Chicago Underground Duo

Age of Energy
Northern Spy NS 020

Wadada Leo Smith & Louis Moholo-Moholo

Ancestors

TUM CD 029

Not the most common configuration by any means, the mating of trumpet (or cornet) and drums is usually avoided because of a perceived lack of tonal colors and contrast. That concern hasn’t daunted these duos, with the qualities implicit in Free Music adding to their singular audacity. At the same time each chooses to highlight their brass-percussion output in an original fashion. California-based trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, 72, and South African percussionist Louis Moholo-Moholo, 73, play completely acoustically on their first-ever meeting. In contrast the Chicago Underground Duo (CUD) consisting of corniest Rob Mazurek, 47, and drummer Chad Taylor, 39, utilize a variety of older percussion and up-to-the-minute electronic peripherals to expand their sound.

The differences are more than generational however. Smith, an early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, has been an exponent of highly original Jazz saturated sounds from his defining gigs with the likes of Anthony Braxton, to his recent pan-stylistic Golden Quartet program, which also provides the backbone for his recent Ten Freedom Summers project. Firmly grounded in his homeland’s indigenous music as well as Jazz, Moholo-Moholo made his name with bands such as The Blue Notes and the Brotherhood of Breath, and has continued to utilize that blend of swing, improv and kwela in his playing. He and Smith aim for panoramic compositions and improvisations, most notably the nearly 25 minute “Ancestors” which reflects both antiquity and futurism.

Having moved from playing so-called straight Jazz to textures that welcome layered and processed computer programming, Mazurek and Taylor design a constantly moving sound design no matter how it’s constructed. Age of Energy’s defining piece is the almost 20-minute “Winds of Sweeping Pines”, which is only latterly concerned with the sort of virtuosic skills the older men display on their disc. Instead it relies on stacking improv, electronica, Jazz and even Rock evocations on top of one another, showcasing textural originality.

Uniting all four of CUD’s tracks are a series of undefined pulsations, drones, wave forms and echoing sequences created with and without studio overdubbing. Perhaps Mazurek and Taylor should be lauded for following the latter path on the title track, but in truth the most notable components are Mazurek’s sharp cornet stabs, which cut chromatically across Taylor’s backbeat smacks and ruffs. Furthermore the drummer’s mbira twangs when coupled with the cornetist’s well-modulated tones on the minimalist “Castle in Your Heart” resemble mid-1950s Milt Jackson and Miles Davis playing a ballad; especially when related to the recurring drone layering and sequences of processed voices which proceed the track on “It’s Alright”. Among the pulsating sibilate-like tones and thick rubs that make up the sonic landscape, those which are most conspicuous are the multiple mirror-image splintering and splayed brass timbres plus a percussion interlude which appears to be glass bouncing against a drum stick.

Correspondingly, although the extended “Winds of Sweeping Pines” set the scene with wonky electronic wriggling and repetative static oscillations, the track doesn’t kick into gear until the synthesizer outputs a bass vamp that could have wandered over from Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon”, which proceeds to accompany Mazurek’s flutter-tongued smears and Taylor’s staccato ruffs.

High quality in its hermetic electro-acoustic world, Age of Energy appears to lack the humanity present on Ancestors. On that CD, before the title suite’s dual improvisation, the most revealing tracks pinpoint variations between the South African’s and the American’s playing and composing. For instance, Smith’s “No Name in the Street, James Baldwin” is all balanced swing. As frenetic as the pace gets when the trumpeter’s lines evolve from heraldic grace notes to bugle-like charges and finally exploding triplets, the drummer’s wide cymbal swishes, intuitive bumps and pressurized recoils keep the interface balanced. A semi-dirge for his father, Moholo-Moholo’s “Siholaro” moves in clear-cut sections. Beginning with a funereal tempo and ending hymn-like, the centre section is devoted to the percussionist quickening the tempo to a life-affirming dance at the same time as tremolo brass notes curve every which way.

Making extensive use of the percussion’s and brass instruments’ natural qualities, the “Ancestors” experiments with the timbres suggested by two of the world’s oldest instruments that are beaten and blown. Except for a time during the exposition when it appears that Smith is shaking sandbags to contrast with Moholo-Moholo’s flams, shakes and bounces, the trumpeter comments appropriately with his brass instrument every time the drummer introduces another improvisational sequence. Matching Moholo-Moholo’s military paradiddles with smeary plunger work for instance, Smith outshines the percussionist’s subsequent cymbal splatters plus flams and drags as he cleverly measures out a call-and-response formula with himself – matching brassy extended timbres with fully rounded slurs. Eventually as the drummer’s theme variation expands so that his solo too is bifurcated enough to recall rhythms from both log and batá drums, Moholo-Moholo takes centre stage to vocally rhyme off the names of a series of musical heroes they both honor. “We love you” he shouts after each person is named.

Although this jam session indulgence ultimately weakens the title track, the CD confirms that age is no barrier to creating definitive improvised music, although slightly more thought-out programming would have been welcomed. The CUD session on the other hand is weakened by slightly too much programming.

Putting aside minor quibbles, both these CDs are still valuable demonstrations of creativity in unusual duo settings.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ancestors: 1. Moholo-Moholo/Golden Spirit 2. No Name in the Street, James Baldwin 3. Jackson Pollock - Action 4. Siholaro 5. Ancestors Part 1 6. Ancestors Part 2 7. Ancestors Part 3 8. Ancestors Part 4 9. Ancestors Part 5

Personnel: Ancestors: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet and percussion) and Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums, percussion and voice)

Track Listing: Age: 1. Winds of Sweeping Pines 2. It’s Alright 3. Castle in Your Heart 4. Age of Energy

Personnel: Age: Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics and voice) and Chad Taylor (drums, mbira, drum machine and electronics)

January 22, 2013

Jeff Parker Trio

Bright Light in Winter
Delmark DE-2015

By Ken Waxman

Primarily known for his yeoman work in any number of Chicago-based groups from saxophonist Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble to Tortoise, guitarist Jeff Parker is the most accommodating of sidemen and leaders. Bright Light in Winter, one of his infrequent solo dates, demonstrates why.

Nowhere on this agreeable, nine-track trio session does Parker pull rank or try to overshadow stalwart bassist/flutist Chris Lopez or adaptable drummer Chad Taylor, both of whom performed with him in Rob Mazurek’s Chicago Underground combos. Tellingly as well, although both Parker and Lopes use monophonic synthesizer attachments, the organ-like quivers and tremolo echoes never surpass the live musicians’ contributions. Want another example of his collegial spirit? The writing chores are divided, with the bassist contributing three compositions, the drummer two and Parker four.

That said, with the date dependent on Taylor’s light, almost Latinesque skin-patting, Lopes’ moderato plucks and Parker’s clean finger-picking and melodic runs, often only technical finesse prevents some tunes from becoming enervating rather than merely relaxed. That nadir is reached on Lopes’ “The Morning of the 5th”, which is all puckered flute lines and guitar strums.

Happily even if some of the other pieces have lines closer to jazz samba than jazz soul, rhythmic smarts make them balladic rather than bathetic. On Taylor’s “Istvan”, for example, the quivering delicacy of Parker’s exposition is muted by sequences of sound delays and reverb plus the bassist’s straight-ahead walking. Rim shot clips and a chromatic bass line provide additional ballast for Parker’s graceful spidery licks on his own “Bright Light Black Site” making the piece flow chromatically. Meanwhile “Swept Out to Sea”, written by Lopes, is warm and precise, but still maintains its composure due to the guitarist’s circular comping and Taylor’s percussion kicks. Most impressively the leader’s “Freakadelic” is no George Clinton cop, but a way to highlight Parker’s ability to spin out seemingly endless dextrous theme variations while maintaining the tune’s melodic content.

Overall, Bright Light in Winter has enough of a romantic overlay to please jazz dilettantes, but with equivalent skillful, yet understated tonal wizardry to appeal to more sophisticated listeners.

Tracks: Mainz; Swept Out to Sea; Change; Freakadelic; The Morning of the 5th; Occidental Tourist; Bright Light Black Site; Istvan; Good Days

Personnel: Jeff Parker (guitar, effects and synthesizer); Chris Lopes (bass, flute and synthesizer) and Chad Taylor (drums and cymbals)

--For New York City Jazz Record June 2012

June 5, 2012

Avram Fefer/Eric Revis/Chad Taylor

Eliyahu
Not Two MW-854-2

Hession/Wilkinson/Fell

Two Falls & A Submission

Bo’Weavil weavil 44 CD

Blunt, powerful, unrelieved improvisation is the collective raison d’être of these sessions, which conclusively emphasize the polyphonic textures that arise from the intersection of a mere three acoustic instruments. Naturally it helps that the six players involved are experienced technically and committed to sonic exploration.

The variables are partially transatlantic. Alto and tenor saxophonist Avram Fefer, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Chad Taylor are American; alto and baritone saxophonist Alan Wilkinson, bassist Simon H. Fell and drummer Paul Hession are British. Besides this, the nine tracks Fefer recorded in studio are dedicated to the memory of his late father; the three extended tracks on the other CD were recorded during a rare club gig by Hession, Wilkinson and Fell.

More of a group effort, Two Falls & A Submission captures only part of the trio members’ mercurial careers. Fell leads his own combos and has also been successful composing extended works for gargantuan ensembles. Hession is one of the United Kingdom’s busiest drummers, working with players ranging from saxophonist George Haslam to bassoonist Mick Beck. The work ethic extends to his longtime associate Wilkinson, who has had affiliations with bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble among many others.

Revis and Taylor are similarly active and adaptable. The bassist is best-known for his gigs with trumpeter Russell Gunn and saxophonist Branford Marsalis, while the drummer’s less mainstream affiliations include saxophonist Fred Anderson and as half of the Chicago Underground Duo, cornetist Rob Mazurek. More exploratory, Fefer’s playing partners have ranged from trombonist Steve Swell to pianist Bobby Few.

