KLOBAS/STORRS/HUNDEMER

An Hour of Now
Louie Records 031

SUSIE IBARRA & MARK DRESSER
Tone Time
Wobbly Rail WB014

Hearing double bass and percussion as more than just the components of a rhythm section is something for which most listeners -- and quite a few musicians -- never develop a comfort level. Yet these two uncommon, yet flawed, CDs show that it can be done.

After years of improvisational progress on many instruments in all sort of combinations, why should the naked bass and drums --or in one of the cases here bass and two drums -- upset so many? In the hands of the right musicians, five of whom are represented on these CDs, there’s enough harmony, polyphony and tonality exhibited to balance the instruments’ commonplace rhythmic function.

Of course AN HOUR OF NOW cheats a little bit. While Oregon-based Mike Klobas and Dave Storrs more-or-less stick to non-electrified drums and percussion, Page Hundemer uses his electric bass and sequencers to suggest guitar and organ tones throughout. In contrast, New York downtowners bassist Mark Dresser and drummer and percussionist Susie Ibarra don’t deviate from the acoustic on the aptly named TONE TIME.

Both discs have much to offer, but both fall victim to the same caprice: an excess of tracks -- 13 on the trio disc, 15 on the duo session -- with too many of the tunes short or medium length. Most of the memorable performances are the most drawn-out ones, which give everyone involved enough space to fully develop ideas.

On the Northwestern session, for instance only “First Now” plus its coda “Got”, as well as the shade over the nine minute “Distorted.org”, really get enough room to grow. On the first, the deliberate bass line helps Klobas and Storrs, who first played together in 1977, create an magnified swinging beat that makes the three sound like a boppy version of Australia’s trance-jazz trio, the Necks. This line is extended when Storrs adds some electronically mutated scat vocalizing to the mix. Hundemer thumps out a steady pulse, while the dual drummers showcase rolls, flams, nerve beats and other kit expansions, ending by bapping away at cowbells, gongs and cymbals for further color. Going right into “Got”, which serves as the preceding tune’s coda, the production ends with distorted wah-wah reverb from the bassman, ratamacues and rebounds from the percussionists, along with sounds emanating from what could be a wooden marimba and a hanging bell tree.

Still, with its sequenced organ tones and buzzing whistles that sound as if they have migrated over from the Small Faces’ “Itchycoo Park”, it takes a gentle swinging snare drum pulse and some rim shots to establish the tune in an improv mode. But it seems to leach from a variation of jazz to rock during its more than nine minute running time. Although there is some powerful Africanized drum work on show, the ostinato bass line is often distorted by what could be a lead guitar part -- from the sequencers? -- organ runs -- ditto -- and wavering sine wave tones.

Then there’s “In Spite of Self”, with a lighter, looser tone than many of the other pieces. Unconsciously or not suggesting a Latin tumbao, with a sequencer line approximating a flute lead and one of the percussionists sounding as if he’s playing timbales, this could be a Herbie Mann riff from the mid-1960s. However, it does end with a bouncy keyboard-led freeboppy line.

As for the rest of the disc, the three players prove their expertise in many improv, jazz, and rhythm-based styles, using everything at hand from thumb pops to amp distortions. Too often, however, space is lacking to strengthen licks and vamps into something more. Maybe these few drawbacks will be overcome next time out.

Dresser and Ibarra too suffer from this insistence on condensation, especially in the later half of their disc. When they don’t let themselves get too po-faced, the two are best when the drummer concentrates on sounding percussion paraphernalia as the bassist unveils his formidable technique.

“The Weaver”, for instance, finds Ibarra rolling out mallet-driven cymbal, snare and tom-tom rhythms, as Dresser’s POMO response involves duetting with himself -- plucking some parts and bowing others. Ibarra then begins swabbing out odd tones on the drum top then turns to flams as the bassman introduces higher, guitar-like flat-picking tones in tandem with bass line strokes on his lower strings.

Rubbing her drum tops with what seems to be a cloth is one strategy adopted by Ibarra on “Metatone”, that is, after she has begun the piece sounding a set of unselected and unattached cymbals, extending the tones with bell ringing and tiny mallet hits. Meanwhile Dresser’s hearty arco lifts move slowly downward as he strokes the bottom strings with his bow.

