Larry Ochs

The Mirror World
Metalanguage MLX 2007

Two profoundly different – and stirring – musical musings on the unique films of the late Stan Brakhage, saxophonist Larry Ochs’ compositions, which make up The Mirror World, sonically reach the sense of infinite variety which Brakhage achieved in his films. Neither a portrait of one cinematic creation nor designed as a soundtrack to any of Brakhage’s works, Ochs compositions stand on their own, positing as original ways of hearing sounds as the film maker found personal ways to communicate his version of seeing light.

Including notated music for a 14-piece, plus-two-interpolated-players ensemble, “Hand” includes conduction and improvisational cues. Piling tones one upon another, it resembles Klangfarbenmelodie, with several pitches expressing multiple tone colors. Impressionistic in parts, “Hand” encompasses the distinctive textural and vibrational tones available from reeds, brass, strings and electronics, extended by and resonating from the chromatic distortion of John Schott’s electric guitar and the alternately ringing, stately processional or, most originally, rub-board-like thuds of William Winant’s and Gino Robair’s percussion.

Closer to Energy music, “Wall” is less structured. At times dissonant stutters, pig-like squeals and telescoped multiphonics are expressed by the saxophones of ROVA – Bruce Ackley, Steve Adams, Jon Raskin and Ochs – joined by Winant and Robair’s steady skin pounding. Yet as the tune undulates through several sections, low-key intermezzos that match tam-tam and vibe concussions with reed division between an alto saxophone propelling the melody and a tenor sax trilling variations on it, are as prominent as slap-tongue baritone saxophone riffs and unvarying percussion ruffs, flams, rolls and cow-bell peals.

One of Brakhage’s stated goals was to organize light in the projected image to aesthetically equal the poetry, painting, and music that inspired him. Doubtless he would agree that The Mirror World achieves the same objective from a dissimilar starting point.

-- Ken Waxman

-- In MusicWorks Issue #102

November 20, 2008

Marc Baron/Bertrand Denzler/Jean-Luc Guionnet/Stéphane Rives

Propagations
Potlatch P107

ROVA

The Juke Box Suite

Not Two MW 786-2

Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg

Live At Roulette

Animul ANI 106

With unaccompanied group reed sessions now commonplace in improvised music, the challenge remains to make them more than technical exercises. Each of these notable CD succeeds in doing so; but each does so in an individual manner.

As could be expected from its populist title, The Juke Box Suite is probably the most lyrical of the many CDs from the Bay area-based ROVA quartet, which arguably pioneered the four saxophone concept in improv. Propagations, on the other hand, features a quartet of young French saxophonists, who have only performed in this formation since 2003. Completely eschewing the song form, the group’s one long performance uses textures, layering and arrangements that use reeds as sound sources rather than melody extensions. A duo, rather than a quartet like those on the other CDs, Brooklyn-based Ned Rothenberg and London-based Evan Parker exhibit their mastery of the multi-reed form by blending different combinations of Rothenberg’s three reeds and Parker’s two on six live performances.

Each Parker-Rothenberg coupling produces a different sonic. The alto (Rothenberg) and tenor (Parker) saxophone mix on “Who Asked Racine”, for instance, ricochets between very brisk and very slack timbres. Intertwined, contrapuntal and augmented with held note that are hocketed or snorted, the continuous reflective lines seem initially to be only Parker’s. But following Rothenberg rappelling down the scale with accompanying trills, the extended timbres bring both to warm modulations by the conclusion.

Parker’s characteristic circular breathing on soprano saxophone gets a work out on “Brew for the Birds”, although Rothenberg’s tongue-slapping clarinet work reaches an equal level of high-pitched coloratura. The note aspiration is such that the two twitter and chirp counterlines at one another, eventually negating any spare pauses left in the interaction. The clarinetist’s whistling legato phrasing perfectly connects to Parker intense, staccato vibrations.

In contrast, “The Artist’s Response” with Rothenberg on alto saxophone and Parker on soprano saxophone opens up the sound field with overblown trills and tongue-stopping contrapuntal pulses. With the output expressed in polytones as well as palindromes, this curvaceous intermezzo features so many circling, winding and gradated timbres that not only is it difficult to distinguish one saxman from the other, but at times the two sound like an entire sax section.

That’s something that may not be as evident on Propagations, even though the all the horns for a saxophone section are present. It may be because each reedist has evolved both a microtonal and macro-tonal playing style. Alto saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet and tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler are in the minimalist Hubbub band, but Guionnet also plays Energy Music with The Fish, and Denzler has recorded with more outgoing types like pianist John Wolf Brennan. Alto saxophonist Marc Baron has recorded as part of clarinetist Louis Sclavis’ band. Only soprano saxophonist Stéphane Rives is a strict microtonalist – at least on record.

Nuanced and layered, the collective improvisation on this CD relies most frequently on breaths forced through the horns’ body tubes as well as the siren-like textures created by intense reed biting. As the moderato piece evolves, complex loops of sound are used in such a way that the tonal centre constantly shifts, subtly exposing shards, sparkles and sprinkles of multiphonics which are as much in the background as the foreground.

Individual saxophones announce themselves through peeps, glottal punctuation, key percussion and tongue slaps. But as much as fortissimo but brief reed squeals are the norm, so are extended pauses. Infrequently as well, the four take up the role of a conventional sax section with one soloist performing individual reed gymnastics as around him the other three undulate overtones that reach organ-like cushioning tones.

By the piece’s final variation the slowly oscillating pulses do reach past fortissimo to occupy the entire sound field. Coalescing as one solid mass, the timbre moves in a straight line, studded with balanced growls, flattement vibrato and pulsating glissandi. Eventually it seems as if all the oxygen remaining in the studio has almost been sucked into the bells of the horns.

After showcasing broken-octave accelerated tones from each saxophone in succession, the four reach a crescendo of irregularly vibrated quadruple counterpoint that then diminishes to a finale of barely-there body tube echoes, metallic puffs and ear-straining, ever-lengthening then conclusive silences.

Protracted silences aren’t really programmed on The Juke Box Suite, but you wouldn’t expect this from the seven tracks – all composed by alto and baritone saxophonist Jon Raskin – that honor Balkan, Afro-Cuban and African music, and individually one of the fathers of modern Brazilian music; a writer who was both a socialist and a Yiddishist; a Finnish folk super group; big city R&B and rock music; and a German-American minimalist painter.

With all due respect to the composer, the dedications in the titles seem to promise more disparity among the tunes than the music itself. That said, the seven are individually and collectively rhythmically exciting and improvisationally sophisticated. Listen, for instance to the striking polyphonic cries on “Juke Box Niggum” from either Bruce Ackley’s or Larry Och’s tenor saxophone, which creates dancing, ecstatic trills, ornamented by pumping slurs from Raskin’s baritone saxophone.

Contrast that with the singing sopranino lines and tenor saxophone obbligatos which push against one another contrapuntally on “Juke Box Choro”. Again the baritone provides the bottom, tenor and alto (Steve Adams), chime in with mid-range trills as Ochs’ sopranino outlines the fervently romantic theme. Then there’s “Juke Box Värtinnä”. A delicate, almost madrigal-like song, the arrangement isolates different timbres so completely that each saxophone can be identified within the polyphonic performance.

Oddly enough, the liveliest track, the nearly 10-minute “Juke Box Detroit” is dedicated to The White Stripes rather than more appropriately John Lee Hooker, the MC5 or Tamla-Motown. Still the urban grit of the city appears to be reflected in the baritonist’s tongue stops and slaps and the tenorist’s rapid-fire riffing. Finally after the other horns move in counterpoint to guttural bari riffs, the extended shout chorus climaxes with all the horns tonguing in different tempi, leading to a restatement of the melody – which is also deconstructed as it’s sounded.