Revis’ mainstream command of bulky, unaffected bass lines is needed on Eliyahu since Taylor’s resourceful beat tinting is on displays as much as his time-keeping. Meanwhile the saxophonist is constantly on, spinning out elongated lines from both his horns, rife with glossolalia and extended techniques, tongue stops and flutters as well as reed bites. A piece such as “Wishful Thinking” demonstrates how Fefer’s bulky, buzzing body-tube vibrations on tenor saxophone accelerate with Trane-like majesty to rumbling growls and triple-tongued multiphonics. Meanwhile the bassist walks steadily and the drummer clanks his drum rims. Also notable is “Appropriated Lands”, a stop-time alto saxophone showpiece with a repeated chorus, where timbres encompass gritty altissimo slurs and supple repeated note clusters. In contrast, Taylor’s cross sticking and rolls underlie a rhythm on “Essaouira” that seems to take in fralicher and Hora-like arrangements. Furthermore, the drummer’s ruffs, pops and cymbal splashes encourage Fefer’s splintering slurs, triple-tonguing and overblowing until bass thumps presage a head recap.

Overall, the reedist’s most relaxed playing comes on the title track. Again balanced by Taylor’s descriptive rolls, mallet driven taps and shaking cymbals, Fefer turns the theme inside out, wrenching every extension, overtone and variation from each note with pressurized intensity.

Pressurized intensity would appear to be Wilkinson’s favored mode of expression. In truth there are points during the CD’s 60 minutes, when reed slurs, cries and mastication appear inadequate for all he wants to express. At those occasions he begins vocalizing, either with echoing basso puffs or acute yelps. On “First Fall” for instance, these aren’t random grunts, but yodels, whoops, lip-bubbling and chanting that fit the narrative the way similar verbal outbursts from tribal musicians complement their playing. Nonetheless, with “First Fall” percolating for more than 32½ minutes and the other two tracks nearly 16 and almost 13 minutes respectively, it’s evident that the saxophonist’s productivity has no beginning and no end. Tracks appear to finish when he runs out or breath or stamina, not ideas.

On later tracks with Fell’s sprawling, percussive bass strokes and Hession’s drags strokes and shivering cymbals behind him, Wilkinson lets loose with throated reflux from the baritone saxophone that so quickly soars to screaming altissimo that you wonder if he has actually returned to the smaller sax. Even as “The Submission” ends with a cornucopia of reed-shredding harmonics and shrill split tones, it’s nearly certain that the defining climax of moderato and curvaceous line extensions comes from the alto.

With more than one-half hour devoted to “First Fall” however, the saxophonist as well as his cohorts have even more space in which to explore the variants of dissonant interaction. Backed by Fell’s unvarying rhythmic pulse and Hession’s drags, rebounds and door-banging smacks, Wilkinson keeps spinning new tones and timbres from his horns. When he isn’t vocally screaming multiphonics, the saxophonist builds up a collection of abstract lines, staccato vibrations and intense glossolalia as well as juddering bites and snorts. At points the drummer responds with cross sticking and drumstick scratches on a cymbal top as Fell scrubs spiccato textures. And, as elsewhere, there are sequences, almost always played on alto saxophone, where the reedist proves that, if so inclined, he can create a moderato, impressionistic interlude. Those intervals don’t last very long however, and shortly afterwards Wilkinson’s reed playing is off in the stratosphere again, packing enough ideas and reed timbres into his exposition that would give many other saxophonists material for a dozen forays. Finally as the rhythm section rolls along unperturbed and sympathetic, the saxophonist trades the split tones and flutters for slides and silences.

From both sides of the Atlantic ocean, trios use the freedom implicit in focused improvisation to create memorable CDs.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Eliyahu: 1. Song for Dyani 2. Wishful Thinking 3. Appropriated Lands 4. Eliyahu 5. Trued Right 6. A Taste for Love 7. Essaouira 8. City Life 9. Eliyahu (2)

Personnel: Eliyahu: Avram Fefer (alto and tenor saxophone); Eric Revis (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Two: 1 First Fall 2. The Submission 3. Second Fall

Personnel: Two: Alan Wilkinson (alto and baritone saxophones); Simon H. Fell (bass) and Paul Hession (drums)

April 26, 2012

Fred Anderson

21st Century Chase
Delmark DE 589

Fred Anderson Quartet

Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III

Asian Improv AIR 0074

Fred Anderson

Staying in the Game

Engine e029

Fred Anderson Trio

Birthday Live 2000

Asian Improv AIR “Official Bootleg”

Consistency of expression is what has characterized the playing of Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson over the years. Furthermore, unlike many other musicians, there hasn’t been a subsequent lessening of his powers as he ages. As a matter of fact, now that he’s reached the venerable age of 80, his improvisational skills are at an exalted peak. Listen to these CDs for proof. They were recorded not only at Anderson’s 80th Birthday Bash, but when he was a comparative youngster of 79, 78 and even 71.

A founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, who recorded sparingly between the late 1960s and mid-1990s, Anderson has nurtured some of Chicago’s younger talents both by gigging with them, as well as giving them a place to play in his now legendary Velvet Lounge. Those years out of the limelight also created an idiosyncratic soloist, who – like Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy before him – now possesses an unmistaken reed texture whose sharp split tones carve a unique niche in every tune. Not only does the sax man put a lie to the cliché that “jazz is a young man’s art”, but he also proves that when they age jazzman don’t have to be cuddly and comfortable like Doc Cheatham or Eubie Blake. Additionally, as he demonstrates in four contexts here, stamina, innovation and sonic color aren’t the preserve of any generation. His playing can be threatening to saxophonists of any age.

Over the years Anderson has developed a tight coterie of associates, with many turning up on these discs. The oldest session, Birthday Live 2000, is a trio CD with bassist Tatsu Aoki and drummer Chad Taylor. Seven years later, with Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, Taylor and Aoki are still on board and tenor saxophonist Francis Wong joins the trio. Staying in the Game – an understatement if there ever was one when Anderson is concerned – from 2008, features him with bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Tim Daisy. Finally 21st Century Chase from 2009, retains Bankhead, brings back Taylor and adds guitarist Jeff Parker and tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan – the later five years Anderson’s junior – whose tenure on the New Orleans scene is roughly analogous to Anderson’s in Chicago.

Anderson’s mature style is much in evidence as early as the first track on Birthday Live 2000. Both incendiary and knife-sharp, his carved-up timbres partition still further as he churns out double-and-triple tongued trills plus jagged Woody Woodpecker-like bites. Rappelling from just below the ligature down through the bow to the bell of his horn and back up again, the saxophonist’s glissandi radiate every which way. His explorations are backed by slapping bass strings plus opposite sticking and cross pulsing from Taylor.

Indefatigable and seemingly never at a lack for ideas – or breath, Anderson brings the same toughness to the third tune, which for all intents and purposes resembles a blues-flecked ballad. After an a capella intro from the tenorist, Aoki’s vibrating and quavering bass line moulds itself around Anderson’s rasping notes as the narrative is lengthened with emphasized phraseology and half-recognizable quotes from other tunes.

Flash forward eight years, and while Anderson has maintained his form, his playing is mellower. Bankhead’s supple walking now explores additional peaks and valleys in his accompaniment, while Daisy’s rolls, pops and bass drum kicks are as sturdy as Anderson’s solos. With the sidemen proficient players on other instruments as well as their own, intimations of other textures – if not the instruments themselves – show up on several tracks.

You could swear for instance that kalimba plucks are pressed into service on “Wandering”, or that Bankhead – who plays the six-string – has added guitar licks to his backing as well. Still the saxophone lines are moderato and unstrained, languid enough to indulge in an interlude of parlando, seconded by Bankhead’s unforced bass strokes. Similarly Daisy’s mallet-driven pulses on “Changes and Bodies and Tones” border on marimba textures as the bassist’s sul ponticello squeaks are moderated mid-range. Summing up the situation, Anderson builds his solo with pointillism, elongating and expanding note dabs and smears into a cohesive whole.

Mellow, yet still tough in his outings, the saxophonist manages to stretch tones almost to the breaking point, without ever severing the thematic thread. If he overblows while vibrating his horn’s metal, as he does on “60 Degrees in November”, the supplementary intervals and vibrations are perfectly balanced as they’re masticated with bites and tongue slaps. Chromatic improvisations from all hold everything together.

This relaxed, yet bellicose command is maintained when facing off against another tenor man, as Anderson does on the last two discs. No one plays for almost 70 years without devising strategies for different situations. Recorded at 2007’s Chicago Asian Jazz Festival, Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, for instance, allows the veteran tenor saxophonist to maintain his parameters throughout.

Case in point is a tune such as “Beyond the Bridge”. The head is sounded by Anderson’s harsh, irregular vibrato, then echoed with similar – but more accommodating – tones from Wong’s sax. Gritty, with reed bites and tongue stops, the two aurally march in unison with Taylor’s sticks flying into ruffs and rebounds and Aoki stop-start bass thumps. At times Wong, whose timbre is thinner than Anderson’s, could be playing “Hickory, Dickory Dock” as he operates in double counterpoint to the older saxophonist. That is until the drummer’s double-timed ratamacues and the bassist’s vibrating strings push Anderson to unleash his idiosyncratic stabbing pitches which are then answered by jagged, staccato octaves from the younger saxophonist.

An equivalent tart interface occurs on “Positive Changes”. However the impetus for Anderson and Wong combining for a series of tongue flutters and split tones which modulate up the scale with rubato intonation is some impressive bass work from Aoki. Moving beyond sul ponticello to a strained, near-vocalized pitch, the bassist descends the scale while sounding every string simultaneously.

The scene had been set with “Andersonville”, where each player stakes out his individual musical turf. Aoki’s thumps and pumps, Taylor’s whapping snares and cymbal vibrations plus the lockstep reed-biting and sonic curves from the saxophonists kick in almost as soon as Anderson sounds his signature ferocious cry. From then on Anderson appears to pushing and prodding every musical tone he can find in as many varied angles as he can – and Wong does the same. Steaming ahead, the two build up a polyphonic head of steam, double and triple-tonguing, appending connective arpeggios and sluicing vamps. Crumbling the lines to fine musical powder, the simultaneous staccato spewing never completely obliterates the piece’s musical shape.

Two years later Anderson’s 80th birthday bash at the new Velvet Lounge, not far from the old location, and featuring 75-year-old Jordan as well, was no exercise in nostalgia. The only bow to the past is that the two-part title tune reflects comparable tough tenor battles of the 1940s and 1950s. Adherents of the style were Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons and most pointedly Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray “The Chase”. However sharp ears will notice that by the end of the almost hour long improv here, both John Colrane and Johnny Griffin have been nodded to as well.

