Variations on a Theme

Guelph Jazz Festival Musicians On Their Own
Extended Play

Barry Guy/Mats Gustafsson/Raymond Strid

Tarfala

Maya MCD0801

Junk Box

Cloudy Then Sunny

Libra Records 203-019

John Zorn

News For Lulu

hatOLOGY 650

Matana Roberts

The Chicago Project

Central Control CC1006PR

Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet

Tabligh

Cuneiform Rune 270

AMMÜ Quartet

AMMÜ Quartet

PAO 50030

Healthy in its adolescence, the Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF) has become Ontario’s pre-eminent festival for improvised music. Now in its 15th year, the GJF presents improvisers in concerts, workshop and symposia. An appealing factor for listeners is that GJF concerts highlight only one of the versatile musicians’ many activities. Recent CDs capture other aspects.

Take British bassist Barry Guy, at Guelph with violinist Maya Homburger and bass clarinetist Jeff Reilly. Except for Guy’s string prestidigitation, that chamber-improv is nearly the opposite of the go-for-broke Energy Music on Barry Guy/Mats Gustafsson/Raymond Strid, Tarfala Maya MCD0801. Two high-octane Swedish players, saxophonist Gustafsson and percussionist Raymond Strid complete the band.

Spewing accentuated timbres, Gustafsson’s cries and snorts demand muscular retorts from the bassist. On the title track Guy uses guitar-like arpeggios to match the saxophonist’s echoing split tones, wrapping the friction of individual string pressure into a contrapuntal response. Strid’s rim shots and rattling snares provide the rhythmic glue. Eventually Guy’s harsh twanging plus abrasive sawing at strings near the scroll move the saxophonist’s smears, flattement and flutter-tonguing into contrapuntal counterpoint.

Chromatic bass thumps and conga-like pops from the percussionist push Gustaffson’s extended glossolalia from discursive to convergent on “Icefall”. Guy’s ostinato underpinning and Strid’s pats and pumps neutralize Gustafsson’s honks and tongue slaps into a diminuendo conclusion.

Resolving the clash between rough and gentle voicing, staccato and legato pitches also characterize Junk Box’s Cloudy Then Sunny Libra Records 203-019. Two members of the trio, Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura play the GJF. A composer-arranger, Fujii explores new territory on this CD, using graphic notation to spur the improvisations. Junk Box’s third member is American drummer John Hollenbeck, capable of rhythmic interaction ranging from rattles and pumps from tam-tams and marimba to full military press rolls and bass drum thwacks.

On “One Equation”, Tamura uses split tones and triplets to create a call-and-response section all by himself, as Fujii plays the tremolo melody in tandem. “Opera by Rats” emphasizes piano pedal action as the theme shifts from Bop to Stride, while the trumpet brays and Hollenbeck snaps cymbals and pops snares. This popping serves as a coda to “Back and Forth”, which also describes the trio’s tonal connection. Tamura’s timbre is French horn-like as he echoes Fujii’s phrases, and the track concludes with cascading piano chords draping themselves over the others’ note clusters.

There a similar interchange among alto saxophonist John Zorn, trombonist George Lewis and guitarist Bill Frisell on News For Lulu hatOLOGY 650. This 1987 reissue is different, yet somewhat similar to the three sets of Radical Jewish Culture Zorn is presenting at GJF this year. Rather then re-interpreting and re-conceptualizing Jewish melodies, Lulu does the same for Hard-Bop classics. Yet as devotional or freylach-like ditties are transformed with percussion, electronics and electric guitars by Zorn at GJF, this CD performs a similar conversion as raucous blowing vehicles become recital-ready.

Both the guitarist and trombonist – who have performed at Guelph – are responsive enough to keep things moving, despite the lack of a rhythm section. Surprisingly, it’s often Lewis’ gutbucket braying which holds the pieces together from the bottom. “Venita’s Dance”, has the trombonist comping as the guitarist loops licks that turn to single-note filigree. Later Zorn steadily peeps and Lewis chromatically exposes the head. “Funk in Deep Freeze” isn’t funky, but instead finds Frisell distorting country-styled licks, Lewis roughening his tone and Zorn’s alto texture slinky and airy.

“Sonny’s Crib” plays up gospel inflections with the two horns passing on the theme like relay runners. Zorn double times, Lewis plays rubato variations and Frisell picks out blues tonality until the introduction is recapped by the altoist. “Melody for C” with conclusive organ-like reverb from Frisell, provides an opportunity for three-part harmony, with the trio’s improvisations divided into fuzzy multiphonics.

Matana Roberts also twists the jazz tradition, but less radically. The alto saxophonist, who brings her Coin Coin Continuum to the GJF, celebrates her own home town on The Chicago Project Central Control CC1006PR. Other Chicagoans contribute: drummer Frank Rosaly, bassist Josh Abrams, guitarist Jeff Parker – whose band Tortoise is at Guelph this year – and veteran tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson. In 2002 Anderson, played an incendiary GJF set with Kidd Jordan. Saxophonist Jordan (see Whole Note Vol. 13 #9) plays Guelph again this year.

In the same league as the Jordan-Anderson meeting, Roberts a capella duet with Anderson features swirling staccato lines intersecting contrapuntally – finally reaching rapprochement. On “Nomra”, she and Parker prove that free improvising can be low-key and supple, highlighting resonating guitar licks and tasteful saxophone arpeggios. Tunes are tougher elsewhere. “Exchange”, built on a walking bass line and the drummer’s repeated flams showcases Parker’s distorted flanges and bottleneck-sharp runs that contrast with Roberts’ fruity tone and slide-slipping vibrato. “Thrills” is a POMO blues with the saxophonist rooster-crowing and double-tonguing, Parker snapping delayed echo and Rosaly smacking the backbeat.

Pianist Vijay Iyer produced The Chicago Project and he’s at GJF 2008 with DJ Spooky. But it’s electric piano and synthesizer he brings to trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet CD Tabligh Cuneiform Rune 270. Drummer Shannon Jackson and bassist John Lindberg are equally “Golden”.