Apart from his tough Mingusian thumps, showcased when he finds it necessary, Dresser can also let loose with a strong rhythmic pulse -- as can Ibarra. On the appropriately named title track, the two define a finger-snapper, with a heavy blues-based thwack from the bassist and kettle drum-like steady beats from the percussionist. “Jump” has a foot-tapping Bo Diddley-like beat, with Ibarra using rim shots to emphasize the time. With concurrent strokes Dresser slides up the neck for note variations, as she changes tempo to decorate the beat.

Contrast this to “Surrealm”, which begins with almost dead silence until a

cymbal resonation introduces bowed bass frottage. As Dresser moves the tune forward, Ibarra bends notes from a bell tree and selected cymbals. This shaking is met with strongman’s yanks and quasi-flat picking from the bassist, until her loosened up time-feel, become almost transparent and shimmers away.

Bass’n’drums fanciers of any genre will find much of interest on these two discs. Fewer, longer tracks and more focus could have worked better for the rest of us, though.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Hour: 1.Under It 2. First Now 3. Got 4. Distorted.org 5. Morphed Out of My Mind 6. Hora Hey 7. Swungd 8. It Already Has 9. Yah Yah 10. In Spite of Self 11. Forward Going 12. Twa Wa (Tuna Awe) 13. Second Now

Personnel: Hour: Page Hundemer (electric bass and sequences); Mike Klobas (drums and percussion); Dave Storrs (drums, percussion and vocals)

Track Listing: Tone: 1. Protone 2. Jump 3. Metatone 4. Simmer 5. The Subterrain 6. The Weaver 7. Untold 8. Tone Time 9. Surrealm 10. Slipinstyle 11. Sphere A 12. Sphere B 13. Sphere C 14. Sphere D 15. Epitone

Personnel: Tone: Mark Dresser (bass); Susie Ibarra (drums and percussion)

March 15, 2004

THE TONE SHARKS

Intention
Louie 029

SS PUFT
Seems Sometimes People Undergo Full Transformation
Solponticello SP 008

Wishing won’t make it so, is the homey maxim that the members of SS Puft may consider hanging on the wall of their practice space(s). For while the young Athens, Ga. band may consider what it creates as innovative avant chamber music, the end product sounds more like an uneven amalgam of jazzy ProgRock mixed with New Age conceits.

Expert free music results from more than merely allowing yourself and your friends to play as you feel, without considering how you fit within the jazz/improv continuum. That’s what separates the Puffs from the Tone Sharks of Portland, Ore. Although more overly mainstream, the Sharks not only have played together for a while, but also appear to have thought long and hard about how to define themselves in terms of other sounds and aggregations.

Centred in their community, which is musically best known for having produced the rock band R.E.M., each Puft seems to have a variety of other local projects on the go, whether it’s playing with bands in other genres, studying improvised music or (shudder) teaching jazz and theory. Right now the band’s most unique feature is the H’arpeggione of Erik Hinds. An 18-string, fretted cello/guitar hybrid named for the Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle and the Baroque Arpeggione, this guitar-shaped instrument has six main strings tuned in fifths and 12 sympathetic strings that can play quarter tones. It takes the place of a guitar or bass on the eight selections here.

Novelty is one thing, but unlike say, Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s use of the equally unique manzello and stritch, the H’arpeggione doesn’t seem to add many tones that couldn’t have easily come from standard stringed instruments. In fact, when all 24 strings in the band combine on some tunes, the results at times resemble those produced by a dulcimer in folksy New Age settings, or the sort of Westernized sitar playing popular in psychedelic raga-rock.

Then again, that sound may be more palatable than what’s exhibited on other tracks. On these the most prominent sounds come from drummer Blake Helton, who describes himself as a ProgRock aficionado, but who resembles someone who has just worked his way out of the Buddy Rich fake books to a modified Bill Bruford style; and trumpeter Jeff Crouch, who is studying with Wadada Leo Smith, but who proffers an adenoidal tone that appears to move between suggestions of Clifford Brown and the Tijuana Brass. Add some swirling, long-lined vamps from guitarist Colin Bragg and Hinds and a foot-tapping, but often overpowering beat and you may be reminded of discs by the rock-jazz fusion band the Dixie Dregs, that hailed from Georgia as well.

