William Parker

Centering: Unreleased Early Recordings 1976–1987
NoBusiness NBCD 42-47

Something In the Air: Discovering Long Hidden Advanced Jazz

By Ken Waxman

When New York’s now justly famous, Vision Festival first took place in 1996 committed jazz fans greeted the event as if they were witnessing a full-fledged musical resurrection. So many advanced players of unbridled free form and experimental sounds were involved that the annual festival soon became a crowded week-long summer happening. Ironically – which was one reason for the Fest’s popularity – these probing sounds and its players were supposed to have vanished after the revolutionary 1960s, superseded first by Jazz-Rock pounders’ simple melodies and then jazz’s Young Lions who aped the sounds and sartorial choices of the 1950s – both of which had major record label support. Still bassist/composer/bandleader William Parker’s Centering: Unreleased Early Recordings 1976–1987 NoBusiness NBCD 42-47 aptly demonstrates, experimental sounds never vanished; they just went underground. As the 24 often lengthy tracks that make up this 6-CD set of hitherto unreleased material substantiates in its breadth of performances, sonically questing players were improvising and composing during those so-called lost years. But it took the founding of the Vision Festival by Parker and his wife, dancer/choreographer Patricia Nicholson, to provide the proper medium for this work. Major stylists such as saxophonists Charles Gayle and David S. Ware, vocalist Ellen Christi and trumpeter Roy Campbell, all of whom are represented in the set, would go on to mentor a multiplying groundswell of younger rule stretchers and future Vision Fest participants. Also, despite being professionally recorded, the conservative climate of the times, plus the cost of producing and distributing LPs, left the tapes used for these CDs stacked in performers’ apartments. Now the belated release of Centering fills in a blank in jazz history, equivalent to what coming across a cache of unreleased John Cage or Morton Feldman recordings would do. Included in the package is an attractively designed 66-page paperback book with vintage photos, posters and sketches along with essays discussing the background of the sessions, the musicians’ experiences and the New York scene.

From a historical perspective the most valuable artifacts are those which feature Parker playing alongside saxophonists who are now major influences in the international avant garde. From 1980 the bassist and alto saxophonist Daniel Carter are involved in musical discussions which make up for their lack of nuance with brilliant and mercurial playing, eviscerating every timbre and tone that could be sourced from their instruments. As Parker’s chunky rhythms hold the bottom while simultaneously rubbing and stopping strings to produce unique interjections, Carter ranges all over his horn. On “Thulin”, for instance, multiphonic split tones, triple tonguing, barks and bites are just the beginning of the saxophonist’s agitated interface. Working his solo into a fever pitch of altissimo cries and freak notes, he often sounds as if he’s playing two reed instruments. Eventually Parker’s juddering percussiveness grounds the track; angling the two towards a finale, but not before an extended a capella passage by the bassist, where his multi-string sinewy strokes expose timbres that could be created by a string quartet. Contrast that with the beefy pedal point Parker uses on the two 1987 tracks with tenor saxophonist Gayle. After the reedist’s almost continuous overblowing exposes snarling altissimo or nephritic guttural tones, Parker asserts himself on “Entrusted Spirit” with tremolo strums and slaps which echo sympathetically alongside Gayle’s expansive multiphonics. Finally the saxman’s pressurized snarls and mercurial split tones are muted to an affiliated moderato tone by smooth pizzicato lines from Parker, bringing wood tapping and top-of-range angling into the mix.

Equally instructive, tenor saxophone Ware and Parker, who would become one-half of Ware’s celebrated quartet in the 1990s, recorded with drummer Denis Charles in 1980 as the Centering Dance Music Ensemble. Unlike earlier Parker compositions on this set performed by string or vocal-based ensembles to back-up Nicholson’s choreography that seem overly notated and more distant, the Ware-Parker-Charles creations are vibrant free jazz that may have caused repetitive strain injuries among dance company members. Highpoint is the inclusive and contrapuntal Tapestry. Here the saxophonist’s juddering smears and expansive reed vibrations, Parker’s focused slaps and Charles’ bass drum thumps are individually showcased then smartly combined into a tremolo vamp that descends into satisfying cohesion. Edifyingly demonstrating that the so-called avant-gardists celebrated the tradition is One Day Understanding. With a dirge-like middle section where Ware directly quotes an Albert Ayler head, the exposition and conclusion allow the saxman full range for glossolalia, spinning split tones and fervid overblowing effectively honoring saxophone titans like John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman by inference. Parker’s sputtering spiccato slices relate to Henry Grimes’ and Jimmy Garrison’s liberation of the bass role; while Charles, whose military-style rebounds and hard backbeat helped define free jazz in the late 1950s, just plays himself.

Even more germane to contemporary experimenters who frequently amalgamate into large-scale improvisational ensembles are two other Parker-led groups. Both 1979’s eight- member Big Moon Ensemble and 1984’s 13-person Centering Big Band are links between Coleman’s Double Quartet and Coltrane’s Ascension band and today. Vaulting between inchoate and inspired, the Big Moon tracks are polyrhythmic, polytonal and polyharmonic with the instrumental tessitura stretched to make room for thundering solos from the likes of Carter and Campbell plus trumpeter Arthur Williams and altoist Jameel Moondoc. On tunes such as “Hiroshima Part Two” and “Dedication to Kenneth Patchen” the cumulative effect of the multi-colored free-form cascading is intensified by aboriginal war whoops and unbalanced screams from the band members as they play. Tremolo triplets from Campbell meet Williams’ capillary flutter tonguing on “… Patchen”, as Moondoc’s juddering split tones contrast with Carter’s leaping glossolalia. With Charles and Rashid Bakr both thrashing percussion, Parker and fellow bassist Jay Oliver stroke manfully to finally downshift the collective cascading, only to have it revive with increased ferocity on “Hiroshima”. Stacked horn parts encompassing stop-time screaming and pressurized vibratos are strung out during this nearly 50-minute piece as each musician seems to be trying to outdo the others in ferocity. Instructively the bassist’s later experiments with World music improv are adumbrated in a protracted sequence when his string strumming and the percussion work sound as if they’re emanating from a koto and a taiko drum.

There’s no mistaking the jazz inflections on the five big band selections however. But their modernity is apparent in the resourceful balance among intense riffs from the five saxophones, Parker’s time-keeping plus percussionist Zen Matsura’s cymbal clanks and press rolls as well as stacked and cascading vocal interchange from Christi and fellow vocalist Lisa Sokolov. Intense, heraldic triplets from trumpeters Campbell and Raphe Malik add to the churning excitement of tunes like “Munyaovi”, as first the snorting reeds then the brass section’s triplet expansion match the vocalists in staccato invention. The overall effect isn’t unlike Count Basie’s band at full force playing a swing riff. Space is furthermore made throughout for comforting trombone slurs, twanging rhythmic sequences from Parker and, on Tototo, an alluring balladic line from Moondoc. That piece climaxes with a polyphonic entanglement of the drummer’s harsh ruffs and flams, screaming penny whistle-style brass shrills and guttural baritone sax honks, completed by a slithery sax line that coalesces with harmonized voices.

The big band selections were taped at the 1984 Kool Jazz Festival, one of Parker’s rare high-profile gigs. It may have taken another dozen years to organize the Vision Festival and find the multiplicity of gigs and recordings Parker and his associates now participate in, but this momentous box set confirms that all along experimental music’s foundation was being cultivated slightly out of the public eye.

--Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 18 #2

October 12, 2012

Stone Quartet

Live at the Vision Festival
Ayler Records aylCD 124

MMM Quartet

Live at the Metz Arsenal

Leo Records CD LR 631

Two high-quality CDs, recorded in a live setting with French bassist Joëlle Léandre as the unifying factor, are superficially similar in intent and personnel. Yet the multiple strategies each quartet brings to the extended selections demonstrate how unique sounds can result even in the most comfortable of surroundings.

Live at the Vision Festival captures the triumphant performance of what might be called Léandre’s New York quartet, filled out by trumpeter/flutist Roy Campbell, pianist Marilyn Crispell and violist Mat Maneri. Although recorded in France, Live at the Metz Arsenal, joins the bassist with two colleagues who teach at California’s Mills College – Alvin Curran on electronics and piano, best known for his notated work and membership in the MEV ensemble, and guitarist Fred Frith, whose entry into improv came through his Art-Rock bands like Henry Cow. Although MMM could stand for “MillsMusicMafia”, some Continental spice joins the West Coast greenery in the presence of Swiss soprano and tenor saxophonist Urs Leimgruber, who has been in other bands with Léandre, including Quartet Noir which also included Crispell.

Fundamentally it’s the discursive oscillations plus conspicuous musical samples from Curran’s electronics plus Frith’s reshaped and flanged guitar distortion that define the interactions here with Léandre’s consistent arco swipes and Leimgruber’s circular breathing adding to the resulting polyphony. Sporadically unforeseen connections take place, as when the saxophonist’s staccato trills gradually meld with swelling and electronic pulses; or when chiming guitar licks and slurred, bagpipe-like drones from the saxophonist combine into a solid line; or when the bassist puts aside her stentorian string pumping for agile soprano-pitched yodeling, matching the snatches of broadcast vocals captured by Curran’s hardware.

Nonetheless Curran’s tremolo pianism is as essential to shaping the improvisations as his crackling and fluctuating wave forms. Should signal-processed delays or synthesized sequences not underlie the acoustic work, than sonic clues occasionally arise from string plucks or plucks emanating from the piano’s innards. Other times, swelling, sampled orchestral passages are met with percussive slaps and stops from both string players; while discordant output signals spawn equally discordant spetrofluctuation and multiphonic reed bites from the saxophonist. By the final variation, pastoral interludes are pushed aside as the mercurial sound development hardens into a squirming broken-octave finale replete with jangling electronic synthesis. Curran swiftly pounds his keys; Léandre buzzes sul ponticello runs from the bottom of her string set; Frith solidifies his chromatic rasgueado; and Leimgruber’s twisted shrilling turns to strained vibrations.

As acoustically balanced as the MMM Quartet is dependent on discordant electronics; the Stone Quartet still makes as much use of Crispell decisive comping as Curran’s skilled ostinato was put to use on the other disc. With Crispell alternating between a cushion of cascading glissandi and a series of strummed kinetic lines, the others are free to experiment. This doesn’t mean that the pianist doesn’t offer up measures of descriptive delicacy or that Léandre doesn’t occasionally step into the rhythmic breech with pressurized shuffle bowing. Still the scene is set for unfettered soloing which includes triplet-laden expansions from Campbell; angled yet avuncular string strokes from Maneri; and burlesque bel canto vocalizing from Léandre, often accompanied by strums and vibrations from all parts of the bass as well as Campbell’s flute asides. Following an interlude when Crispell asserts herself in a two-handed fantasia, before downshifting back to processional runs, the climax is reached with the melding of taut spiccato viola lines; snapping trumpet rasps and speedy glissandi from both the pianist and bassist.

Calling on the individual talents of two sets of trios, Léandre proves that satisfying improvisations can be created without pre-conceptions, but with ideal considerations of each member’s skills.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Vision: 1. Vision One 2. Vision Two

Personnel: Vision: Roy Campbell (trumpet and flutes); Marilyn Crispell (piano); Mat Maneri (viola) and Joëlle Léandre (bass)

Track Listing: Metz: 1. Part One 2. Part Two

Personnel: Metz: Urs Leimgruber (soprano and tenor saxophones); Alvin Curran (electronics and piano); Fred Frith (guitar) and Joëlle Léandre (bass)

September 16, 2012

OutNow Recordings

Label Spotlight
By Ken Waxman

“Search for the sound you never stop hearing” is the motto of OutNow, a label launched last summer by three young Israel-born musicians, releasing six CDs simultaneously, with more skedded for 2012. The idea is to record innovative music, whether improvised or notated, electric or acoustic, and by younger or older creators.

The trio decided to follow this DIY approach, explains Brooklyn-based saxophonist and co-founder, Yoni Kretzmer, because, despite the multiplicity of labels, “there’s still a lot of music being missed and not reaching potential audiences. We try to create the right frame and aesthetic surrounding for any specific type of musical vision.” Similar to a live performance, he notes, OutNow CDs capture the music of the moment, which once preserved allows the artist to contemplate his or her next statement. “OutNow can also be seen as a kind of encouragement to get out of preconceived notions and conventions … Now,” he adds.

Besides Overlook by Kretzmer’s quartet, the first batch of OutNow CDs include three solo and group efforts by another of the imprint’s co-founders, Tel Aviv-based guitarist Ido Bukelman; plus two where New York drummer Ehran Elisha plays with veterans, either in Israel, with clarinetist Harold Rubin and his father, pianist Haim Elisha on East of Jaffa, or on Watching Cartoons With Eddie, with local trumpeter Roy Campbell. OutNow’s third partner, acoustic guitar player Yair Yona, who lives in Tel Aviv, will release his own CD later this year.

“I visit Israel during most summers and have always been active in music there,” elaborates Elisha. “I was inspired over the past two years by a new crop of players such as Kretzmer and Bukelman, and when they approached me with the idea of releasing music through this new label, I was happy to help. They have a great outlook with an earnest desire to document and promote what they release, be it work by others or work that they’re involved in themselves. The OutNow guys lobbied me hard to put out the [2008-recorded] project with Roy [Campbell], both because they loved the music but also clearly because this duo presented them with their first international artists. I felt it was the right time to do it, and that this label would respect the project's depth and integrity.”

In fact, despite a Tel Aviv base – the label’s launch party last August took place before a full house in that city’s Levontin 7 club – Kretzmer is adamant that OutNow isn’t an Israeli jazz label, but one that will produce music to “dialogue with others around the globe”. Furthermore, while the founders are all in their early 30s, and “feel that it’s more correct to try and put out stuff that comes from people more or less our age,” elaborates the saxophonist, “it’s clear that original personality and creativity aren’t always synonymous with ‘being young’ and that’s the stuff we’re really after.” That was the impetus behind releasing the Elisha projects as well as pressing a forthcoming duo disc by American drummer Gerry Hemingway and pioneering Israeli free jazz saxophonist Albert Beger.

“It’s rare on the planet to have a label whose aim it is to record real new music free from economical decisions,” reflects Berger from Tel Aviv. “And with this label managed by three of my best colleges and friends it was important for me to participate. I hope to record more for OutNow because its ideas fit the music I’m doing these days. Another important reason for me to participate is to support anything involved with experimental music in Israel. I’d like to see a community of musicians here supporting and playing their ‘truth’ with no compromises, similar to what happened with the AACM in the ‘60s in Chicago.”

Historically, it was the Israeli capital’s burgeoning free jazz scene that over the past decade drew the founders together in different bands and eventually led to OutNow’s birth. All three have recorded for other labels, with Bukelman especially involved in several projects. “One of the reasons to create a musician-run label is to have a convenient place to release your own music,” admits Kretzmer. “Ido is always working on several project simultaneously and we thought it would be great to present this whole body of work in one go.”

Division of tasks among the founders is hardly compromised by the US-Israel separation. The three e-mail on a daily basis and have frequent meetings via Skype. As for who does what, Yona does most of the e-mailing, public relations and digital work and deals with on-line commerce; Bukelman takes care of local logistics; and Kretzmer, plus his girlfriend Avital Burg, designs CD covers, flyers and ads. “All three of us take the curating and artistic decisions equally,” explains the saxophonist “We almost always agree and of course having someone in New York is an advantage.”

“The people who started Out Now are learning by doing, so what they lack in experience they make up for in their tremendous enthusiasm, devotion and commitment to the music,” affirms Elisha. “With OutNow it’s your project 100%. These guys are dedicated to championing work that excites and inspires them.”

As with many start-up labels, distribution is a challenge, but as Kretzmer notes “we do all the distribution ourselves, go down to the mail box and send CDs the old fashion way.” Stores in the US and Europe are contacted personally, the label’s Web site is “nicely busy” and downloads are now available on Bandcamp and soon on iTunes. Eventually OutNow would like to produce LPs as well as offer exclusive downloads of its artists’ live shows.

Right now the label’s appeal rests in its decision to allow musicians complete freedom. An artist brings it completed recordings, which may or may not be mixed and mastered, and OutNow pays for logistics, design, shipping and media and may soon begin mixing as well. Any profits go directly to the artist.

In the next little while, besides Yona’s and the Beger/Hemingway CDs, a second OutNow disc by Bukelman’s EFT (Electro Free Trio) with drummer Ofer Bymel and Daniel Davidovsky on electronics is scheduled for release as is a session by Kretzmer’s two-bass quartet featuring both Sean Conly and Reuben Radding plus drummer Mike Pride.

The one thing that’s certain about OutNow’s releases”, adds the saxophonist, “is that they’ll be many more. We’re definitely going to keep them coming at a high speed, one, two or three at a time.”

--For New York City Jazz Record February 2012

February 10, 2012

Ehran Elisha/Roy Campbell

Watching Cartoons with Eddie
OutNow Records ONR 004

By Ken Waxman

Honoring and named for drummer Ed Blackwell (1929 -1992) – the “Eddie” of the title – who recorded similar brass/percussion duets with Don Cherry, this CD by trumpeter Roy Campbell and drummer Ehran Elisha is a triumphant reminder of how much can be achieved in this format if the right musicians are involved.

Elisha, with links to the Israeli avant-garde as well as the so-called downtown scene, and Campbell, best-known for his associations with bassist William Parker, have worked together in different configurations over the years. The trumpeter who was an admirer of Blackwell, and the percussionist who studied with the legendary drummer at Wesleyan University, have the advantage of also being multi-instrumentalists. Elisha plays bells, temple blocks, gong, toms and miscellaneous percussion plus drums here, while Campbell moves among trumpet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet, flute and percussion.

These unusual instruments aren’t used as rote exotica, but to open up the music. A piece such as “Faith Offers Free Refills” for instance, may include hand claps and naker slaps plus flute fluttering, in a narrative that echoes both native Indian and subcontinent Indian music, but its climax involves brassy cries, moderated flams and a conclusive rim shot.

The title track ,recalling Blackwell’s insistence that Elisha join him in watching his granddaughter’s cartoon videos before beginning a lesson, has a light-hearted, child-friendly melody, advanced with wood whacks and hi-hat clicks. Also Campbell’s high note exposition doesn’t stop him from lyrically recapping the theme.

Blackwell isn’t the only honoree either. “The Dizzy Roach” is a remarkably restrained and outstandingly linear salute to two of jazz’s flashier soloists – trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and drummer Max Roach. Meanwhile “For B.D.” – venerating brass man Bill Dixon – has Campbell hand muting his trumpet to create pressurized neighs and strained growls like “B.D.” as Elisha wallops cow bells and wood blocks.

With nine high quality tracks, it’s likely any one of the honorees would have been impressed with the music on this CD. The listener surely will be.

Tracks; They Enter through the Ears; Watching Cartoons with Eddie; For BD; Aesthetic Encounters part one; Interlude Dude; Aesthetic Encounters part two; The Dizzy Roach; Faith Offers Free Refills; October

Personnel: Roy Campbell: trumpet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet, flute, percussion; Ehran Elisha: drums, bells, temple blocks, gong, rote toms, percussion

--For New York City Jazz Record December 2011

December 5, 2011

Nu Band

Live in Paris
NoBusiness Records NBCD 16

Lou Grassi Po Band

Live at the Knitting Factory Vol. 1 (with Marshall Allen)

Porter Records PRCD 4051

By Ken Waxman

Recorded almost exactly seven years apart, these high-class discs illuminate drummer Lou Grassi’s hard-hitting yet rhythmically sophisticated style in two advanced group contexts. At home with styles ranging from ragtime to free form, Grassi advances any project in tandem with other players, never drawing undue attention to himself.