Atmospherically referencing Fusion, but with simplistic beats leeched out, the disc’s color comes from Iyer’s Fender Rhodes pulsations. Strumming cadenzas backed with swaggering synthesizer drones, Iyer lets Jackson’s solid ruffs and Lindberg’s four-square rhythm anchor the compositions. On top of this ever-shifting bottom, Smith arches long-lined slurs and unhurried grace notes. Replicating a bugler’s tattoo, on “Rosa Parks”, or a bellicose call-to-arms on “DeJohnette”, the trumpet’s lines encompass high-pitched brassy trills and sputtering Bronx cheers. Extended essays in improvisations, Tabligh’s tunes bond fragmented brass slurs, cross-handed rim shots, kinetic piano cadences and string scratches into throbbing instant compositions.

Instant composition describes the music of Holland’s Instant Composers Pool (ICP), in residence at the GJF this year. But the creative ferment generated by the band is equally expressed when ICP band members work in smaller groupings. One is AMMÜ Quartet’s AMMÜ Quartet PAO 50030. Raucous drummer Han Bennink – with the band for 35 years – and unflappable violinist Mary Oliver – a 10-year ICP veteran – join forces with Munich-based cellist Johanna Varner and trombonist Christopher Varner. The Varners produce the sort of timbres Oliver and Bennink hear in the ICP from trombonist Wolter Wierbos and cellist Tristan Honsinger.

Never one to play presto when he can play staccatissimo, or pianissimo when fortissimo can be sounded, Bennink continually clinks, clanks, bangs, whacks and thwacks. So it’s instructive to hear his duets with the trombonist. Varner ejaculates speedy, emphasized brays, moving from vocalized syllables to tongue stops and alp-horn-like flutters. Amazingly this results in textures that fit hand-in-glove – or mute-in-bell –with the drummer’s bomb-dropping bangs and cymbal crashes. On their duet Oliver squeaks and spatters sul ponticello as the cellist responds with strums and shuffle bowing.

This comfortable creativity amplifies when the four play together. On “Improvisation II”, the trombone’s contrapuntal buzzes and the violin’s spiccato runs chase one another as the cellist double-stops and Bennink jabs and rebounds. As the strings distort into double counterpoint, the trombonist puts aside distended subterranean timbres for dog-whistle shrilling. Other times the drummer’s kettle-drum-like resonation faces legato coloration from the cello; alternately, wide, chromatic notes from the trombonist complement string-stropping from Oliver. Stop-time and polytonality characterize “Ammü”, although pitch clusters from the strings and horn can’t overcome Bennink’s frenetic time-keeping.

GJF audiences, exhilarated by what they hear live can be equally impressed by these CDs.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #2

October 8, 2008

Guelph Jazz Festival:

Improv On The Move
for CODA

Taking the concept of free-flowing improvisation a step further, one morning at this year’s Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF), 15 musicians performed simultaneously in four different whitewashed rooms of the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre.

The workshop developed this way, according to Ajay Heble, GJF artistic director, because so many musicians wanted to participate. Some – American alto saxophonist Marshall Allan, British pianist Veryan Weston, Québécois guitarist René Lussier and American banjoist Eugene Chadbourne – rooted on a spot and collaborated with whoever came along. Others moved from place to place and up and down the staircase as they played.

Trumpeter Gordon Allen from Montreal added fanfares to understated percussive taps from Guelph drummer Jesse Stewart in the main space and later combined with Lussier for showier work in an upstairs room. New York-based alto saxophonist Matana Roberts, wearing a dress festooned with razor blades and safety pins, and tenor saxophonist Jason Robinson from San Diego acted like traveling minstrels. At one point the two and altoist Allen blended for spicy multiphonic runs. At another, Roberts played a feathery obbligato behind a simple blues Chadbourne was chording.

Toronto bassist Rob Clutton constantly schlepped his ungainly instrument. In one space he sympathetically backed Chadbourne’s avant-folk, before that he combined in a staircase duet with Halifax clarinetist Paul Cram. Interesting juxtapositions occurred as faint sonic timbres bled into the textures produced by the visible performers.

At Sticks & Stones’ afternoon gig, Roberts, wearing face paint and a flowing gown, proved herself equally facile on clarinet and saxophone. With drummer Chad Taylor’s polyrhythms and bassist Josh Abrams’ powerful plucking as anchors, her solos encompassed wide vibratos as well as piercing note pecks.

Sharing the bill, Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii’s quartet worked from more of a composerly base. The keyboardist’s contrapuntal styling was seconded by the understated inventiveness of percussionist Jim Black and thick col legno swoops and windmill motions of bassist Mark Dresser, so the energy level built throughout. When Fujii reached inside the piano to liberate quivering pulsations, the drummer sawed on his cymbals for daxophone-like squeals.

In a set that echoed Fujii’s recorded work with Japanese noise rockers, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura spun out muted staccato lines, reminiscent of 1970s Miles Davis. That sound served as a sub-motif for the Festival. It was echoed in interludes from drummer/trumpeter Arve Henriksen, whose Norwegian band Supersilent, late at night brought synthesizer and computer-processed noises to an enclosed downtown mall with post-rock soundscapes that promised more than they delivered.

Quicksilver grace notes were showcased more impressively by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in the all-star Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) ensemble that opened the showcase concert in the soft-seated River Run Centre. Smith’s sprints and spits made common cause with the bassoon, flute, didjerido, shaker and miscellaneous “little instruments” of Douglas Ewart, Hamid Drake’s percussion and Jeff Parker’s guitar. A last-minute addition Parker’s twangy fills never really jelled with the others’ work. Episodic rather than cohesive, the best audience response came with Ewart’s anti-George Bush recitation.

Headliners, The Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEC) fared much better, hitting a groove with its opening number and keeping the time steady, no matter what detours into hokum, faux primitivism, blues, post-bop dissonance or pseudo-swing were evident. Based around the durable bass work of Jaribu Shahid and the solid beat of percussionist Famoudu Don Moye, this underpinning allowed the front line its freedom.