No exercise in neo-con nostalgia, this “Chase” announces its modernity from the top: a capella squeaks and squeals in altissimo variants played by Jordan with vocal exhortations and hard air expelling. Anderson counters with a “Pop Goes the Weasel” theme, Taylor and Bankhead hit, Parker twangs – and the chase is on. Jordan, a horse-raising aficionado, uses smears, clipped notes and effective glossolalia to take the lead as Anderson canters besides him with lower-pitched contrapuntal runs. Neck and neck, Jordan’s tone is more splintered and almost in the alto range while Anderson’s growls are practically moderato in comparison. Taylor’s ruffs and flams plus Bankhead’s walking stay back on the track, while Parker’s knob-twisting licks and abrasive twanging provide the equivalent of a spur to a horse’s flanks.

Eventually as diaphragm-vibrated timbres, elastic tonal interpolations and ragged split tones rend the air, both tenor men reach an extended rapprochement. Agitato and staccatissimo, neither can best the other – if that ever was the intention – and each maintains his distinctive identity. Getting to the point where each finishes each other’s phrases, a coda includes Jordan’s nod to Griffin via a quote from “Wade in the Water” and Anderson to Coltrane with a snatch of “A Love Supreme”. The finale showcases perfect parlando double counterpoint.

Bankhead’s sul ponticello introduction of the second part spectacularly exposes both the root notes and their fundamentals, but this pacific interlude soon gives way to more reed flaunting, taken chromatically or in broken octaves. Here and throughout the rest of the CD, the heavily vibrated multiphonic reed runs shares space with the guitarist’s curvaceous strums plus an occasional clank and click from the drummer. With Trane’s “Cousin Mary” and “Giant Steps” alluded to, the two wrap up the exciting essay in impov by honoring their direct influence as well as their tenor forefathers.

An equivalent chase in the future from others would undoubtedly have to touch on the saxophone advances of Anderson himself. From the originator, however, most of are exhibited in multi-faceted examples on these four discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 21st: 1. 21st Century Chase Part I 2. 21st Century Chase Part II 3. Ode to Alvin Fielder

Personnel: 21st: Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophones); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Birthday: 1. 22:40 2. 13:14 3. 14:24

Personnel: Birthday: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Staying: 1. Sunday Afternoon 2. The Elephant and the Bee 3. 60 Degrees in November 4. Wandering 5. Springing Winter 6. Changes and Bodies and Tones

Personnel: Staying: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Tin Daisy (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Andersonville 2. Acceleration 3. Beyond the Bridge 4. Positive Changes 5. Best Time of Life 6. Discreet Identifier

Personnel: Live: Fred Anderson and Francis Wong (tenor saxophones); Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

December 17, 2009

Fred Anderson Quartet

Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III
Asian Improv AIR 0074

Fred Anderson

Staying in the Game

Engine e029

Fred Anderson Trio

Birthday Live 2000

Asian Improv AIR “Official Bootleg”

Fred Anderson

21st Century Chase

Delmark DE 589

Consistency of expression is what has characterized the playing of Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson over the years. Furthermore, unlike many other musicians, there hasn’t been a subsequent lessening of his powers as he ages. As a matter of fact, now that he’s reached the venerable age of 80, his improvisational skills are at an exalted peak. Listen to these CDs for proof. They were recorded not only at Anderson’s 80th Birthday Bash, but when he was a comparative youngster of 79, 78 and even 71.

A founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, who recorded sparingly between the late 1960s and mid-1990s, Anderson has nurtured some of Chicago’s younger talents both by gigging with them, as well as giving them a place to play in his now legendary Velvet Lounge. Those years out of the limelight also created an idiosyncratic soloist, who – like Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy before him – now possesses an unmistaken reed texture whose sharp split tones carve a unique niche in every tune. Not only does the sax man put a lie to the cliché that “jazz is a young man’s art”, but he also proves that when they age jazzman don’t have to be cuddly and comfortable like Doc Cheatham or Eubie Blake. Additionally, as he demonstrates in four contexts here, stamina, innovation and sonic color aren’t the preserve of any generation. His playing can be threatening to saxophonists of any age.

Over the years Anderson has developed a tight coterie of associates, with many turning up on these discs. The oldest session, Birthday Live 2000, is a trio CD with bassist Tatsu Aoki and drummer Chad Taylor. Seven years later, with Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, Taylor and Aoki are still on board and tenor saxophonist Francis Wong joins the trio. Staying in the Game – an understatement if there ever was one when Anderson is concerned – from 2008, features him with bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Tim Daisy. Finally 21st Century Chase from 2009, retains Bankhead, brings back Taylor and adds guitarist Jeff Parker and tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan – the later five years Anderson’s junior – whose tenure on the New Orleans scene is roughly analogous to Anderson’s in Chicago.

Anderson’s mature style is much in evidence as early as the first track on Birthday Live 2000. Both incendiary and knife-sharp, his carved-up timbres partition still further as he churns out double-and-triple tongued trills plus jagged Woody Woodpecker-like bites. Rappelling from just below the ligature down through the bow to the bell of his horn and back up again, the saxophonist’s glissandi radiate every which way. His explorations are backed by slapping bass strings plus opposite sticking and cross pulsing from Taylor.

Indefatigable and seemingly never at a lack for ideas – or breath, Anderson brings the same toughness to the third tune, which for all intents and purposes resembles a blues-flecked ballad. After an a capella intro from the tenorist, Aoki’s vibrating and quavering bass line moulds itself around Anderson’s rasping notes as the narrative is lengthened with emphasized phraseology and half-recognizable quotes from other tunes.

Flash forward eight years, and while Anderson has maintained his form, his playing is mellower. Bankhead’s supple walking now explores additional peaks and valleys in his accompaniment, while Daisy’s rolls, pops and bass drum kicks are as sturdy as Anderson’s solos. With the sidemen proficient players on other instruments as well as their own, intimations of other textures – if not the instruments themselves – show up on several tracks.

You could swear for instance that kalimba plucks are pressed into service on “Wandering”, or that Bankhead – who plays the six-string – has added guitar licks to his backing as well. Still the saxophone lines are moderato and unstrained, languid enough to indulge in an interlude of parlando, seconded by Bankhead’s unforced bass strokes. Similarly Daisy’s mallet-driven pulses on “Changes and Bodies and Tones” border on marimba textures as the bassist’s sul ponticello squeaks are moderated mid-range. Summing up the situation, Anderson builds his solo with pointillism, elongating and expanding note dabs and smears into a cohesive whole.

Mellow, yet still tough in his outings, the saxophonist manages to stretch tones almost to the breaking point, without ever severing the thematic thread. If he overblows while vibrating his horn’s metal, as he does on “60 Degrees in November”, the supplementary intervals and vibrations are perfectly balanced as they’re masticated with bites and tongue slaps. Chromatic improvisations from all hold everything together.

This relaxed, yet bellicose command is maintained when facing off against another tenor man, as Anderson does on the last two discs. No one plays for almost 70 years without devising strategies for different situations. Recorded at 2007’s Chicago Asian Jazz Festival, Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, for instance, allows the veteran tenor saxophonist to maintain his parameters throughout.

Case in point is a tune such as “Beyond the Bridge”. The head is sounded by Anderson’s harsh, irregular vibrato, then echoed with similar – but more accommodating – tones from Wong’s sax. Gritty, with reed bites and tongue stops, the two aurally march in unison with Taylor’s sticks flying into ruffs and rebounds and Aoki stop-start bass thumps. At times Wong, whose timbre is thinner than Anderson’s, could be playing “Hickory, Dickory Dock” as he operates in double counterpoint to the older saxophonist. That is until the drummer’s double-timed ratamacues and the bassist’s vibrating strings push Anderson to unleash his idiosyncratic stabbing pitches which are then answered by jagged, staccato octaves from the younger saxophonist.

An equivalent tart interface occurs on “Positive Changes”. However the impetus for Anderson and Wong combining for a series of tongue flutters and split tones which modulate up the scale with rubato intonation is some impressive bass work from Aoki. Moving beyond sul ponticello to a strained, near-vocalized pitch, the bassist descends the scale while sounding every string simultaneously.

The scene had been set with “Andersonville”, where each player stakes out his individual musical turf. Aoki’s thumps and pumps, Taylor’s whapping snares and cymbal vibrations plus the lockstep reed-biting and sonic curves from the saxophonists kick in almost as soon as Anderson sounds his signature ferocious cry. From then on Anderson appears to pushing and prodding every musical tone he can find in as many varied angles as he can – and Wong does the same. Steaming ahead, the two build up a polyphonic head of steam, double and triple-tonguing, appending connective arpeggios and sluicing vamps. Crumbling the lines to fine musical powder, the simultaneous staccato spewing never completely obliterates the piece’s musical shape.

Two years later Anderson’s 80th birthday bash at the new Velvet Lounge, not far from the old location, and featuring 75-year-old Jordan as well, was no exercise in nostalgia. The only bow to the past is that the two-part title tune reflects comparable tough tenor battles of the 1940s and 1950s. Adherents of the style were Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons and most pointedly Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray “The Chase”. However sharp ears will notice that by the end of the almost hour long improv here, both John Colrane and Johnny Griffin have been nodded to as well.

No exercise in neo-con nostalgia, this “Chase” announces its modernity from the top: a capella squeaks and squeals in altissimo variants played by Jordan with vocal exhortations and hard air expelling. Anderson counters with a “Pop Goes the Weasel” theme, Taylor and Bankhead hit, Parker twangs – and the chase is on. Jordan, a horse-raising aficionado, uses smears, clipped notes and effective glossolalia to take the lead as Anderson canters besides him with lower-pitched contrapuntal runs. Neck and neck, Jordan’s tone is more splintered and almost in the alto range while Anderson’s growls are practically moderato in comparison. Taylor’s ruffs and flams plus Bankhead’s walking stay back on the track, while Parker’s knob-twisting licks and abrasive twanging provide the equivalent of a spur to a horse’s flanks.

