reds [v,s] 10. Blue Cloud 11. White Cloud 12. Four Reds [t,b,s] 13. Black, Ochre, Red and Red [t,b,s] 14. Red, Gray, White on Yellow 15. Red, Black, Orange, Yellow on Yellow 16. Untitled (1959)

Personnel: Untitled: Jen Baker (trombone); Ariel Shibolet (soprano saxophone); Scott R. Looney (piano); Damon Smith (bass) and Aurora Josephson (voice)

Track Listing: Falling: 1. The Foot In It 2. The Place With The Space 3. A Blue Dance 4. Wood In The Metal 5. First Conversation 6. Steps In Time 7. Luminous Staircase 8. Glassland 9. Encore

Personnel: Falling: Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet and shakuhachi) and Slava Ganelin (piano, synthesizer and percussion)

March 20, 2008

HENRY KAISER/WADADA LEO SMITH/YO MILES!

Sky Garden
Cuneiform Rune 191/192

One of the most memorable -- if not the most memorable -- tributes to Miles Davis, the exultant Yo Miles! band makes its case for a variety of reasons.

First of all, it leaves the BIRTH OF THE COOL and ALL BLUES emulation to the neo-cons and instead concentrates on Davis’ little-appreciated 1971-1975 electric period. Second, unlike younger fusion bands that have recorded embarrassingly overwrought electric Miles imitations, Yo Miles! bandleaders -- guitarist Henry Kaiser and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith -- are old enough to have heard the sounds when they first appeared. Third, the two and their sidefolk approach the concept languidly, having worked on and refined their ideas -- while involved in other projects -- since 1998.

Like Davis, Kaiser and Smith mix musicians from both jazz and rock on this two CD set -- big name musicians at that. Danish tenor and soprano saxophonist John Tchicai, for instance, was an early New Thinger; alto saxophonist Greg Osby an early M-Baser; keyboardist Tom Coster played with Santana, and drummer Steve Smith was in the band Journey. Plus tabla player Zakir Hussein -- featured on two tracks -- and the ROVA saxophone quartet -- featured on one -- don’t exactly show up on every studio session.

The strength of the musicianship is such that SKY GARDEN was recorded live off the floor directly to stereo DSD. Unlike Davis, however, what was recorded is what you hear. No Teo Macero or Bills Laswell types edited and reorganized the sounds afterwards.

This non-linear approach gives the minimum of 10 and maximum of 16 players two CDs of more 75 minutes each in which to uncoil. However SKY GARDEN’s strength is also its weakness, because there’s only so far you can go with electric guitars, electric keyboards and a drummer leaning on the backbeat. That’s why the most memorable tracks are those which bring Smith and Kaiser’s individual musical personalities forward.

Smith’s composition “Who’s Targeted” at first depends on chunky rhythm guitar line and clanging tabla manipulations from Hussein, who founded Shakti with ex-Davis guitarist John McLaughlin. But very soon the output moves past jazz-world music fusion. Kaiser, whose associations have included folk-based pickers like Amos Garrett and David Lindley plus ethnic musicians from Hawaii and Madagascar begins stretching his guitar intervals to suggest mountain-music flailing. Adding to this primitivism, Mississippi-born Smith, whose exposure to rural music precedes his academic prowess and gigs with experimenters like Anthony Braxton, wriggles out an echoing timbre that could come from an melodica or even a Mississippi trumpet: the harmonica. As the almost 21½-minute tune sinuously slithers from mid-tempo to adagio and into prestissimo, mutated Farfisa organ-like nodes mix it up with cowbell and hollow log drum beats as well as something that could be a bean bag shaken with a metal stick -- South Asian percussion perhaps?

Hussein’s tabla pulse is maintained, as are Kaiser’s licks which seems to recall cowboy as well as rockabilly tones. As he picks southward, Smith’s grace notes also descend and both mix it up with the sine wave loops from the electronic keyboards. By the end you’d swear Kaiser is playing a steel guitar, while the finale is signaled with a definite woodblock whack from one of the drummers.

That’s also one of the few definite end points in any of the compositions, for most of the tracks mesh seamlessly together with no pauses.

Another standout, this time written by Davis with some help, is the more-than-10-minute “Sivad/Gemini Double Image/Little Church”. Gorgeous, legato reed harmonies from ROVA give the piece some added spaciousness, especially at the very end when vibrations shift polyharmonically from Tchicai’s tenor saxophone to the saxophone quartet. Earlier Kaiser’s bent note flanges move into psychedelic territory then dissolve into note shards as the beat is maintained by the twin, burbling keyboard runs of Coster and Mike Keneally. Unlike his work other spots, Steve Smith’s drumming is comfortably sympathetic, suggesting the attack he used in Journey can sometimes be altered.