Playing trumpet and flugelhorn singly or together Corey Wilkes, combined fiery execution with sophisticated note placement. His musical personality was strong enough to hold his own with Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, who between them play most members of the reed and flute families. Theatrical in his face paint and ceremonial robes, Jarman frequently honked two saxes simultaneously and interspaced his solos – one of which he played on his back like a 1950s R&B saxophonist – with shouts and a shuffling dance. Resplendent in a well-cut business suit, Mitchell belied his appearance with fierce polyphonic reed responses to Jarman’s japes and notable solos on both saxophones and piccolo. Mitchell’s parody blues, “Big Red Peaches” was the show’s finger-snapping climax, with Wilkes playing Cootie Williams-like plunger tones and the AEC confirming its commitment to all forms of improv from the simplest to the most complex.

The AEC concert was the capper to the GJF’s celebration of the AACM’s 40th anniversary as well as five days of impressive music. The concurrent improvised music colloquium provides an academic cachet lacking in other festivals. Internationalism was represented by Israeli pianist Yitzhak Yedid and the European musicians, while a group of Quebec’s Musique Actuelle heavy hitters such as saxophonist Jean Derome and bassist Pierre Cartier celebrated another concentrated scene in shows throughout the fest.

More pop-oriented performers were presented in the licensed tent in front of city hall, so the casual as well as the committed could sample the music. Furthermore, with workshops, free and open to the public, the uncommitted could discover a showcase like Montreal clarinetist Lori Freedman’s intense solo concert that used the room’s acoustics as well as extended techniques,

Solidly established at 12, with attendance growing, international jazz fans follow the GJF’s progress as it heads into its teen years.

--Ken Waxman

November 15, 2005

NICOLE MITCHELL BLACK EARTH ENSEMBLE

Hope, Future and Destiny
Dreamtime Dream 007

SAVOIR FAIRE
Running Out Of Time
Delmark DE 562

Newer voices from Chicago’s ever-evolving Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), flutist/vocalist Nicole Mitchell and violinist Savoir Faire are starting to make names for themselves in the Windy City and elsewhere.

Fourth generation of players who have adopted the progressive concepts of the now 40-year-old AACM, Mitchell and Faire – real name Samuel Williams – have modified certain distinct aspects of the AACM. Neither appears to be much interested in out-and-out sound experiments which characterized the work of early AACMers like Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell. Instead Nicole Mitchell’s 14-piece ensemble adapts wholeheartedly the ritualistic, Africanized performance ethos that is another AACM staple; six of the tunes include vocals or recitations. Meanwhile, not unlike many younger generation AACMers, Faire and his quintet seem unswerving in a commitment to swing and rhythm. Only one of his compositions is even vaguely atonal and four include modified programming by the single-named Anti.

Mitchell, not surprisingly, has had longer to articulate her vision. A collaborator with more established players such as reedist Edward Wilkerson and drummer Hamid Drake, HOPE, FUTURE AND DESTINY is her third CD with the Black Earth Ensemble (BEE). Meanwhile RUNNING OUT OF TIME is the solo debut for the classically trained Faire, who is also a member of the BEE.

Faire’s mellow rhythmic swing may remind some of fiddler Stuff Smith, but he’s actually closer to the lesser-known Eddie South (1906–1962), a Chicago-based violinist who was classically trained as well. This CD rings with earnest improvisations that are modern enough, but wouldn’t have frightened patrons attending South’s gigs at Chi-Town’s classier jazz joints in the 1940s and 1950s.

Pianist Ben Paterson is as melodic and understated as Wynton Kelley – when he doesn’t lapse into Ramsey Lewisish voicings, though. Corey Radford’s drumming rarely strays from the backbeat. Bassists Kurt Schweiz and Kyle Hernandez both provide solid pulses, and guitarist Bill Mackay could be Tiny Grimes in his rhythmic functions and any number of progressive boppers when he solos.

His best work comes on “Pendulum”, where degrees of reverb and swirling, Arabic-sounding cross-picking give the impression of extra guitar tones. That is until he breaks free mid-way through for a jagged solo. This action brings out similar deep-pitched licks from Schweiz, which follow lush fills from Faire’s fiddle. The violinist’s full frontal classical showcase is the almost baroque sounding “Aspen’s Woes”, where an unaccompanied solo is characterized by plenty of dramatic vibrato and line-switching arpeggios so that it sounds elegiac.

Other tunes have Mackay suggesting churning Barney Kessel-like rhythmic lines or Jimmy Raney-associated counterpoint. Hernandez’ ostinato does for “Room for More” what the other bassist’s licks do for other pieces, yet sliding into a faster tempo as he does that seems to present no letdown in the rhythm.

All and all, the band’s most impressive showpiece is “Suzal”. One of the few tunes that actually moves past standard jazz licks, it features extended portamento sweeps from Faire, humming guitar flanging from Mackay and an organ-like loop from Anti. As the violinist double stops squeaky trills, the guitarist distorts his output with rock-like interface, playing flashy Al DiMeola to Faire’s jabbing Jean-Luc Ponty. Working to a climax of shifting tone rows from Mackay and squeezed upper partials from Faire, behind this, wavering electric keyboard suggestions provide the body.

Bravura in his playing and composing – he wrote all 10 tracks here – Faire still seems inhibited when it comes to moving away from standard forms. Perhaps he’ll screw up his courage next time out.

Someone who has no problem articulating her message on the other hand, is Mitchell, who on HOPE, FUTURE AND DESTINY finds perfect sideman slots for Faire in sections of the 13 tunes she wrote for this CD. Not that the disc is perfect either. There are points, especially on the tunes with vocals, when trying to articulate a positive future while itemizing the ceremonial traditions of the past turns some tunes into near parodies of 1960s’ hippyism. At one point the phrase “Age of Aquarius” is heard.

Luckily, Mitchell’s grasp of jazz traditions and hard-headed feminism mostly overcomes these naïve sentiments. Taken as a whole the music on the CD is both more primitive and more futuristic than what’s offered on RUNNING OUT OF TIME.