One hates to be excessively negative, however. It could be said that the music making on this disc is actually superior that on the band’s debut CD, LIVE AT EARTHSHAKING MUSIC (Solponticello SP 001-2). There, the excitement of working with Chicago alto saxophonist Dave Rempis, a member of the Vandermark 5, compounded the group’s already apparent weaknesses. Those tunes are stretched over two self-indulgent CDs’ lengths rather than the compact (sic) almost 65 minutes here.

SS Puft’s musical situation may soon improve even more. The band members are starting to play with visiting improv musicians and outside of their own bailiwick. Hopefully brushing up against advanced thinkers and stylists from elsewhere will change their music for the better. After all, the Beatles were one of the few bands made up completely of hometown players who succeeded. And even that foursome changed its drummer at one point.

If one of the adjective that comes to mind when describing SS Puft is “heavy”, then it’s “light” which best sums up the Tone Sharks’ appeal. That’s not light as in lightweight, but light as in nimble and airy. These 11 instant compositions with ichthyological titles don’t promise more than they deliver. But without trumpeting far-outness, the delivery is nearly faultless. With Portland almost as far out of the improv loop as Athens, the band members keep busy in a variety of local bands, many of which record on the Louie label.

Just as Puft’s Hinds runs the Solponticello label, the Shark Tones’ unpresuming drummer Dave Storrs is behind Louie and its affiliated recording studio. Storrs has also worked with everyone from local sax hero Rich Halley to Italian multi-woodwindist Carlos Actis Dato. Alto saxophonist Tom Bergeron is a professor at Western Oregon University and a member of Whirled Jazz with the drummer, while bassist Page Hundemer, a graduate of Boston’s Berklee College, also has many Louie sessions under his belt -- or is that beneath his fingers? Most of the time here, by the way, it sounds like Hundemer is playing an electric bass rather than an acoustic one, but he doesn’t knock anyone over with Jaco Pastorius runs. Finally, guitarist Tom McNalley is new to the Sharks. But his agile Jim Hall-like facility combines fittingly on several tuns with Bergeron’s tone, that this time out seems to suggest unruffled soloists like Paul Desmond or Bud Shank in their younger days.

Probably the most impressive example of the band’s kinship comes on the penultimate tune, “Unchallenged”, whose title could sum up the improvisation here. Beginning with Storrs performing what sounds like a sand dance on his drumheads, this is followed by the bassist’s unvarying line, straight guitar chording and a simple theme exposition from Bergeron. With its strong groove and sequential entry of the players it suggest a hip jazz version of King Curtis’ old “Memphis Soul Stew” hit. As Storrs emphasizes the beat with his woodblock, McNalley expresses himself with light finger- taps on his strings. And before the saxman’s double-tongued excursion ends, it almost appears as if the guitarist is playing two axes at once.

More overtly experimental, on “Buoyancy” you can hear the guitarist’s fingers sliding up his strings and being matched with a subtle, shimmering rustle from what sounds like Storrs manipulating a berimbau. Later, exhibiting a clear cymbal sound and some gentle rim shots, the drummer mixes it up with the altoist, who appears to wheezing out stifled baby cries. Meanwhile the bassist’s moving bass line defines the rhythm.

Although there are points, as on “Falling Morsels” where it literally appears as if the band is trying to decide exactly how to approach the improvisation just as the tapes -- or is it DAT machine now? -- are turned on, most everything on that tune and elsewhere eventually slides almost effortlessly into place. Whether Bergeron, for instance, is playing legato or triple tonguing, and whether Storrs is introducing a simple ruff or a more complicated construction, each man instinctively seems to know just what to play -- and how long to let solos runs. The band members can even handle swinging improvisations in waltz time without making a big thing of it.