Then there “Great Expectations”, which at almost 35½-minutes, would have been an entire LP in itself 30 years ago. Climax and resolution here is a set of duets -- some between the tabla and the trumpet and the others between the tenor sax and the tabla. Smith and Hussein are at it almost from the beginning, trading fours and eights --or is it fives and sevens plus half tones -- as soon as the piece begins. Soon, the trumpet’s plunger tones are submerged by electric piano runs, a steady funk rhythm from bassist Michael Manring and clunky, feedback-laden guitar runs by the three guitarists. This expanding tonal color easily distributes the themes among several different instruments.

Tchicai’s double tonguing and finger vibrations meet up with carefully positioned smacks from the tabla until a choppy bass guitar run leads onto another section. Smith’s slowly descending trumpet runs make themselves heard again, joining Hussein for a set of stop-and-start note sprinkling. Cymbals shading and an organ vamp percolate behind them until Tchicai’s sourer version of what would have been Wayne Shorter soprano saxophone line intrudes. With a heavier backbeat from the percussionists expanding, Coster’s low-intensity slides and glissandi flash and octave jump to keep things interesting. Eventually, the finale is reached with speedy tabla strokes and Smith backing out of this climatic duet with animalistic flutter tonguing that turns softer and mellower.

Just as long as ostinato bass lines, lead guitar exhibitionism that could have come from Santana and Ten Years After at Woodstock and this-side-of circular-motion hit everything Heavy Metal-like percussion dramatics are kept to a bare minimum Yo Miles! succeeds on its own terms.

When excess reaches the surface, however, the reasons for jazz-rock fusion’s rapid decline to irrelevance are highlighted. Luckily that happens infrequently. Instead the listener is usually treated to slippery, elastic guitar runs; trumpet lines distorted through a wah-wah pedal, percussion tones that are so subtle they could be played with a whisk broom and broken octave polyphony and buzzing cadenzas from Tchicai and portamento alto saxophone smears from Osby. There’s even a point on “Miles Star” where the muted trumpet and nonchalant electric piano fills presage jazz-inflected slurred thumb picking that could come from Wes Montgomery and probably come from Dave Creamer in his one appearance, rather than Kaiser, Keneally (who is playing second keyboard) or Chris Muir.

Died-in-wool Davis and fusion fans will probably treat this, the band’s second album in five years as the aural equivalent to touching part of the shroud of Turin. It definitely puts lesser fusion syntheses to shame. But with both discs adding up to a total of 2½ hours, judiciously, exploration of a couple of tracks at a time will probably make more of an impression for most listeners.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. It’s About That Time/The Mask 2. Jabali (part I) 3. Shinjuku 4. Great Expectations# 5. Directions Disc 2: 1. Sivad/Gemini Double Image/Little Church* 2. Miles Star^ 3. Who’s Targeted?# 4. Jabali (part II) 5. Willie Dixon 6. Cozy Pete

Personnel: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet and electric trumpet); Greg Osby (alto saxophone); John Tchicai (tenor and soprano saxophones); Henry Kaiser and Chris Muir (electric guitars); Mike Keneally (electric guitar and keyboards); Dave Creamer (guitar)^; Tom Coster (keyboards); Michael Manring (bass); Steve Smith (drums and electric guitar); Karl Perazzo (percussion); Zakir Hussein (tabla and percussion)#; ROVA [Bruce Ackley, Steve Adams, Larry Ochs, Jon Raskin (saxophones)]*

November 22, 2004

TCHICAI/JØRGENS/NIELSEN

On Top of Your Head
Ninth World Music 024CD

With a curriculum vitae as one of the original New Thingers stretching back to 1960s membership in the New York Art Quartet (NYAQ) and an appearance on John Coltrane’s ASCENSION, reedman John Tchicai has never lacked for playing partners.

Adapting orchestral sequencing plus variations on different ethnic musics to a formula that already reflected his Danish-Congolese background and American experience; Tchicai was a unique presence on the scene. Moving back and forth from Europe to the U.S., he was as apt to turn up on discs featuring Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer or South African bassist Johnny Dyani as Calfornian bassist Adam Lane or committed Asian-American improviser saxophonist Francis Wong.