For example, a tune like “The Healing Ritual” is propelled by gospellish female vocal harmony with onomatopoeia-like suggestions of rain showers and running water. Conversely, “Curbside Fantasee” (sic) boasts a harder, dissonant interface with horn interjections, walking bass from Josh Abrams, clunky rhythm guitar licks from Tim “Cream” Jones, and a hollow-sounding backbeat reminiscent of both R&B and West Africa. Trumpeter Corey Wilkes, now part of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, contributes some spectacular triplets and young trombonist Tony Herrera unleashes a plunger exposition. As the beat gets funkier, Mitchell coarsens her ebullient flute tone, making it harsher and more fluid, which allows it to sail on top of the horn vamps.

Contrapuntal kora and balophone-like textures arise from the guitarist and percussionist Art “Turk” Burton in other spots. Elsewhere, glissandi from Faire and cellist Tomeka Reid blend with legato bass clarinet from David Boykin and the leader’s flute for a sonata-like creation. At another juncture, hocketing paradiddles from drummer Arveeayl Ra plus Brian Nichols’ ringing glockenspiel timbres push Reed and Faire into some dual string friction, with that subsequent sul ponticello intersection making common cause with shaking percussion from Edie Armstrong and bell resonation from Baron.

It’s also probably Baron who creates an imitation tap dance behind the poly-harmonic children’s song “For Daughters of Young Love” sung by a female vocal chorus contrapuntally intersecting each others’ voices as they sing.

Most memorable of all are the interconnected “Skating” and “Wanna Make You Smile”, which bring forward a plethora of musical inflections. Starting off like a modernized, riffing Basie band, helped along by Nichols’ piano lines, guttural sliding from Herrera and appropriate Eddie South-like swing from Faire, the riffing theme reappears at intervals around Mitchell’s Frank Wess-like solo and some double-stopped resonance form Abrams. Harmonically sophisticated, “Skating” still has room for bluesy B.B. King-style guitar licks and some straightforward bounces, ruffs and rolls from Ra, whose experience encompasses stints with Professor Longhair, crooner Jerry Butler and Sun Ra. The subsequent piece shifts the percussionists to a New Orleans-Jamaican style beat with Mitchell playing the melodica in such a way that it could be a Zydeco accordion, and ends with a resonating jazz feel from the drummers and horn section.

Another standout from the versatile Mitchell, HOPE, FUTURE AND DESTINY confirms her versatile talents. Hopefully the best parts of RUNNING OUT OF TIME means that fellow AACMer Faire will produce a sophomore session equal to his talents.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Running: 1. Running Out Of Time 2. One Inch Anegls# 3. Room For More* 4. Maritha 5. Pendulum* 6. Suzal# 7. Interlude# 8. Timetable# 9. Sommer’s Ashes 10. Aspen’s Woes

Personnel: Running: Savoir Faire (violin); Bill Mackay (guitar); Ben Paterson (piano); Kurt Schweiz or Kyle Hernandez* (bass); Corey Radford (drums); Anti (programming)#

Track Listing: 1. Wondrous Birth (intro) 2. Wondrous Birth* 3. Curbside Fantasee*#^ 4. For Daughters of Young Love* 5. Journey for 3 Blue Stones (w/text) 6. Message form the Mothergoddess% 7. In the Garden 8. Skating 9. Wanna Make You Smile 10. Future Meditation 11. The Healing Ritual*#^ 12. Time for a Change* 13. Journey for 3 Blue Stones

Personnel: Corey Wilkes (trumpet); Tony Herrera (trombone and shells); Nicole Mitchell (flute, piccolo, flutaphone, alto flute, poetry, vocals* auto-harp, composition); David Boykin (soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet); Savoir Faire (violin); Brian Nichols (piano and glockenspiel); Tim “Cream” Jones (guitar); Tomeka Reid (cello); Josh Abrams (bass); Arveeayl Ra (drums and gongs); Art “Turk” Burton (percussion); Glenda Zahra Baker (vocals# and rainstick); Edie Armstrong (shekere, rainstick and vocals^); Aquilla Sadalla (vocals)%

August 22, 2005

STICKS & STONES

Shed Grace
Thrill Jockey thrill 140

DRAGONS 1976
On Cortez
Locust Music 40

Real Jazz has always been a music of apprenticeship. Unlike so-called classical or pop music where younger players can make a reputation and a living by reinterpreting and/or copying the work of their elders, jazz revolves around what you as a player can bring to the band stand.

That’s why SHED GRACE is a major step forward for the Sticks & Stones trio, while ON CORTEZ is very much an apprentice effort. Saxophonist Aram Shelton, bassist Jason Ajemian and drummer Tim Daisy, who gave their band its unique name because all were born in 1976, are gathering the experience in Chicago to put them in the sophomore class of players. Reedist Matana Roberts, drummer Chad Taylor -- both of whom spend much of their time in New York -- and bassist Josh Abrams, on the other hand, are already in the senior class. Individually, and collectively as a trio, they’ve developed distinct identities and appear ready to trade the promising for the established designation.

Each of the Dragons has already racked up an impressive c.v. Shelton is also in bassist Jason Roebke’s trio and recorded in larger ensembles led by reedists Scott Rosenberg and Matt Bauder. Daisy is a member of saxist Ken Vandermark’s quintet and Ajemian has worked in one of Vandermark’s larger bands and in a trio with guitarist Jeff Parker. Still, while each of the seven tunes here is technically impressive, there’s a little too much familiarity about nearly all of them.

Seemingly leaving the best for last, “Humboldt” and “Star Night” the final two pieces, are the most impressive and most original. The first, which in its intensity suggests some mid-period John Coltrane lines such as “Alabama”, finds the saxist showing off a moist, wide vibrato and some Eastern inflected trills. Ajemian contributes tremolo shuffle bowing and Daisy rumbling ratamacues and press rolls. Daisy then relies on his mallets to give the saxman a foundation on which to play out his harder lines.