Sophisticated, coalesced saxophone science – and art – is demonstrated on each of these notable discs.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Roulette: 1. Who Asked Racine? 2. Brew for the Birds 3. Stick, Twist or Bust 4. On Alto On Tenor 5. The Artist’s Response 6. On Core En Cours

Personnel: Roulette: Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet) and Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

Track Listing: Juke Box: 1. Juke Box Afro Balkan 2. Juke Box Mambo 3. Juke Box Niggum 4. Juke Box Detroit 5. Juke Box Hang Up 6. Juke Box Choro 7. Juke Box Värtinnä

Personnel: Juke Box: Bruce Ackley (soprano and tenor saxophones); Steve Adams (alto saxophone); Larry Ochs (sopranino and tenor saxophones) and Jon Raskin (alto and baritone saxophones)

Track Listing: Propagations: 1. Propagations

Personnel: Propagations: Stéphane Rives (soprano saxophone); Marc Baron and Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto saxophones) and Bertrand Denzler tenor saxophone)

January 31, 2008

ROVA

The Juke Box Suite
Not Two MW 786-2

Marc Baron/Bertrand Denzler/Jean-Luc Guionnet/Stéphane Rives

Propagations

Potlatch P107

Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg

Live At Roulette

Animul ANI 106

With unaccompanied group reed sessions now commonplace in improvised music, the challenge remains to make them more than technical exercises. Each of these notable CD succeeds in doing so; but each does so in an individual manner.

As could be expected from its populist title, The Juke Box Suite is probably the most lyrical of the many CDs from the Bay area-based ROVA quartet, which arguably pioneered the four saxophone concept in improv. Propagations, on the other hand, features a quartet of young French saxophonists, who have only performed in this formation since 2003. Completely eschewing the song form, the group’s one long performance uses textures, layering and arrangements that use reeds as sound sources rather than melody extensions. A duo, rather than a quartet like those on the other CDs, Brooklyn-based Ned Rothenberg and London-based Evan Parker exhibit their mastery of the multi-reed form by blending different combinations of Rothenberg’s three reeds and Parker’s two on six live performances.

Each Parker-Rothenberg coupling produces a different sonic. The alto (Rothenberg) and tenor (Parker) saxophone mix on “Who Asked Racine”, for instance, ricochets between very brisk and very slack timbres. Intertwined, contrapuntal and augmented with held note that are hocketed or snorted, the continuous reflective lines seem initially to be only Parker’s. But following Rothenberg rappelling down the scale with accompanying trills, the extended timbres bring both to warm modulations by the conclusion.

Parker’s characteristic circular breathing on soprano saxophone gets a work out on “Brew for the Birds”, although Rothenberg’s tongue-slapping clarinet work reaches an equal level of high-pitched coloratura. The note aspiration is such that the two twitter and chirp counterlines at one another, eventually negating any spare pauses left in the interaction. The clarinetist’s whistling legato phrasing perfectly connects to Parker intense, staccato vibrations.

In contrast, “The Artist’s Response” with Rothenberg on alto saxophone and Parker on soprano saxophone opens up the sound field with overblown trills and tongue-stopping contrapuntal pulses. With the output expressed in polytones as well as palindromes, this curvaceous intermezzo features so many circling, winding and gradated timbres that not only is it difficult to distinguish one saxman from the other, but at times the two sound like an entire sax section.

That’s something that may not be as evident on Propagations, even though the all the horns for a saxophone section are present. It may be because each reedist has evolved both a microtonal and macro-tonal playing style. Alto saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet and tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler are in the minimalist Hubbub band, but Guionnet also plays Energy Music with The Fish, and Denzler has recorded with more outgoing types like pianist John Wolf Brennan. Alto saxophonist Marc Baron has recorded as part of clarinetist Louis Sclavis’ band. Only soprano saxophonist Stéphane Rives is a strict microtonalist – at least on record.

Nuanced and layered, the collective improvisation on this CD relies most frequently on breaths forced through the horns’ body tubes as well as the siren-like textures created by intense reed biting. As the moderato piece evolves, complex loops of sound are used in such a way that the tonal centre constantly shifts, subtly exposing shards, sparkles and sprinkles of multiphonics which are as much in the background as the foreground.

Individual saxophones announce themselves through peeps, glottal punctuation, key percussion and tongue slaps. But as much as fortissimo but brief reed squeals are the norm, so are extended pauses. Infrequently as well, the four take up the role of a conventional sax section with one soloist performing individual reed gymnastics as around him the other three undulate overtones that reach organ-like cushioning tones.

By the piece’s final variation the slowly oscillating pulses do reach past fortissimo to occupy the entire sound field. Coalescing as one solid mass, the timbre moves in a straight line, studded with balanced growls, flattement vibrato and pulsating glissandi. Eventually it seems as if all the oxygen remaining in the studio has almost been sucked into the bells of the horns.

After showcasing broken-octave accelerated tones from each saxophone in succession, the four reach a crescendo of irregularly vibrated quadruple counterpoint that then diminishes to a finale of barely-there body tube echoes, metallic puffs and ear-straining, ever-lengthening then conclusive silences.

Protracted silences aren’t really programmed on The Juke Box Suite, but you wouldn’t expect this from the seven tracks – all composed by alto and baritone saxophonist Jon Raskin – that honor Balkan, Afro-Cuban and African music, and individually one of the fathers of modern Brazilian music; a writer who was both a socialist and a Yiddishist; a Finnish folk super group; big city R&B and rock music; and a German-American minimalist painter.

With all due respect to the composer, the dedications in the titles seem to promise more disparity among the tunes than the music itself. That said, the seven are individually and collectively rhythmically exciting and improvisationally sophisticated. Listen, for instance to the striking polyphonic cries on “Juke Box Niggum” from either Bruce Ackley’s or Larry Och’s tenor saxophone, which creates dancing, ecstatic trills, ornamented by pumping slurs from Raskin’s baritone saxophone.

Contrast that with the singing sopranino lines and tenor saxophone obbligatos which push against one another contrapuntally on “Juke Box Choro”. Again the baritone provides the bottom, tenor and alto (Steve Adams), chime in with mid-range trills as Ochs’ sopranino outlines the fervently romantic theme. Then there’s “Juke Box Värtinnä”. A delicate, almost madrigal-like song, the arrangement isolates different timbres so completely that each saxophone can be identified within the polyphonic performance.

Oddly enough, the liveliest track, the nearly 10-minute “Juke Box Detroit” is dedicated to The White Stripes rather than more appropriately John Lee Hooker, the MC5 or Tamla-Motown. Still the urban grit of the city appears to be reflected in the baritonist’s tongue stops and slaps and the tenorist’s rapid-fire riffing. Finally after the other horns move in counterpoint to guttural bari riffs, the extended shout chorus climaxes with all the horns tonguing in different tempi, leading to a restatement of the melody – which is also deconstructed as it’s sounded.

Sophisticated, coalesced saxophone science – and art – is demonstrated on each of these notable discs.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Roulette: 1. Who Asked Racine? 2. Brew for the Birds 3. Stick, Twist or Bust 4. On Alto On Tenor 5. The Artist’s Response 6. On Core En Cours

Personnel: Roulette: Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet) and Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

Track Listing: Juke Box: 1. Juke Box Afro Balkan 2. Juke Box Mambo 3. Juke Box Niggum 4. Juke Box Detroit 5. Juke Box Hang Up 6. Juke Box Choro 7. Juke Box Värtinnä

Personnel: Juke Box: Bruce Ackley (soprano and tenor saxophones); Steve Adams (alto saxophone); Larry Ochs (sopranino and tenor saxophones) and Jon Raskin (alto and baritone saxophones)

Track Listing: Propagations: 1. Propagations

Personnel: Propagations: Stéphane Rives (soprano saxophone); Marc Baron and Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto saxophones) and Bertrand Denzler tenor saxophone)

January 31, 2008

Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg

Live At Roulette
Animul ANI 106

Marc Baron/Bertrand Denzler/Jean-Luc Guionnet/Stéphane Rives

Propagations

Potlatch P107

ROVA

The Juke Box Suite

Not Two MW 786-2

With unaccompanied group reed sessions now commonplace in improvised music, the challenge remains to make them more than technical exercises. Each of these notable CD succeeds in doing so; but each does so in an individual manner.