Eventually as diaphragm-vibrated timbres, elastic tonal interpolations and ragged split tones rend the air, both tenor men reach an extended rapprochement. Agitato and staccatissimo, neither can best the other – if that ever was the intention – and each maintains his distinctive identity. Getting to the point where each finishes each other’s phrases, a coda includes Jordan’s nod to Griffin via a quote from “Wade in the Water” and Anderson to Coltrane with a snatch of “A Love Supreme”. The finale showcases perfect parlando double counterpoint.

Bankhead’s sul ponticello introduction of the second part spectacularly exposes both the root notes and their fundamentals, but this pacific interlude soon gives way to more reed flaunting, taken chromatically or in broken octaves. Here and throughout the rest of the CD, the heavily vibrated multiphonic reed runs shares space with the guitarist’s curvaceous strums plus an occasional clank and click from the drummer. With Trane’s “Cousin Mary” and “Giant Steps” alluded to, the two wrap up the exciting essay in impov by honoring their direct influence as well as their tenor forefathers.

An equivalent chase in the future from others would undoubtedly have to touch on the saxophone advances of Anderson himself. From the originator, however, most of are exhibited in multi-faceted examples on these four discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 21st: 1. 21st Century Chase Part I 2. 21st Century Chase Part II 3. Ode to Alvin Fielder

Personnel: 21st: Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophones); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Birthday: 1. 22:40 2. 13:14 3. 14:24

Personnel: Birthday: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Staying: 1. Sunday Afternoon 2. The Elephant and the Bee 3. 60 Degrees in November 4. Wandering 5. Springing Winter 6. Changes and Bodies and Tones

Personnel: Staying: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Tin Daisy (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Andersonville 2. Acceleration 3. Beyond the Bridge 4. Positive Changes 5. Best Time of Life 6. Discreet Identifier

Personnel: Live: Fred Anderson and Francis Wong (tenor saxophones); Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

December 17, 2009

Fred Anderson

Staying in the Game
Engine e029

Fred Anderson Quartet

Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III

Asian Improv AIR 0074

Fred Anderson Trio

Birthday Live 2000

Asian Improv AIR “Official Bootleg”

Fred Anderson

21st Century Chase

Delmark DE 589

Consistency of expression is what has characterized the playing of Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson over the years. Furthermore, unlike many other musicians, there hasn’t been a subsequent lessening of his powers as he ages. As a matter of fact, now that he’s reached the venerable age of 80, his improvisational skills are at an exalted peak. Listen to these CDs for proof. They were recorded not only at Anderson’s 80th Birthday Bash, but when he was a comparative youngster of 79, 78 and even 71.

A founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, who recorded sparingly between the late 1960s and mid-1990s, Anderson has nurtured some of Chicago’s younger talents both by gigging with them, as well as giving them a place to play in his now legendary Velvet Lounge. Those years out of the limelight also created an idiosyncratic soloist, who – like Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy before him – now possesses an unmistaken reed texture whose sharp split tones carve a unique niche in every tune. Not only does the sax man put a lie to the cliché that “jazz is a young man’s art”, but he also proves that when they age jazzman don’t have to be cuddly and comfortable like Doc Cheatham or Eubie Blake. Additionally, as he demonstrates in four contexts here, stamina, innovation and sonic color aren’t the preserve of any generation. His playing can be threatening to saxophonists of any age.

Over the years Anderson has developed a tight coterie of associates, with many turning up on these discs. The oldest session, Birthday Live 2000, is a trio CD with bassist Tatsu Aoki and drummer Chad Taylor. Seven years later, with Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, Taylor and Aoki are still on board and tenor saxophonist Francis Wong joins the trio. Staying in the Game – an understatement if there ever was one when Anderson is concerned – from 2008, features him with bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Tim Daisy. Finally 21st Century Chase from 2009, retains Bankhead, brings back Taylor and adds guitarist Jeff Parker and tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan – the later five years Anderson’s junior – whose tenure on the New Orleans scene is roughly analogous to Anderson’s in Chicago.

Anderson’s mature style is much in evidence as early as the first track on Birthday Live 2000. Both incendiary and knife-sharp, his carved-up timbres partition still further as he churns out double-and-triple tongued trills plus jagged Woody Woodpecker-like bites. Rappelling from just below the ligature down through the bow to the bell of his horn and back up again, the saxophonist’s glissandi radiate every which way. His explorations are backed by slapping bass strings plus opposite sticking and cross pulsing from Taylor.

Indefatigable and seemingly never at a lack for ideas – or breath, Anderson brings the same toughness to the third tune, which for all intents and purposes resembles a blues-flecked ballad. After an a capella intro from the tenorist, Aoki’s vibrating and quavering bass line moulds itself around Anderson’s rasping notes as the narrative is lengthened with emphasized phraseology and half-recognizable quotes from other tunes.

Flash forward eight years, and while Anderson has maintained his form, his playing is mellower. Bankhead’s supple walking now explores additional peaks and valleys in his accompaniment, while Daisy’s rolls, pops and bass drum kicks are as sturdy as Anderson’s solos. With the sidemen proficient players on other instruments as well as their own, intimations of other textures – if not the instruments themselves – show up on several tracks.

You could swear for instance that kalimba plucks are pressed into service on “Wandering”, or that Bankhead – who plays the six-string – has added guitar licks to his backing as well. Still the saxophone lines are moderato and unstrained, languid enough to indulge in an interlude of parlando, seconded by Bankhead’s unforced bass strokes. Similarly Daisy’s mallet-driven pulses on “Changes and Bodies and Tones” border on marimba textures as the bassist’s sul ponticello squeaks are moderated mid-range. Summing up the situation, Anderson builds his solo with pointillism, elongating and expanding note dabs and smears into a cohesive whole.

Mellow, yet still tough in his outings, the saxophonist manages to stretch tones almost to the breaking point, without ever severing the thematic thread. If he overblows while vibrating his horn’s metal, as he does on “60 Degrees in November”, the supplementary intervals and vibrations are perfectly balanced as they’re masticated with bites and tongue slaps. Chromatic improvisations from all hold everything together.

This relaxed, yet bellicose command is maintained when facing off against another tenor man, as Anderson does on the last two discs. No one plays for almost 70 years without devising strategies for different situations. Recorded at 2007’s Chicago Asian Jazz Festival, Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, for instance, allows the veteran tenor saxophonist to maintain his parameters throughout.

Case in point is a tune such as “Beyond the Bridge”. The head is sounded by Anderson’s harsh, irregular vibrato, then echoed with similar – but more accommodating – tones from Wong’s sax. Gritty, with reed bites and tongue stops, the two aurally march in unison with Taylor’s sticks flying into ruffs and rebounds and Aoki stop-start bass thumps. At times Wong, whose timbre is thinner than Anderson’s, could be playing “Hickory, Dickory Dock” as he operates in double counterpoint to the older saxophonist. That is until the drummer’s double-timed ratamacues and the bassist’s vibrating strings push Anderson to unleash his idiosyncratic stabbing pitches which are then answered by jagged, staccato octaves from the younger saxophonist.

An equivalent tart interface occurs on “Positive Changes”. However the impetus for Anderson and Wong combining for a series of tongue flutters and split tones which modulate up the scale with rubato intonation is some impressive bass work from Aoki. Moving beyond sul ponticello to a strained, near-vocalized pitch, the bassist descends the scale while sounding every string simultaneously.

The scene had been set with “Andersonville”, where each player stakes out his individual musical turf. Aoki’s thumps and pumps, Taylor’s whapping snares and cymbal vibrations plus the lockstep reed-biting and sonic curves from the saxophonists kick in almost as soon as Anderson sounds his signature ferocious cry. From then on Anderson appears to pushing and prodding every musical tone he can find in as many varied angles as he can – and Wong does the same. Steaming ahead, the two build up a polyphonic head of steam, double and triple-tonguing, appending connective arpeggios and sluicing vamps. Crumbling the lines to fine musical powder, the simultaneous staccato spewing never completely obliterates the piece’s musical shape.

Two years later Anderson’s 80th birthday bash at the new Velvet Lounge, not far from the old location, and featuring 75-year-old Jordan as well, was no exercise in nostalgia. The only bow to the past is that the two-part title tune reflects comparable tough tenor battles of the 1940s and 1950s. Adherents of the style were Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons and most pointedly Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray “The Chase”. However sharp ears will notice that by the end of the almost hour long improv here, both John Colrane and Johnny Griffin have been nodded to as well.

No exercise in neo-con nostalgia, this “Chase” announces its modernity from the top: a capella squeaks and squeals in altissimo variants played by Jordan with vocal exhortations and hard air expelling. Anderson counters with a “Pop Goes the Weasel” theme, Taylor and Bankhead hit, Parker twangs – and the chase is on. Jordan, a horse-raising aficionado, uses smears, clipped notes and effective glossolalia to take the lead as Anderson canters besides him with lower-pitched contrapuntal runs. Neck and neck, Jordan’s tone is more splintered and almost in the alto range while Anderson’s growls are practically moderato in comparison. Taylor’s ruffs and flams plus Bankhead’s walking stay back on the track, while Parker’s knob-twisting licks and abrasive twanging provide the equivalent of a spur to a horse’s flanks.

Eventually as diaphragm-vibrated timbres, elastic tonal interpolations and ragged split tones rend the air, both tenor men reach an extended rapprochement. Agitato and staccatissimo, neither can best the other – if that ever was the intention – and each maintains his distinctive identity. Getting to the point where each finishes each other’s phrases, a coda includes Jordan’s nod to Griffin via a quote from “Wade in the Water” and Anderson to Coltrane with a snatch of “A Love Supreme”. The finale showcases perfect parlando double counterpoint.

Bankhead’s sul ponticello introduction of the second part spectacularly exposes both the root notes and their fundamentals, but this pacific interlude soon gives way to more reed flaunting, taken chromatically or in broken octaves. Here and throughout the rest of the CD, the heavily vibrated multiphonic reed runs shares space with the guitarist’s curvaceous strums plus an occasional clank and click from the drummer. With Trane’s “Cousin Mary” and “Giant Steps” alluded to, the two wrap up the exciting essay in impov by honoring their direct influence as well as their tenor forefathers.