Mallet work is on display on “Star Night”, which is taken at a leisurely, almost largo, pace. Arco, the bassist exhibits double stopping vibrato, the drummer rumbles away on his kit and Shelton’s slurs and passing tones are upfront. The interpretation is why the young Dragons will eventually have a bright future; leaning how to play expressively at a slow tempo is what separates the mature professionals from the also-rans.

Unfortunately the rest of the album doesn’t live up to these two tunes. Cymbal snaps, walking bass lines and offbeat reed trills show that collectively they can handle blues, Latin rhythms and near-hard bop. But while many of the tunes are foot tappers, a patina of originality is missing. No matter how many times Ajemian thumps his bass, Daisy plays a shuffle or Shelton chirps and double times, there are many other bands -- even on Chicago’s North Side -- that can do the same.

In contrast, Sticks & Stones has graduated to a higher plane after more than five years of apprenticeship. Perhaps it relates to the trio members more extensive working experience. Roberts has played with stylists as different as saxophonist Fred Anderson and Anthony Braxton, guitarist Eugene Chadbourne and Jeff Parker and is part of the jazz-rock-funk-hiphop collective Burnt Sugar. Taylor takes part in brassman Rob Mazurek’s Chicago Underground projects, works with veteran altoist Jemeel Moondoc, and is in Triptych Myth with bassist Tom Abbs and pianist Cooper-Moore. Instructively, Abrams’ gigs are as likely to include fellow Chicago Undergrounder guitarist Parker as avant-garde chamber player, reedist Guillermo Gregorio.

SHED GRACE takes its inspiration from all over. On “The Refusal” for instance, as well as regular sounds from his kit, Taylor produces textures that appear to come from log drums and a kalimba. For her part Roberts adds a reedy coloratura that then mixes it up with double stopping emphasis from bass and splash cymbals. When Abrams gets the spotlight for obtuse ponticello bowing, the reedist moves to a lower pitch adding the occasional altissimo squeaks for effect. Finally this Europe-meets-Africa extravaganza ends with Roberts floating the legato melody on top of hand drumming and cymbal noises.

Pieces like “Veatrice”, “So Very Cold” and “Colonial Mentality” swing, but Taylor’s off beats and counter rhythms are often such that it’s likely that the hip-hop samplers will be investigating his beat tapestry. At times alternating pizzicato and arco lines, Abrams shows that he can carry the rhythm for subtle foot patting when need be, and at different times Roberts shows off double tonguing and warbling bird-like lines or farm yard animal like slurs that vibrate in various pitches.

On the other hand, the altoist manages to inject enough of her personality into the unfolding beauty of Billy Strayhorn”s “Isfahan” -- misspelled on the label, by the way -- to have her performance stack up against others who have handled the tune. Staring with double timed variations on the theme, she elaborates it with a loose, relaxed swing feel. Avoiding excessive sweetness, she cuts the sugar with the equivalent of cayenne pepper, adding a more pronounced vibrato and flutter tonguing to her reading. Following some fat bass fingerings from Abrams, she reprises the melody straight, then speeds it up for a coda.

About the only misstep the three take here is in their version of Thelonious Monk’s “Skippy”. Doing it much slower than usual, with bowed bass and shaking cymbal beats makes the tune more dramatic, but this theatricality also removes its distinctiveness.

Still that’s really the only drawback. And it’s no reason not to make SHED GRACE a valuable listen to seek out. As for Dragons 1976’s 40-minute debut, it shows the same sort of derivative disappointments mixed with remarkable promise that Sticks & Stones first CD had on its release.

Maybe second time around, those three can create something as exceptional as SHED GRACE.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Cortez: 1. Canopy 2. Felt 3. Upstairs Downstairs 4. Heater 5. The Way It Is 6. Humboldt 7. Star Night

Personnel: Cortez: Aram Shelton (alto saxophone); Jason Ajemian (bass); Tim Daisy (drums)

Track Listing: Grace: 1. Shed Grace 2. The Refusal 3. Wordful 4. Skippy 5. Veatrice 6. So Very Cold 7. Colonial Mentality 8. Wonder Twins 9. Isfahan 10. 4:30

Personnel: Grace: Matana Roberts (alto saxophone); Josh Abrams (bass); Chad Taylor (drums and percussion)

June 7, 2004

JOSH ABRAMS

Cipher
Delmark DG-546

PAT O’KEEFE/JASON STANYEK/SCOTT WALTON/GLEN WHITEHEAD
Tunnel
Circumvention 038

Putting together a drummer-less combo has evolved past novelty to assertion. But the underlying sonic concept and with whom you choose to play, makes an important difference in how your music is perceived. These two quartet session demonstrate that.

Chicago bassist Josh Abrams’ debut disc scores because he had the foresight to recruit a band made up of players of vastly different experience to present a combination of his own and group compositions in 2002. Unfortunately, TUNNEL doesn’t fare as well. It does have cohesion, since all four participants were graduate students at the University of California San Diego School of Music when it was recorded in 1999. Probably for the same reason though, parts of the CD smack of over familiarity, others of academic ostentation. One result is that its seven compositions seem to take up more listening time than CIPHER’s 10 tracks, even though the second disc is actually about four minutes longer.

Familiar with the ins-and-out of the improv tradition Abrams and crew are able to bring echoes of whatever they need to fit each tune. Meantime the Californians, for all their technical prowess are -- or were -- committed to near-static development with the CD floating on a mixture of electro-acoustic elements and post-production editing.

Not that non-jazz experimentation is unfamiliar to the CIPHER crew. Abrams has played with bands as different as avant-pop outfit Town And Country and jazz groups lead by saxist David Boykin and flautist Nicole Mitchell. Guitarist Jeff Parker is as comfortable working with the electronic-tinged Chicago Underground groups as veteran tenorman Fred Anderson. Reedist Guillermo Gregorio’s output moves between experimental New music and pure impov. And German trumpeter Axel Dörner, while an exceptional improviser within the jazz tradition, is one of the few brass men who is evolving a 21st century language for his horn.

Some of these elements come into play on the title tune. Gregorio’s clarinet timbres unfold from a bubbling line that floats on top of the others to resonating tongue slaps. Dörner’s cavernous slide trumpet entry seems to start at the mouthpiece and chromatically blow shifting air though the bell. Soon his kazoo-like sonority nearly reaches trombone pitch and is accompanied by hearty double bass thumps.