As could be expected from its populist title, The Juke Box Suite is probably the most lyrical of the many CDs from the Bay area-based ROVA quartet, which arguably pioneered the four saxophone concept in improv. Propagations, on the other hand, features a quartet of young French saxophonists, who have only performed in this formation since 2003. Completely eschewing the song form, the group’s one long performance uses textures, layering and arrangements that use reeds as sound sources rather than melody extensions. A duo, rather than a quartet like those on the other CDs, Brooklyn-based Ned Rothenberg and London-based Evan Parker exhibit their mastery of the multi-reed form by blending different combinations of Rothenberg’s three reeds and Parker’s two on six live performances.

Each Parker-Rothenberg coupling produces a different sonic. The alto (Rothenberg) and tenor (Parker) saxophone mix on “Who Asked Racine”, for instance, ricochets between very brisk and very slack timbres. Intertwined, contrapuntal and augmented with held note that are hocketed or snorted, the continuous reflective lines seem initially to be only Parker’s. But following Rothenberg rappelling down the scale with accompanying trills, the extended timbres bring both to warm modulations by the conclusion.

Parker’s characteristic circular breathing on soprano saxophone gets a work out on “Brew for the Birds”, although Rothenberg’s tongue-slapping clarinet work reaches an equal level of high-pitched coloratura. The note aspiration is such that the two twitter and chirp counterlines at one another, eventually negating any spare pauses left in the interaction. The clarinetist’s whistling legato phrasing perfectly connects to Parker intense, staccato vibrations.

In contrast, “The Artist’s Response” with Rothenberg on alto saxophone and Parker on soprano saxophone opens up the sound field with overblown trills and tongue-stopping contrapuntal pulses. With the output expressed in polytones as well as palindromes, this curvaceous intermezzo features so many circling, winding and gradated timbres that not only is it difficult to distinguish one saxman from the other, but at times the two sound like an entire sax section.

That’s something that may not be as evident on Propagations, even though the all the horns for a saxophone section are present. It may be because each reedist has evolved both a microtonal and macro-tonal playing style. Alto saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet and tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler are in the minimalist Hubbub band, but Guionnet also plays Energy Music with The Fish, and Denzler has recorded with more outgoing types like pianist John Wolf Brennan. Alto saxophonist Marc Baron has recorded as part of clarinetist Louis Sclavis’ band. Only soprano saxophonist Stéphane Rives is a strict microtonalist – at least on record.

Nuanced and layered, the collective improvisation on this CD relies most frequently on breaths forced through the horns’ body tubes as well as the siren-like textures created by intense reed biting. As the moderato piece evolves, complex loops of sound are used in such a way that the tonal centre constantly shifts, subtly exposing shards, sparkles and sprinkles of multiphonics which are as much in the background as the foreground.

Individual saxophones announce themselves through peeps, glottal punctuation, key percussion and tongue slaps. But as much as fortissimo but brief reed squeals are the norm, so are extended pauses. Infrequently as well, the four take up the role of a conventional sax section with one soloist performing individual reed gymnastics as around him the other three undulate overtones that reach organ-like cushioning tones.

By the piece’s final variation the slowly oscillating pulses do reach past fortissimo to occupy the entire sound field. Coalescing as one solid mass, the timbre moves in a straight line, studded with balanced growls, flattement vibrato and pulsating glissandi. Eventually it seems as if all the oxygen remaining in the studio has almost been sucked into the bells of the horns.

After showcasing broken-octave accelerated tones from each saxophone in succession, the four reach a crescendo of irregularly vibrated quadruple counterpoint that then diminishes to a finale of barely-there body tube echoes, metallic puffs and ear-straining, ever-lengthening then conclusive silences.

Protracted silences aren’t really programmed on The Juke Box Suite, but you wouldn’t expect this from the seven tracks – all composed by alto and baritone saxophonist Jon Raskin – that honor Balkan, Afro-Cuban and African music, and individually one of the fathers of modern Brazilian music; a writer who was both a socialist and a Yiddishist; a Finnish folk super group; big city R&B and rock music; and a German-American minimalist painter.

With all due respect to the composer, the dedications in the titles seem to promise more disparity among the tunes than the music itself. That said, the seven are individually and collectively rhythmically exciting and improvisationally sophisticated. Listen, for instance to the striking polyphonic cries on “Juke Box Niggum” from either Bruce Ackley’s or Larry Och’s tenor saxophone, which creates dancing, ecstatic trills, ornamented by pumping slurs from Raskin’s baritone saxophone.

Contrast that with the singing sopranino lines and tenor saxophone obbligatos which push against one another contrapuntally on “Juke Box Choro”. Again the baritone provides the bottom, tenor and alto (Steve Adams), chime in with mid-range trills as Ochs’ sopranino outlines the fervently romantic theme. Then there’s “Juke Box Värtinnä”. A delicate, almost madrigal-like song, the arrangement isolates different timbres so completely that each saxophone can be identified within the polyphonic performance.

Oddly enough, the liveliest track, the nearly 10-minute “Juke Box Detroit” is dedicated to The White Stripes rather than more appropriately John Lee Hooker, the MC5 or Tamla-Motown. Still the urban grit of the city appears to be reflected in the baritonist’s tongue stops and slaps and the tenorist’s rapid-fire riffing. Finally after the other horns move in counterpoint to guttural bari riffs, the extended shout chorus climaxes with all the horns tonguing in different tempi, leading to a restatement of the melody – which is also deconstructed as it’s sounded.

Sophisticated, coalesced saxophone science – and art – is demonstrated on each of these notable discs.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Roulette: 1. Who Asked Racine? 2. Brew for the Birds 3. Stick, Twist or Bust 4. On Alto On Tenor 5. The Artist’s Response 6. On Core En Cours

Personnel: Roulette: Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet) and Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

Track Listing: Juke Box: 1. Juke Box Afro Balkan 2. Juke Box Mambo 3. Juke Box Niggum 4. Juke Box Detroit 5. Juke Box Hang Up 6. Juke Box Choro 7. Juke Box Värtinnä

Personnel: Juke Box: Bruce Ackley (soprano and tenor saxophones); Steve Adams (alto saxophone); Larry Ochs (sopranino and tenor saxophones) and Jon Raskin (alto and baritone saxophones)

Track Listing: Propagations: 1. Propagations

Personnel: Propagations: Stéphane Rives (soprano saxophone); Marc Baron and Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto saxophones) and Bertrand Denzler tenor saxophone)

January 31, 2008

ROVA

The Juke Box Suite
Not Two MW 786-2

Marc Baron/Bertrand Denzler/Jean-Luc Guionnet/Stéphane Rives

Propagation
s

Potlatch P107

Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg

Live At Roulette

Animul ANI 106

With unaccompanied group reed sessions now commonplace in improvised music, the challenge remains to make them more than technical exercises. Each of these notable CD succeeds in doing so; but each does so in an individual manner.

As could be expected from its populist title, The Juke Box Suite is probably the most lyrical of the many CDs from the Bay area-based ROVA quartet, which arguably pioneered the four saxophone concept in improv. Propagations, on the other hand, features a quartet of young French saxophonists, who have only performed in this formation since 2003. Completely eschewing the song form, the group’s one long performance uses textures, layering and arrangements that use reeds as sound sources rather than melody extensions. A duo, rather than a quartet like those on the other CDs, Brooklyn-based Ned Rothenberg and London-based Evan Parker exhibit their mastery of the multi-reed form by blending different combinations of Rothenberg’s three reeds and Parker’s two on six live performances.

Each Parker-Rothenberg coupling produces a different sonic. The alto (Rothenberg) and tenor (Parker) saxophone mix on “Who Asked Racine”, for instance, ricochets between very brisk and very slack timbres. Intertwined, contrapuntal and augmented with held note that are hocketed or snorted, the continuous reflective lines seem initially to be only Parker’s. But following Rothenberg rappelling down the scale with accompanying trills, the extended timbres bring both to warm modulations by the conclusion.