An equivalent chase in the future from others would undoubtedly have to touch on the saxophone advances of Anderson himself. From the originator, however, most of are exhibited in multi-faceted examples on these four discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 21st: 1. 21st Century Chase Part I 2. 21st Century Chase Part II 3. Ode to Alvin Fielder

Personnel: 21st: Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophones); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Birthday: 1. 22:40 2. 13:14 3. 14:24

Personnel: Birthday: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Staying: 1. Sunday Afternoon 2. The Elephant and the Bee 3. 60 Degrees in November 4. Wandering 5. Springing Winter 6. Changes and Bodies and Tones

Personnel: Staying: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Tin Daisy (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Andersonville 2. Acceleration 3. Beyond the Bridge 4. Positive Changes 5. Best Time of Life 6. Discreet Identifier

Personnel: Live: Fred Anderson and Francis Wong (tenor saxophones); Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

December 17, 2009

Tom Abbs & Frequency Response

Lost & Found
Engine e031

Multi-instrumentalist Tom Abbs is likewise multi-talented, as he demonstrates on the 18 structured improvisations on this CD. But of course, Seattle-born, Brooklyn-based Abbs – who plays bass, cello and tuba – couldn’t go it alone.

Frequency Response is a well-balanced ensemble, which is able to express Abbs’ and others’ ideas through the skills of saxophonist/flautist Brian Settles, who also works with drummer Tomas Fujiwara; violinist Jean Cook, part of the Gena Rowlands band; and especially drummer Chad Taylor. Not only is Taylor, one-third of Triptych Myth with Abbs and pianist Cooper-Moore, but he has also worked with musicians as different as veteran Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians’ saxophonist Fred Anderson and experimental cornetist Rob Mazurek. With Settles mostly sticking to tenor saxophone, plus Cook’s fiddle fillips, the quartet is still able to express itself in a variety of forms.

“Consolation” for example, backs legato string pulsations with Abbs’ thumping bass lines and rims shots from Taylor. As the strings dialogue in double-counterpoint tremolo, Settles expands his tone with unexpected wiggling timbres. “Cross” on the other hand, chugs along with a balanced, yet off-kilter marching band pulse. Along the way, lowing peal point from Abbs’ tuba harmonizes with the saxman’s mid-range flutters and trills. The finale is a Taylor solo encompassing cross sticking, opposite sticking and rim shots.

Meanwhile “Parse”, with Abbs on cello, is reminiscent of the string-centred dates tenor man Rev. Frank Wright made for ESP-Disk in the 1960s. Abrasive, coloration depends on the pointillism of sul ponticello string dabs ranging across the sound field to hook up with Settles’ intermittent reed honks. Then there’s “Pedestrian”, which is anything but. Instead it’s an allegro showpiece designed to inflate the tonal colors with slinky, effortless reed obbligatos from Settles, arpeggio-rich, guitar-like strumming from Abbs and stop-time percussion from Taylor’s toms, cymbals and whacked wood blocks.

“Tightrope” is a showcase foe the saxophonist. Here subterranean vibrations and flutter-tongued reflux lead to a basso elaboration of the swinging theme. As Taylor strokes and sounds press rolls and Abbs walking bass provide the backing, Settles deconstructs his part down to miniscule air puffs.

If there is criticism that can be directed towards Abbs and Frequency Response, it’s the sheer number of tracks on this CD. Now that band members have confirmed their versatility and responsiveness on this session – their third – it would appear to be time to attempt something lengthier. As good as this CD is, let’s see how the four interact during a composition of 20 minutes or longer.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Lost 2. Static 3. Torn 4. Suspect 5. Lock 6. Tidal 7. Parse 8. Consolation 9. Bars 10. Box 11. Cross 12. Pin Top 13. Pedestrian 14. Strung 15. Tightrope 16. Missing 17. Found 18. Reflection.

Personnel: Brian Settles (tenor and soprano saxophones and flute); Jean Cook (violin [except 2, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15]); Tom Abbs (bass, cello and tuba) and Chad Taylor (drums)

December 17, 2009

Keune-Schneider-Krämer

No Comment
FMP CD 133

Tony Bevan/Chris Corsano/Dominic Lash

Monster Club

Foghorn FGCD 010

Avram Fefer Trio

Ritual

Clean Feed CF 145 CD

Pedants who classify Free Music according to countries or areas of origin will likely be flummoxed by this trio of saxophone-bass-drums sessions from the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. While each is striking, not one traffics in the clichés associated with regionally based sounds.

British improvisation, for instance, is often described as “insect music”, made up of miniscule, understated gestures and sounds. Monster Club – note the in-your-face title – is anything but that. Lead by reedist Tony Bevan, who has collaborated as much with pioneering Free Jazz drummer Sunny Murray as Free Music forefather guitarist Derek Bailey, the sounds on the CD’s four tracks are often rip-snorting and riotous. Part of this may be attributed to Bevan’s young associates. Oxford-based bassist Dominic Lash not only works regularly with lower-case improvisers such as violinist Angharad Davies, but also with outgoing North Americans like cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and percussionist Harris Eisenstadt. Uncompromising saxophonist Paul Flaherty is a frequent playing partner for drummer Chris Corsano, part of the Sunburned Hand of Man avant-rock band.

Unlike the expected bellicose and shrieking interface pigeonholers associate with German Free Jazz, the Keune-Schneider-Krämer trio seems to take part of its orientation from the shaded timbre-stretching of classic U.K. Free Music. Tellingly, two of the band members’ closest associates are British: saxophonist Stefan Keune with guitarist John Russell and bassist Hans Schneider with cornetist Mark Charig. The bassist was also affiliated with pianist Georg Gräwe, as was drummer Achim Krämer. No Comment isn’t insect music either, however. There are enough spicatto lines, split tone and snare drum strokes to add a touch of mammalian interplay to the sounds. But the resulting mercurial blasts are tempered with restraint.

So too is the music of American multi-reedman Avram Fefer, who has played and lived in both Europe and the U.S. A duo partner of pianist Bobby Few, Fefer’s helpmates here are bassist Eric Revis, who oddly enough works regularly with mainstream saxophonist Branford Marsalis; and drummer Chad Taylor, a member of the Chicago Underground bands who has played with people as varied as multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore, guitarist Marc Ribot and saxophonist Fred Anderson.

To be more descriptive, Monster Club ’s most forceful performance is the 38-minute “This is Murder”. Beginning with almost off-mike sul ponticello strokes from Lash and leveraging drum head recoils from Corsano, it expands as Bevan blasts Bronx cheers, unearthly werewolf-like wails and subterranean slurs from his bass saxophone, settling the chromatic action into an adagio tempo. After parrying sideswipes from the bassist, Bevan moves the tempo to andante with a series of snorts that precede wriggling split tones and reed-biting stops. Fortissimo his largo timbres operating in double counterpoint with Lash’s strummed arpeggios as Corsano multiples his pardiddles, pops and ratamacues. As his sheets of sounds unroll with multiphonic theme variations, the saxophonist’s guttural yowls resonate and reflect back onto themselves, at least until Lash recreates the original head.

None of the other tunes maintain this fortissimo intensity for such an extended period, but the cumulative effect of the three-part interface is staggering. However, among Corsano’s flams, rebounds and rolls, Lash’s boiling sprawls and plucks plus Bevan’s spectrofluction, glossolalia, reed bites and guttural pumps, a satisfying concurrence is attained. Apparent too is the band’s distinctive originality.

Similarly Fefer’s aural trio essay manages an attachment to both the pre- and the post-Free Jazz tradition. As a matter of fact, the top of “Club Foot”, featuring Fefer’s curvaceous soprano saxophone line and Taylor’s tambourine-enhanced strokes, sounds like a variant on “Night in Tunisia”. In between episodes of triple-tonguing timbral variations from the reed man, who could be playing a musette, Revis’ solid resonation and Taylor’s press rolls and bass drum smacks lead to a set of phraseology variations from Fefer than to a higher-pitched recap of the head.

This parallel strategy is apparent in other tines such as “Feb. 13th” and “Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing” as each trio member adds something unique to the improvisations. The former for instance, with Fefer on tenor saxophone, approximates a balladic mode. Thick, connective bass lines plus cymbal slaps and rim shots confidentially frame the reedist’s honks as well as his double-and-triple tongued extensions and key pops.

“Sheep” on the other hand, features smoothly vibrated flutters from Fefer using a juicy, lyrical tone. Additional reed heft arises when he blows his alto and tenor saxophones simultaneously. Untangling the lines as he blows – with reed-biting forays into the altissimo range – Fefer builds to a climax of sharp, staccato notes that fade into Revis’ straight-ahead walking and Taylor’s back beat clip clops.

Although the German trio here functions as democratically as the other two, Krämer’s percussion forays give it a distinctive feel. Many times his mallet-on-metal resonations sound as if they’re reverberating from a gong or bell tree rather than from conventional cymbals.

Similarly, Schneider eschews walking about 90 per cent of the time, preferring to make his points with arched sul tasto lines, scrubbing sul ponticello extensions and double-stopped and double-pumped emphasis. A track like “Details” for example, depends on the bassist’s abrasive string-scrubbing and strongman-like swipes, as the drummer replicates a creaking door hinge and the saxophonist puffs out squeals, singular reed bites and spetrofluctuation.

“Rough Edges” – which provides a succinct description of most of the tracks on No Comment – finds Keune on baritone saxophone, mixing strident cries and bell-muted, chalumeau snorts. At times he could be playing duets with himself. Meanwhile Krämer accelerates his thwacks and snaps with flams, drags and ruffs, allowing the reedist free range to busy himself with Brötzmann-like slap-tonguing and overblowing.

Interconnected, the three sonically sum up their philosophy, with a noticeable level of concordance on “Rapid Movement”, the CD’s final track. Krämer pings his cymbals and pops his drum tops so they resemble conga drums; and Schneider vibrates tremolo sul tasto patterns. Meanwhile Keune’s vocalized overblowing reaches such a state of timbre-straining that the fear arises that he will push himself into squeaking solipsism. Just in the nick of time, Krämer’s rattling and rebounds bring the reedist back into the orbit of the other two’s lines and all reach a trembling, abrasive climax.

Geographic divisions are pushed to one side on these CDs, as each trio produces outstanding work.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ritual: 1. Testament 2. Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing 3. Ritual 4. Feb. 13th 5. Blinky Polermo 6. Club Foot 7. Ripple 8. Outspoken 9. When the Spirit Moves You

Personnel: Ritual: Avram Fefer (soprano, alto and tenor saxophones and bass clarinet); Eric Revis (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Monster: 1. I Think That’ll Be OK … 2. Monster Club 3. This is Murder 4. You’re Telling Me!