A welcome document involving the drummer’s long-constituted – since 1995 – Po Band, Live at the Knitting Factory features flutist/saxophonist Marshall Allen, linchpin of the Sun Ra Arkestra, guesting with the 2000 version of the group. Besides Grassi, trumpeter Paul Smoker, trombonist Steve Swell and clarinettist Perry Robinson are featured along with the late bassist Wilber Morris. That same year, Grassi hooked up with three other mature players to form the Nu Band. Live in Paris, recorded in 2007, demonstrates the close cooperation which has allowed it to flourish. Although each Nu Band member is a leader in his own right – as are Po Band’s participants – the CD’s extended tracks demonstrate the group’s collegial if not musical harmony. Mercurial reedist Mark Whitecage and fiery brass man Roy Campbell have an ideal setting for their contrapuntal connections, while the drummer and solid bassist Joe Fonda – who plays in as many bands as Grassi – not only keep the music on an even keel, but solos impressively.

An example occurs on “Avanti Galoppi”, where Fonda’s taut string spanks and steady pumps unite with the drummer’s cymbal splashes and rim shots to press Whitecage’s dyspeptic clarinet squeals and Campbell’s brassy triplets further outside. In contrast, Morris’ work with the Po Band, finds the bassist and Grassi refracting textures off one another without melding. Although the two produce an ostinato upon which the horns can improvise, Morris is a more delicate stylist than Fonda. The bassist, who died in 2002, plucks cleanly and clearly, with notes audible among accelerating polyphony from four horns. More physical, and at points rhythmically vocalizing alongside his bass strokes, Fonda can both press the tempo forward chromatically and fracture the beat with quick spiccato runs or double-stopped bowing.

A similar comparison exists with the two trumpeters. Meeting Allen’s curlicue twists and Swell’s guttural cries midway, Smoker frequently unleashes razor-sharp triplets which are gradually stretched, stacked and sluiced to fragmented textures. On “Bolero Francaise”, meanwhile, Campbell showcases brassy trumpet flourishes. His arching, open-horn joins Whitecage’s segmented split tones in accelerating to dissonant tones and circular-breathed multiphonics.

If these extended techniques characterize Whitecage’s style as he solos during Live in Paris, Allen, his opposite number with the PO Band, operates more like a jokey, disruptive factor. With an alto saxophone style that encompasses curlicue line twists, ghost tones and altissimo squeals, Allen creates situations where contrapuntal opposites are united by stacking reed tones with his screeching on top and Robinson’s moderato tongue fluttering on the bottom; or massing the brass and reed players to riff in measured forward motions.

Although Po Band veteran Robinson’s role is muted amid the aggressive polyphony, Swell asserts himself with little problem. Stretching the instrumental tessitura, his plunger trombone blasts and back-of-throat cries match stuttering reed jumps and rooster-like crowing from Smoker, plus bell-ringing and solid thumps from Grassi. “LoRa” is a trombone showcase as the cacophony eases so that his tailgate slurs and blustering grace notes are clearly heard.

Over the past quarter century, Grassi has been in demand to play with North American and European musicians on both continents. Hearing how group dynamics are intensified by his work, as demonstrated on these sessions, explains his appeal.

Tracks: Marshalling Our Spirits; RePoZest; LouRa

Personnel: Paul Smoker: trumpet; Steve Swell: trombone; Perry Robinson: clarinet; Marshall Allen: alto saxophone and flute; Wilber Morris: bass; Lou Grassi: drums

Tracks: Somewhere Over the Seine; Bolero Francaise; Avanti Galoppi; The Angle of Repose

Personnel: Roy Campbell, Jr.: trumpet, pocket trumpet, flugelhorn and flute; Mark Whitecage: alto saxophone and clarinet; Joe Fonda: bass; Lou Grassi: drums and percussion

-- For All About Jazz New York February 2011

February 12, 2011

Jameel Moondoc

Muntu Recordings
No Business Records NBCD 7-8-9

By Ken Waxman

Made up of then-young improvisers who would become better known, Muntu could be described as one of the supergroups of New York’s so-called Loft Era; if the self-aggrandizing term wasn’t antithetical to free music. This handsomely packaged set collects three CDs of the band in different configurations plus a 115-page soft-cover book with a Muntu sessionography and essays on the band, the Black Arts Movement and the Loft Era. Of course this would be mere pretty packaging if the sounds didn’t live up to the hype. Careful listening reveals that Muntu began well and only improved. Only its members’ other projects forced it to dissolve.

Every track here includes the band’s core members: leader and chief composer alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, bassist William Parker and drummer Rashid Bakr. CD3 is a newly unearthed trio session from 1975; CD2 from 1979 is where trumpeter Roy Campbell joins Moondoc, Parker and Bakr; while CD1 is a quintet date with trumpeter Arthur Williams and pianist Mark Hennen plus the core three. While the third disc, featuring a 36½-minute run through of the saxophonist’s “Theme For Milford” is historically interesting, Muntu’s substance is defined on discs one and two.

Parker and Bakr are well-coordinated in their roles on the 1975 date, as the drummer exposes clinking rim shots, cymbal pops and clattering bells while the bassist’s rasgueado and walking evolve in double counterpoint. Unfortunately Moondoc isn’t as convincing. Sluicing timbres downwards and launching altissimo runs upwards he appears to be attempting to play both parts in a composition that calls for front-line counterbalance. At points his line seems to leech onto “A Love Supreme”; elsewhere his timbre squeezes reference Ornette Coleman’s early style. Oddly, before the piece ends with reed-biting cries and flattement, it sounds as if he’s quoting “Stranger in Paradise”.

Suggestions of Coleman’s pace-setting quartet are still present two years later when the five-piece Muntu tackles “Theme For Milford”. But with Williams’ trumpet and Hennen’s piano available for contrast the performance is poised and confident. Passing the theme between the horns, Williams plays moderato while Moondoc chimes in with tremolo slurs and honking trills. When the saxophonist turns to glossolalia and note undulations, the trumpeter’s dirty, triplet-laden whines correspond perfectly. Also notable are staccato crackles from Parker. Making the most of his space, Hennen begins with near-prepared-piano pumps than accelerates to jagged runs and rhythmic chording. “Flight (From The Yellow Dog)” is more of the same. Drum rolls, ruffs and rebounds; pounding piano keys; slurry tattoos from the trumpeter; stop-time bass work; and broken-octave reed slithering characterize it. Contrapuntally organized, Williams makes his most characteristic statement here with soaring brays or air pushed almost soundlessly through his horn.

Lacking a chordal instrument, the 1979 quartet with Campbell still produces a sound that is more textured than anything the band had yet created, especially on “The Evening Of The Blue Men, Part 3 (Double Expo)”. Bakr’s clattering cymbals and bass drum pops almost take on bop coloration while Parker counters with wild spiccato sawing. Moondoc masticates his reed into multiphonics alongside Campbell high-pitched theme variations. The band had also evolved to a point where the ballad “Theme For Diane” is treated with appropriate muted tenderness. A smooth trumpet obbligato decorates the saxophonist’s ornamental line, followed by an understated bass solo.

Bakr and Parker’s high-calibre work quickly drew the attention of pianist Cecil Taylor and both joined the Taylor Unit. Eventually Muntu dissolved. Since that time Moondoc gigs internationally as a sideman and with his own groups. Parker has become one of the most visible experimental players with a variety of projects on the go. Campbell leads his own bands and plays in other ensembles; while Hennen is part of the Collective 4tet. Star-crossed Williams’ heroin addiction and metal illness forced him off the scene, even before Campbell joined Muntu.

Like many other lesser-known groups, Muntu was a band which epitomized a particular time. Since its deficiencies were circumstantial and economic despite a wealth of talent, the band should have attained lasting fame and financial rewards. It didn’t, but at least this set captures Muntu at its musical heights.

Track Listing: CD 1: First Feeding; Flight (From The Yellow Dog); Theme For Milford (Mr. Body & Soul) CD 2: The Evening Of The Blue Men, Part 3 (Double Expo); Theme For Diane CD 3: Theme For Milford (Mr. Body and Soul)

Personnel: CD 1: Arthur Williams: trumpet; Jemeel Moondoc: alto saxophone; Mark Hennen: piano; William Parker: bass; Rashid Bakr: drums CD2: Roy Campbell Jr.: trumpet); Moondoc; Parker; Bakr CD3: Moondoc; Parker; Bakr

-- For All About Jazz-New York July 2010

July 8, 2010

Guelph Jazz Festival

Guelph, Ontario
September 9 - 13, 2009

Always populist, the annual Guelph Jazz Festival extended its support of outdoor improvisation plus interaction between Third and First World musicians in its 16th edition, without lessening its commitment to Free Music. Much of the outstanding music-making came from the later however, with American pianist Marilyn Crispell one standout.

Featured in American, European and Canadian group settings, Crispell’s playing was powerful and outer-directed at the River Run Centre concert hall, in a trio with two AACM stalwarts, seemingly ageless tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson and colorful percussionist Hamid Drake, whose rhythmic conception is comfortable in any context. Anderson often quivered or vibrated reflective lines that were paralleled with linear arpeggios or kinetic pedal-pushed frequencies by Crispell. Meantime Drake’s palm or stick movement conveyed all the rhythm. Climax was a version of Muñoz’s “Fatherhood”, built on ecclesiastical chording from the pianist, ruffs and rebounds from Drake and gospel-like preaching from Anderson.

Only one member of the Stone Quartet is European – French bassist Joëlle Léandre. Yet when she and the Yanks – trumpeter Roy Campbell, violist Mat Maneri and Crispell – intersected with limpid, sophisticated and intuitive improvising in the sanctuary of St. George’s church, the outcome related more to Continental sounds than American Free Jazz. Subtly phrasing, Campbell at points appeared to be breathing in notes rather than expelling them. Hand-muting asides were another favorite strategy, clutching a tone until it dissolved. Crispell rumbled or spun out connective chords, decorating the improvisations. Maneri shredded fiddle notes in a deadpan fashion, equally honoring Paganini and Stuff Smith. Léandre sometime bowed with excruciatingly heavy motions as if physically pulling the notes from the bass, and other times sliced, diced and rubbed timbres from the instrument while yodeling in a pseudo-operatic soprano. Adapting to the moment she emphasized her resounding pizzicato pulse.

At the River Run the next night, Crispell was featured in Ottawa bassist John Geggie’s trio with Toronto drummer Nick Fraser. Without perpetuating Canadian stereotypes, Geggie’s compositions – and the affiliated improvisations – were more cerebral and studied than those from American bands. Yet there was enough sense of space and structure to separate them from European conceptions. The bassist confined himself to thumping tone-bonding or resonating picking, leaving theme statements to the pianist’s key patterning and downshifting runs. Fraser’s inventions included irregular clip-clopping and the suggestion of bell-pealing on the Gregorian chant-based “Credo”.

Canada’s other solitude was represented by a rip-snorting performance at St. George’s church hall by Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms + 7. With both extended performances post-modern pastiches, individual talents of the 12 musicians gave the Montreal-based reedist/composer scope to express his heraldic, heroic ideas. As Martin Tétreault’s pressurized turntable drone created a crackling ostinato and Joane Hétu’s moist murmurs, hiccups and yodels verbal commentary, the pieces mixed rock beats from the electrified rhythm section; legato pacing from the violinist and violist; and jazz-inflected jabs from pianist Guillaume Dostaler, gutbucket blows from trombonist Tom Walsh and expressive triplets from trumpeter Gordon Allen.

Equally flamboyant days later at the River Run Centre, was World Saxophone Quartet plays Hendrix Experience. Resplendent in sharp suits, the four reedists – David Murray, Tony Kofi., James Carter and Hamiet Bluiett – were backed by Lee Pearson’s showy drumming and the electric bass of Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Crowd-pleasing when Person played with his sticks behind his back, while balancing another stick on his head, and when Murray or Carter ripped off a series of screaming vamps while body-swaying across the stage, Southern Soul riffs mixed with Free Jazz-extended techniques were more obvious than any direct link to Jimi Hendrix. “Hey Joe” was announced and a snatch of “Fire” heard, but the pumped drum backbeat and finger-popping bass work alluded to Funk not Fusion. Off to one side, Bluiett was most notable when he eschewed baritone sax snorts for a spidery, tremolo clarinet solo.

As self-effacing as others were flamboyant, Léandre’s solo performance Saturday afternoon at the Guelph Youth Music ignored the bass’s percussiveness to concentrate on the instrument’s other qualities. Performing on a bare stage, at one point Léandre drew an imaginary line on the floor with her bow, then proceeded to rub arco timbres from different parts of the bass: its back, belly and bridge, as well as the strings. Clipping and clapping the strings as well as spanking the wood and whisking the bow through the air, she encouraged sounds with body English. Creating distinctive multiphonics, she spiced her improvisations with bel-canto shrieks and onomatopoeia that sibilantly deconstructed the textures of certain phrases.

Solo expression was also the leitmotif later that same afternoon for Acoustic Orienteering, the most grandiose of the festival’s outdoor installations. A “cartographic composition” by Scott Thomson for 15 freely improvising musicians, the 45-minute piece featured performers circumnavigating downtown Guelph as they played. Audience members were given maps so they could follow particular musicians or choose a place to stay and let the players pass them. While acoustics in certain areas aided the expression of Paul Dutton’s sound-singing or the fluttering ripples from Jean Martin’s trumophone, the only provision made for musical interaction seemed to be serendipity. If a listener stayed in one place, it meant that a musician hovered into view, played a coupe of notes then moved on.

Interactivity was on display in profusion at Mitchell Hall later that night, when veteran Ethiopian tenor saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria and dancer Melaku Belay performed with Dutch Punk-Jazz outfit The Ex . Perform is the operative word, since in short pants and Doc Martens, Ex guitarists Andy Moor and Terrie Hessels skittered and slid over the stage as they unleashed feedback torrents and frenzied riffs; trumpeter Arnold De Boer emphasized with spastic movements the lyrics he shouted; while Belay wiggled and shifted with Jell-O-like undulations, sometimes on his feet, yet parallel to the floor, and other times upright, performing choreography half-way between the Moon Walk and the Saint Vitus’ Dance. Drummer Kat Bornefeld pounded away as well as contributing one echoing vocal in Amharic

As for Mekuria, who at one point topped his flowing white robes and Ethiopian flag color sash with an embroidered hat and cape, he moved regally across the stage playing with wide vibrato a decidedly pre-modern style that recalled Swing saxophonists like Ben Webster. Yet his solos fit in with the cacophonous electronic pulse that shuddered almost visually, as well as reed counterpoint that encompassed alto saxophonist Brodie West’s split tones plus clarinetist Xavier Charles’ squeaks and squiggles.

A similar cultural blending had been attempted earlier that night at the River Run Centre never achieved the same reckless exuberance. Toronto’s Woodchoppers Association and two Malian musicians created an interaction whose sum was less than its parts. Seemingly most comfortable singing gentle folk songs, the Malians adopted a simplified World Music style with the Choppers. Wearing matching white outfits the vamping Choppers aimed for the greasy Funk the WSQ would play in lieu of Fusion, but came across as tentative improvisers.

Now a robust teenager, the Guelph Jazz Festival appears intent on exploring new sounds and fusions. With its Free Music orientation solidified, experimenting this way should be a productive path to follow.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For MusicWorks Issue #106

March 8, 2010

Roy Campbell Ensemble

Akhenaten Suite
AUM Fidelity 045

Named for Akhenaten IV, a fabled pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 1300 B.C., this seven-part suite, composed by brassman Roy Campbell premiered in this riveting live performance at New York’s Vision Festival. Although lodged firmly in the territory where modern jazz is tinged with Arabic echoes, the sensitivity of each player is such that trappings of mythologized exotica are avoided and replaced with first-class improvisational flights.

Serpentine themes that define many of the suite’s transitions are given impetus not only from Campbell – who manipulates tart trumpet expositions and gently muted flugelhorn coloration with equal finesse – but also by the contrapuntal spiccato sweep of Billy Bang’s violin. When Campbell’s distinctive half-valve effects aren’t paired in double counterpoint with Bang’s sobbing sul ponticello runs or hyperactive string multiphonics, then lower-keyed unison harmonies bond gentling trumpet runs with chiming vibraharp strokes from Bryan Carrott. Backbeat rhythms from drummer Zen Matsuura and springy double stops from bassist Hillard Greene pulse without becoming overbearing. Both keep the beat supple enough to undulate into different pitches and tones without it turning around or disintegrating.

If a short section involving Campbell dramatically sounding the Egyptian arghul, or single-reed cane clarinet, threatens to unbalance the improvisation-folklore mix, then Greene’s walking bass line from the bottom, followed by the layering of Bang’s discursive glissandi runs, and finally Campbell’s mid-range plunger gustiness, restore the equilibrium.

Like certain architectural feats of Ancient Egypt, Akhenaten Suite is memorable not for the potential aggrandizement that underlies building this musical monument, but for, in this case, the outstanding craftsmanship and talent that combined for its practical creation.

-- Ken Waxman

-- MusicWorks Issue #104

August 8, 2009

The Stone Quartet

DMG @ The Stone - Vol 1.
DMG/ARC-0721

Staggeringly producing enough tonal colors and timbral delineations to suggest a much larger group, the Stone Quartet has created an improvisational opus with this CD – a faithful reproduction of a single set the ensemble played in the New York performance space.

This comprehensive exhibit of remarkable polyphony should come as no surprise, since the band consists of four innovators of in-the-moment music-making: Americans trumpeter Roy Campbell violist Mat Maneri and pianist Marilyn Crispell, plus French bassist Joëlle Léandre. Shorter, intuitive Maneri-Léandre and Campbell-Crispell duets are sandwich between substantial, extended quartet interactions that define the group’s strengths.

Most spectacular are the more than 25 minutes the four spend probing the extremes of the initial improvisation. Shaded and slithering Campbell’s capillary output alternately soars with nearly weightless grace notes or shakes with fulsome vibrations that are seconded by double-stopping from the strings. In double counterpoint with one another, Maneri offers up high-pitched sul tasto lines while Léandre thumps power chords in the middle, then moves into subterranean registers. Foreshortening high frequency, agitato note clusters, Crispell displaces metronomic comping for the trickle of individual notes that fuse with the bassist’s focused shuffle bowing as a summation.

Deep pitches intermingle on the conclusive “Part 4”, as the bassist’s woody, thick-vibrated thwacks shadow Campbell’s growls which almost replicate bass clarinet tonguing. Yet the quartet proves its ingenuity on the track’s final variation where fluid spiccato strings, nimble brass slurs and chiming piano chords outline a folksy, lively and charming melody.

Subtitled “Volume 1”, the second volume of this session will be eagerly awaited.

-- Ken Waxman

-- In MusicWorks Issue #102

November 20, 2008

Steve Swell’s Slammin’ The Infinite

Live At The Vision Festival
Not Two MW 780-2

Steve Swell Presents: Rivers Of Sound, Ensemble

News From the Mystic Auricle

Not Two MW 797-2

Middle age sounds good from Steve Swell. Not that age – or ageism – should be any factor in discussing music. But few American players had the gumption to affiliate themselves with Free Jazz during the Fusion and Neo-con drought years between the late 1960s and the early 1990s. So only a small number of mature stylists such as the trombonist are around, who not only continue the search for original formulae advanced by some older improvisers, but also possess the self-editing skills lacking in many younger players.

One person who is still musically experimenting, although around 80-years-old, is saxophonist Sam Rivers. Without replicating any of his music, News From the Mystic Auricle is dedicated to Rivers. Live At The Vision Festival, on the other hand, is a looser affair, although two of Swell’s three compositions are dedicated to further older improvisers: trombonist Grachan Moncur III and the late tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe.