Parker’s characteristic circular breathing on soprano saxophone gets a work out on “Brew for the Birds”, although Rothenberg’s tongue-slapping clarinet work reaches an equal level of high-pitched coloratura. The note aspiration is such that the two twitter and chirp counterlines at one another, eventually negating any spare pauses left in the interaction. The clarinetist’s whistling legato phrasing perfectly connects to Parker intense, staccato vibrations.

In contrast, “The Artist’s Response” with Rothenberg on alto saxophone and Parker on soprano saxophone opens up the sound field with overblown trills and tongue-stopping contrapuntal pulses. With the output expressed in polytones as well as palindromes, this curvaceous intermezzo features so many circling, winding and gradated timbres that not only is it difficult to distinguish one saxman from the other, but at times the two sound like an entire sax section.

That’s something that may not be as evident on Propagations, even though the all the horns for a saxophone section are present. It may be because each reedist has evolved both a microtonal and macro-tonal playing style. Alto saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet and tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler are in the minimalist Hubbub band, but Guionnet also plays Energy Music with The Fish, and Denzler has recorded with more outgoing types like pianist John Wolf Brennan. Alto saxophonist Marc Baron has recorded as part of clarinetist Louis Sclavis’ band. Only soprano saxophonist Stéphane Rives is a strict microtonalist – at least on record.

Nuanced and layered, the collective improvisation on this CD relies most frequently on breaths forced through the horns’ body tubes as well as the siren-like textures created by intense reed biting. As the moderato piece evolves, complex loops of sound are used in such a way that the tonal centre constantly shifts, subtly exposing shards, sparkles and sprinkles of multiphonics which are as much in the background as the foreground.

Individual saxophones announce themselves through peeps, glottal punctuation, key percussion and tongue slaps. But as much as fortissimo but brief reed squeals are the norm, so are extended pauses. Infrequently as well, the four take up the role of a conventional sax section with one soloist performing individual reed gymnastics as around him the other three undulate overtones that reach organ-like cushioning tones.

By the piece’s final variation the slowly oscillating pulses do reach past fortissimo to occupy the entire sound field. Coalescing as one solid mass, the timbre moves in a straight line, studded with balanced growls, flattement vibrato and pulsating glissandi. Eventually it seems as if all the oxygen remaining in the studio has almost been sucked into the bells of the horns.

After showcasing broken-octave accelerated tones from each saxophone in succession, the four reach a crescendo of irregularly vibrated quadruple counterpoint that then diminishes to a finale of barely-there body tube echoes, metallic puffs and ear-straining, ever-lengthening then conclusive silences.

Protracted silences aren’t really programmed on The Juke Box Suite, but you wouldn’t expect this from the seven tracks – all composed by alto and baritone saxophonist Jon Raskin – that honor Balkan, Afro-Cuban and African music, and individually one of the fathers of modern Brazilian music; a writer who was both a socialist and a Yiddishist; a Finnish folk super group; big city R&B and rock music; and a German-American minimalist painter.

With all due respect to the composer, the dedications in the titles seem to promise more disparity among the tunes than the music itself. That said, the seven are individually and collectively rhythmically exciting and improvisationally sophisticated. Listen, for instance to the striking polyphonic cries on “Juke Box Niggum” from either Bruce Ackley’s or Larry Och’s tenor saxophone, which creates dancing, ecstatic trills, ornamented by pumping slurs from Raskin’s baritone saxophone.

Contrast that with the singing sopranino lines and tenor saxophone obbligatos which push against one another contrapuntally on “Juke Box Choro”. Again the baritone provides the bottom, tenor and alto (Steve Adams), chime in with mid-range trills as Ochs’ sopranino outlines the fervently romantic theme. Then there’s “Juke Box Värtinnä”. A delicate, almost madrigal-like song, the arrangement isolates different timbres so completely that each saxophone can be identified within the polyphonic performance.

Oddly enough, the liveliest track, the nearly 10-minute “Juke Box Detroit” is dedicated to The White Stripes rather than more appropriately John Lee Hooker, the MC5 or Tamla-Motown. Still the urban grit of the city appears to be reflected in the baritonist’s tongue stops and slaps and the tenorist’s rapid-fire riffing. Finally after the other horns move in counterpoint to guttural bari riffs, the extended shout chorus climaxes with all the horns tonguing in different tempi, leading to a restatement of the melody – which is also deconstructed as it’s sounded.

Sophisticated, coalesced saxophone science – and art – is demonstrated on each of these notable discs.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Roulette: 1. Who Asked Racine? 2. Brew for the Birds 3. Stick, Twist or Bust 4. On Alto On Tenor 5. The Artist’s Response 6. On Core En Cours

Personnel: Roulette: Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet) and Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone)

Track Listing: Juke Box: 1. Juke Box Afro Balkan 2. Juke Box Mambo 3. Juke Box Niggum 4. Juke Box Detroit 5. Juke Box Hang Up 6. Juke Box Choro 7. Juke Box Värtinnä

Personnel: Juke Box: Bruce Ackley (soprano and tenor saxophones); Steve Adams (alto saxophone); Larry Ochs (sopranino and tenor saxophones) and Jon Raskin (alto and baritone saxophones)

Track Listing: Propagations: 1. Propagations

Personnel: Propagations: Stéphane Rives (soprano saxophone); Marc Baron and Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto saxophones) and Bertrand Denzler tenor saxophone)

January 31, 2008

ROVA

Totally Spinning
Black Saint BS 12026-2

Always improvised music’s second best-known saxophone quartet, the unWSQ perhaps or maybe more appropriately the Rolling Stones to the World Saxophone Quartet’s Beatles, Bay area-based ROVA has maintained an impressive consistency over the years.

Unlike Mick, Keef and the boys – and unlike some of the WSQ’s more populist recent projects – ROVA’s commitment to constant experimentation has kept it from becoming complacent or slipping into expected patterns. Almost 30 years on, the band still remains as vital as ever.

There’s also plenty of ROVA music to be experienced, as this session demonstrates. Recorded in 1996, but newly released, it finds the quartet members – soprano saxophonist Bruce Ackley, baritone saxophonist Jon Raskin, Steve Adams on soprano and alto saxophones and Larry Ochs on sopranino and tenor saxophones – in a particularly rhythmically driven mood.

Intentionally or not framed by eight minute plus introductory and concluding tracks, the four reedists use the eight compositions to highlight their individual and collective flexibility. Harmonically sophisticated as well as highly metrical, these tunes and others showcase a variety of riffs, vamps, call-and-response cross-patterning plus double-up-to-quadruple counterpoint.

The offbeat harmony doesn’t preclude theme and variation, and theme recapitulation, yet during these episodes, the players also illustrate unison honking and snorting, fluid trills, fortissimo broken octaves and tongue slaps. Looking for a link to the tradition? There are many passages throughout when Raskin tongues a snorting ostinato, and another hornman – usually Ochs on tenor or Adams on alto – vibrates higher-pitched split tones around it.

With echoes of other timbres ranging from granular R&B-style pedal point baritone saxophone honking – on “Preshrunk” – to slinky “Pink Panther”-like swelling alto saxophone split tones – on “Stiction” – ROVA subverts the standard parts of the compositions with extended reed techniques. Swelling contrapuntal lines and spetrofluctuation make their appearance more often than mellow obbligatos and close harmonies.

Although pointed nasal soprano lines and hocketing tenor side-slipping get better showcases elsewhere, the lengthiest pieces are the nearly eight-minute “Cuernavaca Starlight for Charles Mingus”, a straightforward tribute to the bassist-composer who always knew how to voice reeds, and the almost 16-minute episodic “It’s a Journey, Not a Destination”.

Playing up Mingus’ debt to Duke Ellington, the close-harmony interpretation on the first tune almost turns the piece into an outside concerto for Harry Carney’s baritone – with Raskin doing the honors – while the higher-pitched horns unite for a smeary approximation of another favorite Ducal device – the clarinet trio. Mid-range and comfortable, the piece allows for metallic reverberation as well as trilling polyphony.