Personnel: Monster: Tony Bevan (soprano, tenor and bass saxophones); Dominic Lash (bass) and Chris Corsano (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Comment: 1. In Layers 2. Handpicked 3. Brushes 4. Raw 5. Rough Edges 6. Splinters 7. Details 8. Chunks 9. Mesh 10. Spick and Span 11. Rapid Movement

Personnel: Comment: Stefan Keune (sopranino, tenor and baritone saxophones); Hans Schneider (bass) and Achim Krämer (drums and percussion)

August 3, 2009

Avram Fefer Trio

Ritual
Clean Feed CF 145 CD

Tony Bevan/Chris Corsano/Dominic Lash

Monster Club

Foghorn FGCD 010

Keune-Schneider-Krämer

No Comment

FMP CD 133

Pedants who classify Free Music according to countries or areas of origin will likely be flummoxed by this trio of saxophone-bass-drums sessions from the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. While each is striking, not one traffics in the clichés associated with regionally based sounds.

British improvisation, for instance, is often described as “insect music”, made up of miniscule, understated gestures and sounds. Monster Club – note the in-your-face title – is anything but that. Lead by reedist Tony Bevan, who has collaborated as much with pioneering Free Jazz drummer Sunny Murray as Free Music forefather guitarist Derek Bailey, the sounds on the CD’s four tracks are often rip-snorting and riotous. Part of this may be attributed to Bevan’s young associates. Oxford-based bassist Dominic Lash not only works regularly with lower-case improvisers such as violinist Angharad Davies, but also with outgoing North Americans like cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and percussionist Harris Eisenstadt. Uncompromising saxophonist Paul Flaherty is a frequent playing partner for drummer Chris Corsano, part of the Sunburned Hand of Man avant-rock band.

Unlike the expected bellicose and shrieking interface pigeonholers associate with German Free Jazz, the Keune-Schneider-Krämer trio seems to take part of its orientation from the shaded timbre-stretching of classic U.K. Free Music. Tellingly, two of the band members’ closest associates are British: saxophonist Stefan Keune with guitarist John Russell and bassist Hans Schneider with cornetist Mark Charig. The bassist was also affiliated with pianist Georg Gräwe, as was drummer Achim Krämer. No Comment isn’t insect music either, however. There are enough spicatto lines, split tone and snare drum strokes to add a touch of mammalian interplay to the sounds. But the resulting mercurial blasts are tempered with restraint.

So too is the music of American multi-reedman Avram Fefer, who has played and lived in both Europe and the U.S. A duo partner of pianist Bobby Few, Fefer’s helpmates here are bassist Eric Revis, who oddly enough works regularly with mainstream saxophonist Branford Marsalis; and drummer Chad Taylor, a member of the Chicago Underground bands who has played with people as varied as multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore, guitarist Marc Ribot and saxophonist Fred Anderson.

To be more descriptive, Monster Club ’s most forceful performance is the 38-minute “This is Murder”. Beginning with almost off-mike sul ponticello strokes from Lash and leveraging drum head recoils from Corsano, it expands as Bevan blasts Bronx cheers, unearthly werewolf-like wails and subterranean slurs from his bass saxophone, settling the chromatic action into an adagio tempo. After parrying sideswipes from the bassist, Bevan moves the tempo to andante with a series of snorts that precede wriggling split tones and reed-biting stops. Fortissimo his largo timbres operating in double counterpoint with Lash’s strummed arpeggios as Corsano multiples his pardiddles, pops and ratamacues. As his sheets of sounds unroll with multiphonic theme variations, the saxophonist’s guttural yowls resonate and reflect back onto themselves, at least until Lash recreates the original head.

None of the other tunes maintain this fortissimo intensity for such an extended period, but the cumulative effect of the three-part interface is staggering. However, among Corsano’s flams, rebounds and rolls, Lash’s boiling sprawls and plucks plus Bevan’s spectrofluction, glossolalia, reed bites and guttural pumps, a satisfying concurrence is attained. Apparent too is the band’s distinctive originality.

Similarly Fefer’s aural trio essay manages an attachment to both the pre- and the post-Free Jazz tradition. As a matter of fact, the top of “Club Foot”, featuring Fefer’s curvaceous soprano saxophone line and Taylor’s tambourine-enhanced strokes, sounds like a variant on “Night in Tunisia”. In between episodes of triple-tonguing timbral variations from the reed man, who could be playing a musette, Revis’ solid resonation and Taylor’s press rolls and bass drum smacks lead to a set of phraseology variations from Fefer than to a higher-pitched recap of the head.

This parallel strategy is apparent in other tines such as “Feb. 13th” and “Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing” as each trio member adds something unique to the improvisations. The former for instance, with Fefer on tenor saxophone, approximates a balladic mode. Thick, connective bass lines plus cymbal slaps and rim shots confidentially frame the reedist’s honks as well as his double-and-triple tongued extensions and key pops.

“Sheep” on the other hand, features smoothly vibrated flutters from Fefer using a juicy, lyrical tone. Additional reed heft arises when he blows his alto and tenor saxophones simultaneously. Untangling the lines as he blows – with reed-biting forays into the altissimo range – Fefer builds to a climax of sharp, staccato notes that fade into Revis’ straight-ahead walking and Taylor’s back beat clip clops.

Although the German trio here functions as democratically as the other two, Krämer’s percussion forays give it a distinctive feel. Many times his mallet-on-metal resonations sound as if they’re reverberating from a gong or bell tree rather than from conventional cymbals.

Similarly, Schneider eschews walking about 90 per cent of the time, preferring to make his points with arched sul tasto lines, scrubbing sul ponticello extensions and double-stopped and double-pumped emphasis. A track like “Details” for example, depends on the bassist’s abrasive string-scrubbing and strongman-like swipes, as the drummer replicates a creaking door hinge and the saxophonist puffs out squeals, singular reed bites and spetrofluctuation.

“Rough Edges” – which provides a succinct description of most of the tracks on No Comment – finds Keune on baritone saxophone, mixing strident cries and bell-muted, chalumeau snorts. At times he could be playing duets with himself. Meanwhile Krämer accelerates his thwacks and snaps with flams, drags and ruffs, allowing the reedist free range to busy himself with Brötzmann-like slap-tonguing and overblowing.

Interconnected, the three sonically sum up their philosophy, with a noticeable level of concordance on “Rapid Movement”, the CD’s final track. Krämer pings his cymbals and pops his drum tops so they resemble conga drums; and Schneider vibrates tremolo sul tasto patterns. Meanwhile Keune’s vocalized overblowing reaches such a state of timbre-straining that the fear arises that he will push himself into squeaking solipsism. Just in the nick of time, Krämer’s rattling and rebounds bring the reedist back into the orbit of the other two’s lines and all reach a trembling, abrasive climax.

Geographic divisions are pushed to one side on these CDs, as each trio produces outstanding work.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ritual: 1. Testament 2. Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing 3. Ritual 4. Feb. 13th 5. Blinky Polermo 6. Club Foot 7. Ripple 8. Outspoken 9. When the Spirit Moves You

Personnel: Ritual: Avram Fefer (soprano, alto and tenor saxophones and bass clarinet); Eric Revis (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Monster: 1. I Think That’ll Be OK … 2. Monster Club 3. This is Murder 4. You’re Telling Me!

Personnel: Monster: Tony Bevan (soprano, tenor and bass saxophones); Dominic Lash (bass) and Chris Corsano (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Comment: 1. In Layers 2. Handpicked 3. Brushes 4. Raw 5. Rough Edges 6. Splinters 7. Details 8. Chunks 9. Mesh 10. Spick and Span 11. Rapid Movement

Personnel: Comment: Stefan Keune (sopranino, tenor and baritone saxophones); Hans Schneider (bass) and Achim Krämer (drums and percussion)

August 3, 2009

Tony Bevan/Chris Corsano/Dominic Lash

Monster Club
Foghorn FGCD 010

Keune-Schneider-Krämer

No Comment

FMP CD 133

Avram Fefer Trio

Ritual

Clean Feed CF 145 CD

Pedants who classify Free Music according to countries or areas of origin will likely be flummoxed by this trio of saxophone-bass-drums sessions from the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. While each is striking, not one traffics in the clichés associated with regionally based sounds.

British improvisation, for instance, is often described as “insect music”, made up of miniscule, understated gestures and sounds. Monster Club – note the in-your-face title – is anything but that. Lead by reedist Tony Bevan, who has collaborated as much with pioneering Free Jazz drummer Sunny Murray as Free Music forefather guitarist Derek Bailey, the sounds on the CD’s four tracks are often rip-snorting and riotous. Part of this may be attributed to Bevan’s young associates. Oxford-based bassist Dominic Lash not only works regularly with lower-case improvisers such as violinist Angharad Davies, but also with outgoing North Americans like cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and percussionist Harris Eisenstadt. Uncompromising saxophonist Paul Flaherty is a frequent playing partner for drummer Chris Corsano, part of the Sunburned Hand of Man avant-rock band.

Unlike the expected bellicose and shrieking interface pigeonholers associate with German Free Jazz, the Keune-Schneider-Krämer trio seems to take part of its orientation from the shaded timbre-stretching of classic U.K. Free Music. Tellingly, two of the band members’ closest associates are British: saxophonist Stefan Keune with guitarist John Russell and bassist Hans Schneider with cornetist Mark Charig. The bassist was also affiliated with pianist Georg Gräwe, as was drummer Achim Krämer. No Comment isn’t insect music either, however. There are enough spicatto lines, split tone and snare drum strokes to add a touch of mammalian interplay to the sounds. But the resulting mercurial blasts are tempered with restraint.

So too is the music of American multi-reedman Avram Fefer, who has played and lived in both Europe and the U.S. A duo partner of pianist Bobby Few, Fefer’s helpmates here are bassist Eric Revis, who oddly enough works regularly with mainstream saxophonist Branford Marsalis; and drummer Chad Taylor, a member of the Chicago Underground bands who has played with people as varied as multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore, guitarist Marc Ribot and saxophonist Fred Anderson.