Speaking of maturity, key members of the bands on both CDs are similarly in the prime of their lives. Multi-reedist Sabir Mateen for instance, has made his name playing with bandleaders ranging from bassist William Parker to pianist Horace Tapscott; while drummer Klaus Kugel has powered a variety of European and American ensembles. On Live the two plus Swell are joined by slightly younger bassist Matthew Heyer, who was in TEST with Mateen and is part of the No Neck Blues band; plus idiosyncratic pianist John Blum. On News they’re spelled by mature trumpeter and flugelhornist Roy Campbell, a member of Other Dimensions in Music with Parker; and bassist Hill Greene, who is in the bands Carnival Skin with Kugel, and Exuberance with Campbell.

Although Campbell adds to the contrapuntal discourse on the studio session, the excitement is really palpable on the Vision Festival CD. From the first notes of “Improv/Box Set” Hayner’s pedal-point harmonies, Kugel’s double-handed rumbles and pops plus occasional focused chording from Blum provide a proper showcase for Swell’s staccato partials and Mateen’s cursive flute lines. Mateen’s subsequent switch to hawk-like squawks on clarinet and still later to altissimo saxophone cries occasion equivalent intensity from the backing three. The pianist turns out speed-skating glissandi and Heyer spiccato incursions.

Never lopsided, the modulated lines continuously intersect even after Swell introduces a roistering secondary theme – an agitated line that could have come from the New York Art Quartet (NYAQ)’s book. Mateen’s snorts, vibrations and chirps solidify into long-lined glossolalia after this incursion, and they’re soon matched by plunger grace notes from the trombonist, pummeling ruffs from the drums and a walking, popping bass line. With the secondary theme used as a shout chorus, the band wraps up.

Exhilaration mixed with ferment characterizes the other tracks as well. Blum asserts himself with chording that alternately visits the recital realm or key clinking from non-idiomatic music. Heyner’s bass lines move from parade-ground-styled accompaniment to sul ponticello squeaks, and Kugel’s dynamic press rolls and ruffs mark the similarities between Free Bop and Free Jazz. When Swell outputs gutbucket smears on “For Grachan”, Mateen’s cistern-deep pitches and split tones on tenor saxophone recall that Moncur gigged with Archie Shepp. Simultaneously the saxophonist’s ricocheting altissimo slurs are further complemented by the trombonist’s contrapuntal asides.

This same consistency is exemplified further on the other CD, recorded less than eight months later. In addition, the braying interpolation, flutter tonguing and brassy triplets from Campbell’s horns give the frontline added polyphony. Campbell often works in counterpoint with huffing trombone timbres, Meanwhile Greene’s arco skills and pumping pizzicato complement Kugel’s sizzling cymbals and blunt strokes.

Cohesion is most evident on the title track where Mateen appears to exercise each of his instruments in turn. Whistling and squeaking clarinet slurs, sharpened and fortissimo flute runs, stuttering tenor saxophone cross tones and tip-top alto saxophone pitches are showcased. Meantime Greene’s buzzing ostinato plus Kugel’s bell-shaking and pulse-quickening kettle drum-like paradiddles set the scene for more contrapuntal development. There are bugle-like brass flashes, staccato trombone timbres and eventually another excursion into NYAQ-like tonal tinctures. Writhing and vibrating, mellow flugelhorn echoes operate above sweeping pedal-point bass lines until entries from the additional horn shove the maximum chordal interactions and minimal instrumental harmonics into a clear-sounding fantasia for all.

These discs are prime examples of why improvised music can never be in thrall to tyro players or feeble oldsters. Middle-aged maturity often produces the most notable and memorable sounds.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Live: 1. Improv/Box Set 2. For Grachan 3. Partient Explorer/For Frank Lowe

Personnel: Live: Steve Swell (trombone); Sabir Mateen (alto and tenor saxophones, clarinet and flute); John Blum (piano); Matthew Heyner (bass) and Klaus Kugel (drums)

Track Listing: News: 1. Journey to Omphalos 2. Healix 3. News From the Mystic Auricle

Personnel: News: Roy Campbell (trumpet and flugelhorn); Steve Swell (trombone); Sabir Mateen (alto and tenor saxophones, clarinet and flute); Hillard Greene (bass) and Klaus Kugel (drums)

October 23, 2008

Ras Moshe Quartet

Transcendence
KMB Jazz KMB-007

Saco Yasuma

Another Rain

Leaf Note LNP 0208

Geography is sometimes an extraneous element when it comes to creativity, as two accomplished New York-based saxophonists demonstrate on CDs with their own bands. Part of the fourth – or is it fifth or sixth (?) – generation of non-mainstream players, reedists Ras Moshe and Saco Yasuma sometimes work together in various ensembles – most notably trombonist Steve Swell’s big band – but their backgrounds couldn’t be more dissimilar.

Japanese-born, Yasuma, who plays alto saxophone and xaphoon or bamboo saxophone on Another Rain, took up saxophone when she moved to New York a dozen years ago in order, she says, to reflect her voice and breath. Moshe, who plays tenor and alto saxophones, clarinet and flute on Transcendence is in the ecstatic tradition of John Coltrane and Frank Wright, is a proud Brooklynite and has been one since birth.

His quartet is divided between veterans and tyros. Bassist Shayna Dulberger is a well-schooled player, who also plays in other New York groups such as the Introscopic Music Ensemble. A Bostonian who played with drummer Dennis Warren’s FMRJE, guitarist Dave Ross is also a member of the Synergy band with Moshe and Yasuma. Drummer Rashid Bakr, on the other hand has been part of many Free Jazz combos since he first worked with pianist Cecil Taylor in the 1970s.

Bakr, and brassman Roy Campbell, who is featured on Yasuma’s CD, are part of the co-op Other Dimensions in Music combo. Other Another Rain participants include bassist Ken Filiano, who works with bands on both American coasts and internationally; pianist Andrew Bemkey, who has played with Campbell and bassist William Parker; and percussionist/producer Michael T.A. Thompson, another associate of Campbell and Parker.

A defining characteristic of both CDs – recorded by happenstance one month apart in the same Brooklyn studio – is their rhythmic accessibility. Avoiding heavy back-beat emphasis, the tempo arises generically from the performances themselves, with the rhythm sections – especially the bassists – holding down the pulse and serving as connective tissue for the improvisations.

This is most apparent on Transcendence’s “Turtles All The Way Down”, which contrapuntally matches the slap-bass lines of composer Dulberger, swelling reed bites from Moshe and note-crunching, slurred fingering from Ross. Although the guitar part is a bit too upfront in the mix – as it is throughout the session – Ross’s display of intricate finger picking follows its own path as Barkr strikes small percussion instruments and Moshe sounds a Tranesque line.

Echoes of Trane – and one of his disciples on “Flute Peace for Charles Lloyd” – permeates the saxophonist’s playing on the CD, and never more so than on the 10½-minute “All Flow”. Encompassing scene-setting, Jimmy Garrison-like bass work, Bakr throwing down ratamacues, rolls and bell rattles, plus distinctive acoustic guitar comping from Ross, this is Moshe’s showcase from beginning to end. Tonguing double and triple flutters from his tenor, the saxman turns to side-slipping obbligatos and extended arpeggios that intensify as they expand. After bowed bass and distorted, slack-key guitar frails distend the compositional shape still further, Moshe re-enters the fray with a reed-biting variation of the theme – which he then proceeds to shred with altissimo shrieks and falsetto growls. On top of widening downstrokes from Ross, the saxophonist finally relaxes his lip enough to restate the head.

Despite numerically more instrumental firepower, there isn’t the same contrast between light and darkness, buoyancy and bulk on Another Rain, Yasuma’s debut disc. Working further into the tradition than Transcendence, the CD features frequent call-and-response passages between the front line and the rhythm section. Additionally, the rolling chords that often characterize Bemkey’s accompaniment vary from McCoy Tyner-like modal runs to the sort of advanced Freebop comping that was a specialty of 1960s and 1970s pianists on Blue Note sessions.

However some unique touches frequently move the nine tracks – all of which except for one group improvisation are written by Yasuma – away from her influences and into their own realm. “Calm Water”, for instance, not only matches bowed bass and trumpet lines to contrast with Yasuma’s wispy, vibrated flute-like timbres – likely from the xaphoon – but adds Bemkey’s lowing bass clarinet for additional color. Thompson contributes Africanized tree-drum rhythms, Filiano slides out snaky, oud-like pattering and Campbell’s muted horn accompanies the adagio drumming.

Elsewhere Thompson interrupts the overly-smooth exposition on the title track with thumping batá drum-like hand slaps, encouraging the pianist’s notes to transform first into folksy licks than to introduce hints of gospel chording. Eventually Yasuma’s own relaxed climatic line circles back to the head.

Then there’s “The Fifth Season”. Taken andante, the piece mates harsher piano accents with a reed output that migrates from ethereal bamboo sax lines to triple-tongued Free Jazz intensity. Bemkey’s modal exposition and strummed dynamics are seconded by Filiano’s sul tasto squeezes and scrapes plus Thompson’s drum and cymbal chinks. Subsequently each part bonds for the echoing crescendo.

While neither CD is so outstanding that it’s likely to broadcast the reputation of either saxophonist beyond the confines of the non-mainstream, each shows considerable degrees of style and originality. Remember for instance, how many sessions Coltrane and Jackie McLean recorded before they became standard bearers. Similar maturing and style codification characterize these early efforts by both saxophonists.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Rain: 1. Invisible Matters 2. Liquid Entity 3. Fat Orange Moon* 4. The Fifth Season 5. Calm Water 6. Labyrinth 7. Straight Upwards 8. A Wind Blew Into My Hands 9. Another Rain

Personnel: Rain: Roy Campbell (trumpet and flugelhorn [not #4 and #9]); Saco Yasuma (alto saxophone and xaphoon [bamboo saxophone]); Andrew Bemkey (piano); Ken Filiano (bass) and Michael T.A. Thompson (sound rhythm percussion) plus Golda Solomon (words)*

Track Listing: Transcendence: 1. Transcendence 2. Far Sight 3. If You See Something, Say Something 4. Sun Room 5. Flute Peace for Charles Lloyd 6. All Flow 7. Carol Not Christmas 8. Interstellar Brooklyn 9. Turtles All The Way Down

Personnel: Transcendence: Ras Moshe (alto and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet and flute); Dave Ross (guitar); Shayna Dulberger (bass) and Rashid Bakr (drums)

November 23, 2007

Saco Yasuma

Another Rain
Leaf Note LNP 0208

Ras Moshe Quartet

Transcendence

KMB Jazz KMB-007

Geography is sometimes an extraneous element when it comes to creativity, as two accomplished New York-based saxophonists demonstrate on CDs with their own bands. Part of the fourth – or is it fifth or sixth (?) – generation of non-mainstream players, reedists Ras Moshe and Saco Yasuma sometimes work together in various ensembles – most notably trombonist Steve Swell’s big band – but their backgrounds couldn’t be more dissimilar.

Japanese-born, Yasuma, who plays alto saxophone and xaphoon or bamboo saxophone on Another Rain, took up saxophone when she moved to New York a dozen years ago in order, she says, to reflect her voice and breath. Moshe, who plays tenor and alto saxophones, clarinet and flute on Transcendence is in the ecstatic tradition of John Coltrane and Frank Wright, is a proud Brooklynite and has been one since birth.

His quartet is divided between veterans and tyros. Bassist Shayna Dulberger is a well-schooled player, who also plays in other New York groups such as the Introscopic Music Ensemble. A Bostonian who played with drummer Dennis Warren’s FMRJE, guitarist Dave Ross is also a member of the Synergy band with Moshe and Yasuma. Drummer Rashid Bakr, on the other hand has been part of many Free Jazz combos since he first worked with pianist Cecil Taylor in the 1970s.

Bakr, and brassman Roy Campbell, who is featured on Yasuma’s CD, are part of the co-op Other Dimensions in Music combo. Other Another Rain participants include bassist Ken Filiano, who works with bands on both American coasts and internationally; pianist Andrew Bemkey, who has played with Campbell and bassist William Parker; and percussionist/producer Michael T.A. Thompson, another associate of Campbell and Parker.

A defining characteristic of both CDs – recorded by happenstance one month apart in the same Brooklyn studio – is their rhythmic accessibility. Avoiding heavy back-beat emphasis, the tempo arises generically from the performances themselves, with the rhythm sections – especially the bassists – holding down the pulse and serving as connective tissue for the improvisations.

This is most apparent on Transcendence’s “Turtles All The Way Down”, which contrapuntally matches the slap-bass lines of composer Dulberger, swelling reed bites from Moshe and note-crunching, slurred fingering from Ross. Although the guitar part is a bit too upfront in the mix – as it is throughout the session – Ross’s display of intricate finger picking follows its own path as Barkr strikes small percussion instruments and Moshe sounds a Tranesque line.

Echoes of Trane – and one of his disciples on “Flute Peace for Charles Lloyd” – permeates the saxophonist’s playing on the CD, and never more so than on the 10½-minute “All Flow”. Encompassing scene-setting, Jimmy Garrison-like bass work, Bakr throwing down ratamacues, rolls and bell rattles, plus distinctive acoustic guitar comping from Ross, this is Moshe’s showcase from beginning to end. Tonguing double and triple flutters from his tenor, the saxman turns to side-slipping obbligatos and extended arpeggios that intensify as they expand. After bowed bass and distorted, slack-key guitar frails distend the compositional shape still further, Moshe re-enters the fray with a reed-biting variation of the theme – which he then proceeds to shred with altissimo shrieks and falsetto growls. On top of widening downstrokes from Ross, the saxophonist finally relaxes his lip enough to restate the head.

Despite numerically more instrumental firepower, there isn’t the same contrast between light and darkness, buoyancy and bulk on Another Rain, Yasuma’s debut disc. Working further into the tradition than Transcendence, the CD features frequent call-and-response passages between the front line and the rhythm section. Additionally, the rolling chords that often characterize Bemkey’s accompaniment vary from McCoy Tyner-like modal runs to the sort of advanced Freebop comping that was a specialty of 1960s and 1970s pianists on Blue Note sessions.

However some unique touches frequently move the nine tracks – all of which except for one group improvisation are written by Yasuma – away from her influences and into their own realm. “Calm Water”, for instance, not only matches bowed bass and trumpet lines to contrast with Yasuma’s wispy, vibrated flute-like timbres – likely from the xaphoon – but adds Bemkey’s lowing bass clarinet for additional color. Thompson contributes Africanized tree-drum rhythms, Filiano slides out snaky, oud-like pattering and Campbell’s muted horn accompanies the adagio drumming.

Elsewhere Thompson interrupts the overly-smooth exposition on the title track with thumping batá drum-like hand slaps, encouraging the pianist’s notes to transform first into folksy licks than to introduce hints of gospel chording. Eventually Yasuma’s own relaxed climatic line circles back to the head.

Then there’s “The Fifth Season”. Taken andante, the piece mates harsher piano accents with a reed output that migrates from ethereal bamboo sax lines to triple-tongued Free Jazz intensity. Bemkey’s modal exposition and strummed dynamics are seconded by Filiano’s sul tasto squeezes and scrapes plus Thompson’s drum and cymbal chinks. Subsequently each part bonds for the echoing crescendo.

While neither CD is so outstanding that it’s likely to broadcast the reputation of either saxophonist beyond the confines of the non-mainstream, each shows considerable degrees of style and originality. Remember for instance, how many sessions Coltrane and Jackie McLean recorded before they became standard bearers. Similar maturing and style codification characterize these early efforts by both saxophonists.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Rain: 1. Invisible Matters 2. Liquid Entity 3. Fat Orange Moon* 4. The Fifth Season 5. Calm Water 6. Labyrinth 7. Straight Upwards 8. A Wind Blew Into My Hands 9. Another Rain

Personnel: Rain: Roy Campbell (trumpet and flugelhorn [not #4 and #9]); Saco Yasuma (alto saxophone and xaphoon [bamboo saxophone]); Andrew Bemkey (piano); Ken Filiano (bass) and Michael T.A. Thompson (sound rhythm percussion) plus Golda Solomon (words)*

Track Listing: Transcendence: 1. Transcendence 2. Far Sight 3. If You See Something, Say Something 4. Sun Room 5. Flute Peace for Charles Lloyd 6. All Flow 7. Carol Not Christmas 8. Interstellar Brooklyn 9. Turtles All The Way Down

Personnel: Transcendence: Ras Moshe (alto and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet and flute); Dave Ross (guitar); Shayna Dulberger (bass) and Rashid Bakr (drums)

November 23, 2007

THE GIFT

Live at Sangha
Bmadish Records Gift002-2

JASON HAWANG/FRANCIS WONG/TATSU AOKI
Graphic Evidence
Asian Improv AIR0066

Four years and a set of assumptions separate these two dates, which display two views of violinist Jason (Kao) Hwang.

Superficially the Energy Music produced by the fiddler, trumpeter Roy Campbell and drummer William Hooker on LIVE AT SANGHA could be heard as Hwang’s electric side. The more meditative GRAPHIC EVIDENCE, which finds him partnered by soprano saxophonist Francis Wong and bassist Tatsu Aoki plus Wu Man on pipa on two tracks, can be heard as Hwang’s acoustic side. Actually they’re two sides of the same coin – an American one.

For GRAPHIC, recorded in 2000, finds three (or four) musicians expressing their variant on improvisation by adapting some of the sounds, and all of their identity, as Asian-Americans. More brutal, SANGHA’s tracks may symbolically sound that way since the fiddler’s confreres are two accomplished African-American musicians, who bring their history – and in Hooker’s case an appreciation for hard rock – to this outing.

Don’t be distracted by the sociological subtext however, GRAPHIC EVIDENCE is memorable and LIVE AT SANGHA a little less so because of its strong musicianship. The reason the first CD scores higher is due to the subtlety of its creation. SANGHA almost bludgeons you with its sonic brutality.

Nearly exhausting in its fervor, the CD is a warts-and-all record of a Campbell-Hooker-Hwang Maryland gig in 2004. A powerful percussionist who has held his own with guitarist Lee Renaldo of Sonic Youth, yet manipulates his kit so that it makes common cause in duets with violinist Billy Bang, Hooker maintains irregular patterning and probing flams, ruffs, rebounds and bounces as he plays here. Around him, Campbell outputs shrill, gritty triplets with a jazz linkage at points, and slurred rubato grace notes elsewhere. Although Hwang isn’t listed as playing electronics, considering resonating wah-wahs and distorted note patterns are heard, he’s certainly plugged into something.

As the fiddler applies bow pressure one-quarter of the way through to expand the strident theme, Campbell’s open horn asides congeal into a gentler counter melody. With insinuations of “Scheherazade” issuing from his horn, Hwang introduces sul ponticello vibrato to create additional multiphonics, as Hooker turns from off-handed beats to pinpointed rolls and pulses. Sonically traveling further east, the trumpeter brings out his flute for a snake-charmer-style melody, while the fiddler’s flanges produces plunger-like distortion.

Moving the improvisation west, the drummer’s configuration soon respond with Native American-like beats mixed with a few Aboriginal war whoops. Back to the trumpet, Campbell introduces spectacular staccato growls without fouling the melodic strength of his contributions. On the piece’s concluding minutes, the violinist unleashes Jean-Luc Ponty-style screaming runs and raw glissandi that reverberate with phaser-like impulses. The resulting crackle and crunch fuse the other two voices into triple counterpoint, including rough drum rhythms and splayed and spittle-encrusted trumpet high notes. Shattering the interface, Hooker announces his coda with a conclusive drum roll.