More overtly contrapuntal as well as polyphonic, “It’s a Journey, Not a Destination” knits notes into a fabric of sharp, emphasized reed timbres. Moving horizontally most of time, the spinning and sprawling contrapuntal melody leaves enough space for a series of solos. First there’s clean, clear a capella from Adams’ alto, then that’s gradually doubled by the cello-like resonance of Raskin’s baritone. Ochs and Ackley riff in unison, until the call-and-response section opens up into snorting baritone pedal point, stuttering, biting tenor lines and glottal tongue-stops and slips from the others. Peeping snaps from the sopranino, plus tongue slaps and stretched tones from lower-pitched saxes give way to up-the-scale rappelling scampers and rhythmic note clusters. Climatically, the interconnected, almost impressionistic harmonies reflect back to the introduction before reaching a suitably lyrical finale.

No leftover blast from the past, Totally Spinning is vital music that can be heard in any year.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Let’s Go Totally Spinning 2. Stiction 3. Radar 11/19/01 4. Cuernavaca Starlight for Charles Mingus 5. Kick It 6. It’s a Journey, Not a Destination 7. Preshrunk 8. Radar, Version 731

Personnel: Bruce Ackley (soprano saxophone); Steve Adams (soprano and alto saxophones); Larry Ochs (sopranino and tenor saxophones) and Jon Raskin (baritone saxophone)

October 3, 2006

IAN SMITH/SIMON H. FELL/HARRIS EISENSTADT

K3
Bruce’s Fingers BF 58

HARRIS EISENSTADT
Ahimsa Orchestra
Nine Winds NWCD0237

Having established himself with hard work as an in-demand percussionist and band leader in Los Angeles, Toronto-born Harris Eisenstadt is branching out. He’s traveling to the East Coast, Europe and Africa to match wits with his improvising contemporaries and writing more involved compositions for larger ensembles.

K3 is an example of the former, where he hooks up with British-born bassist Simon H. Fell, who now lives in France, and Dublin-born, London-based trumpeter Ian Smith. Conversely the Ahimsa Orchestra is a local project, featuring the percussionist, conductor Omid Zoufonoun and two differently constituted, 12-piece ensembles running through two of Eisenstadt’s compositions, the three-part “Non-Violence” and the four-section “Relief”. Kudos must go to the young drummer for attempting different projects. However, while he fits comfortably with Smith and Fell, his reach seems to have exceeded his grasp with the 67-minute CD by the band named with Mahatma Gandhi’s word for enemy-loving non-violence.

Throughout the parts are greater than their sum, since some of the West Coast’s most accomplished, outsides players – including trumpeters Dan Clucas and Kris Tiner, tubaist Mark Weaver, reedists Vinny Golia, Kyle Bruckmann and Sara Schoenbeck, guitarist Noah Phillips, and trapsmen Alex Cline and Eisenstadt himself

– get to show off their skills.

Unfortunately, the surrounding through-composed passages are non-connective and nearly threadbare. Orphan riffs are one thing, but when they resemble intermezzos and leitmotifs that can’t decide whether to be impressionistic or early 20th century classical, chutzpah takes the place of coherence.

Probably the best playing comes in the last section of the second suite when several countermelodies featuring Ellen Barr’s flute, Clucas’ muted trumpet and Bill Casale’s pulsating bass give way to an undulating stentorian tuba solo from Weaver that’s perfectly backed by bounces and flams from Eisenstadt. When the drummer turns to a more conventional rhythm, the trumpeter’s tremolo trills shine, suggesting that “Relief IV” may be a postlude rather than a proper climax.

Earlier in the same suite, driven by the rattles and rims shots from the understated percussion of the composer and Cline, massed orchestral harmonies give way to a squirming clarinet solo from Brain Walsh and a glottal lower register bassoon line from Schoenbeck that precede an conclusive crescendo. Splayed, cross-sawed textures from guitarist Phillips’ follow bell resonation from the percussionists, with both players rolling and rumbling through the penultimate thematic variation as sputtered split tones and pitch-sliding vibrations courtesy of Walsh and Golia produce diffuse harmonies. Still, despite Weaver’s obbligato and a horn crescendo, the overall impression is cold because the compositional glue holding the piece together seems to be lacking.

It’s the same story with “Non-Violence” despite some harmonic coloration created by a piccolo-trumpet tremor, valve twisting plunger work from trombonist Toyoji Tomita, reed squeaks and aviary twitters and sophisticated bass drum spots and reverberating cymbal parts from Eisenstadt. Here the connective material appears even more prettified than on the subsequent composition. Simultaneously though, there’s too little of it as well, often exposing the disconnected motifs among the yowling, rubato reed and brass timbres.

The situation was more balanced a year earlier at London’s Klinker club during the trio meeting. A memento of the drummer’s visit to the United Kingdom, Eisenstadt’s apparently more relaxed in the improvisational role on the four instant compositions here. Fell, who is has been a consummate combo player for years – as well as being an ambitious composer – is an asset in any circumstances, but the biggest surprise is Smith.

A far cry from his tentative work from three years previous when he recorded alongside some BritImprov veterans, his confident soloing in all registers of the horn easily allows him to hold up his part of the triangular equation. Perhaps consistent work with the London Improvisers Orchestra, consisting of some of the city’s most accomplished improvisers has toughened his chops.

No matter the cause, the spurts of resolute brass timbres with which he decorates his solo on the last three minutes of “Voiceless Velar Stop” are some of the most impressive trumpeting anywhere. Smith appends a few bent notes as a coda, having been hectored along by steady bowing from Fell and blunt ratamacues from Eisenstadt. Prior to that, the trumpeter moves from audacious mouthpiece tongue kisses to wah-wah buzzes plus clenched teeth slurs; he’s so in step with the drummer, that often a tone could be as much brass as percussion.

Imbued with the sprit of older British rhythm makers like Tony Oxley and Roger Turner, Eisenstadt sleekly works his way through his kit, matching heavy knocking on the rims with split-second whispering reverberation, and clanging chains on top of the heads as often as he attacks them full force. Someone who has studied with the griots in Africa, he brings darbuka and djembe hand-drum resonations to other sections, such as an extended work-out on the final track which contrasts nicely with Fell’s legato, Europeanized bowed notes.

Able to express spiccato vibrations with the same ease as walking, the bassist’s string organization encompasses buzzing sul tasto excursions and sections where he moves the tonal centre with polyrhythmic scratches and reverb. Strumming and sometimes nearly in slap bass territory, Fell is never at a loss as to how to rebound the pulse back and forth to the others. Plus the trumpeter is there to let loose with anything including sonorous pedal tones, purring valve whistling, fowl-like quacks, speedy brass bites and plunger whines.

Maybe one day Eisenstadt can translate his impressive performing and compositional talent from small combos to larger ones. Perhaps working with a more compact group would have benefited his conception for the AHIMSA ORCHESTRA. As it stands now though, K3 is a keeper, with the other CD of most interest to those who want to preserve every marker in the drummer’s accelerating career.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: K3: 1. Potassium 2. 1024 Words 3. Voiceless Velar Stop 4. The Unit Vector Along the Z-Axis

Personnel: K3: Ian Smith (trumpet); Simon H. Fell (bass); Harris Eisenstadt (percussion)

Track Listing: Ahimsa: Non-Violence: 1. I 2. II 3. III Relief: 4. I 5. II 6. III 7. IV

Personnel: Ahimsa:

Tracks 1-3: Liz Allbee and Kris Tiner (trumpet); Toyoji Tomita (trombone); Phillip Greenlief (b-flat clarinet); Kyle Bruckmann (oboe); Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon); Steve Adams (C flute); Bill Horvitz and Noah Phillips (guitars); George Cremaschi (bass); David Branddt (vibraphone); Harris Eisenstadt (percussion); Omid Zoufonoun (conductor) Tracks 4-7: Dan Clucas (trumpet); George McMullen (trombone); Mark Weaver (tuba); Brian Walsh (b-flat clarinet); Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon); Vinny Golia (bass clarinet); Ellen Burr (C flute); Phillips (guitar); Jessica Catron (cello); Bill Casale (bass); Eisenstadt and Alex Cline (percussion); Omid Zoufonoun (conductor)

January 30, 2006

ROVA:ORKESTROVA

Electric Ascension
Atavistic ALP159CD

Giving the symbolic finger to the museum-quality preservationists who make up most of jazz repertory companies, Rova, the Bay Area sax quartet, has audaciously created its own version of “Ascension”, John Coltrane’s seminal work from 1965. Then as further nose-thumbing to the crowd that prefers polite Duke Ellington or Miles Davis-Gil Evans style recreations, the band plus eight helpmates, has conflated the piece still further into a noise and electronic extravaganza.