That’s why this temperate set of avant-bop is an anomaly. Recorded in 2001 in Denmark, it’s one of the few times in recent years that the saxophonist has hung with his homies. All of the 16 tunes, feature Tchicai on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet plus veteran associates bassist Peter Friis Nielsen and percussionist P.O. Jørgens, best known for their membership in the Pan-European Wild Mans Band with German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and SKRÆP, a local experimental music forum. Half of the pieces pair the tenor saxophonist with multi-woodwind player Christian Kyhl, who in 1969 was part of Tchicai’s large Cadentia Nova Danica orchestra and who worked with Nielsen in the early 1980s. The other eight have a front line featuring Tchicai and alto saxophonist Laura Toxvæd, 41 years his junior, whose current reputation is limited to Copenhagen. In all, the CD showcases four generations of Danish improvisers.

One noteworthy point is how little this cross-generational mix affects the overall sound picture. Kyhl, the only musician pictured not smiling, does bring his band room full of woodwinds to the studio, while Toxvæd is limited to alto saxophone. But Jørgens’ miscellaneous percussion and Nielsen’s balanced electrified rhythm do more to shape these in-the-main instant compositions than anything from the three reedists.

Interestingly enough, the CD’s first and final pieces composed by the tenor man and the bassist’s “Interiør” and “The dream” appear to reference one of the few American visionaries with whom Tchicai didn’t play: Ornette Coleman. On them, Toxvæd sounds as if she’s fronting Coleman’s Prime Time band, while the double sax front line -- with Tchicai on tenor -- recalls Coleman’s quartet with Dewey Redman. At the same time, both of Tchicai’s compositions are particularly sunny and happy sounding, maybe as a result of his California tenure.

Alternately, pieces like “Mokuto” show that Toxvæd is able to mix it up in Aylarian fashion with the older saxophonist. It’s she who comes out with horse whinnies, serrated split tones and tongue flutterings, while the tenor saxophonist forges ahead in a straight line. “Going up” unrolls the same way, with a brassy tone emanating from the alto and the tenor sounding as if he’s starting to play Sonny Rollins’ “East Broadway Rundown” until blurred tenor tones mix with clear alto sounds.

In spite of his woodwind collection, Kyhl makes his biggest noise (sic) on contrabass clarinet. He uses its woody resonance to suggest African reeds on “Witchdoctor of Accra”, probably doubled by Tchicai’s clarinet. But as well as he plays, tongue slapping and modulating his tone with the lumbering clarinet beast, “Calling Coltrane” doesn’t seem to have much to do with John C.

Jørgens’ ethnic percussion experiments with the Global Guaranty Orchestra are on show with a gong sounding on the later tune, and used to create what could be oil drum-steel pan percussion on the former. Elsewhere, he proves he can use natural materials to create legitimate percussion, mixing wooden blocks and glockenspiel on “She went straight to Heaven”, and what sounds like the pealing of church bells, the shaking of a tin sheet and the clip clop of wood on “Rysteribs med fløde”. His skill extends to drum’n’bass portions on other numbers and pure jazz syncopation when it’s needed. Nielsen, probably playing a bass guitar, cleaves to the rhythm when necessary or offers quick, guitar-like decorations when he has a chance.

Still the disc could have been shortened by at least three tracks. Marla Van Hoose adds some pointless poetics on two of them and Tchicai’s vocalized sentiments on “Sought” probably could have been best left to someone like the former LeRoi Jones who brought his poetics read to the first NYAQ LP.

All and all, though, everything seems to be going great in the state of Denmark, at least where improvised music is concerned. This meeting of four generations certainly proves it without argument.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Phedoo and Wibke* 2. How to stop the Bus+ 3. North Ridge Hotel* 4. Call and Response+^ 5. Interiør* 6. She went straight to Heaven+ 7. Mokuto* 8. Calling Coltrane+ 9. The dream* 10. To+^ 11. Witchdoctor of Accra+ 12. Going up* 13. Rysteribs med fløde+ 14. Eat that Horse* 15. Sought+# 16. On top of your head*

Personnel: Laura Toxværd (alto saxophone)*; Christian Kyhl (clarinet, alto clarinet, contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone, C melody saxophone)+; John Tchicai (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, voice#); Peter Friis Nielsen (electric bass); P.O. Jørgens (drums, gongs, glockenspiel, metal, stone, wood and percussion); Marla Van Hoose (voice)^

March 10, 2003

JOHN TCHICAI-IRENE SCHWEIZER

Willi The Pig
Atavistic/Unheard Music Series UMS/ALP 221 CD

An Ameri-centric view of jazz has always been so shortsighted it could be myopic. In 1975, for example, the average American jazzer was assumed to be pondering whether chops-heavy ex-rockers who were leaching into fusion were "major innovators" on the level of Chuck Mangione or Stanley Clarke; while "purists" were finally accepting boppers into the mainstream so they could bask in the final sparks from that once incendiary movement.