GRAPHIC’s most percussive element is the pedal-point bottom provided by Chicago bassist Tatsu Aoki, who knows a thing about saxophone textures, having worked extensively with Fred Anderson and Roscoe Mitchell. His woody vibrations, that resonate the instrument’s frame as well as its strings, are fully in the jazz-improv tradition, yet the unabashed power he brings can also be related to the sound of the taiko drum, which is very familiar to the Tokyo-born Aoki. In spite of this, while the two tracks with pipa or four-string lute player Wu Man are superficially more Oriental – with Hwang’s violin textures suggesting those of a two-stringed erhu and Francis Wong’s soprano sax becoming a purported suona or Chinese oboe, Aoki has no trouble finding a part. He has played extensively with these and other traditional instrumentalists – he even recorded a duet CD with Man.

“Blood Falling Out-of-Bounds” is the most representative trio outing with the piece ending up as an Oriental blues. Sounding at one point as if he’s stroking rubberized balloon material, Hwang slithers out the tremolo blues licks as Aoki double stops with an unvarying pulse.

Wong, who has recorded in more traditional jazz settings with masters like California cornetist Bobby Bradford and the Art Ensemble’s drummer Famoudou Don Moye, often uses echoing soprano saxophone trills to effect a harmonic convergence with Hwang’s slurred and splayed lines. Contrapuntal, the bassist’s powerful string bumping on “Invocation and Resonance” keeps the tune grounded when Hwang’s fiddling slithers into shrill whistling and Wong sideslips to narrow reed bites.

As for Hwang, while his Asian side is sometime expressed in higher-pitched arco whines, his Americanism comes to the fore in popping pegbox thumps or delicate finger-picking shuffles that turn his fiddle into a Bluegrass mandolin.

Melting pot or multi-cultural improvisations are exposed on both these notable discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Graphic: 1. To the Endless Embrace of Light* 2, Innovation and Resonance 3. Microscopic 4. Blood Falling Out-of-Bounds 5, Door Beneath an Arch 6. Transparent Tapestry 7. Alluvial Fan 8. Before Memory Begins

Personnel: Graphic: Francis Wong (soprano saxophone); Jason Hwang (violin): Wu Man (pipa)*; Tatsu Aoki (bass)

Track Listing: 1. Sangha: Live at Sangha

Personnel: Roy Campbell (trumpet and flute); Jason Hwang (violin); William Hooker (drums)

May 22, 2006

JOHN LINDBERG

Winter Birds
Between the Lines BTLCHR 71203

NU BAND
Live
Konnex KCD 5141

Variations on a quartet theme, the different strategies working bands put across depending on whether they’re involved in a live or a studio situation are illustrated by these CDs.

Recorded on gigs in Rochester, N.Y., Amherst, Mass. and Chicago, LIVE showcases extended five performances from the all-star Nu Band quartet that allow its veteran members extensive space in which to let loose. On the other hand, WINTER BIRDS captures the quartet of bassist John Lindberg, with as stellar a line-up, working in a studio date that followed 13 European concerts in 15 days. Playing nine of the bassist’s tunes and one written by flautist Steve Gorn, the CD recreates in a studio the tightness of the touring quartet

Although Lindberg is known as a founding member of the String Trio of New York (STNY) WINTER BIRDS reveals his more instinctive side that isn’t always notable in STNY’s chamber setting. Here he’s aided by brassman-educator Baikida Carroll, who plays trumpet and flugelhorn, always-inventive percussionist Susie Ibarra, who over the past decade has ratcheted beats for musicians as disparate as microtonal composer Pauline Oliveros and New Thing throwback tenor saxophonist David S. Ware.

Wildcard is Gorn. A jazz clarinetist and soprano saxophonist most of the time, he adds his elegant bansuri or virtuoso bamboo flute patterns to a coupe of tunes. Considering his timbres have been used by traditional South Asian ensembles and pop singers like Paul Simon and Richie Havens, Gorn’s ethereal tones add a certain otherworldliness to the compositions.

Powerhouse drummer Lou Grassi and bassist Joe Fonda, who have worked with nearly everyone on the so-called downtown scene, take care of the ever-shifting rhythms, on the extended originals on LIVE. Front-line, reedist Mark Whitecage and trumpeter and flugelhornist Roy Campbell, who move in circles around bassist William Parker, are easily a match for the Lindberg band’s trumpeter and woodwind player.

Beginning with five fast-moving miniatures, WINTER BIRDS allows Lindberg to show off his command of archaic slap-bass while the others surround him with sluicing soprano sax lines, hocketing near-baroque trumpet fills and lightly stroked percussion.

Similarly “Siladette Awakening” and “The Chicken Fix” revel in exotic texture and instrumental interface. Moderato, the latter mixes barrelhouse and freebop. Ibarra’s bounces and rolls back up Lindberg’s high-pitched resonation, whinnying runs from the trumpeter and hard-bitten notes from the soprano saxophonist. The former tune, written by Gorn, floats on irregularly pulsed drums and traverse strums from the bassist. Double- stopping and in double counterpoint, they extend a faintly exotic line over which the horns hang emphasized and blended notes like brightly-colored washing drying on a clothes line. Gorn’s multihued bamboo flute timbres show up most prominently on “Ether”, as his Carnatic-style resonation meet closely positioned, gamelan-like responses from Ibarra.

Fluttering bird-like melodies expended from the North Indian flute also play a part in “Resurrection of a Dormant Soul”, described as a composition of spiritual affirmation. Lindberg’s string snaps and sul tasto raps on the bass’s ribs and belly join Ibarra’s press rolls and cymbal taps to give the piece its initial percussive flavor. But after the bassist extends his bow angling for maximum sound variation, a contrapuntal Tarantella-type air is advanced by flutter-tongued clarinet and brassy trumpet. Gorn’s later switch from trilling and fluttering clarinet to more delicate bamboo flute doesn’t upset the dancing theme either.

Thematic in parts, the Nu Band’s creations include Campbell’s “Prayer, Contemplation and Meditation” and Grassi’s “Ballad of 9-11”. As heartfelt as the emotions may be from the brassman who leads the Third World-oriented Pyramid Trio, the former unfortunately drags on at too great a length. Harmon-muted trumpet tones and prosaic clarinet lines limit, rather than illuminate the theme. Even Fonda’s strummed guitar-like bass portion is too carefully measured.

Surprisingly – considering the subject matter – “Ballad of 9-11” comes off better. Sonorous arco bass and ethereal, rococo flute state the initial theme, giving way to a Campbell solo that moves from whinny, half-valve work to soft cries. Later Whitecage reveals a surprisingly smooth Benny Carter-like alto tone that finally roughens with slurs and overblowing. Extending a constant rhythm, the composer, in concert with Campell’s broken chords, directs the piece to a somber conclusion,

Except for an extended jape against the mendacity of the Bush cabinet on “Four of Them”, the other inside-outside pieces unroll in fairly standard form, with the horns marking the heads, followed by the tunes’ opening up for extended solos. On Whitecage’s “End Piece” for instanced, the drummer’s spectacular percussive romp could easily got him hard-bop gigs in the 1960s. In between a theme statement with treetop-high brassiness from Campbell and a final mid-range saxophone reprise, Grassi uses bass flams, cross-sticking, cymbal cracks and rim-shot elaborations to make his points. Multi-functional, he stokes the kit more than he pummels it.

Showpiece is the more than 17-minute “Like a Spring Day”, which seems to introduce shout choruses almost as soon as there’s a theme statement. Following flutter tonguing from the trumpeter on top of roistering and flapping drum beats, the composer condenses swooping bird-like slurs and trills and a touch of circular breathing into a burst of glossolalia. Fonda then advances the tune with double-stopped bowing, which skitters down to multi-tonal arco sweeps and bass note undercurrents. After he reprises the melody one more time with high-pitched strokes, the bassist slides down to mellow double-stopping, unearthing textures that sound like wet fingers rubbed against the side of a balloon. Conclusively, the piece is wrapped with a darting brass/reed unison that echoes similar dual strategies from Donald Byrd’s trumpet and Gigi Gryce’s alto saxophone circa 1959.

Impressive for it’s individual showcases, LIVE could have used more tightening and editing to make it better – but isn’t that true for most live recordings? More focused without being precious, WINTER BIRDS is an altogether memorable listen, overshadowing the other disc in comparison. Still either CD should appeal to listeners familiar with the work of any or all of the eight players.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Live: 1. Like a Spring Day 2. Ballad of 9-11 3. End Piece 4. Prayer, Contemplation and Meditation 5. Four of Them

Personnel: Live: Roy Campbell (trumpet and flugelhorn); Mark Whitecage (alto, tenor and soprano saxophones and clarinet); Joe Fonda (bass); Lou Grassi (drums)

Track Listing: Winter: 1. BAM! Quatre 2. BAM! Cinq 3. BAM! Neuf 4. BAM! Onze 5. BAM! Sept 6. Winter Birds 7. Resurrection of a Dormant Soul 8. Ether 9. Siladette Awakening 10. The Chicken Fix

Personnel: Winter: Baikida Carroll (trumpet and flugelhorn); Steve Gorn (bansuri flutes, soprano saxophone and clarinet); John Lindberg (bass); Susie Ibarra (drums and percussion)

December 5, 2005

MARC RIBOT

Spiritual Unity
Pi Recordings PI15

Taking any part of Albert Ayler’s oeuvre as a starting point for improvisation demands courage and nerve, since most of the saxophonist’s lines are as inextricably linked with his treatment of them as Thelonious Monk’s compositions were with his playing. Performing Ayler heads without a saxophonist is even more of a challenge, since the late Clevelander wrote lines that sit most comfortably under a reedist’s fingers. But the four members of the Spiritual Unity aggregation do this and more.

Most instructively, by necessity as well as design, they don’t try to replicate the Ayler sonics. Although if they did they’d be further ahead than most, since bassist Henry Grimes, who actually played with Ayler, is in the band. Grimes, whose 30 year plus sabbatical from the music has frequently been chronicled, doesn’t try to play the way he did in 1964. His work is muzzy and more deliberate, often with a furry pizzicato drone and with sul tasto and arco spiccato extensions.

Trumpeter Roy Campbell is no Don Ayler either. An expansive soloist with a thorough command of the grace notes and chromatic styling which usually escaped Albert Ayler’s trumpet-playing brother, Campbell often works with bassist William Parker among others. Chicago transplant Chad Taylor is no Milford Graves or Sunny Murray either – to cite two of Ayler’s trapsmen. More consistent and often using cross handed accompaniment, he brings the dynamics from his work with the electro-oriented Chicago Underground Trio to these tunes.

Finally there’s the band’s titular leader, Marc Ribot, who plays guitar and also wrote the introductory tune. Considering the only dates under the saxophonist Ayler’s name recorded with a guitar were those that featured Canned Heat’s Henry Vestine’s psychedelic-blues licks, Ribot, whose past gigs have included stints with the Lounge Lizards and Los Cubanos Positzos, has almost limitless latitude.

You note this on the almost-13-minute run through of “Truth Is Marching In”, as well as the 15½-plus minutes of “Bells”. Beginning in triple counterpoint on the first, Grimes bows, Ribot picks, and a muted Campbell sounds the theme. Varying the exposition, the four almost transform the tune from a march to a dump, which is a slow, melancholy old English dance. Polyphonic variations are introduced, as Ribot breaks the line for slurred fingering that ends in an explosion of snapping single strings. Meanwhile, Campbell blows brassy counterpoint, Taylor cross patterns and Grimes supplies a bagpipe-type drone. Turning to disconnected bounces and ruffs, the drumming presages bugle-like accents from the trumpeter that once again recapitulate the theme, then turns moderato as sonorous bowed bass and glancing guitar-string bites turn the final section into a harmonic interchange.

More innovative, “Bells” finds Ribot processing wide, Folk Revival-like strums that bring a new interface to the Ayler tune; the saxman’s background was spirituals not folk ballads. As the fretman’s chording become wider and more complex, Grimes adds cello-like pizzicato fills, until the familiar melody kicks in, followed by plucked single string by Ribot and given grace note coloration from the trumpeter. These languid brass notes soon turn to beeps and peeps as Taylor uses his rock music experiences to emphasize the backbeat, propelling the tune forward with polyrhythmic verve plus cymbal slashes and press rolls.

With the tempo doubled and the nursery rhyme aspects of the theme stressed, Ribot’s lines get longer and Campbell unleashes a triplet-laden solo. All this climaxes in another theme variation complemented and commented on with distorted reverb from the guitarist. Burying his solo in half-valve effects, Campbell eventually spills out a primitive-sounding blues line that reasserts itself as a further echo of the original theme. Fortissimo screaming rock guitar licks, sliding spiccato bass lines, thumping drums and trembling trumpet blows conspire to goose the theme until it finally revisits the folkie string patterns and plunger slurs of the top.

Stuttering bass lines, crunching guitar chords and slurred rubato trumpeting also make their appearance on the other compositions, one of which is surprisingly punctuated with a solemn nocturne. As real, re-imagined improvisation – not neo-con recreations – these recreations often refer only to Ayler’s performances in the heads. Structured in their own ways, the pieces on SPIRITUAL UNITY prove that you can honor the essence of music without copying it.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Invocation 2. Spirits 3. Truth Is Marching In 4. Saints 5. Bells

Personnel: Marc Ribot (guitar); Roy Campbell (trumpet and pocket trumpet); Henry Grimes (bass); Chad Taylor (drums)

November 14, 2005

COLD BLEAK HEAT

It’s Magnificent, But It Isn’t War
Family Vineyard FV35

EXUBERANCE
Live at Vision Festival
Ayler aylCD-009

Featuring familiar instrumentation, these East Coast quartets give you a glimpse of how so-called avant-garde improv is now either traditional – if that’s not an oxymoron – and evolving.

New York-based Exuberance, featuring some of the busiest advanced musicians in that city, has given itself the ongoing task of extending the sound John Coltrane and other energy players first articulated in the 1960s. With members hailing from Connecticut, Boston and the Apple, Cold Bleak Heat (CBH) mixes traditional – there’s that word again – energy improvisation with minimalistic tendencies influenced by European microtonalism. Each CD provides a valid answer to the overriding question of how to produce memorable free music in the 21st century.

Both of Exuberance’s reedmen are common buds on the Coltrane tree branch of sax playing. Tenor saxophonist Louie Belogenis is best-known for his affiliation with bands featuring former Trane drummer Rashied Ali, while and CBH’s alto and tenor saxophonist is Paul Flaherty, whose 30 years of recording and playing usually takes place in New England seclusion. Evocative, each can use advanced techniques to generate a performance by himself.

Bassist Hilliard Greene and percussionist Michael Wimberly of Exuberance and CBH’s bassist Matt Heyner and drummer Chris Corsano operate in similar rhythmic circumstances as well. However Wimberly’s use of djembe and Africanized vocals brings along the suggestion of ethnic music, while Heyner, who has guided the No Neck Blues Band, and Corsano, who plays with Sunburned Hand of the Man, have a rock sensibility, which they keep under check here.

But the maximum contrast is between the bands’ trumpeters. Exuberance’s Roy Campbell, who also plays flute here, is firmly in the Modern Jazz/Free Jazz tradition. He constantly works with bassist William Parker in many situations including the Other Dimensions in Music quartet and leads a jam in Harlem every Monday night. Antithetically Boston’s Greg Kelley is an outright experimenter. Member of numerous microtonal aggregations both large and small – most notably his nmperign duo with saxist Bhob Rainey – his role in CBH is to integrate his unfolding minimalistic trumpet notes with the distending energy sounds of Flaherty and Corsano.

You can hear this abrasive intersection most clearly in the CD’s centre section of elongated tunes – the almost 13-minute “Bloodshot Blink (Vanquished Teeth)”, the almost 11-minute “Raising the Dead (Freezer Fight)” and the mammoth, almost 16-minute, in-your-face “Love Conquers All, Motherfucker”.

Using a blow torch intensity that makes most Trane-influenced saxists sound like Kenny G, Flaherty begins “Raising…” , for example, with an extended, barbarous screech that promises to deliver what the title suggests. Breakneck slurs, slides and smears are ejaculated in double, triple and quadruple time, gathering the results into harsh vibrations. Irregular bangs are the drummer’s contribution, and the Heyner’s string overtones are scratched sul ponticello. Somehow producing a sort of discordant harmony with the saxophonist, Kelly’s bee-buzzing line seems to be expelled using only his mouthpiece.

Thumping bass lines and almost Native Indian-sounding drum ruffs make up the rhythm for “Bloodshot…” While the sepulchral reed resonates with R&B-related honks, Flaherty continues by splitting his accented and compressed lines into overtones and nodes. Buzzing and wandering pitches characterize his reed biting output along with atonal broken chords. Octave jumps and irregular, triple-tongued vibrations are Kelley’s response along with flutter tongued grace notes. Congruence and double counterpoint bring the horns together.

CBH’s ne plus ultra “Love Conquers All, Motherfucker”, finds Flaherty shouting through his body tube and gooseneck with a banshee’s vehemence, while also unleashing Aylerian cries of reed-busting vigor. Moving along from languishly slurred flattement and doits, he heads skywards, pursued by Corsano’s rolling sticks on hollow drum tops and speedy paradiddles. All the while, Kelley evolves from mouthpiece oscillation to darting single notes to --then ramming out a dense, solid tone. Soon he’s triple tonguing around sequenced honks that appear to have been produced by the saxman blowing through mouthpiece sans reed.

The drummer’s tom-tom-like, war party drum pounding signals a modulation to a calmer pace as Kelley’s shaking obbligato accompanies the reedist as if the later was a torch singer. Finale involves the echoing bounces that result from both shouting in double counterpoint through the lead pipe and body tube respectively.

Elsewhere, sounds may be more muted or legato, with the four advancing from rubato cohesion to free-for-all atonalism. But whether stentorian or altissimo the sounds meld into an impressive display of advanced Free Music.

LIVE is notable too, but again in its relation to Free Jazz, rather than Free Music. Throughout Campbell proves himself a flashier trumpeter than Kelley, exhibiting shredded arpeggios and gaudy triplets. But he never moves beyond the bounds of good taste. A four-part suite, titled like Coltrane’s A LOVE SUPREME, the two shorter final numbers and the first “Invocation” intermingle the world influences from Wimberly’s hourglass-shaped djembe with the contrapuntal muted jazz shakes and irregularly-vibrated tones of the tenor saxophonist.

Frankly, Belogenis’ mid-period Trane-like pecking runs and vibrated cadences save the first piece from sinking into standard so-called world music, when the cries and drumbeats begin to be extended with Campbell’s wavering flute timbres. The reedist’s agitated, multiphonics encourage the brassman to revert to trumpet and begin blasting airy triplets and shakes as descending counterbalance.

Showcase of all this is “Procession”, where Greene, now gigging with saxophonist Charles Gayle, asserts himself, resonating his strings with thick plucks as well as sounding as if he’s hitting them with mallets. During its course, Campbell occupies himself with soaring shakes, while Belogenis is involved in duets with each of the rhythm section members. Aware of the comparisons a drum-tenor duet has with Trane’s work with Ali, only here does he improvise with a pronounced (Archie) Sheppian burr as Wimberly outlines a bluesy shuffle beat. Honking and squeaking, he works on overblowing and glottal punctuation. As the drummer exposes his inner Clyde Stubblefield (of James Brown’s band), Belogenis climaxes with a wide funky honk causing not a few complementing screams from his bandsmen and the audience. Greene’s triple-stopping spiccato movements, on the other hand, encourage diminuendo balladic variations from the tenor man. Eventually though, his twisting and swelling arco lines drive the saxophonist to overblow altissimo into far reaches of his reed, ending with animal cries and shredded multiphonics.

Each of these bands can be enjoyed by the committed improv fancier, with Cold Bleak Heat having a bit of an edge for attempting an evolution beyond energy music.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: War: 1. Never Give ‘Em What They Want 2. The Blue Days of Varicose Veins 3. Bloodshot Blink (Vanquished Teeth) 4. Raising the Dead (Freezer Fight) 5. Love Conquers All, Motherfucker 6. You Only Live For Infinity 7. Is That All You Got?