What’s more, this is the second time the Rova crew has honored “Ascension”. In 1995, adding a rhythm section and additional stellar soloists such as trumpeter Raphe Malik and the late tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman, the band created a lengthy acoustic version of Trane’s original suite. Still convinced that “Ascension” is a master work that deserves to be played even more often, Rova members Larry Ochs and Jon Raskin decided on another go round, radically changing the instrumentation without losing the composition’s essence.

Nonetheless, nay-sayers may wonder why another run at the piece is necessary. No one seems to question the seemingly endless re-recordings of Beethoven symphonies and other classics of so called serious music. Then when it comes to jazz, recording more of Ellington’s, Monk’s Mingus’ or Goodman’s most popular compositions doesn’t seem to bother anyone either. In terms of Coltrane however, while different versions of “Giant Steps” and “Equinox” are de rigueur for many sax men, “Ascension” still frightens.

After all the recording was the only time Trane surrounded himself with a large group of younger Free Jazz improvisers and it signaled for the hard-bop sentimentalists that the John Coltrane of “My Favorite Things” and the BALLADS LP had changed forever.

As unable to remain complacent in its achievements as Coltrane was in his, the four members of Rova – soprano saxophonist Bruce Ackley, alto saxophonist Steve Adams, tenor saxophonist Ochs and baritone saxophonist Raskin – have never shied away from a challenge and they meet this one with skill and equanimity. Replacing Coltrane’s ensemble of five saxes, two trumpets, piano, two basses and drums are Rova, Tin Hat Trio member Carla Kihlstedt on violin and effects; Jenny Scheinman on violin, Wilco and Vinny Golia associate Nels Cline on guitar; Fred Frith, who has worked with Ochs on many projects as a guitarist, on electric bass; and the Bay Area’s paramount Free Jazz drummer Don Robinson, a longtime associate of Spearman. Additional rhythm and noise comes from New Yorker Ikue Mori on drum machines and sampler, Japanese-based electro-acoustian Otomo Yoshihide on turntables and electronics and Chris Brown, Ochs’ associate in the band Room, with electronics.

So what’s the result? Well for a start, Robinson’s offbeat patterning and percussion exploration is as important – perhaps even more important – for this “Ascension” as Elvin Jones’ drumming was for the original. Not a polyrhythmist like Jones, he nonetheless serves as this creation’s heart beat. As distorted echoes from the electronics mix with multiphonic vibratos from the strings and power shifting from the saxophones, it’s Robinson’s accented bounces, ruffs and rebounds that serve as bonding glue.

Another standout is Raskin. With many of the sax passages and solos constituted in screaming altissimo here, his basement tones maintain their individuality, and there’s even a point midway through, when his tremolo snorts mix it up with the rough snickering of Yoshihide’s pulsating sine waves to stretch the sound development. It sort of makes you wish a baritonist like Charles Davis or Pat Patrick had made the original date.

Definitely finding a place for themselves on this one are the violinists. Scratching and side-slipping, both fiddlers make full use of sul tasto and sul ponticello runs to mark their sonic territories, sometime adding to the slurred fingering of the other strings with pizzicato fills. Scheinman has a particularly satisfying exchange with Ackley at one point, as she turns from speedy multiphonic bowing to shrilling upper partials, while he works out sour soprano tone variations. All the while Frith is proffering a thick, steadying bass pulse and Robinson detonating disconnected drum cadences and bell ringing.

Distinctive in a sideman’s role that gives him proper strictures, Cline contributes cascades of slurred fingering and pinpointed tones, infrequently using knob-twisting and whammy bar finesse to cut through the hiss and flutter of the electronics. His judicious use of distortion extends his flat picking, while the final section has him pumping out a melodic line which builds up to Spanish-styled rasgueado before the final appearance of the tune’s head. Instructively, Adams use rapid-fire phrasing and split tones to make his point against Cline’s chromatic picking. But this is merely more double counterpoint, like Ochs’ squealing exchange with scratchy violin jettes.

Ochs himself has some irregular pitched, reed-splitting demonstrative outbursts, emphasizing the honking potential of his axe with glottal punctuation. Together the four saxes push the material every which way, though true to their role as preservationists, theme snippets appear every so often.

Anti-electronic traditionalists shouldn’t despair either, since the most noticeable electronic interface occurs when curved oscillations from either Brown or Yoshihide answers Cline’s quivering semi-tones built up with delay and slurred fingering, or when Mori adds her drum-machine textures to the acoustic ones created by Robinson’s kit.

As a postlude, drums and guitars produce longer and broader strokes, violins and higher-pitched electronics shrill like the missing brass of the original LP, and everyone joins with the sax choir to gather the disparate strands for a climatic finale.

More please.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Ascension, Parts 1 through 13

Personnel: Rova: Bruce Ackley (soprano saxophone); Steve Adams (alto saxophone); Larry Ochs (tenor saxophone); Jon Raskin (baritone saxophone); plus Carla Kihlstedt (violin and effects); Jenny Scheinman (violin); Nels Cline (guitar); Fred Frith (electric bass); Don Robinson (drums); Ikue Mori (drum machines and sampler); Otomo Yoshihide (turntables and electronics) and Chris Brown (electronics)

October 10, 2005

LISBON IMPROVISATION PLAYERS

Motion
Clean Feed CF025CD

Ever shifting, the personnel of the Lisbon Improvisation Players (LIP) this time out encompasses an American-Portuguese accord. MOTION unites LIP’s core – alto and baritone player Rodrigo Amado and drummer Acácio Salero – with two Americans – bassist Ken Filiano, longtime playing partner of folks like multi-reedist Vinny Golia and guitarist Dom Minasi; plus ROVA sax quartet’s Steve Adams on sopranino and tenor saxophones.

Operating as they’ve been playing together for years this two-sax/two rhythm quartet shows that regional differences between improvisers are quickly disappearing – if they ever existed at all. Naturally Amado and Salero aren’t just any musicians, both players have extensive improv credentials. Locals, guitarist Nuno Rebelo and violinist Carlos Zíngaro plus Americans, trombonist Steve Swell and drummer Lou Grassi have recorded with the saxophonist. The drummer, who also plays saxophone, was part of LIP’s three-sax line-up in 2000.

That configuration might be why Amado and Adams complement one another –

frequently improvising with two or three other reeds that quickly gives you an understanding of the horns’ limitations and expansions. Another factor is that the four had just finished playing Jazz en Augusto after doing a bit of jamming in a local club.

Though a committed outcat, Amado’s temperate Gerry Mulligan-like status often comes to the fore among extended horn techniques. On a ballad like “All the Things We Are”, for instance, at points stentorian honks give way to mellow flutter tonguing. No matter what Amado plays, Adams sticks to him, decorating many of the baritonist’s lines with eerie-sounding sopranino trills. Not that anything fazes the rhythm section.

Billowing thick cadences from the large horn bring out stout pizzicato pulses from the bassist; while ney-like keening from Adams merely cause Filiano to up the tension with swelling, shuffle-bowed lines. For his part Salero sticks to resonating drags, ruffs and flams, stroking not hitting his cymbals and snares.

“Copy This” on the other hand is built on abrasive, metallic string activity alternating with harmonica-type squeals leaking from Amado’s alto saxophone. Here Adams’ more sinuous sopranino peeps draws out Berimbau-style vibrating scrapes from the drummer and near vocalizing from Filiano’s strings.