To be more descriptive, Monster Club ’s most forceful performance is the 38-minute “This is Murder”. Beginning with almost off-mike sul ponticello strokes from Lash and leveraging drum head recoils from Corsano, it expands as Bevan blasts Bronx cheers, unearthly werewolf-like wails and subterranean slurs from his bass saxophone, settling the chromatic action into an adagio tempo. After parrying sideswipes from the bassist, Bevan moves the tempo to andante with a series of snorts that precede wriggling split tones and reed-biting stops. Fortissimo his largo timbres operating in double counterpoint with Lash’s strummed arpeggios as Corsano multiples his pardiddles, pops and ratamacues. As his sheets of sounds unroll with multiphonic theme variations, the saxophonist’s guttural yowls resonate and reflect back onto themselves, at least until Lash recreates the original head.

None of the other tunes maintain this fortissimo intensity for such an extended period, but the cumulative effect of the three-part interface is staggering. However, among Corsano’s flams, rebounds and rolls, Lash’s boiling sprawls and plucks plus Bevan’s spectrofluction, glossolalia, reed bites and guttural pumps, a satisfying concurrence is attained. Apparent too is the band’s distinctive originality.

Similarly Fefer’s aural trio essay manages an attachment to both the pre- and the post-Free Jazz tradition. As a matter of fact, the top of “Club Foot”, featuring Fefer’s curvaceous soprano saxophone line and Taylor’s tambourine-enhanced strokes, sounds like a variant on “Night in Tunisia”. In between episodes of triple-tonguing timbral variations from the reed man, who could be playing a musette, Revis’ solid resonation and Taylor’s press rolls and bass drum smacks lead to a set of phraseology variations from Fefer than to a higher-pitched recap of the head.

This parallel strategy is apparent in other tines such as “Feb. 13th” and “Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing” as each trio member adds something unique to the improvisations. The former for instance, with Fefer on tenor saxophone, approximates a balladic mode. Thick, connective bass lines plus cymbal slaps and rim shots confidentially frame the reedist’s honks as well as his double-and-triple tongued extensions and key pops.

“Sheep” on the other hand, features smoothly vibrated flutters from Fefer using a juicy, lyrical tone. Additional reed heft arises when he blows his alto and tenor saxophones simultaneously. Untangling the lines as he blows – with reed-biting forays into the altissimo range – Fefer builds to a climax of sharp, staccato notes that fade into Revis’ straight-ahead walking and Taylor’s back beat clip clops.

Although the German trio here functions as democratically as the other two, Krämer’s percussion forays give it a distinctive feel. Many times his mallet-on-metal resonations sound as if they’re reverberating from a gong or bell tree rather than from conventional cymbals.

Similarly, Schneider eschews walking about 90 per cent of the time, preferring to make his points with arched sul tasto lines, scrubbing sul ponticello extensions and double-stopped and double-pumped emphasis. A track like “Details” for example, depends on the bassist’s abrasive string-scrubbing and strongman-like swipes, as the drummer replicates a creaking door hinge and the saxophonist puffs out squeals, singular reed bites and spetrofluctuation.

“Rough Edges” – which provides a succinct description of most of the tracks on No Comment – finds Keune on baritone saxophone, mixing strident cries and bell-muted, chalumeau snorts. At times he could be playing duets with himself. Meanwhile Krämer accelerates his thwacks and snaps with flams, drags and ruffs, allowing the reedist free range to busy himself with Brötzmann-like slap-tonguing and overblowing.

Interconnected, the three sonically sum up their philosophy, with a noticeable level of concordance on “Rapid Movement”, the CD’s final track. Krämer pings his cymbals and pops his drum tops so they resemble conga drums; and Schneider vibrates tremolo sul tasto patterns. Meanwhile Keune’s vocalized overblowing reaches such a state of timbre-straining that the fear arises that he will push himself into squeaking solipsism. Just in the nick of time, Krämer’s rattling and rebounds bring the reedist back into the orbit of the other two’s lines and all reach a trembling, abrasive climax.

Geographic divisions are pushed to one side on these CDs, as each trio produces outstanding work.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ritual: 1. Testament 2. Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing 3. Ritual 4. Feb. 13th 5. Blinky Polermo 6. Club Foot 7. Ripple 8. Outspoken 9. When the Spirit Moves You

Personnel: Ritual: Avram Fefer (soprano, alto and tenor saxophones and bass clarinet); Eric Revis (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Monster: 1. I Think That’ll Be OK … 2. Monster Club 3. This is Murder 4. You’re Telling Me!

Personnel: Monster: Tony Bevan (soprano, tenor and bass saxophones); Dominic Lash (bass) and Chris Corsano (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Comment: 1. In Layers 2. Handpicked 3. Brushes 4. Raw 5. Rough Edges 6. Splinters 7. Details 8. Chunks 9. Mesh 10. Spick and Span 11. Rapid Movement

Personnel: Comment: Stefan Keune (sopranino, tenor and baritone saxophones); Hans Schneider (bass) and Achim Krämer (drums and percussion)

August 3, 2009

GREGG BENDIAN’S TRIO PIANISSIMO

GREGG BENDIAN’S TRIO PIANISSIMO Change
Aggregate AGCD 004

TRIPTYCH MYTH
The Beautiful
AUM Fidelity AUM 035

Triptych Myth and Trio Pianissimo suggest the parameters of these discs – the classic jazz piano trio – but second glances reveal subtle differences. Innately traditionalist projects, the CDs feature two trios putting a POMO stamp on a configuration which has been an unvarying modern jazz staple for at least 50 years.

With seven of the 10 compositions his and his only instrument the 88s, THE BEAUTIFUL seems designed to prove that pianist Cooper-Moore can function in a semi-conventional environment as an equal part of a three-sided equation. Preceding the band’s name with his own on the other hand, percussionist Gregg Bendian gives notice that although oriented around pianist Steve Hunt, CHANGE reflects Bendian’s ideas. Except for Thelonious Monk’s “Gallop’s Gallop” and a brief Hunt-penned prelude, the drummer also wrote all the material.

Both CDs have to be taken on their own merits without referencing the six musicians’ other work. Hunt’s usual milieu is jazz-rock with the Mahavishnu Project and British guitarist Allan Holdsworth; bassist John Lockwood has worked with Boston’s microtonal reedist Joe Maneri and The Fringe; and Bendian has seconded everyone from guitarist Derek Bailey and pianist Cecil Taylor, while leading fusion style band. Still, the output here, except for a couple of memorable tracks at the end, is a throwback to the trio efforts of Ahmad Jamal, Red Garland and Oscar Peterson.

Ditto for Triptych Myth. Although the elasticity of time and architecture in the tunes is less conservative than Trio Pianissimo’s, you wouldn’t know by listening that drummer Chad Taylor often plays with post-jazz-rockers like guitarist Jeff Parker and cornetist Rob Mazurek, not to mention AACM founder saxophonist Fred Anderson; and that Tom Abbs is one of the busiest New York downtowners playing with everyone from the Jump Orchestra to trombonist Steve Swell. As for those familiar with Cooper-Moore’s frenetic soloing on piano and his many home-made instruments, very little of that is in evidence. It’s his Hank Jones, not Jaki Byard personality on show.

As a matter of fact, except for the striking Cooper-Moore line that is “Spiraling Out”, most of the advanced improvisations appear on the three penultimate compositions. Replete with street-drill drumming, cascading arpeggios and double-timed harmonies from the pianist, that tune evolves in two separate lines, as if one of the players was swimming underwater while the others crest the waves. Following dynamic emphasis from Taylor mixed with Monk-like key clipping from Cooper-Moore, the layering gradually dissolves.

“Poppa’s Gin in the Chicken Feed” would have worked better with an organic dissolve rather than a track fade out, however. A blues ballad rather than the down-home lament the title implies, the piece, perhaps celebrating the pianist’s rural Virginia background, encompasses passionate stop-time chording from Cooper-Moore plus cymbal spanks and vibrations from the drummer.

If Abbs seems underutilized he makes up for it on “Last Minute Trip Part One” and “Last Minute Trip Part Two” and his own “Trident”. Native-Indian-like tom-tom sounds from Taylor, and cross-handed, hocketing tones from the pianist, leave enough space for the bassist to output wood-rending bass patterns and scrapping sul ponticello lines on the first two pieces – actually a brief intro and the composition itself. Contrapuntal, the second line contrasts thick abrasive strokes from the bassman with stick shuffling from the drummer and a rippling, understated piano touch.

Considering balladic numbers such as “Frida K. The Beautiful” and “Pooch (for Wilber Morris)”, pay tribute to the deceased Mexican painter and late New York bassist respectively, these and other unassuming pieces often barely skirt conventionality with polyrhythms plus cross-handed paradiddles from the drummer. Overall, as well, except for passages in other tunes where Cooper-Moore’s voicing is staccato and Abbs’ portamento, the images conjured up are those of Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers on a 1950s recording date.

One of the most accomplished trios to see and hear in full-flight, the many exceptional portions of THE BEAUTIFUL call out for a live CD of the band.

Probably too occupied with many other projects to often play live, Trio Pianissimo’s second CD is similarly uneven. For a start, although they may have an ulterior purpose the four, less-then-two-minute interludes, do little but showcase Bendian’s imposing drum skill, which is as obvious on the longer tracks.

A threnody, like Cooper-Moore’s “Pooch”, Bendian’s “To Ben Riley” probably approximates the late drum master’s method. Yet when the three follow that tune with a version of “Gallop’s Gallop”, written by Thelonious Monk – Riley’s best-known employer – the effect is unsettling. Taken at a higher pitch than Monk preferred, the constantly moving bass and drums are more upfront, while Hunt’s smooth arpeggio unrolling is a mite too clean.

Other tracks are more notable. Again, like Triptych Myth, the most outstanding pieces come in the second half of the program. There’s “Sleep & Dream” for instance, where after a vibraphone introduction, Bendian creates contrapuntal echoes from wire brushes, tinkling bells and vibes to encase the bowed bass and atmospheric piano fills.

More Monk-like than the Monk tune, “Knot Grass” features twice-played ascending piano chords, a walking bass and lively harmonies. Steadily diminishing repetitive chords from Hunt make up the finale, which at the turn around modulates downwards, as Bendian’s drumming becomes more ferocious.