Personnel: War: Greg Kelley (trumpet); Paul Flaherty (alto and tenor saxophones); Matt Heyner (bass); Chris Corsano (drums)

Track Listing: Vision: 1. Invocation 2. Procession 3. Evocation 4. Incandescence

Personnel: Vision: Roy Campbell Jr. (trumpet and flute); Louie Belogenis (tenor saxophone); Hilliard Greene (bass); Michael Wimberly (djembe, drums and vocals)

June 6, 2005

DENNIS GONZÁLEZ NEW YORK QUARTET

NY Midnight Suite
Clean Feed 20

DENNIS GONZÁLEZ’S INSPIRATION BAND
Nile River Suite
Daagnim CD9

Products of a two-day bushman’s holiday in the Big Apple by Dallas-based trumpeter Dennis González, these CDs should irrefutably proves that non-New Yorkers can show Naked City denizens a thing or two.

González, who is also a schoolteacher and a visual artist, runs a supportive co-op organization in Dallas and in the past has recorded with other advanced hinterland players like New Orleans saxist Kidd Jordan and Chicago bassist Malachi Favors. Taking two suites of compositions with him, the brassman plus local drummer Michael Thompson recorded these two CDs in two days with different bands of New York’s finest.

NY MIDNIGHT SUITE links the two with certified downtowners, who are also leaders on their own: tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and bassist Mark Helias. Longer and more ambitious NILE RIVER SUITE finds González and Thompson, in the company of players who often work with bassist William Parker: multi-reedist Sabir Mateen, recently rediscovered bassist Henry Grimes and brassman Roy Campbell, in whose band Thompson also plays. Both are impressive achievements.

More raucous, MIDNIGHT sounds like Ornette Coleman quartet with Don Cherry or Albert Ayler’s band with his brother trumpeter Donald. But González is a more sophisticated soloist than those men were, while Eskelin’s bent is to append Gene Ammons-like soulfullness to a modern overlay.

This is made most clear on “Dominant Fang”, whose antecedents include Latin ass well as freebop. It sometimes sounds as if what would happen if Sonny Rollins’ “East Broadway Rundown” was recast as a hip cop show theme. Here the tenor man double tongues and produces a crying tone, while González, staying in lockstep with him not only frequently reprises the theme but holds to a gentler, more graceful tone.

Meanwhile, the most descriptive part of the Suite, “Runaway Taxi Uptown” has a definite Manhattan vibe and almost replicates a cab ride. Centred on call-and-response between the saxist’s reed biting and the trumpeter’s high triplets, mellow smears and bent notes, it finds Eskelin deconstructing his tone as he ascends the scale. Behind them Thompson mixes his splintering bounces and flams with sandpaper-like incursions on his drumheads and Helias contributes arco punctuation. Ending finds González recapitulating the musical theme as Eskelin sources taxi honks.

On the other hand, “Angels of the Dark Streets”, Part II of the Suite and the unrelated, more-than 18 minute “Hymn for the Elders” showcases a more temperate, style, but with toughness still present. On the first, Eskelin unleashes an atonal, irregularly pitched trill that sounds as it comes straight from the sax bow. With Helias moving from walking bass line to spiccato and Thompson cymbal smashing, the trumpeter unleashes a clutch of triplets, which later on suggest “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. With the front line contrapuntal, both appear to be voicing different parts of the melody, as the saxist finally slows down to lower intensity slurred vibrations.

Polytonal counterpoint enlivens “Hymn” as well, as does unaccompanied cadenzas from Eskelin at the top, a resounding bass drum tone and ground bass lines from Helias. Spurting a few broken grace notes González moves lazily up the scale, encouraging the reedist to spew colored air, the drummer to scour his cymbal and the bassist to slide portamento across his strings. Harmonically muted legato tones from both hornmen gradually curve and double tongue to the quiet ending.

“The Nile Runs through New York (Part IB)” and The Nile Runs through My Heart (Part II)”, two parts of the Nile suite which also run into one another, demonstrate what the composer-trumpeter can do with additional aural colors. The entire CD was recorded the day following the previous session.

On the first tune, Mateen’s vamping flute and Grimes’ bowed bass buffer González’s bravura performance, which logically from the performer comes with a certain Spanish-tinged majesty. Muted, the trumpeter faces off with sluicing clarinet work from Mateen, whose flutter-tongued obbligatos add a certain folksiness to the proceedings. Using soaring moderato grace notes, the composer’s contrapuntal resolution ends the piece with a woody growl. Bridged by a slow-paced bass solo, the second track showcases Campbell amplifying González’s solo, but identifying himself by squeezing, staccato valve work, producing spirals of growls and bleats.

Elsewhere, as on the more than 18 minute “Lyons in Lyon”, named for the altoist Jimmy and the French city, Grimes’ unvarying bass pulse sometimes threatens to push the band back to the anthematic 1960s. But Mateen’s raspy overblowing on alto and Campbell’s looping, vocalized triple tonguing prevents the tune from becoming too chant-like. Soon González adds wiggling counterlines to the other oracular horns, eventually leading one brassman to concentrate on the modulated mid-range as the other shrills higher notes. The bassist offers up a metallic, ponticello tone, Mateen vibrates clarinet pitches and Thompson’s rolls, flams and rebounds on snares and toms help the piece moderate and becomes softer with more unison octave harmonics.

Ultimately the CD is brought to the end with “Hymn for the Ashes of Saturday”. But it’s one religious song whose mixed secular/sacred reference includes a “Night Train”-like shuffle head that’s extended with march tempo rat-tat-tats from Thompson. Meanwhile, as González pecks ahead of the beat on his horn, the other horns riff behind him. Following a ratamacue-ready solo from the drummer that ratchets the wooden parts of his kit, the bands exits as the trumpeter plays a bugle-call-like reveille and Mateen twists and smears his reed into a double timed ending.

As the song goes, “If you can make it here/You can make it anywhere” and González has proven that statement with some help from the locals. Judging from his skills as a composer, arranger and player, what’s really needed is for New Yorkers and other urbanites to pay more attention to his scene in Dallas.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: NY: Suite: 1. (III) Sketch the Wings of Midnight 2. (II) Angels of the Dark Streets 3. (I) Runaway Taxi Uptown 4. Hymn for the Elders 5. Dominant Fang 6. New Short Song

Personnel: NY: Dennis González (trumpet); Ellery Eskelin (tenor saxophone); Mark Helias (bass); Michael Thompson (drums)

Track Listing: Nile: 1. Lyons in Lyon 2. Sand Baptist 3. The Nile Runs through New York (Part IA) 4. The Nile Runs through New York (Part IB) 5. The Nile Runs through My Heart (Part II) 6. The Nile Runs through Us All (Part III) 7. Hymn for the Ashes of Saturday

Personnel: Nile: Dennis González (trumpet); Roy Campbell Jr. (trumpet, pocket trumpet, flugelhorn and flute); Sabir Mateen (alto and tenor saxophones, flute, alto and Bb clarinets); Henry Grimes (bass); Michael Thompson (drums and percussion)

October 18, 2004

HARRIS EISENSTADT QUINTET

Jalolu
CIMP #300

DEAD CAT BOUNCE
Home Speaks to the Wandering
Innova 593

By looking sideways for inspiration to sounds that encompass the brass band tradition, intricate African rhythms, plus hearty helpings of modern jazz and pure improv, two youngish bands have come up with noteworthy CDs that reconfirm eclecticism.

Stacked up next to one another though, JALOLU may have a slight edge over HOME SPEAKS TO THE WANDERING. That’s only because the Gambian and Ghanaian inspirations of drummer Harris Eisenstadt are less familiar than the outcome of many Dead Cat Bounce (DCB) compositions, whose voicings draw on sources like Charles Mingus and the World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ).

Los Angles-based Eisenstadt also has the advantage of having his original compositions interpreted by two adaptable veterans and two veteran adapters. One older musician, trumpeter Paul Smoker, has recorded with multi-reedman Anthony Braxton and a collection of freebop bands, while the other, multi-brassman Roy Campbell, is a close associate of bassist William Parker. As for the younger participants, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum has duetted with Braxton and been in Boston’s Fully Celebrated Orchestra, while baritone saxist and clarinetist Andy Laster, is a 40-something whose band experience stretches from cerebral cellist Erik Friedlander’s group to swingsters Ballin’ the Jack. Meanwhile the Toronto-born drummer has worked with Yusef Lateef and Sam Rivers

Boston roots are very familiar to DCB, whose name is guaranteed to offend animal right activists. With the exception of leader and composer Matt Steckler, who recently moved to Brooklyn after years in Beantown, all live in Massachusetts. One saxophonist, Drew Sayers, still attends the New England Conservatory (NEC), where bassist Arie Werbrouck graduated in 2003. Percussionist Bill Carbone has had different pop and jazz gigs since his 1999 NEC graduation, while woodwind player Jared Sims is an academic who has played with people as different as bassist Cecil McBee and the Jimmy Dorsey ghost band.

DCB’s musical sophistication comes from alto and baritone saxophonist Charlie

Kohlhase, a longtime former member of Boston’s Either/Orchestra (E/O). He has recorded with Braxton, co-lead a band with Danish saxophonist John Tchicai and fronted his own combos for years.

With its four-saxophone front line and backbeat drumming, DCB draws on the rhythmic New Orleans-style marching band tradition as much does the three-brass-and-one-reed of Eisenstadt’s quintet. But by sticking to the head-solo-head format and pushing its influences, the sextet appears to be more wedded to pastiche.

For instance, “Dis You, Dear” starts with a snaking Second Line beat as Steckler’s breathy flute passage suggests Moe Koffman and/or Herbie Mann in their jazz/R&B phases. Sims’ clarinet, Werbrouck’s near slap bass and the other horns threaten to parade into Dixieland territory and even Kohlhase’s honking baritone is only as modern as what is played by Fats Domino’s band. By the end, at least, the two-beat line has given way to some walking bass leading DCB into Cool Jazz territory.

Additionally, with its various inspirations “Angelic & Podlike” makes DCB sounds a lot like that other Boston institution the E/O. The saxes morph from a unison rondo to sounding like Count Basie’s 1950s sax section, to soprano-led passages that could have come from jazz-rockers Ten Wheel Drive. Overall, though, the head of steam dissipates due to the lightness of the attack.

Then there’s “Myopia Hunt Club” where pinched, boppy sax riffs back up Steckler’s penny whistle. The leader’s double tongued solo has a thinner sound than a dyed-in-the-wool bopper would produce and the voiced vamp underneath sounds a lot more like Woody Herman’s Four Brothers band then the WSQ -- an impression not helped by Carbone’s flashy Buddy Rich-style drumming.

More exciting, but still with transparent influences are “Department of Homeland Strategy” and “Hepcat Revival”. At least the later mixes suggestions of Kwela and TV soundtrack music with a direct tribute to Mingus. Held on course by foursquare bass playing, the jittery beat is extended by a slinky, light-toned soprano line from Sims and some soulful tenor honks from Steckler. Once someone starts chanting “oh lordy” and handclapping, however, you start to think you’re listening to an earnest emulation of “Better Get It In Your Soul.

Booker Ervin, Mingus’ star tenor soloist, is recalled by Sims on “Department …”, a foot tapper rife with a gospelish call-and-response sections. Here though, the Texas tenor sound is cut with unexpected pecking thrusts from the other horns and a military-style rat tat tats from Carbone. Finale and crescendo finds the six loosening their mooring and going out in a blaze of horn slurs and drum rolls.

Featuring rip snorting collective improvisations and a back beat that rarely stops, HOME SPEAKS TO THE WANDERING is a pleasant swinger, well worth your time. Next time out, though, it would be better to know just exactly who the members of DCB are, rather than their influences.

In a contrasting fashion JALOLU suffers from a bit of confusion as well. None of the brass solos are identified, which makes it hard to knock -- or more likely praise -- any brassman for his work on a particular track. Moreover with no bass player Laster has to do double duty, usually using low tones to supply the continuum upon which the others solo. Furthermore, a couple of the tunes arrive in two different versions, which bespeaks decision-making uncertainty on the leader’s part.

There’s no quarrelling with Eisenstadt’s percussion prowess however. Interestingly enough, as well, probably because of JALOLU’s links to the polyrhythms of Mother Africa, he depends a lot less on his cymbals than a traditional jazz drummer and makes more use of cowbells, woodblocks and other percussion.

Press rolls and hocketing bounces characterize his work on “Mwindo”, a triumphant line that also features fanfares and honks from the brassmen. As they take turns soloing -- one with brassy insouciance, another with smeared buzzes and the third with double-tongued grace notes -- the drummer plays varied and opposing patterns beneath each one. Turning from snapping out phrases with hand mutes, the three reprise the theme and exit with a series of bent notes.

At more than nine minutes each, both versions of “Seruba” give a different view of the piece. “Seruba (take 2)” features mellow and muted crossed lines from the brass meeting baritone slurs and Mandinka song and dance beats from the drummer with flams and rolls from snares and toms. One trumpeter -- Campbell? -- takes a precise muted solo, then another -- Smoker? -- answers with a jolly bugle-like call. By the end, the piece morphs into a mid-tempo jazz-like dance, with bass drum whacks adding to the heavy bottom ostinato produced by Laster, seemingly as much from his bow as his reed.

“Seruba (take 1)”, which is more impressive, at first comes across like a perverse version of Gerry Mulligan’s quartet with Art Farmer, with the baritonist and one trumpeter mixing it up together. When the drums shift first to march tempo, then to a Second Line shuffle, trumpet lines trill and splash and a few sax phrases suggest “Night Train”. After a stop time section featuring massed trumpets advances the theme, Eisenstadt tries some doubled bounces, rebounds and cymbal snaps on for size, while mid-range sax playing and higher-pitched trumpets give the tune a Hi Life overlay.

A similar situation exists with the two versions of “Jumpin In”. Although the almost 10-minute first run through includes some rapid syncopation from one horn and buzzy rubato trills from another -- not to mention vibrating false fingering and glottal punctuation from Laster -- the feel is that of a ragged march. A crescendo of screeching unison tongue fluttering then takes it out.

“Jumpin In (take 2)”, is far superior. Partially a showcase for the drummer, quicksilver trilling brass lines and chirping obbligatos from the sax appear to loosen his attack. Using press rolls and rim shots he turns around and encourages Laster to bend his notes and one trumpeter to snap off rapid triplets. Soon two of the brassmen are trading phrases of different lengths, while another plays completely at variance, offering up hocketing tones. Adding what could be Native American pow wow beats to the piece, the drummer helps build up the theme to a crescendo, then abruptly cuts it off. Overall quieter and more self-consciously tunes don’t work as well in this configuration.

All and all, though JALOU is definitely worth hearing for what Eisentadt’s quintet has accomplished. It also makes you impatient to see what the percussionist can create from now on.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Home: 1. Hiram Hinkler’s Shrunken Heads 2. SOS Ankara 3. Hepcat Revival 4. Myopia Hunt Club 5. Hear My Flow 6. Cat: Is It Fish or Finite? 7. Dis You, Dear 8. Angelic & Podlike 9. I Once Was Vaccinated with a Phonograph Needle 10. Department of Homeland Strategy

Personnel: Home: Jared Sims (soprano and tenor saxophones and clarinet); Matt Steckler (soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, flute shaw whistle, holler); Charlie Kohlhase (alto and baritone saxophones); Drew Sayers (alto, tenor and baritone saxophones); Arie Werbrouck (bass); Bill Carbone (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Jalolu: 1. Boogie on Lenjeno 2. Seruba (take 2) 3. Mwindo 4. Go 5. Jumpin In 6. Seruba (take 1) 7. Ahimsa (Non-Violence #2) 8. Jumpin In (take 2)

Personnel: Jalolu: Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet); Paul Smoker (trumpet); Roy Campbell (trumpet, picket trumpet, flugelhorn); Andy Laster (baritone saxophone and clarinet); Harris Eisenstadt (drums)

July 26, 2004

WILLIAM PARKER

Fractured Dimensions
FMP CD 122

COLLECTIVE 4TET
Synopsis
Leo LR 380

Change one man and you change the music, is an old -- and pre-feminist -- Free Music axiom. The converse is true as well, of course. Maintain a consistent combo line up and the sounds become that much more profound, since each player knows exactly what he can count on from the others.

Validating both sides of the equation are the quartets on these two CDs, each coincidentally featuring bassist William Parker. FRACTURED DIMENSIONS, whose title might reflect the recording circumstances, shows what happens when three members of a regularly constituted band -- Other Dimensions in Music (ODM) -- are forced by circumstance to play with someone else at the last minute. More than 78 minutes of music resulted from Alan Silva’s piano and synthesizer tones being grafted onto the sounds perfected by Parker, brassman Roy Campbell and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter in a Berlin concert in 1998 when ODM’s drummer was a no show.

More than four years later Parker joined with the other members of the Collective 4tet to record its first CD after a five year hiatus. Luckily, the creative concordance was still flowing among the bassman, fellow Americans trombonist Jeff Hoyer and pianist Mark Hennen plus Swiss percussionist Heinz Geisser. Geisser, who usually works in bands with fellow Swiss pianist Guerino Mazzola, conceived of this co-op group in the early 1990s and its personnel has remained constant since then. Besides Parker, whose list of collaborators at this point probably outnumbers the membership of the United Nations, the other players have certified downtown New York credentials. Hoyer has played with Cecil Taylor and in Bill Dixon’s Vision Festival Orchestra that included Campbell. Hennen has played in large aggregations led by drummer William Hooker and Silva, and in a combo featuring Carter and another Parker associate reedist Sabir Mateen.

Because of this shared background, the Collective 4tet lives up to its name, never coming across as if it was a William Parker quartet with three sidemen. The bassist does add his distinctive rock-solid time keeping to the mix, but SYNOPSIS is as much Geisser’s or Hennen’s or Hoyer’s session as it is Parker’s.

Especially impressive in this context, Hoyer, like Gary Valente in most of Carla Bley’s bands, has a complete command of old time tailgate techniques, screwed onto modernistic impulses. So, on something like the title track, not only can he create protracted plunger tones, but he can also bend and expand them in short chromatic bursts.

Constantly pushing the air forward with his valves, mouthpiece and bell more than with slide positions, he offers fragments of rubato trills. Meantime Hennen contributes low frequency, right-handed syncopation, Parker buzzing, bowed bass notes, and Geisser the spatter and drip of near liquid cymbal timbres. Overall, the sonic compression becomes so viscous that at points it seems as if you’d be unable to cut it with a blade -- not to mention a trombone slide, a cymbal edge or a double bass bow. As the pianist showcases high and low-pitched contrasting tremolos, the piece ends with a protracted trombone exhalation

Other tunes can be just as intense. “Jig”, for instance, begins with National steel guitar-like plucks from Parker, with purposely heavy-handed tremolos and glisses from Hennen, who is intent on curlicue decorations, flashing octave digressions and a cascading waterfall of notes. Eventually the thunder of drum rolls and undulating ‘bone slurs give way to two minutes of complete silence, ultimately shattered by another 50 seconds of prolonged trombone lines, sparking piano glisses, powerful bass plunks and multi-directional percussion.

Although Hennen’s vehement chording and contrasting dynamics and Geisser’s consistent clips, bangs and bops encourage chromatic blats and purrs, the trombonist doesn’t always have to appear musically as if he’s a senile old man -- constantly talking to himself. On “Left Turn”, the appropriately titled, most outside number here, his response to the pianist and drummer is to bury notes in the bell like a small animal digging in the ground, and blow raspberries of almost “treated” colored noises. Geisser drags his drumstick the full length of a metallic resonating cymbal and Hennen first sounds the bottom frame and escapement then drones the string action on the piano’s inside speaking length for their bits.