With both saxes either in double counterpoint or improvising in broken octaves there are points where it’s difficult to assign specific sounds to either – or even the bass or drums. When the reed pitches concentrate and thicken however, it’s up to Filiano with his woody, sul tasto mode or Salero’s slapped rim shots and rolls to disconnect the pitches to move the tunes onward.

“Shipping News” offers up a finale where Filiano’s arco sweeps and strumming, double-stopping plus Salero’s speedy paradiddles give shape to the surging call-and-response reed fluttering and punctuation. All this leads to a coda of vibrating, siren-type irregularly pitched tones from both saxes, completed by a swelling, low-pitched arco continuum from Filiano. Still pumped, Amado needs to have the last word – or, more properly, note. Following one minute of silence after the concluding quartet tone is sounded, he returns for a luscious yet unpolished postlude of alto saxophone improv.

It appears as if he couldn’t let go of the session and you may not want to either.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Perpetual Explorers 2. Motion 3. All the Things We Are 4. Wrist Action 5. Copy This 6. Shipping News

Personnel: Rodrigo Amado (baritone and tenor saxophone); Steve Adams (sopranino and tenor saxophones); Ken Filiano (bass); Acácio Salero (drums)

May 30, 2005

ROVA: ORKESTROVA

An Alligator in Your Wallet
EWE

By Ken Waxman
December 27, 2004

Limited to Japanese distribution, An Alligator in Your Wallet is an important CD because it provides new evidence for what already should be regarded as truisms.

One is that the usually self-contained Bay area saxophone quartet ROVA can smoothly function as the sax section in any sized ensemble. The other is that pianist Satoko Fujii, who divides her time between Tokyo and New York, is a versatile enough composer to utilize the idiosyncrasies of these musicians in more experimental pieces than she usually writes for her own bans and combos.

A motley crew of the West Coast’s best improvisers, the 12-piece Orkestrova includes trumpeter Darren Johnston, veteran Michael Vlatkovich and Tom Yoder on trombones, violinist Carla Kihlstedt and Scott Amendola on drums and electronics. Added are Fujii, her husband and playing partner, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, Angelo-turned-Brooklynite bassist Ken Filiano, and ROVA itself. That’s Bruce Ackley on soprano and tenor saxophones, Larry Ochs on sopranino and tenor saxophones, Jon Raskin on baritone saxophone and Steve Adams -- who wrote the two pieces here not from Fujii’s pen -- on alto saxophone and bass flute

Interestingly enough, for a musician who is a member of the best-known, so-called avant-garde sax quartet, it’s Adams’ pieces that inch closest to pure swing. His “Chuck”, for instance, is a bluesy romp that at times sounds as if it’s being played by Count Basie’s horn section. The more-than-16 minute composition is borne on call-and-response riffing from the reeds as well as Fujii’s outgoing arpeggio-rich soloing until it splinters into individual solos. Backed by walking bass and syncopated drumbeats, for instance, the composer frolics, slithers and squeals when it’s his time in front of the mic.

After that, Ackley produces reed blasts that match up with Yoder’s full plunger mode output, their duet mirrored later at a wavering, slower tempo by resonant licks from Raskin paired with breezy grace notes from Johnston. Polyphonic horn expansion then gives way to a perfectly executed ‘bone display by Vlatkovich that’s simultaneously clean and funky. As the piece reaches its climax, bravura hocketing and humorous broken octaves from all the horns meld, than fade away.

“Survival (in Five Acts)” -- Adams’ other contribution -- is a touch more extended than the former tune. It showcases his sonorous bass flute that presages a symphonic melding of timbres cushioning sweet, vocalized smears and wavering broken chords from the horns. Ominous sounding in parts, the line is extended with metallic electronic-like oscillations, with the constriction burst by Ochs’ twittering altissimo tone, high-pitched string-stretching from Filiano and irregular piano pulses. As Ochs continues to double and triple tongue, Kihlstedt’s jettes turn spiccato and pantonal lines sluice back and forth. Polyphonic sax timbres slow the tune down back to an echoing bass flute solo that reshapes the theme as the finale.

Fujii’s compositions are another matter. Experienced in creating for large groups --she leads both a Japanese and an American big band -- she manages the incredible feat of crafting dual-purpose pieces. Their performance seems to showcase screaming free-for-alls that you’d expect from other Energy Music classics such as Ascension or Machine Gun, while calling on the disciplined harmonies of a drilled modern swing ensemble like Gerry Mulligan’s legendary Concert Jazz Band. Certainly the first track, “A Lion in your Bag”, has all those attributes.

Characterized by a firm tempo, reminiscent of one of Anthony Braxton’s early marching band-style pieces, the title tune places jittery, flutter tonguing from Ackley on top of a malleable bouncing vamp from the other horns. As the trombones lob rubato grace notes at one another, Amendola’s percussion texture resembles big top circus music. Whinnying, whistling trumpet lines precede reed riffs and foretell a high-pitched, brassy ending.

Most atonal of the lot is the almost 10-minute “A Zebra on Your Roof”, where percussive rolls and flams plus massed reed section vamps follow almost otherworldly electronic oscillation. As the horn parts augment in volume, other timbres turn subservient to sul ponticello sweeps from the fiddler. In opposition Adams -- on alto -- produces smeary, circular, runs, while other hornmen assert themselves through determinedly vibrated lines. Pulsating piano chording that churns beneath all the other parts, mixed with faux-romantic violin tones, together suggest a chamber music concerto. That is until slammed percussion rhythms meld and mutate the shifting theme. Putting all classical references aside, the climax finds the brass heading towards Cat Anderson-like screeching tremolo territory.

Worth seeking out, the CD confirms the multi-faceted skills as players and orchestrators of both ROVA members and Fujii herself.

December 27, 2004

HENRY KAISER/WADADA LEO SMITH/YO MILES!

Sky Garden
Cuneiform Rune 191/192

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- Ken Waxman

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

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

November 22, 2004

ALESSANDRO BOSETTI/MICHEL DONEDA/BHOB RAINEY

Placés dans l’air
Potlatch P103

ROVA
Resistance
Victo cd 086

Once thought outlandish, all saxophone bands have become so commonplace in improvised music that it takes real inventiveness to differentiate any reed collective from others. PLACÉS DANS L’AIR and RESISTANCE manage to overcome this maxim, but in entirely different ways.

Actually, the superiority of the second CD shouldn’t surprise anyone: it’s by ROVA, the Bay area-based sax quartet, which has been operating in this configuration since 1978, constantly evolving and innovating. Organized as temporarily as ROVA is long standing, the trio of soprano saxophonists on the first CD is a one/off meeting among three experimental reedists: Paris-based Michel Doneda, Milan-based Alessandro Bosetti, and Bhob Rainey from Boston. Their disc succeeds because they manage to fuse their individual low-key approaches to the horn so that it appears to take on the characteristics of one immense reed instrument.

Each comes from the silence/sounds side of the improv continuum. Rainey, for instance, is part of the nmperign duo with experimental trumpeter Greg Kelley and has also collaborated with theremin master James Coleman and fellow reedist Jack Wright. Longtime innovator Doneda has worked with soundsinger Beñat Achiary, percussionist Lê Quan Ninh and fellow saxist Daunik Lazro. Member of the multi-European improvising group Phosphor, Bosetti even spent some time in the mid-1990s in the Takla Wind Quartet.

Don’t expect any conventional blending or harmonies on this disc’s more than 41½-minute continuous performance, however. Numerous and varied pitches, tones and resonances come to the fore, but the conventional sound of a soprano saxophone isn’t among them. The one strategy that seems consistent, however, is for one musician to take what in other circumstances would be called the lead, with the other two, doing what elsewhere would be called accompaniment.

Among the techniques on show are the hiss of whistling air, reverberations that could come from blowing through a plastic pipe; trumpet-like plunger spetrofluctuation; and bubble-blowing vibrations. Often each saxophonist will create more than one line himself, so there are periods when it seems that there are nine reed sounds -- echoing sounds, overtones and undertones -- floating through the air. Although aviary chirps and duck call tones fit into the scheme, swing and animation don’t. All the improvisations are linear, but often inert, moving ahead by expelled mouth pressure, not through rhythmic movement.