Written by the trumpeter, “Background Beneath”, on the other hand, is blithe freebop. While passing the theme back and forth, the four migrate to Cool Jazz territory. Dörner takes a muted, breezy solo that could have come from Jack Sheldon; Parker produces some luxurious Barney Kessel-like chords; and Gregorio’s airy alto saxophone trills resemble those of Bud Shank. Abrams, in mainstream Curtis Counce mode, takes a four square solo without upsetting the delicate equilibrium. The ending is made up of rondo intimations from chordal guitar as the horns murmur octaves apart.

“Space Modulator”, written by the reedist, is a contrapuntal essay featuring soaring single note fills from the guitar, deep-in-the throat growls from the trumpeter and

bouncing lines from its composer. As Gregorio’s alto honks get more atonal, Dörner’s flutter tongued trills become more smoothly muted, with summation double-stopped bass lines moved along by cheering horn inserts.

With guitar and clarinet in the forefront, Abrams’ “Neb Nimaj Nero” has Parker in dulcet Joe Pass mode, vibrating a long-lined solo with plenty of tremolo. The Six strings only turn spiky when the reedist’s Jimmy Giuffre-like clarinet needs shoring up as it morphs from gentle to cavernous to ethereal.

Alternately Dörner may begin “Mental Politician” with lightly blown spittle lines from his slide trumpet, but once the wiggling guitar lines and bass strokes have interrupted his constantly buzzed breath, all the players begin trading fours as if they were playing mainstream jazz. Finally the genre-bending spills across the bar lines with the brassman producing a white noise of growling grace notes, the reedist sounding his highest tones, Parker exhibiting colorful slurred fingering and the bass man providing broken note accompaniment.

A change of pace, “As See” is made up of elongated pitches forged by the horns from a narrow band of slowly moving tones and constant vibrations. It’s a solid mass that moves without ever coming apart.

Distressingly, what is a one track experiment for Abrams’ band, characterizes most of the overly long tracks of TUNNEL, which may be why it took four years for the session to be released. Collectively the four musicians have worked with dancers and filmmakers and played with West Coast heavies including trombonist George Lewis, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and shakuhachi stylist Phil Gelb.

Yet here trumpeter Glen Whitehead, Pat O’Keefe on clarinet, bass clarinet, Jason Stanyek on fretless and quarter-tone guitars and Scott Walton on bass and piano seem to have hitched their band wagon to extended, metallic electro-acoustic timbres.

Perhaps it’s the scratched and screeched micotones from Stanyek’s guitars that create the unvarying continuum, but it’s hard to tell one group improvisation from the next. Most appear to consist of simple, protracted tones that could have been strained through an oscillator. Constant, connected sound loops, the solo impulses that peek through include whinnying ambient muted trumpet tones, intermittent bass clarinet growls and low frequency hard pressured piano lines.

On “Grain”, when Whitehead and Walton unite for a short duo, the impressionistic cadenzas from the keys and the flattish, wavering undulations are about as far from Ruby Braff-Ellis Larkins territory as anyone could can imagine. Whether they’re an improvement is a matter for debate. Mechanized vocal sounds, distorted guitar feedback and reverb and a squealing clarinet run strength the output at times, until it all vanishes into silence.

Stanyek’s mono-tonality pales compared to Parker’s multi-facility. and when at one point O’Keefe appears to be sounding two horns at once with a Middle Eastern wiggle, you suspect that the effect is less the product of Rahsaan Roland Kirk virtuosity than post-production editing.

In short doses some of the electro-acoustic sounds seem valid. At one point for instance, Whitehead resonate his as axe as if he was playing it through a metal shield, and at other points unidentified swirls of electronics buzz, waver and vibrate. But too often it appears as if all four musicians are struggling through oozing aural mud.

Others whose textural appreciation is greater will probably rate this session higher. But, especially when compared with the quirky mastery exhibited on CIPHER, it has to come out second, or perhaps third best. Four years is a long time in contemporary music. Maybe the TUNNEL four have since expanded their tunnel vision and created something that will show up this CD as the student study it undoubtedly is.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Cipher: 1. Mental Politician 2. And See 3. Neb Nimaj Nero 4. Cipher 5. Calamities Break 6. No Theory 7. Background Beneath 8. First Tune That Night 9. Space Modulator 10. For SK

Personnel: Cipher: Axel Dörner (trumpet, slide trumpet); Guillermo Gregorio (alto saxophone, clarinet) Jeff Parker (guitar); Josh Abrams (bass)

Track Listing: Tunnel: 1. Threshold 2. Trace 3. Boundaries 4. Graft 5. Sliver 6. Measure 7. Time, Not Tide

Personnel: Tunnel: Glen Whitehead (trumpet); Pat O’Keefe (clarinet, bass clarinet); Jason Stanyek (fretless and quarter-tone guitars); Scott Walton (bass and piano)

April 9, 2004

NICOLE MITCHELL/BLACK EARTH ENSEMBLE

Afrika Rising
Dreamtime Records 004

Creativity is still common currency in Chicago as the new CD by flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell proves. Even more ambitious than her debut disc (VISION QUEST also on Dreamtime Records) this CD finds Mitchell, who also teaches flute at Chicago State University, convening an even larger Black Earth Ensemble made up of 19 different musicians on various tracks. The result is an Afrocentric disc that shows off not only her flute, piccolo and vocals, but also the wealth of other Windy City talent, many of whom are also part of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

Some of the better known names include everyone’s favorite drummer Hamid Drake; trombonist Steve Berry and drummer Arveeayl Ra, who are part of Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble; pianist Jim Baker who has made CDs with Ken Vandermark and Fred Anderson; trumpeter Corey Wilkes, who has recorded with Roscoe Mitchell; and musicians such as multi-reedist David Boykin and violinist Savoir Faire who work in bands under Mitchell and Boykin’s leadership.