Conventional piano sounds do make their appearance on FRACTURED DIMENSIONS, but Silva, who first made his reputation as a bassist with Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler, usually emphasizes the orchestral colors of his synthesizer. While restraint has never been a watchword in Free Jazz, during the course of this continuous performance, the other musicians play forcefully enough to mute his tendency to come across fortissimo, spewing crescendos like E. Power Biggs playing a massive cathedral organ.

Most of the CD appears to be a prelude and postscript to “Acrosses Rain”, the almost 34-minute climatic track. Showcasing Carter on flute, his unsegmented airy tones meet the pluck and scrape of Parker’s lacerated bass attack and Campbell’s trumpeted grace notes. Somehow here, Silva seems to be able to produce octave jumps and chordal asides along with what sounds like metallic marimba beats and symphonic orchestral textures.

Later, as Silva exposes some Taylor-like repeated syncopated phrases, Campbell begins a melancholy Harmon-muted tone exposition, with burbling, repeated shakes à la Miles Davis. Parker’s swollen swatches of double-stopping arco bass get more abrasive as the trumpeter trills higher and higher notes, seemingly picking up some grit in his tone along the way. Suddenly you realize that the almost Milesean trope has been mixed with some Bubber Miley-style wah wahs with Carter adding slightly more dissonant timbres from his trumpet as well. As Silva enters with a swelling keyboard concord, Campbell pitches his output higher and Carter explores his horn’s limits, at times evidently wallowing in tonal flatness.

Arco, Parker begins mountain climbing with his G-string as his pickaxe, hitting more elevated pitches as he ascends. Soon Campbell reasserts himself, with portamento-smeared tones and higher-pitched extended grace notes, more like Dizzy Gillespie than Davis. Eventually he’s in stratospheric Cat Anderson-territory, moving upwards in octaves as Carter outlines his emotional articulation below.

A valuable figure in any band, that includes TEST and different projects involving Parker and pianist Matthew Shipp, Carter’s chameleon-like character makes him MVP in many situations. Here he can match Campbell’s brassy trumpet flourishes with boppish, razor-sharp alto saxophone trills at one point, then a few minutes later transform the same instrument into a cauldron of cascading dynamics, squealing out hunks of pitchsliding staccatissimo split tones. All this takes place on top of the vibrating surface of Silva’s sythn, as the keyboardist introduces polytones and polyrhythms, intermittently pierced by Parker’s bass tones.

Other times, as on “Eternal Flower”, the saxman vibrates a bury tone for maximum sensual effect, producing the sort of boudoir fireplace warmth from his axe that you would expect from Gene Ammons or Hank Crawford. Behind him, Silva creates an undercurrent of shifting tones. Later Carter masticates the reed for maximum split-tone effects and Campbell barks himself into piccolo trumpet range.

Then there’s “Sonnet For Armstrong”, which may or may not be about Louis A. Carter, smearing out a long-lined tone from the chalumeau register of the clarinet, may have impressed Armstrong, as may have the repeated pattern Parker bows over and over again throughout. But Satchmo may have had trouble warming up to Campbell, muted and high-pitched, going his own way with chromatic double-tonguing and resonating grace notes. And he probably wouldn’t have known what to do when Silva turns on the string part of his synthesizer to birth what appears to be the shriek of a thousand tiny bats that have migrated from a horror flick soundtrack.

While you wonder whether the penultimate plunger-muted trumpet notes are from Campbell or Carter, it’s likely that the quiet, smudged grace notes that combine with a dimineundo of low frequency descending piano chords ending the piece -- and the CD -- are Campbell products.

Altering the band personnel or keeping it constant are the illustrated strategies here. Each CD shows how well each of those concepts can operate in practice.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Fractured: 1. Figures standing in the door 2. Eternal flower 3. End Of famina 4. Vermeer 5. Acrosses rain 6. Sonnet for Armstrong

Personnel: Fractured: Roy Campbell (trumpet, flugelhorn); Daniel Carter (alto saxophone, flute, clarinet and trumpet); Alan Silva (piano, synthesizer); William Parker (bass)

Track Listing: 1. Convergence 2. Going ahead 3. Synopsis 4. Left turn 5. Jig

Personnel: Jeff Hoyer (trombone); Mark Hennen (piano); William Parker (bass); Heinz Geisser (percussion)

January 12, 2004

WILLIAM PARKER & THE LITTLE HUEY CREATIVE MUSIC ORCHESTRA

Spontaneous
Splasc (h) WS CDH 855

SATOKO FUJII ORCHESTRA-EAST
Before the Dawn
NATSAT MTCJ- 3010

Downtown, they say, is a state of mind. So is so-called downtown music, as these two live big band sessions demonstrate. With polychromatic ideas enlivening both groups, and with composers extending and distend the status quo, the points of congruence between SPONTANEOUS -- recorded in May 2002 at the epicentre of hip, Manhattan’s CBGB’s -- and BEFORE THE DAWN -- recorded 16 days later at a jazz festival in Hamamatsu, Japan -- are closer than you’d imagine.

Each CD features a clutch of top-rank soloists and section players, although the first CD’s two compositions are firmly in the instinctive tradition of post-New Thing large ensembles, while the BEFORE THE DAWN’s five tunes are more carefully arranged. That difference may reflect the orientation of the leaders, though, rather than where each is domiciled.

Bassist William Parker, the unofficial mayor of New York’s Lower East Side, has been in thick of the avant garde for 30 years, playing with groups of every size and with everyone from Cecil Taylor to David S. Ware. Formally educated with degrees from both Japanese universities and Boston’s New England Conservatory, pianist Satoko Fujii has evolved her own style drawing on mentors like Paul Bley, traditional Japanese sounds and echoes of post-Rock. She also lives part of the year in Tokyo and part in New York, where besides leading smaller bands, she helms her Orchestra-West, with sidemen often closely allied to the Parker circle.

DAWN allows her to show off her hometown team as Orchestra-East, which is both good and bad. Some 0f the players have a history in the Island’s somewhat insular experimental music scene, and add unexpected textures to her composition. Others toil at more conventional gigs, which on this disc sometimes leads to the creation of vamps from the sections that are more reminiscent of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra than so-called outside large bands.

This musical schizophrenia is most notable on the almost 20 minute “Joh-Ha-Cue”. Initially moody and atmospheric, it begins by featuring Kunihiro Izumi, the alto saxist from Shibusa Shirazu (SS), a local avant-big band soloing in a reedy Klezmer-lite style. But in his showcase, Pikaia leader trumpeter Takao Watanabe moves between a whinnying muted lead line and a Maynard Ferguson-like screech. Almost before you know it, SS’s drummer Masahiro Uemura is bearing down on the sounds like a rock-influenced Buddy Rich and bassist Toshiki Nagata comes up with enough highly amplified thumb pops to fit in on a Brothers Johnson West Coast R&B session. Here and elsewhere, tenor saxophonist Hiroaki Katayama takes on the role Flip Phillips and much later Sal Nistico had in successive Woody Herman Herds: the reed sparkplug whose gruff growls and honks goose on the others.

Eventually swing gives way to gentle suggestion of gagaku music in the tune’s second section, with SS’s baritone man Ryuichi Yoshida, providing gentle, rural- sounding flute playing that could almost come from a shakuhachi. Cowbell thwacks and irregular patterns characterize the drummer’s contributions, until unison andante trombone lines give way to an open-horned, chromatic trumpet solo by Natsuki Tamura, Fujii’s husband and closest collaborator. Working with only the bass and drums behind him, his outbursts alternate with unison smears from brass and reed sections. As the other horns ascend and descend the chord structure, the drummer rolls and ruffs. Tamura then comes up with some unexpectedly gritty freylach tones, while the bassist’s unvarying rhythmic structure holds the tune together. Ending with all 15 musicians shouting out discordant timbres as loudly as they can, the coda showcases Jungle-style plunger work from the trumpeter.

Earlier, on “Pakonya”, baritonist Yoshida slurs, snarls, shouts and triple tongues out split tones, bouncing in and out of the altissimo range to confirm his avant-garde credentials. Added as well are darting Cecil Taylor-like arpeggios from the keyboard, one of the few times Fujii solos. Nevertheless, the underlying theme is strictly AfroCuban, complete with the band members noisily vocalizing, as well as a Randy Brecker-style high notes and brassy solo that isn’t ascribed to, but probably comes from trumpeter Yoshihito Fukumoto, who plays in Orquestra de la Luz, Tokyo’s (!) most acclaimed salsa band.

On other tracks there are effervescent and symphonic suggestions that meld conventional horn parts with contributions from Fukumoto, Free Improv veteran trombonist Tetsuya Higashi and tenor saxophonist Kenichi Matsumoto, whose slow, gliding aural walk contains a sprinkling of split tones. With wounded rhino squeals from the baritone sometimes vying with Arabic-sounding high reed interludes, and a restless drummer whose boppish bomb-dropping mixed with steady rock-like thump alternately pays homage to Kenny Clarke and Rush’s Neil Peart, other tracks seem to lack a cohesive vision.

Then again would the unison vocal spirit chanting that mixes with riffing horns on “Wakerasuke” have an additional resonance for an Oriental, rather than an Occidental audience? Older pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi wrote a similar section in a composition on her SHOGUN album years ago. With the sound reminiscent of a crowd at a sumo wrestling match or amateur talent time in Bedlam, it adds a confusing subtext to the piece. Otherwise it’s all daringly speedy bass runs, mewling trombone slurs, honking, dueling tenor sax lines plus octave jumps and piano clipping from the leader.

More catholic in conception than Fujii’s CD, SPONTANEOUS is a sound monument to the bigger band currents that have been around since ASCENSION. Setting the pace with judicious rhythm at the beginning, Parker is subsequently heard as infrequently on his session as Fujii is on hers. Here he sets up the pulse, helps create some light, Gil Evans-like rhythmic underpinning, and then gets out of the way for the other 16 musicians.

Along the way Gold Sparkle Band (GSB) member Charlie Waters sounds out some shrill, split-tone swaggering clarinet tones and trumpeter Matt Lavalle moves from shrill slurs, a more mellow middle register and chromatic runs, with the double drum team hitchhiking along behind him. Lavalle ends his solo double-tonguing with an allusion to the Woody Woodpecker theme. Squealing, multiphonic alto work from Rob Brown, trombonist Dick Griffin’s more expansive brass vibrations, lockstep rhythmic patterns and double bass drum pedal action and press rolls set up other standards. As another point of difference between this group and Fujii’s, tenor saxophonist Sabir Mateen may double time and swoop over the massed sections playing behind him, but you wouldn’t confuse that work with what Joe Farell used to do with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band. This is especially true when Mateen introduces snarling panting dog tones.

Throughout, there’s enough room for the soloists as there would be in more traditional big bands, yet riffing tutti passages, with the occasional high trumpet trill poking through the other sounds, provide the connective tissue to holds this together. By the end of the first track, the sections are moving as one, with themes sounded at different times varying the beat, all of which finally combine into a lumbering, shuddering end stop.

Dedicated to bassist Charles Mingus, there are times on the second track that the offbeat shuffle from the drummers -- who individually power the GBS or David S. Ware’s and Matthew Shipp projects -- plus the wiggling, blaring brass are more reminiscent of Sun Ra’s Arkestra or a studio funk band than anything Mingus wrote. Still Alex Lodico, playing Jimmy Knepper to Parker’s Mingus, corkscrews out emphasized plunger tones with a bit of grit at the end, while longtime Parker associate, trumpeter Lewis Barnes glisses from bent notes to repetitions. As the band forges on polyrhyhmically, with a tuba’s pedal point ostinato added, trumpeter Roy Campbell, Parker’s associate in Other Dimensions in Music, makes his way up the scale in half step grace notes backed by a steady walking pulse from the bassist. All around him the brass peck out their parts as the reeds surge and smudge the bar lines below them. As spontaneous hand clapping breaks out -- another Mingusian touch -- Matten overblows himself into dog whistle territory. Spurring the band forward as it undulates back-and-forth at the same time, his reed-shattering, incendiary tones serve the same incendiary purpose tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin’s did with Mingus. With the reeds and brass still detonating sounds every which way the piece fades away.

Whether your preference is for downtown Tokyo or downtown Manhattan, if you’re a modern big band follower, you’ll probably want both these discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Spontaneous: 1. Spontaneous Flowers 2. Spontaneous Mingus*

Personnel: Spontaneous: Lewis Barnes, Roy Campbell, Matt Lavalle (trumpets); Dick Griffin, Masahiko Kono, Alex Lodico, Steve Swell (trombones); Dave Hofstra (tuba)*; Rob Brown (alto saxophone, flute); Ori Kaplan (alto saxophone); Charlie Waters (alto saxophone, clarinet); Sabir Mateen (alto and tenor saxophones); Darryl Foster (tenor and soprano saxophones); Dave Swelson (baritone saxophone); William Parker (bass); Andrew Barker, Guillermo E. Brown (drums)

Track Listing: Dawn: 1. Pakonya 2. Joh-Ha-Cue 3. Wakerasuke 4. Before the Dawn 5. Yattoko Mittoko

Personnel: Dawn: Natsuki Tamura, Yoshihito Fukumoto, Takao Watanabe, Tsuneo Takeda (trumpets); Hiroshi Fukumura, Haguregumo Nagamatsu, Tetsuya Higashi (trombones); Sachi Hayasaka, Kunihiro Izumi (alto saxophones); Hiroaki Katayama, Kenichi Matsumoto (tenor saxophones); Ryuichi Yoshida (baritone saxophone, flute); Satoko Fujii (piano); Toshiki Nagata (bass); Masahiro Uemura (drums)

December 15, 2003

EXUBERANCE

The Other Shore
Boxholder BXH 040

QUATUOHR
[KUJ:]
Nurnichtnur LC 5245

Analogous in instrumentation and players’ experience, these quartet CDs couldn’t be more dissimilar. Taken together as a matter of fact, they could serve as a textbook example of the differences between European and American free improvisation.

Consisting of well-traveled veterans of Continental music making, the three German and one British member of Quatuor draw from rock, New music and pure sound extensions as well as jazz when they play. Most of the band members have also been involved in interdisciplinary collaborations with artists, dancers and actors.

Except for drummer Michael Wimberly on the other hand, who has composed music for dance, Exuberance’s members are out-and-out Free Jazzers, having worked with the genres heavyweights ranging from saxophonist Charles Gayle to bassist William Parker and drummer Rashied Ali. Also, as opposed to the rather formal, technical seriousness of the Europeans on their six instant compositions, the Yanks live up to their name here, adding a sense of free-flowing exhilaration to their nine pieces, notwithstanding that the CD is also a tribute to their close associate, the late bassist Wilber Morris.

This doesn’t mean that either date is better or less satisfying than the other -- just different. To get an idea of Exuberance’s formula, listen initially to two tracks that progress largo, one dedicated to Morris, the other that by inference seems to refer to his transmogrification.

Unmistakably a threnody, “Elegy for Wilber Morris” initially features long time Ali-associate tenor saxophonist Louie Belogenis advancing a sorrowful legato line partnered by the faintly bowed bass color of Hill Greene, who has played with Gayle and Cecil Taylor. After a while, Belogenis is spelled by trumpeter Roy Campbell, a longstanding Parker collaborator, whose open-horn, but low key, contributions appear even more melancholy. After quietly double-tonguing a few notes, he falls silent, only returning to meld with the saxman and Wimberly’s expressive sizzle cymbal and snare- side knocks for the coda to this understated ballad of remembrance.

Nearly 16¾ minutes long, the serpentine title tune can be interpreted as a celebration of Morris’ life and a send off for his journey across the river Styx. Belogenis’ leisurely, but slinky saxophone line shares space with Wimberly’s djembe-style, behind-the-beat hand drumming and Campbell’s emphatic muted trumpet. As the piece evolves, the reedist flutter-tongues and side slips to make his sound more emotional, Greene’s bass strings buzz sympathetically like a berimbau and the drum beats bring a senses of finality to the proceedings. Ultimately the trumpeter’s understated grace notes and the saxophonist’s smooth lines meld, suggesting that the journey has been completed.

Exuberance also has its playful side however, as it demonstrates on “Walking in Loisaida”, a loping, polyrhythmic portrait of a Manhattan neighborhood. Campbell works out of a freebop Kenny Dorham bag, while Wimberly comes up with enough press rolls and dropped bombs to qualify the tune as freebop if not hard bop. As the trumpeter slides out some bubbling growls, the saxman’s output turns from legato to multiphonic, including off-kilter slurs and the odd honk. Expanding his sound, Greene does so by hitting all his strings at once, torquing the tempo faster and faster. Horn parts meld, then break apart to slacken and end the piece.

Similarly, “Afro Eurasion Sketches” features a rhythmic current that sounds as if bata drums have been added to the proceedings. Belogenis’ blurred tone turns grittier and as he progresses chromatically up the scale, the trumpeter parries with a characteristic Afro-Cuban lip vibrato. Simultaneously pulsating and dissonant, the saxophonist tries variations on many tones in Trane-like fashion, while Campbell tongues triplets in counterpoint. With cymbals suddenly exercised, the piece is taunt, but lacks release.

Elsewhere, one or another of the four bend brass notes for effect, try overblown, screaming freak effects, enlarge the string palate or crash and bang with abandon. Going every which way, the tempo changes and glides from fortissimo to pianissimo don’t seem to effect their commitment to a beat, even if it’s usually more implied than emphasized. One tune is even titled “Terpsichore”.

Meanwhile, over in Germany, the only dance you could imagine Quatuor doing would be robotically led by Mike Meyer’s Teutonic character from his “Sprockets” routine on Saturday Night Live. Not that the band members’ playing is mechanical in any way, it’s just that the mental picture you have of the Exuberance four wondering through New York’s Lower East Side neighborhood is replaced by imagining the Quatuohr in white smocks calibrating sound impulses under laboratory conditions. Again though, the timbres produced by these tone scientists are as stimulating in their own way as Exuberance’s exuberance.

On “Mediolobivia”, for instance, bass guitarist Hans Schneider, whose experience includes membership in the understated King Übü Orchestrü, exposes both parts of his instrument when he plays. Not limited to the beat-shackled vamps and thumb pops of players like Stanley Clarke, his expanded string flavors include flat-picking color from the “guitar” and rhythmic plinks and plucks that showcase his “bass”. There’s also plenty of movement here courtesy of the drums and percussion of Wolfgang Schliemann, but certainly no swing in a Marsalis-sense. His rhythm includes a clock-ticking metronome beat and the whistles and scrapes that can be produced from implements moving along the tops of a ride cymbal and a hi-hat. Schliemann, who usually works as a freelance percussionist in improvised and notated situations, is most concerned with the extension of techniques and instrumentation.

Mini-chirps, sibilant mewls and elongated slurs are the order of the day from reedist Joachim Zoepf, whose multi-disciplinary activities include long time collaborations with fellow sound explorers like pianist Martin Theurer and guitar torturer Hans Tammen. Trumpeter Marc Charig seems to limit himself to expelling pure air or squeezing anemic Bill Dixon-like tones from his cornet. It’s a strategy that pays off here, but may surprise those who known the British brassman from his membership in the Soft Machine, the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and various Keith Tippett projects.

Or take “Hylocereus undatus”: Here offside, reverberating guitar picking seemingly taking place near the tuning pegs meet tongue slaps from the baritone saxophone. Showing that an old improviser can still do new tricks, Charig then produces the kind of abstract, protracted trumpet breath that most would associate with younger brass improvisers like Greg Kelly and Axel Dörner.