Skill and experience go into making this all sound easy and the Sharks’ conception is something that could be studied with benefit by SS Puft. While the Tone Sharks aren’t really breaking any new ground -- is there such a thing as middle of the road experimental music? -- the band has unequivocally produced a pleasant, professional and memorable disc.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Intention: 1. First Intention 2. The School 3. Buoyancy 4. Bubbling Up 5. Flittering Sunfish 6.Lurking 7. Swimming Noses 8. Skates 9. Falling Morsels 10, Unchallenged 11. On Out

Personnel: Intention: Tom Bergeron (alto saxophone); Tom McNalley (guitar); Page Hundemer (bass); Dave Storrs (drums)

Track Listing: Puft: 1.Reunion 2. Just After 5 3. Just Suppose, Juxtapose 4. Blury 5. Put Your Grace in Your Pocket 6. World Waltz 7. Languish No Longer 8. Trance … Language

Personnel: Puft: Jeff Crouch (trumpet); Mike Hough (alto saxophone); Colin Bragg (guitar); Erik Hinds (H’arpeggione); Blake Helton (drums)

February 3, 2003

WHIRLED JAZZ

Mukilteo
Louie Records 020

Negating the old adage that those that can do, those that can’t teach, a couple of Oregon university professors have created this fully professional session, which is as straightforward as it is unpretentious.

Containing elements of post bop, outside sounds and West Coast cool, Whirled Jazz seems to comfortably fit all three elements into its conception. A lot more than an after-school indulgence, Whirled Jazz could easily hold its on anywhere in the Pacific area, but, of course, can’t be compared to full-time, exploratory groups that exist in larger centres like the Bay area and Vancouver, B.C.

Member of the popular, local Tone Sharks band, alto saxophonist and flutist

Tom Bergeron, who also wrote all the music here, has a day job as professor at Western Oregon University (WOU). Also a teacher at WOU, trombonist Keller Coker is even a University of Southern California jazz studies graduate, though that shouldn’t be held against him. Bassist Page Hundemer went to Boston’s Berklee College and has played on most CDs on the Louie label, which happens to be owned by discriminating drummer Dave Storrs, another Tone Shark.

As light and biting as saltwater spray, the music here gets much of its impetus from the trombone-alto saxophone blend. Many times, as on “Pacific Crest” and “Tadasana” --the two longest tracks -- the front liners appear to harmonize on similar notes, octaves apart of course. Here, as elsewhere Bergeron’s tone seems to be 2½ parts Cannonball Adderley, 1½ parts Phil Woods plus a tincture of Ornette Coleman. Flute flights are less impressive since on his one feature, “Radiance”, he doesn’t seem able to transform the almost weightless, practically legit tone he produces. Plus the trombone flute blends sounds awkward, sort of like a tuna mating with a minnow.

Bergeron’s writing is particularly impressive throughout, however, lightly --there’s that word again -- swinging, and with several pieces switching from a striding to a speeding tempo mid way through.

Lithe, smooth and speedy as if he’s playing a valve instrument, Coker never seems to lose his cool. This is especially apparent on “Tadasana”, where a plunger section suggests clean Pacific water a lot more than the dirty Mississippi river. This tendency is even more apparent on “Frunkin’”, which while well played would never be confused with any tune that arose out of the Chitlin’ Circuit.

Thoroughly modern, Hundemar produces an in-your-face bass line that can easily be heard through the other instruments’ work, though whether that’s the result of his fingers or Storrs’s engineering is another question. Often called upon to introduce the compositions, sometimes he strums his bull fiddle like a guitar. Still he realizes that it’s his job to accompany the soloists, not overpower them with macho Jaco Pastorious-like posturing. Perspicacious and unassuming, Storrs hugs the background as well, usually coloring the proceedings with some buoyant percussion asides rather than full-bore drum artillery.

While MUKILTEO is no world-beater, it’s a pleasant enough romp that will probably be appreciated by many people. More importantly it shows that at least where music is concerned, those who teach, can.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Mukilteo 2. Huan-San 3. Pacific Crest 4. Tadasana 5. Frunkin’ 6. Radiance

Personnel: Keller Coker (trombone); Tom Bergeron (alto saxophone and flute); Page Hundemer (bass); Dave Storrs (drums)

April 12, 2002