There are portions where the output is so hushed that even with your playback volume cranked up to maximum, it appears as if an ear trumpet could be called into play. Other times the three saxmen combine to come up with piercing, grating, reed-biting whistles that are nearly ear splitting. These segments can be so off-putting that they can put your teeth on edge -- the approximate place where Bosetti, Doneda and Rainey’s choppers are anyways.

Add to all this a reliance on slap tonguing, growls, shrills at the tippy-top of the already elevated soprano pitch, reed kisses, vibrato-laden breaths, key-popping percussion, growling rumbles and split-second snarls that could come from a trapped feral animal and acceptance of the end result on the trio’s terms is mandatory. Yet if you put aside ideas of how reeds should sound and embrace the ugly beauty of the performance you’ll be audibly rewarded.

After more than a quarter century of inventiveness, ROVA insists that you accept the band on its terms as well. Individually, and as a group, the four has worked with everyone from trumpeter Dave Douglas and pianist/electronic composer Chris Brown, to fellow saxophonists Anthony Braxton and the late Glenn Spearman. Along the way the group has tried out many musics for size. Furthermore, as these performances from 1997 (the title track) and 2002 (the two others) attest, the Californians also often offer the listener more aural signposts than the trio on PLACÉS DANS L’AIR.

Case in point is tenor and sopranino saxophonist Larry Ochs’s “The Drift”. Referencing blues, hymns and shouts it initially couples restrained blues pattern from the sopranino with an euphonious balladic melody. Soon one of the tenor saxists -- either Ochs or Bruce Ackley -- and baritone saxist Jon Raskin steps forward for a series of swinging exchanges that bring to mind baritonist Hank Crawford and tenor man David “Fathead” Newman’s work with Ray Charles band in the early 1960s.

Riffing big band horn section allusions aside, the result is such that you can actually tap your foot to the proceedings. However before the listener gets too comfortable with the pseudo-Count Basie groove, razor sharp tones help to break up the rocking rhythm into more POMO reed separations. Soon the piece is unrolling altissimo, and off beats are added to the constant rhythm. The tenor continues with his solo, the baritone provides the ostinato underneath, and after a series of honks and trills, the tune ends with unison crescendo.

At once more abstract and more traditional, “Resistance”, a group instant composition, may include pre-recorded sax quartet samples to add to the sound picture at times. But elsewhere there’s an alto saxophone solo -- probably played by Steve Adams -- which seems to be built around standard changes, and which is surrounded by the other horns emulating the close harmonies of backup singers in a doo-wop group.

Although more concerned with pitches, tones, rests and vibrations than Bosetti, Doneda and Rainey, the quartet -- and its sampled brothers -- can combine rhythmic key- pad percussion, squealing tones, tugboat-whistle shrills and a cross section of tongue slaps to recreate gridlock traffic sounds. At the same time, as elsewhere, one member will usually take what could be called the lead -- say Raskin sustaining pedal point continuum -- the others will move in and out of the backing formation, taking turns using honks and harmony to cushion or comment on the purported front line. Sometimes the bari masticates great chunks of bottom-feeding tones and other times the soprano and sopraninos combine to produce a flock of swirling, bird-like vibrations. At intervals one saxman squeezes out an achingly pure tone as the other reeds snort, honk and expectorate.

Wadada Leo Smith’s 22-minute “the M’ad Din”, with portions inspired by graphic symbols in the Koran, coalesces all these influences, adding an additional tinge of Middle-Eastern exoticism. Introducing some elevated muezzin-like tones at the top, the composition soon finds the four moving back and forth between harmonies reminiscent of a society band’s reed section and individual lines.

Anything but discordant, a burbling baritone vibrato can be followed by a piercing sound resembling that of a Persian ney. Combined, overlapping, reed barbershop quartet harmonies realign themselves in a horizontal line, with each sax man contributing in turn. Throbbing, repeated soprano tones will be interrupted by a sprightly child-like theme, or a legato, very legit-sounding reed combination will morph into Swing band sax section riff patterns. By the end, protracted, smeared baritone sax cries meet the sopranino ney-pitched phrasing, while tonal, harmonic combinations lead to a multi-varied ending.

ROVA’s members would probably be surprised to hear their music referred to as traditional, but in comparison to Bosetti, Doneda and Rainey’s it is. What this means, though, is that there’s a choice of discs here for reed appreciating improv types -- whether they’re really adventurous or really, really adventurous.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Placés: 1. Placés dans l’air 1 2. Placés dans l’air 2 3. Placés dans l’air 3 4. Placés dans l’air 4 5. Placés dans l’air 5

Personnel: Placés: Alessandro Bosetti, Michel Doneda and Bhob Rainey (soprano saxophones); Pierre-Olivier Boulant (subjective stereophonic recording)

Track Listing: Resistance: 1. Resistance 2. The Drift 3. The M’ad Din

Personnel: Resistance: Bruce Ackley (soprano and tenor saxophones); Steve Adams (soprano and alto saxophones); Larry Ochs (sopranino and tenor saxophones); Jon Raskin (sopranino, alto and baritone saxophones)

July 21, 2003

ROVA

As Was
Atavistic Unheard Music UMS/ALP 216 CD

Founded at around the same time as the World Saxophone Quartet in the late 1970s, ROVA has always existed as a sort of the Bizarro West Coast twin to the that woodwind ensemble.

Yet today, when all-saxophone groupings are as commonplace as self-important pronouncements from Wynton Marsalis, listening to this 1981 disc shows exactly how ROVA defined itself and has since managed to evolve. Open to influences as varied as 20th Century classical music, avant garde jazz and rock music, ROVA often produced a devil may care cacophony that was as consistent as it was exhilarating.

As the WSQ became more and more "jazzy" in the 1980s, recording an album of Duke Ellington tunes and gaining the ultimate accolade of being included in the updated Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz, ROVA maintained its singular path.

You can hear it on this CD, which chronologically, was its sixth session. "Under the Street Where You Live", a completely improvised piece dedicated to Albert Ayler, is supposed to be a vehicle for Ochs on tenor saxophone. But the baritone saxophone ostinato and the soprano saxophone filigree decorations are such that when the tenor man gets into dog whistle territory, the other reeds are there to propel the tune forward.

Then there's the almost 19 and one half minutes of "Paint Another Take of the Shootpop". Honoring both French composer Oliver Messiaen and soul shouter Otis Redding, it's a mixture of composed and improvised sections, referencing Dixieland polyphony and Gaelic naturalistic mysticism, with parts for nearly every one of the quartet's doubles and triples. Note this composition was put together years before the likes of Don Byron and John Zorn routinely offered up similar morsels of pomo commingling.

Midway through the tune, Raskin explodes with such roughhouse baritone sax lines that molten lava seems to spurt from the instrument's bell. Then the piece divides with the baritone and tenor sticking to the bottom and the soprano and alto on top, with the horn aurally somersaulting one over another.

Finally, despite its Beatlesque dedication -- "for Mr. Kite" -- "Daredevils" actually opens with what sounds like a baroque fanfare. Wisely reprogrammed on the reissue to the beginning from the end of the disc, it now serves as an aperitif to what will be served afterwards. This likely through-composed number depends on the four horns hiding and seeking one another out with melodies and countermelodies. Artfully blended throughout, it on a sustained unison grace note.

In the 20 years since AS WAS was recorded, ROVA has maintains its high standards and exploratory ways. The only shift in personnel has seen another multi-reedist Steve Adams stepping in for Andrew Voight in 1988. Anyone interested in the band -- or merely the joy of sax -- would be well advised to investigate this session.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Daredevils 2. Quill 3. Escape From Zero Village 4. Under the Street Where You Live 5. Paint Another Take of the Shootpop

Personnel: Jon Raskin (soprano, alto and baritone saxophones, clarinet); Larry Ochs (sopranino, alto and tenor saxophones); Andrew Voigt (sopranino, soprano and alto saxophones, flute); Bruce Ackley (soprano saxophone, clarinet)

March 19, 2000