Free jazz was supposed to be as dead as John Coltrane or Albert Ayler, banished from the history books, with the few remaining New Thingers either hidden away in academe or buried in recording studios.

Luckily, non-Americans knew this worldview was as befuddled as the U.S.'s Cold War foreign policy. Many jazz experimenters were actually teaching a younger generation of sonic explorers in universities and colleges. Others were playing regularly in Europe and elsewhere, linking their progressive ideas with those of homegrown experimenters in small clubs and jazz festivals that got along without cigarette company sponsorship.

An excellent snapshot of what was really happening in 1975, WILLI THE PIG is one long, gripping blast of unbridled free music. Like the zombies in Night Of The Living Dead, first generation New Thingers like Danish-Congolese saxophonist Tchicai still lived. And this CD proves that the freedom virus was spreading like influenza throughout Europe, with much happier consequences.

Part of two ground zero avant-ensembles -- The New York Contemporary Five and The New York Art Quartet -- a decade before, Tchicai was resident in more hospitable Europe at the time. Appropriately his alto and soprano saxophone solos here showed that freedom music could be tender as well as tough, especially when he tosses phrases back-and-forth with the bassist on "Part 2".

Co-leader, Swiss pianist Schweizer -- remarkably longhaired in the album photo -- was already a free jazz veteran, who had started to distill her own style, with its hint of boogie-woogie and blues from the heady Cecil Taylor elixir. South African drummer Ntshoko was then a constant presence on Continental sessions and the late German bassist Nierbergall had participated in MACHINE GUN, EuroJazz's Emancipation Proclamation seven years before.

Understandably WILLI didn't get the acclaim he deserved when first recorded because it was released in a limited edition of 500 and has never been reissued before now. But from our vantage point the disc can be heard as something that could have been recorded at the Cellar Café in 1965 and or at Tonic this year -- that is to say timeless

As more documents like this appear, it's becoming apparent that jazz's accepted, Ameri-centric chronicle will soon going to have to be rewritten. Not only history, but also listeners' ears will benefit.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Willi The Pig Part 1 2. Willi The Pig Part 2

Personnel: John Tchicai (alto and soprano saxophones, piano); Irène Schweizer (piano); Buschi Nierbergall (bass); Makaya Ntshoko (drums)

September 20, 2000

NEW YORK ART QUARTET

35th Reunion
DIW 936

Reunions can be a chancy proposition. Whether it’s the Modern Jazz Quartet getting together after 10 years or the Guess Who recombining after 20, nostalgic expectations can often exceed reality. This can be especially serious if, unlike some rock band “reunions” which occur regularly as soon as bank balances dip, combination, as on this CD, literally bring together players who often haven’t seen one another for many decades.

Sometimes the results are spectacular, oftentimes not so. And 35TH REUNION has examples of both.

Over the years, especially on the evidence of its lone ESP-Disk from 1964, it’s become increasingly clear that the New York Art Quartet (NYAQ) was the paramount group of the New Thing. Unlike preeminent soloists like Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp or John Coltrane, the NYAQ was a sum of its parts, with each man contributing to the excellent whole.

The good news about this CD is that the succeeding three decades haven’t lessened the individual musical talents of any of the participants. The bad news is that some parts of this session don’t hang together, because certain parts of the equation have got out of whack.

Poet/playwright/essayist Amiri Baraka was the “fifth” member of the NYAQ on its seminal ESP release, where his reading of his poem, “Black Dada Nihilismus” on one track contributed to the LP’s subsequent fame. The main problem with this new disc is that the doubled playing time from the earlier session appears to have given Baraka license to insinuate himself onto nearly every track. This isn’t so bad if you think of him as merely adding another sound to the mix, but his poetics seem to be snared in some 1960s wayback machine.

Obviously one shouldn’t ignore the past, but Baraka seems to be unaware of the present century and appears unable to make valid points about anything since then. Additionally merely repeating names like Trane, Ayler, John Kennedy and Rap Brown doesn’t do any more than suffuse the poems with retro hipness, rather than making a point, while, to take another example, the repetition of “pee pee, doo doo” on “Seek Light At Once” is more word irritation than sound poetry.