Yet such is the Midwest’s embarrassment of musical riches that two of the other soloists besides Mitchell herself and Faire, who turn out impressive work -- trombonist Tony Hererra and pianist Wanda Bishop -- are almost unknown outside of Chicago’s South Side. This South Side connection is significant as well. For like The Art Ensemble or Rahsaan Roland Kirk before her, Mitchell’s Afrika is a mythical place, whose sounds include early and modern jazz, country and urban blues and Black religious music, as well as more distinctive influences from the Mother continent. On one tune you can even hear an echo of Kirk’s “Bright Moments”, mixing it up with hard bop piano and a slice of Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang”.

You can experience this bubbling musical stew most clearly on a tune like “Bluerise”, written like all the other material, except for the traditional “Wade in the Water” by Mitchell. With its Mingusian time and tempo changes, this off-kilter blues is driven along by the vocalized trombone of young Hererra with echoes of Tricky Sam Nanton, and some deep dish, rent-party piano from veteran Bishop, who from her picture looks as if she didn’t learn how to play the 12-bar form from a text book. Faire unveils a light swinging tone that relates to the advances of Eddie South, another fiddler and Chicago club mainstay of the 1930 and 1940s, while even Ur-modernist Boykin varies his clarinet showcase between AACM style split tones and old-timey trills that could date back to Johnny Dodds in the 1920s. As the almost 11-minute piece changes shape and tempo as it moves along, Mitchell’s flute often mixes it up with Faire, showing that she can create sounds from deep inside her throat and from her lips while maintaining a bouncy legato tone.

“Wheatgrass” finds her expressing this potent tone on both flute and piccolo (!) as Boykin goes into a heavy bar-walking tenor saxophone mode. In counterpoint, the fiddler is scratching out dissonant asides, while drummer Isaiah Spencer -- on his only appearance on the discs -- and percussionist Jovia Armstrong, who sounds as if she’s playing a darbuka, combine for some Middle Passage rhythm as American as it is African. After Mitchell and Faire entwine once more in front of riffing R&B-style horns, the piece concludes with a powerful, hard bop bass solo in a Wilbur Ware mode courtesy of Darius Savage

Besides a 53-second exhibition of extended flute technique on “Emerging Light”, Mitchell gets to exercise her vocal chords both wordlessly, with a suggestion of African throat singing on “Intergalactic Healing” and with words on “Goldmind” and “Peaceful Village Town”. With its Oprah-meets-Operation Push affirmative lyrics the former seems to be attuned to the 1960s, while the later with its naïve sentiments about the perfection of rural African life is almost Garveyite in its diasporic nostalgia. Still some hearty obbligatos from Hererra and Faire enliven the first; and what sounds like Armstrong’s mbira mixed with Hererra’s plunger tone and modern 4/4 bass from Josh Abrams prevents the second from becoming too maudlin.

This disc, which available from Mitchell’s Web site at www.NicoleMitchell.com, proves that her music that was promising last time is moving into the realm of must-hear. With such quality to build on, it also makes waiting for her next statement with anticipation, even more of a necessity.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Afrika Rising Trilogy Movement I: The Ancient Power Awakens 2. Movement II: Metamorphosis 3. Movement III: Intergalactic Healing^ 4. Peaceful Village Town^ 5. Emerging Light 6. Umoja (Intro)^ 7. Umoja^ 8. Bluerise 9. Goldmind 10. Wheatgrass* 11. Towards Vision Quest

Personnel: Corey Wilkes (trumpet); Tony Hererra (trombone, shells, vocals); Steve Berry (trombone); Nicole Mitchell (flutes, piccolo*, vocals^) David Boykin (tenor saxophone, clarinet, vocals); Miles Tate III, Jim Baker (piano); Wanda Bishop (piano, vocals); Savoir Faire (violin, vocals); Edith Yokley (violin); Tomeka Reid (cello); Josh Abrams or Darius Savage (bass); Hamid Drake or Isaiah Spencer (drums); Arveeayl Ra (drums, vocals); Coco Elysses (percussion); Jovia Armstrong (percussion, vocals)

February 10, 2003

ROBERTS/ABRAMS/TAYLOR

Sticks & Stones
482 Music 482-1012

Playing improvised music in a trio setting can be the most revelatory, as well as the most humbling, experience for any jazz musician. Not only does each side of the triangle have to fit just perfectly for the music to take its proper shape, but the looming accomplishments of earlier bands in that configuration can make anyone wary.

Working in the most common saxophone-bass-drum arrangement, Chicago natives alto saxophonist Matana Roberts, bassist Josh Abrams and drummer Chad Taylor have set out with this cooperative combo to craft their own sound. Each contributes three tunes to the CD. Overall, though, the result is a split decision. Some of the tracks are interesting; others drag. More seriously it appears that the skills and versatility of Taylor overpower the other two.

Probably also the one-third of the band with the most experience, the drummer is percussionist for all the variations of the Chicago Underground ensembles, and has also performed with reedmen such as Joe McPhee, Roscoe Mitchell and Fred Anderson, plus master bassist William Parker. Solid, steady and undemanding Abrams rarely asserts himself here. A member of both Town and Country and David Boykin’s Expanse, the bassist stays in the background as he does with those other bands. Meanwhile, frontwoman Roberts, an Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) member, who currently resides in New York, slides from producing fiery foreground explorations on some tunes to slipping into slow, subdued expositions on others.

Most of the time her tone is smooth and almost tentative, more like earlier Windy City boppish altoists like John Jenkins than fellow AACMers. She’s not really tentative, but when she introduces a section that sounds as if it’s going to develop into Sonny Rollins’ “East Broadway Rundown” but doesn’t; or on one Taylor piece appears to be quoting “Let’s Face The Music and Dance”; she seems to be reacting to what the others are playing rather than pulling her own weight.