Schneider too is most impressive. Sometimes his flailing makes his strings ring like a vibraharp’s bars; other time he’ll use the heel of his hand as a capo, stopping all the strings for a muted sound then flatpick up the neck; still other places he’ll merely strum away. While all this is going on Zoepf key pops and forces shrills from his horns. The entire piece ends with a squeezed cornet tone melding with the reverberations from a whacked crash cymbal.

Polyrhymically, “Juttadinteria longipetania” finds mouthpiece vibrations and muted wah-wahs meeting slurs, honks, whines and growls from the woodwinds. A choked-valve purr from Charig is answered by reed chirps and tongue slaps from Zoepf, while Schliemann appears to be producing irregular woodblock and drumhead rhythms. Among the bass drones it sounds as if there’s the impossible proposition that Schneider is somehow playing arco, as the tune resolves itself in a welter of squeaks, whistles, slurs and glottal growls.

Other extended techniques appear to leech even more oxygen for the oral instruments from this scientific workshop cum studio. At one point, for instance, Craig creates mountain top ululatations from his alp horn; then his cornet skips from mouthpiece French kisses to air siren drones. Meantime Zoepf wheezes out a buzzing tone that then reconstitutes itself in a high false register; Schliemann appears to be worrying the sides of his drums with metal stick while hitting the heads at same time, then testing various unselected cymbals for different timbres. Then for a split-second Schneider appears to reverts to his rock music background, shooting out electrified distortions from his bass. Other times he flat picks it like a banjo, and still others manipulates it to produce kora-like tones;

Take your choice of the Old World or the New with these fully improvised sessions. Depending on your tastes, you’ll probably find much to admire in either or both.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Shore: 1. Offering 2. Afro Eurasion Sketches 3. Fulcrum 4. Walking in Loisaida 5. Terpsichore 6. The Other Shore 7. Exuberance 8. Elegy for Wilber Morris

Personnel: Shore: Roy Campbell (trumpet); Louie Belogenis (tenor saxophone); Hill Greene (bass); Michael Wimberly (drums, percussion, bells)

Track Listing: KUJ: 1. Mediolobivia 2. Stenocereus 3. Juttadinteria longipetania 4. Lobivia jajoiana 5. Encephalocarpus 6. Hylocereus undatus

Personnel: KUJ: Mark Charig (cornet, alto horn); Joachim Zoepf (bass clarinet, soprano and baritone saxophones); Hans Schneider (guitarbass); Wolfgang Schliemann (drums, percussion)

September 29, 2003

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Live from the Vision Festival
Thirsty Ear THI 57131.2

The next best thing to being there, this combination CD and DVD package offers a distillation of some of the outstanding performances from last year’s Vision Festival in New York’s Lower East Side. Lacking the name recognition of Newport, Montreux, or any other capitalist entity-associated international star festival, in its less than 10 year existence, Vision has still promulgated a unique artistic vision.

Built around the vision of bassist William Parker, it’s a place where pioneering avant gardists from the 1960s mix it up with younger players who are carrying on experimental ideals. It’s cross-cultural, national and international as well, with the musicians showcased on this session arriving from Germany, Korea, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Valencia, Calif., New Orleans… and Brooklyn,

Substantiating his ubiquity, Parker holds down the bass chair on five of the nine tracks --in five different bands, Fellow bull fiddle masters Tyrone Brown, Reggie Workman and the late Peter Kowald are represented as well.

Longest performance, at more than 11 minutes, is “Crepuscule IV in Powderhorn Park”, which reunites three founding members of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Music who now reside in different parts of the country. Minneapolis-based Douglas Ewart shows up with his reed collection -- some of which are homemade -- to improvise with the woodwinds of Brooklyn’s Joseph Jarman. From California, Wadada Leo Smith adds his trumpet to the duo, and the three members of the front line are backed by the unbeatable rhythm section of Chicago’s Hamid Drake and Parker.

Perhaps it’s the strength of the go-for-broke rhythm of the bassist and drummer, but the performance is more convincing than some recent CDs by each of the front line partners. Expelling a mixture of gritty bluesiness and elegant, brassy grace notes, Smith states the theme, which is then elaborated by Jarman’s soprano saxophone. Using whistles and straining his notes sharply to make a point, the saxman turns rubato with a brief stop-time section, which is then echoed by Ewart’s tenor sax undertow and Parker’s perfectly proportioned bass line. Finally the three horns conclude triple forte, with Drake’s rolling roughs giving them enough leverage on which to soar.

The same rhythm team backs up tenor veterans Kidd Jordan from New Orleans and Chicago’s Fred Anderson. Each pushing 70, the extended multiphonics they propel from their horns often mix with a primeval funkiness, hinting at how Johnny Griffin and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis might have handled Free Jazz. At a little more then four minutes though, “Spirits Came In” is barely long enough to let everyone feel the spirit.

Almost double in length, but flashing by at supersonic speeds is “Bangart 100”, performed by unconventional fiddler Billy Bang, World Saxophone Quartet anchor, baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, and contemporary composer Jin Hi Kim on Korean komungo. With his unaccompanied attack as reminiscent of hoedown as Heifetz, here Bang’s technique keeps up with his emotionalism. Working the opposite end of his horn’s palate, Bluiett ignites basement tones, altissimo wild pig squeals and growling feline feints. Keeping this all-together fingerpicking on her multi-stringed traditional instrument is Kim.

Other highlights include the definition of “Existence” provided by the duo of Dave Burrell on piano and bassist Brown. Cognizant of jazz history, like the late Jaki Byard, Philly’s piano pride mixes several of the music’s key streams on his keyboard. Initially he outputs high frequency, percussive cadenzas that are as far out as anything practiced by the New Thing, which counted Burrell as a member for his work with Archie Shepp. Later, providing fills behind Brown’s ringing tones, he shows off his lyric side that characterized him as a “song man” when he played with David Murray.

Then there’s Kowald’s stinging, more then 10½-minute solo “Improvisation”. Sometimes appearing to make his bass talk in several voices, the German maestro wraps together pizzicato buzzing strings, vocal drone and some grating, yet impressive arco thrusts into a characteristic show-stopping display.

Running down the outstanding merits of every track would be pointless, since each offers a different perspective on modern free sounds. The weakest piece, in fact, is also the first: “Truth Is Marching In”. Not the Albert Ayler standard, this reunion tune by alto saxophonist Jameel Moondoc’s Muntu quartet, featuring trumpeter Roy Campbell, drummer Rashid Bakr and bassist Parker seems, like the composition’s title, to be more caught up in New Thing revivalism than inventing the music anew. But isn’t nostalgia one construct of reunions?

Couple the more than 70½-minutes of music with the images available on the DVD and you’ll yearn to be in attendance at the Fest next time it takes place. Making light of geography, this VISION package means you can experience some of festival highlights at home.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing:1. Truth is Marching In 2. Existence 3. Bangart 100 4. Crepuscule IV in Powderhorn Park 5. Speech of Form 6. 45 Hours 7. Synchronicity 8. Sprits Came In 9. Improvisation

Personnel: 1. Muntu: Roy Campbell (trumpet); Jameel Moondoc (alto saxophone); William Parker (bass); Rashid Bakr (drums) 2. Dave Burrell (piano); Tyrone Brown (bass) 3. Hamiet Bluiett (baritone saxophone); Billy Bang (violin); Jin Hi Kim (komungo) 4. Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet); Douglas Ewart (bass clarinet, clarinet, tenor saxophone); Joseph Jarman (alto clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, bass flute, alto saxophone); William Parker (bass); Hamid Drake (drums) 5. Mathew Shipp (piano); Mat Manner (viola); William Parker (bass) 6. Rob Brown (alto saxophone); Karen Borca (bassoon); Reggie Workman (bass); Newman Taylor Baker (drums) 7. Ellen Christi (vocals); Rolf Strum (guitar); William Parker (bass); Hamid Drake (drums) 8. Kidd Jordan; Fred Anderson (tenor saxophones); William Parker (bass); Hamid Drake (drums) 9. Peter Kowald (bass)

June 16, 2003

JAMEEL MOONDOC ALL-STARS

Live in Paris
Cadence Jazz Records CJR 1151

JAMEEL MOONDOC TENTET Live at the Vision Festival
Ayler aylCD-047

One of the most recognizable members of New York’s third generation Free Jazz players from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, alto saxophonist Jameel Moondoc, along with associates like bassist William Parker and trumpeter Roy Campbell, was everywhere during that epoch, usually leading his own band.

Like other non-commercial players though, he seemed to vanish -- some said into architecture -- shortly afterwards. But he’s been front-and-centre and recording again since the mid-1990s. These two live CDs, made up of his composition and arrangements, show that he still surrounds himself with notable sidemen and plays firmly in the Free Jazz tradition. They also may offer hints for his hiatus.

While both are powerful, swinging freebop sessions, the reason they’re not better -- and better organized -- can only be attributed to the leader. Furthermore, in each another soloist overshadows Moondoc’s playing -- Campbell on LIVE IN PARIS, and, peculiarly enough, guitarist Bern Nix on the other CD.

Although there’s no way you wouldn’t have exceptional playing on any disc featuring Parker, Moondoc and Campbell plus tenor saxophonist Zane Massey and drummer Cody Moffett, the Paris quintet session, recorded in 1999 wears its influences on its sleeve -- or maybe CD booklet is more appropriate language.

Just look at the titles “Not Quite Ready for Prime Time”, relates to Ornette Coelman’s band of the 1980s, which incidentally employed Nix, while “One Down, One Up” recalls the John Coltrane composition of the same name. Add sounds influenced by Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler in the 1960s and 1970s and you almost know what the band is going to sound like before it plays. Additionally, with road robin solos on all of the four long pieces -- the shortest is almost 12 minutes -- you’re reminded of a jam session rather than a festival set.

Running more than 22½ minutes long, “Prime Time” has obviously been set up as a major statement and here, as elsewhere, Campbell takes charge. With the rhythm section operating on low burn in the back and the saxes alternately trilling (Moondoc) or honking (Massey), the trumpet builds up a chromatic solo filled with grace notes. Depressing his valves he uses rubato slurs and gritty buzzes to force his notes even higher, growling all the while, finally vocalizing his output in a bygone Jungle band style. With Moffett on brushes and Parker occasionally breaking up the rhythm with some bandsaw-like multi-string arco scratches, the altoist comes up with a sour-sounding output that allows him to vibrate his split tones inside his horn. That leads all the horns to combine for an adagio line that resembles one of Ayler’s nursery rhyme themes, with both reeds and the brassman sliding and slurring at the end.

“We Don’t” has the same sort of ending and a similar feeling as if Ayler’s ghost -- or maybe it’s “Ghosts” -- hangs over the proceedings. Reminiscent of those sessions the Ayler brothers did with tenor saxophonist Charles Tyler, Moondoc reverberates notes at his highest range, while the others operate as sort of a Greek chorus around him. Thing is, Campbell is a much more accomplished trumpeter than Don Ayler -- a primitive in the best sense of the word -- and his fluttering grace notes and half valve glissses add more than mere rhythm to the theme. After playing hide-and-seek with the alto man’s glossolalia, the front line ends up playing dirge-like in unison.

Massey, an on-again-off-again Campbell associate, recreates Shepp’s buzzsaw, slipping reed tone on the almost 15-minute One Down, One Up”, while Parker, a bit muffled in these live circumstances, walks the four-square beat as if he was the recently rediscovered Henry Grimes. Using triplets, Campbell again brings the most attention to himself, hitting high notes one after another, in the early Louis Armstrong if not Cat Anderson range. A foot tapper more than a New Thing screed, this one and the other tunes seem to mirror Shepp’s later days, when swing appeared to be more appealing than politics to Shepp. However on “HiRise”, Moondoc sounds like a weird combination of Charlie Parker and Coleman.

Appropriately subtitled the Jus Grew Orchestra, Moondoc’s Tentet features a rhythm section of Nix, Boston bassist John Voigt and Matthew Shipp/Tim Berne associate Gerald Cleaver on drums. Trombonist Steve Swell and Tyrone Hill, trumpeter Nathan Breedlove and baritone saxophonist Michael Marcus are on board along with Campbell and Massey.

A rough-and-ready band that sounds as if it could have use a couple more rehearsals, the versatile drummer, subtle guitarist and bottom-feeding baritone saxophone drive the performance towards the R&B heft of something like Ray Charles’ or James Brown’s early big bands.

“The Blue Dog - Blues for Earl Cross” -- named for the late New Thing trumpeter who worked with Shepp and altoist Noah Howard -- could easily have been played by a rocking large aggregation of the 1950s and 1960s. Impelled by a pedal point bottom from Voigt, who plucks with enough strength to make you think he’s playing an electric bass; a steady shuffle rhythm from Cleaver; and constant emphasis from the bari, Moondoc’s conduction here seems to take the form of vocal encouragement. Meanwhile Nix, who maintains a distinctive Freddie Green-like pulse throughout, finger picks like a jump band bluesman when he solos. His amp-buzzing chords call to mind T-Bone Walker, as elsewhere on the track one of the trombonists slurs and slides and the other double stops notes through his mute like a more restrained Quentin “Butter” Jackson. Core role is taken up by one of the trumpets -- probably Campbell -- whose growling grace notes slip up the scale and resolve themselves at times as “Rhapsody in Blue”, and other times as the sort of rubato trumpeting Marcus Belgrave would have done with the Charles band. With the brass section allayed against the reed section, you wonder if the hornmen are doing de rigeur fancy footwork as well.

“Variations of a Riff” features the entire band blowing over Marcus’ simple, repetitive vamp as one trumpeter (Campbell again?) explodes from its centre, caterwauling plunger tones as if he was Cootie Williams with his 1940s jump band. Furthermore, Massey’s solo seems to unite the honking R&B and more restrained Cool school side of Lester Young.

Running straight from its end into “Cosmic Tabernacle”, the last tune features dissonant sounding horns topped by Moondoc’s fruity alto back in Ayler’s spiritual territory again, with Cleaver’s accents suggestion African as well as African-American praise music. More sway than swing, the penultimate minutes of the piece are taken up by a cacophonous crescendo of horn licks as the rhythm section holds steady trying to pilot the ship back to A.

Moondoc’s obviously sincere efforts to find the link in between Sun Ra and James Brown is ultimately frustrated by a sloppy disconnect in the arrangements. Equally frustrating is the underutlization of Hill, a present day Arkestra sideman, and Swell, one of the most versatile ‘bone men extant. The Tentet may have “jus grew”, but organization is needed as much as expansion.

Appreciators of Moondoc’s gifts and those whose tastes run to the approachable side of Free Jazz will find much to like on these two sessions. Yet with the wealth of talents involved, it seems that so much more could have been attained.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Paris: 1. HiRise 2. Not Quite Ready for Prime Time 3. We Don’t 4.One Down, One Up

Personnel: Paris: Roy Campbell (trumpet); Jemeel Moondoc (alto saxophone); Zane Massey (tenor saxophone); William Parker (bass); Cody Moffett (drums)

Track Listing: Vision: 1. Opulent Continuum 2. The Blue Dog - Blues for Earl Cross 3. Variation of a Riff 4. Cosmic Tabernacle

Personnel: Vision: Roy Campbell, Nathan Breedlove (trumpets); Steve Swell, Tyrone Hill (trombones); Jemeel Moondoc (alto saxophone,); Zane Massey (tenor saxophone); Michael Marcus (baritone saxophone); Bern Nix (guitar); John Voigt (bass); Gerald Clever (drums)

June 3, 2003

MANERI ENSEMBLE

Going To Church
AUM Fidelity AUM 024

MAT MANERI
Sustain
Thirsty Ear THI 57122.2

Substantial slices of Maneri music, these two new CDs prove that while violist Mat Manner has internalized the quirky cogitation and execution of his father, reedist Joe Maneri, he’s not adverse to testing out some ideas of his own in different contexts.

Father-son improvisers are nothing new on the jazz scene and have ranged from boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons and his funky tenor saxophonist son Gene Ammons to mainstream pianist Ellis Marsalis and his progeny. But few offspring are as inculcated in his father’s music, as Mat -- born in 1969 -- who began playing music with his father when he was only seven. It’s hardly necessary to point out that Joe -- born in 1927 -- was no mainstream Marsalis. A jobbing musician for years with an interest in ethnic, microtonal and 12-tone composition as well as jazz improvisation, his talent finally got him a gig teaching theory and composition at Boston’s New England Conservatory in 1970. But his single-mindedness left him unrecorded until his belated emergence in the mid-1990s.

Initially, and probably still, a member of most of his father’s Massachusetts-centred bands, Mat moved to New York by the late 1990s and deepened his relationship with likes of pianist Mathew Shipp, bassist William Parker and guitarist Joe Morris among others.

Here, although the two CDs initially sound similar, the differences are apparent on close listening. CHURCH is almost classical in its instrumentation and orientation, while the use of electric keyboards and a domineering bassist and drummer makes SUSTAIN more tonally dense.

Secularists shouldn’t be frightened by the title on the Maneri Ensemble’s CD, by the way. No one sings any hymns or passes the collection plate. Some improvisers have said that “jazz is my religion”, and the house of worship here is a similar structure to the devotional space players like Frank Wright, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler aspired to and often inhabited.

Unlike those frenzied, ecstatic players, however, the elder Maneri’s worship is done in the context of restrained chamber improv, with even the drummer’s contribution -- from longtime Maneri associate Randy Peterson -- characterized by irregular pulses, unobtrusive rhythms and a quill-like gliding touch.

At more than 31½ minutes, “Blood and Body”, the first track, is obviously the central offering at this free jazz altar. Chief priest Joe Maneri directs the liturgy with his collection of sacred objects -- the clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone. Omitting pious solemnity, the reedist elaborates the theme at different times, keeping the congregation in the same place in the hymnbook with off-centre, elongated trills and guttural smears. At points he begins his sermons in the chalumeau register than, as he feels the spirit, raises his voice ‘way past coloratura and into squeaks, screeches and begins almost speaking in tongues.

Moving from half-valve notes to the top of his horn’s range, trumpeter Roy Campbell sometime exhibits his plunger tone as the best way to illuminate a counter motif parable. The percussionist provides some ride cymbal and ratamacue accompaniment. Meanwhile bassist Barre Phillips, a habituated true believer from his days 40 years ago with clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre up to his recent collaboration with saxist Evan Parker, sometimes allows himself the suggestion of walking bass. More frequently, though, his benediction involves guitar-like strums from the top of his strings or genuflecting arco devotion. Since the stately procession is andante most of the time, pianist Mathew Shipp’s right hand is often raised from tinkling his keys, when he isn’t suggesting a spinet’s tone or producing heartfelt ecclesiastical chords.

As for the son, his interaction with his father occurs most often with multiple forays from his five or six-string violas. His arco innovations encompass triple stopping and portamento, though at times, father and son become one as his tone merges with serpentine alto saxophone split tones. These appear to inhabit the atmosphere midway between the creations of Eric Dolphy and a viola’s singular tone.

Both remaining tunes build on the scripture articulated on “Blood and Body”. There are more Gabriel-like brass blasts from Campbell, sacramental funeral march note displays from Shipp, multiple string exposure from Phillips and the younger Maneri and pure-toned hisses and dissonant colored noises from Maneri senior, as his smearing vibrato gathers the musical supplicants together for devotion.

If two figures from the blessed Trinity are present on GOING TO CHURCH, then SUSTAIN may be said to introduce the third, the Holy Ghost, in the person of soprano saxophonist Joe McPhee.

Avoiding blasphemy, it should be noted that at 63 McPhee is old enough to have interacted with the high priests of Energy Music such as Coltrane, Ayler and Ornette Coleman. But over the years his improvising has gone from Old Testament fire-and-brimstone to the understated New Testament sound he exhibits here.