The other minor drawback here is Graves. More upfront than he was in 1964, his drumming is still as faultless as it was then, with polyrhythms a particular standout. But his vocal interpolations, such as the one that launches the first track, could be eliminated without problem.

Conversely, years of experience have made each NYAQer a better musician than he was in the 1960s. Tchicai long ago abandoned his alto to play tenor saxophone with a austere, senatorian authority; Rudd’s coarse, squalling tone is given a good work out on tracks such as “VG’s Birthday Jamboree”; and allowed the space, Workman can sound like an entire string section by himself. Each man contributed two compositions, all of which are uniformly interesting.

In short, this CD will probably be required listening for anyone who followed the careers of the musicians in the 1960s and will disappoint few who concentrate on the music. Just be warned though, that like Kramer’s entrances on the Seinfield TV show, Baraka’s poetics will frequently pop up out of nowhere to alter the mood.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. A Meeting of Remarkable Journeys 2. Reentering 3. Llanto del Indio 4. VG’s Birthday Jamboree 5. Visiting Ogun 6. Perceiving Passerby’s 7. Seek Light At Once 8. Music’s Underwear

Personnel: Roswell Rudd (trombone); John Tchicai (tenor saxophone); Reggie Workman (bass); Milford Graves (drums); Amiri Baraka (voice)

August 4, 2000

JOHN TCHICAI

Infinitesimal Flash
(Buzz ZZ 76010)

While some of the highly-praised young lions of the early 1990s seem to be tiring of the demanding jazz life -- taking extended sabbaticals, accepting teaching sinecures and growing dreadlocks for that all-important street cred -- the malaise hasn't affected most of the original New Thingers from the 1960s. Those still alive, in fact, almost invariably resemble Ol' Man River -- itself recast by Albert Ayler in 1964 -- just rolling, rolling along.

Take for instance California-based John Tchicai, who helms this memorable session. At the age of 64, the reedist who took part in many of the first important avant-garde sessions -- including ASCENSION -- shows no signs of slowing down. In fact INFINITESIMAL FLASH is easily on the same level as the ground-breaking work he did in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sure there are some changes. He now plays tenor and flute instead of alto saxophone, for instance and the sidemen get more say in the material. Most notably there's a pronounced Oriental cast to many tunes. That's no surprise, since his frontline partner, Wong, has for many years been one of the most successful melders of jazz and Asian musics. With his Danish-Congolese background, and interest in different sounds, Tchicai is quite comfortable with a worldview like this. Still this CD is planets away from any of those self-conscious world-jazz efforts. It's pure jazz (whatever "that" means).

Considering Tchicai's past sparring partners have included Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Albert and Archie Shepp, Wong should be commanded for his ability to not only hold his own here, but give as good as he gets. This is especially apparent on tunes like "Melvin Truss" and "The Boat Is Ready", the later a sprightly march. Both horn men use similar tones (Tchicai's as a former altoist is probably lighter) yet the result is more akin to bricklayers cementing an edifice than any so-called sax battle.

Successfully staying out of the way unless they're needed, Lane and Marucci also do their part. The edge goes to the strong, in-your-face bassist, who demonstrates his skills on "T's Groove" and the title track. Occasionally, though, the percussionist exhibits a tendency to try to fill every millisecond with some sort of sound.

Finally, the three tracks with "voices" tracks are more distracting than irritating. Since a Chinese speaker intones on "Space Without Time" and the words to Og Her Ligger Vi Saa!" are (likely) in Danish you must accept them as just other found sounds. Then there's the title track -- which seems to be recorded in front of a live audience, though there's no indication of this in the liners -- that includes one of those truth-is-beauty recitations (by someone who incidentally, doesn't sound like Tchicai). Luckily it soon gives way to some fine, low-pitched tenor saxophone and arco bass work.

This enduring preference for words and music may be the one entity that links Tchicai to his past. But judging by his playing it's certainly no sign of backward thinking. Here's hoping the young lions will sound anywhere as good 30 years hence.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Kippiology 2. Autumn Moon 3. Alishan 4. Melvin Truss 5. Persistence 6. The Boat Is Ready 7. Decide For Yourself 8. Space Without Time 9. Og Her Ligger Vi Saa! 10. T's Groove 11. Infinitesimal Flash

Personnel: John Tchicai (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone flute, voice); Francis Wong (tenor saxophone, flute); Adam Lane (bass); Mat Marucci (drums)

June 17, 2000