Both of the first two tunes are less than memorable and a further ominous sign appears when the three only loosen up on “Lose My Number”, one of the two compositions here not written by a group member. Based around a child-like Ornette Coleman-style vamp, Roberts pays homage to the New Thing with repeated honks and trills to such an extent that the drummer soon decides to play Sunny Murray to her Albert Ayler. Although she counters with some Trane-like cadenzas, it’s Taylor’s snare and cymbal work that make most impression. Her own “Hanibul”(sic) is more of the same, not a lot better. Here Abrams finally make his presence felt producing some bowed Jimmy Garrison-style lines, which curl around Roberts’ alto as if it was Trane’s soprano. Because of this, and Taylor powerfully sounding Elvin Jones-like gestures, the saxist appears to be driven to whining reed biting and multiphonics, constructing variations on variations of each phrase. Furthermore, Taylor’s powerful sideslipping solo reverses the equation, with the other two playing the role of sidefolk as if they were in one of Jones’ bands.

Following a pretty standard reggae run-through of Lee “Scratch” Perry’s “Sons of Slaves”, with the bassist and drummer making like Sly and Robbie, the three replicate a tambourine-driven beat on Taylor’s “Salvador”. More like an avant bossa nova then a roots ballad from the Caribbean, Abrams appears to be just starting to lay out the necessary uniform beat and Roberts opening up with some trills and smears when the piece fades out.

Each member of Roberts/Abrams/Taylor appears to be talented and on-and-off here show that he or she can create and play on boppish foot tappers as well as some tunes with unusual rhythms. But overall, it appears that the commitment to raise this session above merely interesting is missing. Perhaps next time out things will operate at a higher level. If the three could just adopt some of the force usually associated with sticks and stones, the results should be so much better. Right now, we’ll just hope these words won’t harm them.

-- Ken Waxman

1. Turning the Mark 2. Equally Strong 3. Lose My Number 4. Suhasani 5. End of the Game 6. Usetosay 7. Sons of Slaves 8. Hannibul 9. Spaces 10. Salvador 11. Spicer

Personnel: Matana Roberts (alto saxophone); Josh Abrams (bass); Chad Taylor (drums)

September 30, 2002

DAVID BOYKIN EXPANSE

47th Street Ghost
Dreamtime Records 003

Proving once again the old adage that everything old is new again, Chicago saxophonist David Boykin and company have produced a perfect, progressive hard bop LP. Thing is, the session was recorded not in 1958 at 33 1/3, but last year on CD. While the results are impressive, it suggests that younger members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) aren’t as involved in experimentation as their elders, who include icons like Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell and George Lewis, have been.

Of course what many people forget is that there has always been a strong bop foundation to the AACM. In fact, it was the most spectacularly searching musicians who left the city in the 1960s and 1970s, leaving their more mainstream associates behind. This means that most contemporary AACM bands in Chicago are more attuned to bop, blues, funk and the like than the advances of the pioneering experimenters.

The sextet represented on this CD has packed 10 tunes into a CD that’s only a shade over 35 minutes. So you wish a few of the tracks were a bit longer to allow more room to stretch out. Furthermore, this disc is firmly in the late 1950s tradition that saw hard bop lightened with extra instruments and sophisticated arrangements provided by the likes of Gigi Gyrce or Benny Golson. Come to think of it, more carefully thought out arrangements would have made this disc better as well.

Let’s deal with the positive first. Boykin, who wrote all the tunes and divides his time among tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet, is someone sure of his place in the jazz firmament. Using what must be a very thick reed on the sax, he produces a raw, rugged, masculine tone that only occasionally introduces freak notes. He’s definitely influenced by Sonny Rollins --who spent time woodshedding in Chicago. The way he sometimes slips and slides off the notes is also reminiscent of Johnny Griffin, another Chicago-born tenor icon, who did his share of those prog bop sessions. Only on the astrologically titled “Virgo” does Boykin utilize the horn’s bottom, straying into what could be a baritone’s range for his solo.

On clarinet, his role model seems to be John Coltrane’s soprano saxophone, keeping to the upper register and only rarely dipping into the chalumeau range; he leaves the lower tones for his Eric Dolphy-influenced bass clarinet. However on many tunes he produces a unique harmonic blend by mixing the rasp of either woodwind with the piping timbres of Nicole Mitchell’s flute or piccolo.

Acquiescing to the leader, Mitchell plays a secondary role, only stepping front and centre on “Niki’s Bounce” where her pure, almost legitimate flute tone is enlivened with some in unison throat singing and Boykin improvising a countermelody on tenor. Amazing for those who know him only as an electronica/synthesizer expert, pianist Jim Baker sticks exclusively to acoustic piano here. Advancing a mixture of blusey comping and modal asides, his work is consistent with the sort of backing he provides every week at the legendary Velvet Lounge’s jam sessions. Both bassist Josh Abrams, who is also part of the Town and Country band, and drummer Isaiah Spencer cleave to the beat, but due to time limitations rarely get to show off for more than a few bars break. Vocalist Marquecia Jordan appears to be present only on the slice-of-1960s ethereal salutes, “Sunrise” and “Sunset”. But even there her light-toned oohs and ahs are lost within those less-than-two-minute vamps.

“Stalking The Cat”, the final composition may be the only one which distinguishes the tunes here from traditional hard bop sessions. A half-time stroll, which accelerates and decelerates in tempo as it moves along, it features amiable mid-range sax and a vocalized flute line, succeeded by triple timed piano chords and a slinky bass solo. Perhaps the band was stalking a South Side cool cat; at least it wasn’t afraid to vary the tempo.

Overall, this disc by Boykin et. al, which outside Chicago is likely only available by e- mailing dreamtme3@aol.com, shows great promise. But if the combo members truly want to distinguish themselves they’ll have to distance themselves a little more from their role models. Producing a longer session with enough room to stretch out will be one way to do so.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. 47th Street Ghost 2. Circus 3. Jiffy Pop 4. Antimatter 5. Sunrise 6. Jacuzzi 7. Niki’s Bounce 8. Virgo 9. Sunset 10. Stalking The Cat

Personnel: Nicole Mitchell (flute, piccolo); David Boykin (tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet); Jim Baker (piano); Josh Abrams (bass); Isaiah Spencer (drums); Marquecia Jordan (vocals)

April 19, 2002