Featuring beside McPhee and the son an entirely new set of converts, this CD features four major tracks plus five tunes titled with some variation of “Alone” that are example of solo prayers. The soprano saxist, for instance, showcases forward moving legato lines that range between glottal interior horn sounds and circular breathing exercises. On his own, drummer Gerald Cleaver, whose past associates have included saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and bassist Mark Helias, creates electronic sounding percussion sounds reminiscent of the early work of Brits Paul Lytton and Tony Oxley.

Secularism is represented here by the shimmering wah-wah keyboard excursions of Craig Taborn, who often plays with altoist Tim Berne. Avoiding Herbie Hancock-like, 1970s-style electric piano wiggles his refractive tones blend well with McPhee’s soprano. On acoustic piano though, his touch relates back to Thelonious Monk. However at one point on “Nerve”, someone, either Taborn or triple-stopping Maneri creates a constant, angled tone that seems to come straight from the mixing board, bringing with it early fusion memories of Mahavishnu’s Jerry Goodman or the Fourth Way’s Michael White. Cleaver’s polyrhythmic beat is many steps ahead of what those bands produced however, while McPhee’s pitch sliding and the frantic, nearly atonal skittering from Taborn’s keyboards proves that nothing here is an exercise in nostalgia.

Similarly no one would confuse William Parker’s deep-bottomed acoustic bass with that from a whiny electric model. Sometimes sounding as if he’s working in two clefs simultaneously, he uses his fingers to blend rhythmically with the drums and keyboards at times, or his bow to expand the string section with Maneri elsewhere.

Examined carefully, the CD is a polyphonic house of mirrors. It’s animated with sounds that encompass everything from what appears to be PVC pipe echoes, irregular drum shards, the rubbing and drone of the electric keyboard and massed strings. It’s also as much of a secular triumph for the younger Maneri as the other CD confirms the jubilant spirituality of his father.

-- Ken Waxman

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Track Listing: Going: 1. Blood and Body 2. Before the Sermon 3. Going To Church

Personnel: Going: Roy Campbell (trumpet); Joe Maneri (alto and tenor saxophones, clarinet); Mat Maneri (viola); Matthew Shipp (piano); Barre Phillips (bass); Randy Peterson (drums)

Track Listing: Sustain: 1. Alone (Origin) 2. In Peace 3. Alone (Construct) 4. Sustain 5. Alone (Unravel) 6. Nerve 7. Alone (Cleanse) 8. Divine 9. Alone (Mourn)

Personnel: Sustain: Joe McPhee (soprano saxophone); Mat Maneri (violas); Craig Taborn (keyboards); William Parker (bass); Gerald Cleaver (drums)

January 22, 2003

PETER BRÖTZMANN TENTET PLUS TWO

Short Visit To Nowhere
Okka Disk OD 12043

PETER BRÖTZMANN TENTET PLUS TWO
Broken English
Okka Disk OD 12044

Three years after it was first organized and a year after it first toured, Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet (Plus Two in this case) displays, in these 2000 recordings, that it has become an exemplary example of how to adopt free improv to large aggregations.

With a mixed cast of seven Chicagoans, three members from New York state, a Swede and Brötzmann, a German, it has all the firepower of a traditional big band with its eight horns. Plus, the three-man string section and two percussionists ensure that not only is its bottom covered -- so to speak -- but that the strings can alternately meld with the horns or shore up the rhythm section. Also, while the German reedman wrote two of the compositions, he’s democratic enough to make room for one piece each by Chicago multi-woodwind player Ken Vandermark, Swedish reedist Mats Gustafsson and Chicago cellist/violinist Fred Lonberg-Holm.

The brass section is made up of New York trumpeter/flugelhornist Roy Campbell, Chicago trombonist Jeb Bishop and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.’s Joe McPhee, who put his saxes aside to concentrate on trumpet and valve trombone. Vandermark’s closest associate Kent Kessler and Manhattanite William Parker, who has a long history with Brötzmann, combine on basses; while Michael Zerang on drums and Hamid Drake on drums, frame drum and voice --both from Chicago -- handle the percussion chores.

Experienced with many large European aggregations, most notably the pan-European Globe Unity Orchestra, Brötzmann appears to know how much freedom to give his posse of star soloists and when to rein them in. On both discs, for instance, you hear a lot more than you would in a conventional jazz big band where star soloists taking their turn at the mike while the remainder riff anonymously. Sure, there’s plenty of solo space available -- how could it be otherwise with the shortest tune more than 13 minutes and the longest almost 43 (!) -- but there are also definite group passages.

Take “Stonewater” on BROKEN ENGLISH, which expanded by another six minutes since it was first recorded in concert at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle in 1999. Intense, stratosphere blats from the massed horns serve as connective leitmotifs once the piece gets going. New is a six-minute intro that finds Drake chanting and playing hand drum. Then, after some tarogato puffs from Brötz, all hell breaks loose in such a way that it must have brought back fond memories of the in-your-face opening of the tenor man’s 1968 MACHINE GUN. As the succeeding soloists take centrestage, er… studio, the saxes provide their avant version of a Count Basie horn section, chugging away in the background.

As this piece -- and the others on the two CDs -- unrolls, however, the major criticism of the session is evident as well. With no identification of soloists, one can only make educated guesses as to who plays what. Before Kessler and Parker combine for some saw-toothed buzzing, the guttural sax tongue slapping you hear probably comes from Gustafsson, while the pastoral clarinet portion is likely Vandermark’s work. After a quasi-Dixieland interlude heavy on liquid clarinet lines and pointed trumpet, not to mention Gustafsson using his baritone to make like bass sax blaster Adrian Rollini, the speedy yet gravelly ‘bone lines probably come from McPhee’s valve.

Eras and styles blend as well. For example, when the walking basses and bomb dropping bass drum section make up one pulse, the massed sax section functions as stalwart, bar-walking R&B honkers. Finally one -- Brötz (?) -- breaks free from the pack for an extended a cappella stop time solo that goes from screaming altissimo split tones to gut-wrenching overblowing. Eventually scraped arco strings give way to a toboggan ride of brass slides and slurs, and the tune culminates in a Mingusian crescendo.

Or take Lonberg-Holm’s “Lightbox”. Beginning with a muted trumpet -- probably played by Campbell -- McPhee and Bishop soon come on like an up-to-date Jay & Kai, romping through slide and valve positions until pizzicato strings give way to the massed cacophony of many reeds. After that there’s a sax face off, with one exploring every extended aviary technique to build to a crescendo, while the other -- apparently Gustafsson -- produces a funk thump that could fit in the bands of James Brown or Ray Charles. Pseudo-human cries, courtesy of the reeds, and arcing orchestral brass sum up the tune, which after several false endings stops on a dime -- or maybe a Euro.

Strangely enough, Williams’ “Hold That Thought” on the same CD sounds more like a revved up Ellington band than the Gustafsson piece named for the Duke that follows it. Of course, with what is likely Vandermark’s Klezmer-like clarinet passages, it would be an Ellington who was as familiar with (old) Odessa as New Orleans and know Bialystok as well as Baltimore. There’s also a Latin influence, with sections where the horns seem to play “La Cucuracha”. Campbell’s notes sail on top of the charts the way trumpeter Cat Anderson’s did with Ellington, while Bishop’s double-time plunger work, calls forth answering chords from the band like Tricky Sam Nanton’s did from the Duke’s Jungle band. Call this mainstream with avant-flourishes

Mention should also be made of the arrangement for “Short Visit To Nowhere”, one CD’s more-than-25-minute title track. Although there are a good number of scratches from the strings, bleats from the saxes and smears from the brass, there’s still room for what sounds like an electric guitar working out of a Jimi Hendrix bag, which is probably Lonberg-Holm on fiddle. The German saxophonist’s writing allow different sections of the group to be emphasized at different times. For instance, stroked buzzes coalesce into the creation of avant string trio, modulating up and down the stops at one point; and a modern reed battle between what’s probably Williams’ squalling alto and Brötz or Vandermark’s unhurried clarinet lines erupt at another point.

One could go on and on. While it’s frightening to think how good the Brötzmann band of any size must sound now, with two more years together, it’s easy to praise both of these CDs. Although available singly, they’re actually one of a piece, the way the cover photo on each can be joined to make one consistent image.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Short: 1. Hold That Thought 2. Ellington 3. Short Visit To Nowhere 4. Lightbox

Track Listing: Broken: 1. Stonewater 2. Broken English

Personnel on both discs: Roy Campbell (trumpet, flugelhorn); Joe McPhee (trumpet, valve trombone); Jeb Bishop(trombone); Peter Brötzmann (tenor saxophone, clarinet, tarogato); Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone, clarinet); Mars Williams (alto and tenor saxophone); Mats Gustafsson (tenor and baritone saxophones); Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello, violin); Kent Kesler (bass); William Parker (bass, log drum); Michael Zerang (drums); Hamid Drake (drums, frame-drum, voice)

June 7, 2002

THE NU BAND

Live at The Bop Shop/Rochester, NY
Clean Feed CF 002CD

Definite truth in packaging if not in spelling, the cooperative Nu Band is new enough to have produced this memorable CD on its third ever gig.

Existing in an economic atmosphere where every improvising musician must have several irons in the fire and operate as a member of several groups simultaneously, this awkwardly named combo is made up of four veteran players who have been concerned with making it new since the mid-1970s.

Trumpeter Roy Campbell may have the highest profile, as one of his other gigs is with Other Dimensions in Music, the co-op quartet that also features bassist William Parker and multi-reedist Daniel Carter. But the brassman has also played and recorded with the likes of pianists Mathew Shipp and violinist Billy Bang plus leading his own aggregations. Bassist Joe Fonda has often worked with composer/performers such as Anthony Braxton and Wadada Leo Smith in the past, and is now involved in a variety of projects, most notably his well-received quartet with pianist Michael Jefrey Stevens. Drummer Lou Grassi has accompanied folks as different as ragtime piano specialist Max Morath and Arkestra mainman alto saxophonist Marshall Allen as well as leading his own PO band. Undeservedly the least known element, alto saxophonist Mark Whitecage spent years as featured sideman in German vibist Gunter Hampel’s Galaxie Dream Band, but lately has been working to raise his own profile.

Operating in a space defined on one side by adventurous freebop and by unbridled energy music on the other, the four are familiar enough with the language to create flowing, inflected solo statements without ever undermining the overall rhythmic flow. So while Whitecage’s liquid alto forays may probe atonality on his own “Court Street”, the first -- and at 20½ minutes, the longest track here -- Grassi’s polyrhythms and Fonda’s solid time keeping prevents the structure from heading off into space. With themes and counter themes suggesting early Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, this and the other tunes still have a definite structure.

Plenty of solo space is built into that edifice, of course, with room for Campbell’s treetop jumping trumpet, Grassi’s sophisticated drum sallies and a place for Fonda to let loose as he hums and whistles along as he plays. Before the initial motif reassert itself following some front line note trading, there are a couple of sections that seem to relate more to Klezmer than the Cool.

Consisting of two shorter numbers written by Fonda and a longer one by Campbell, the rest of this live date is pretty consistent. True to its title “Fast” gives its composer, Fonda, who was suffering from the flu -- though you wouldn’t know it from his excited performance here -- enough scope to race up and down his strings. He’s so energized by his bull fiddle showcase in fact, that he shouts in Grassi’s display of percussive pyrotechnics, before the entire tune ends with a well-placed rim shot.

“Gone Too Soon”, another appropriate title, since at slight more than 6½ minutes, it’s the shortest piece here, is a slinky ballad. Delineated by muted trumpet smears, it appears to give Whitecage a chance to showcase his uncredited but resonating bass clarinet tones.

Introduced by growling, open-horn brass mountain climbing by its composer, Campbell’s solo on “One for Hannibal” references many more trumpeters than its dedicatee, Hannibal Marvin Peterson. Celebrating every valve master who played a plunger chorus from Cootie Williams to Lester Bowie, contributions from the rest of the band soon move it straight into energy music. With Campbell’s constricted glottal tones first soaring over Grassi’s clamorous kit barrage, then succeeded by Whitecage highlighting accented reed screeches, finally seconded by Fonda’s rock-solid work, it pulls a form of early jazz into the continuum. Proving that this is a group whose catholicity allows something like Ayler’s conceptions to share space with Williams’ mature style, the entire album speaks of musical acceptance, not rejection.

In the end that’s why LIVE AT THE BOP SHOP is such an exciting product. Unlike self-satisfied jazz neo cons that try to limit definitions of improvisation, these neo-radicals apply an array of sounds and techniques to create a richer more satisfying soundscape.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Court Street 2. Fast 3. Gone Too Soon 4. One for Hannibal

Personnel: Roy Campbell (trumpet): Mark Whitecage (alto saxophone, bass clarinet); Joe Fonda (bass); Lou Grassi (drums)

April 12, 2002

ROY CAMPBELL

It's Krunch Time
Thirsty Ear THI 57107.2

In jazz a new form of purported fellow traveler has emerged. Fellow travelers were folks persecuted by venomous right wingers like Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s not because they were so-called Reds -- a dubious proposition at best -- but because they moved in the same circles as suspected communists.

For this association, rather than ideology, many people suddenly had to struggle for work. It appears that jazz's neo-con cabal would like to practice their own brand of repressive McCarthyism on musicians who move in certain circles.

Take Roy Campbell, for instance. The New York-based trumpeter/flugelhornist has long been confined to the so-called avant garde ghetto because of his association with such certified free players as bassist/organizer William Parker, with whom he's shared the leadership of a couple of bands.

In truth, Campbell's playing, like that of his Chicago counterpart Malachi Thompson, shines in that narrow area of freebop which takes its shape as much from hard bop as energy music. It's certainly not radical when compared to the sound of out-and-out brass explorers like Berlin's Alex Dörner or Vermont's Bill Dixon.

Ignoring labels, Campbell continues to turn out fine work on his own and with others, no matter their stylistic leanings. Perhaps, however, this capable session will raise his profile higher.

Two of his compatriots here -- vibist Khan Jamal and bassist Wilber Morris -- occupy the same avant garde fellow traveler limbo as Campbell. Conversely, drummer Guillermo E. Brown, is younger, is making his name with David S. Ware's quartet, and mostly sticks to the background anyways.

More to the point, if anyone deserves kudos, its Philadelphia-based Khan, who too is only deemed an avant gardist by fraternization. Another grievously underrecorded freebopper, he long ago made his unique low-key accommodation with the modal vibes styles of Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson.

Using little vibrato and concentrating on the metallic tones of his instrument, Jamal is unsurprisingly featured most prominently on "Khanducting". Anything but abstract, his solos here flash by with a speed too swift for echoing reverberation, and are often blended with lascivious smeared notes from Campbell's trumpet.

This duetting continues on "The Opening", which despite its title is the penultimate track of the disc. Appearing to want to resolve itself as a familiar ballad, the tune instead seems to circle around itself with the trumpeter double timing his lines and the vibist creating counter melodies.

Perhaps the three veteran's clearest intentions appear on "Ode for Mr. D.C.", honoring another long time inside-outside player, the late drummer Denis Charles. No dirge, the tune is instead a lively celebration of life that utilizes the sort of West Indian lilt at which Charles excelled. It allows a muted Campbell to expose his linkage to protobopper Lee Morgan at length, gives space to Khan for a speedy 1960s Blue Note style solo and is held together by a strong, unassuming, repeated bass pattern from Morris.

Overall, what's been created here is a disc of strong, modern music, with sounds that are only tenuously linked to the so-called avant garde. Heck, the band even does a version of "Bemsha Swing" by Thelonious Monk, who appears to have posthumously passed the neo-con loyalty oath to earn iconic status.

Of course, the dictatorial types who realize the talents of Campbell and those of his sidemen are anything but frightening, may then turn against him for his socio-political views. "New Groes (sic) for the New Millennium", for instance, says Campbell, is for people "who refute history … and act like nothing happened before they came on the scene", while his solo, sour-note-studded recasting of "Star Spangled Banner" is dedicated to "president select (sic) George Bush".

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Tenderness of Spring 2. It's Krunch Time 3. Bemsha Swing 4. New Groes for the New Millennium 5. Ode for Mr. DC 6. Khanducting 7. The Opening 8. Star Spangled Banner

Personnel: Roy Campbell (trumpet); Khan Jamal (vibes); Wilber Morris (bass); Guillermo E. Brown (drums)

October 1, 2001

ROY CAMPBELL

Ethnic Stew and Brew
Delmark DE-528

Back in the early 1960s when the phrases "acid jazz", "crossover" and so-called "contemporary jazz" weren't in the mouths of every record company weasel, genuine soul jazz performances such as Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder" and Nat Adderley's "Work Song" became popular with no mass market preplanning.

This newest disc by trumpeter Roy Campbell's Pyramid Trio is a reminder of those days and will likely be as well received. Although he describes the band as being "about World Music with a touch of Jazz", that "touch" is more like a two heaping handfuls. More noteworthy, ETHNIC STEW AND BREWS can be put in the elite company of such funky jazz discs as those produced from the likes of Morgan, Adderley, Horace Silver and Bobby Timmons, because these groove moves flow generically from the brassman's overall conception.

Unlike such funk/jam band wannabes as Medeski, Martin & Wood or Charlie Hunter, Bronx, N.Y.-based Campbell, 49, grew up in the milieu, having internalized the blues as well as the lessons of hard bop trumpet masters like Morgan and Woody Shaw when he was younger. Then he took it all a bit further. So, just as there's a bit of "outside" in his playing of more conventional melodies, there's a touch of "inside" when he works in such freer contexts as the cooperative quartet Other Dimensions In Music (ODM) and Peter Brötzmann's Die Like A Dog quartet.

On this disc, Campbell is able to create all the sounds he needs with only two helpmates, because the two are some of improvised music's most accomplished instrumentalists. Drummer of choice for sax masters Fred Anderson and Brötzmann among others, Drake is as proficient on exotic percussion as he is on the trap set. He's one of those Windy City drummers whose polyrhythmic style seems to reflect Africa as well as that city's South Side. Leader of the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra and member of several other groups, including ODM and saxophonist David S. Ware's aggregation, bassist Parker has worked with pianist Cecil Taylor and is organizer of festivals that pull the disparate parts of New York's Lower East Side scene together. Here, his time is so strong, and his attack so authoritative, that there's a point on the finger-snapping title tune where he seems to playing an electric rather than an acoustic instrument. Not that he's a slouch with a bow either: Just listen to his solo on "Imhotep".

Less cerebral than Campbell's two previous Pyramid Trio outings -- with different drummers -- this disc, while mainly groove-oriented, still involves a lot more than dance hall hedonism. "Impressions of Yokahama", for instance begins with the sounds of finger cymbals and Parker on shakuhachi flute, before transmutating itself into a vaguely-Oriental sounding open horn, double time bass and drum color field. On the other hand, true to its title, "Heavenly Ascending" is mid-tempo and meditative.

"Amadou Diallo", an over-12 minute memorial to the unarmed African immigrant shot by New York police in his own apartment building, begins with a conga solo and some unidentifiable horn reverberations before Campbell unveils disconsolate, dissonant multiple note-straining flugelhorn runs. It ends with the detonation of rim shots from Drake -- imitating the number of bullets that killed Diallo -- matched by a similar number of blasts from Campbell's horn.

Smart and soulful at the same time this CD may end up becoming a legendary beat feast for forward thinking samplers. At the same time it has more than enough meaty musical content to be sought out by the serious jazz fan.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Tazz's Dilemna 2. Malcolm, Martin and Mandela 3. Imhotep 4.* Impressions of Yokahama 5. Ethnic Stew and Brew 6. Heavenly Ascending 7. Amadou Diallo

Personnel: Roy Campbell (trumpet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet, percussion); William Parker (bass, percussion, shakuhachi flute*); Hamid Drake (drums, percussion)

March 19, 2001