Lastly, there’s “Torrents”, the nearly-18-minute final track, obviously designed as a major statement. As exploratory as the earlier pieces are firmly in the piano-trio tradition, it showcases all three players. Demonstrating wooden block pounding, bass drum smacks and hollow resonation from other percussion, Bendian mixes it up with an undercurrent of shuffle bowing from Lockwood and seemingly random note selection from one hand and piston-like pumping from Hunt’s other hand. As his staccato lines congeal into rock-hard chords, the pianist’s outlay turns dissonant. For every high-frequency keyboard pulse there’s an equivalent echoing bass pluck and acoustic resonation from Bendian. When cymbal strokes set up yet another variation, Hunt introduces a speedier, baroque-style mode with concentrated glissandi and splayed notes. The ultimate variation concludes with more bowing bass, ferocious bounces and ruffs from the drummer and descending piano chords, which peter out, only to resurface as a brusque, five-second Monk homage.

Unfortunately, too many of the other tracks appear content to linger in conventional jazz piano-trio territory. A fine, but flawed effort, like the other CD, CHANGES too misses first rank. Perhaps if the tine between the trio’s next effort and this one is condensed from the five years gap between this one and its predecessor that situation could be overcome.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Beautiful: 1. All Up In It 2. Frida K. The Beautiful 3. Trident 4. Spiraling Out 5. Pooch (for Wilber Morris) 6. A Time To 7. Last Minute Trip Part One 8. Last Minute Trip Part Two 9. Poppa’s Gin in the Chicken Feed 10. Robina Pseudoacacia

Personnel: Beautiful: Cooper-Moore (piano); Tom Abbs (bass); Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Change: 1. Statement 2. Ice Blue 3. Prelude 4. She Knows 5. Glancing 6. Knot Grass 7. Sleep & Dream 8. To Ben Riley 9. Gallop’s Gallop 10. Torrents

Personnel: Change Steve Hunt (piano); John Lockwood (bass); Gregg Bendian (drums and percussion)

February 13, 2006

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

MARC RIBOT

Spiritual Unity
Pi Recordings PI15

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- Ken Waxman

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

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

November 14, 2005

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

ACTIVE INGREDIENTS

Titration
Delmark DG-547

TOM ABBS & FREQUENCY RESPONSE
Conscription
CIMP #288

Tom Abbs and Chad Taylor: remember those names. One day they may be as familiar as Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones or perhaps Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. For the two young Western-born musicians, who play on both these CDs and lead one each, are prime examples of ascendant thirty-something players who have rejected the false promises of the neo-cons to create their own sounds. Not strident, their compositions and performances, like those created by Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), swing, but also includes the sort of technical and rhythmic advances that didn’t exist in the neo-con favored 1950-1960 period.

Appropriately enough, Temple, Ariz.-born drummer Taylor was brought up in Chicago, although his association with AACM mainstays such as tenorist Fred Anderson didn’t happen until after a sojourn in New York where he met bassist Abbs. Seattle, Wash.-born Abbs stayed put in the Apple after he moved there, eventually organizing the JumpArts Coalition and working in bands with among others, altoist Ori Kaplan, pianist Cooper-Moore and trombonist Steve Swell, the last of whom is featured on TITRATION.

After post-rock and rootsy jazz work with bands led by brassman Rob Mazurek and with tenorist David Boykin, both of whom guest on his disc, Taylor returned to New York. Meeting veteran altoist Jemeel Moondoc, a former Chicagoan, the drummer -- who has since become part of two other trios, Triptych Myth with Abbs and Moore and Sticks & Stones with altoist Matana Roberts -- put together Active Ingredients as a quartet with Swell and Abbs. Taylor is also featured with Abbs’ band Frequency Response on the other CD, as are two still younger players: tenor saxophonist and flutist Brian Settles and cellist Okkyung Lee.

Just as neither band is made up of neo-con retreads, nor are the players exclusively focused on one style either. As a matter of fact there are times on TITRATION’s four quartet tracks that the combo sounds like an updated New York Art Quartet. Swell, who has worked with the older man, is a modern day Roswell Rudd; Moondoc’s alto playing is in the John Tchicai tradition and the dual power of Abbs and Taylor equals that of Reggie Workman and Milford Graves.

“Visual Industries”, for instance has a rubato trombone lead and sideslipping trills and chirrups from the altoist. Subtle to the extreme, Taylor reserves his snares and toms for accompanying Moondoc, and backs up Abbs’ bow stopping and spiccato with a single cymbal run. Following an exhibition of bass drum power, the theme is reprised by the two horns.

Astonishingly enough, one of the few drawbacks of the CD is that the tunes often seem as if they should be longer, which is why at almost 14 minutes “Other Peoples’ Problems” is so welcome. Featuring innards exposing plunger work from Swell, a smeared countermelody from Moondoc and double stopping ponticello vibrato from Abbs, the piece really takes off under Taylor’s shimmering cymbals. With the saxist sluicing up and down the charts and the ‘bone man producing sibilant grace notes, the bassist contributes some adagio arco color with a gruff sound resulting from pressure on all the strings at once.

Adding Boykin to the mix on the title track brings up memories of both Klezmer and the Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEC), with a trombone instead of a trumpet in the front line. With the bassist walking and the drummer (press) rolling, Swell and Moondoc again engage in impressive interaction, never losing their way as they blow and overblow phrases at one another. More conventional than the AEC’s Roscoe Mitchell, Boykin produces a honeyed harmonic line, leaving the squealing, double tonguing to Moondoc. After a rumbling thump from the bass and irregular marital pulse from drums, the tenor man reprises the theme and takes it out accompanied by riffs from other horns.

Given three opportunities to make his presence felt Mazurek is most prominent on the too short “Absence”, which gets its title from Taylor sitting out the track -- the rhythm comes from Abbs playing hi-hat. Still, the cornetist’s triple-tonguing pales besides Swell’s spinning corkscrew sounds and fat plunger work. Amazingly enough, as well, the bassist manages to hold the rhythm together with his four strings while sounding the cymbal.

Veteran Chicago percussionist Avreeayal Ra joins the other six players for the Latinesque “Modern Mythology”, giving an Africanized, bata-like bottom to a tune that bounces along with “A Love Supreme” echoes. Again, though, its Taylor’s cymbal work, Moondoc’s gravelly grace notes and Swell’s chromatic tones that set the pace.

An impressive achievement TITRATION calls for an encore, but without the guests.

So does CONSCRIPTION, recorded less than eight months later, which also proves that Abbs, like Taylor, can craft new melodies that are memorable and familiar sounding in a good way.

That’s proved on the title tune. Here Taylor playing both vibes and drums combines with the cello and bass to provide a regular beat that Settles uses as a launching pad to spin out passing tones. As he growls out intensity vibratos and flutter tonguing, the drummer bounces and rebounds the beat and suddenly Abbs’ tuba creates a basso continuum underneath the others. After vibes key resonation and aharmonic cello strokes add to the musical miasma created by bleating scowls from the tenor sax, ringing cymbals presage the cello and tenor reprise of the swinging theme.

Frequency Response can play more outside, as it does on “Anti-torpidity”, and closer to the mainstream as it does on “Redundant Triangulation”. On the former, multiphonics from the cello’s upper partials join with split tone squeals from the sax. Here the vibes’ tones hold things together until Settles snickers out higher-pitched flattement, then spiccato bowing from the bassist brings the piece to a satisfactory conclusion.

On the latter, which has a slight Latin feel mixed with echoes of “Miles Ahead”, Abbs and Lee split the string parts, he with funky low tones and she with screechy shuffle bowing. Settles slurs and growls and Taylor produces rifle-shot-like rim shots which introduces a variation on the theme from the reedist. Finally Abbs’ andante double stopping leads to a reprise of the initial strand.

Despite its title, “Hypertension” is a steady swinger for those prepared to hear grainy overblowing and double tonguing from the tenor saxist and diffuse spiccato bowing from both string players mixed with a boppish drum beat. Cello and saxophone act like a unison horn section at one point and the piece fades out with a rumbling bass line.

More Abbs and more Taylor soon please.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Titration: 1. Song For Dyani 2. Velocity 3. Slate*+# 4. Visual Industries 5. Modern Mythology*+# 6. Absence 7. Titration+ 8. Dependent Origination 9. Other Peoples’ Problems

Personnel: Titration: Rob Mazurek (cornet)*; Steve Swell (trombone); Jemeel Moondoc (alto saxophone) [except 2, 8]; David Boykin (tenor saxophone)+; Tom Abbs (bass and hi-hat); Chad Taylor (drums) [except 6, solo- 8]; Avreeayal Ra (percussion)#

Track Listing: Conscription: 1. Redundant Triangulation 2. Diametric Escalation 3. Conscription 4. Turbulence 5. Dichotomy 6. Hypertension 7. Anti-torpidity 8. Reconciled Dissolution

Personnel: Conscription: Brian Settles (tenor saxophone and flute); Okkyung Lee (cello); Tom Abbs (bass and tuba); Chad Taylor (drums and vibes)

May 31, 2004

COOPER-MOORE/TOM ABBS/CHAD TAYLOR

Triptych Myth
Hopscotch 14

THE NECKS
Drive By
Fish of Milk RER NECKS3

Piano, bass and drums combos have been one of the defining configurations of improvised music for more than five decades. But as these two exceptional trio sessions prove, with the right ideas and techniques, there’s still plenty that can be done with this traditional form.

Microtonalists, Australians The Necks do cheat a little bit on DRIVE BY. Using all the resources of a modern studio, keyboard man Chris Abrahams is able to doubletrack himself on piano, electric piano and organ, while drummer Tony Buck adds different percussion and samples. But seemingly tireless bassist Lloyd Swanton still uses his acoustic model to shape the rhythmic foundation of the one, more than hour-long piece that makes up the CD.

Triptych Myth, a trio of committed New Yorkers doesn’t stray that far out. Although the three -- pianist Cooper-Moore bassist Tom Abbs and drummer Chad Taylor -- have shown off their skills on additional instruments in the past, the instrumentation on their debut CD is as strict as on one of Oscar Peterson’s 1960s LPs.

Hypnotic as all get out, multi layered DRIVE BY begins with a snaking electric piano lines and whistling electronics, succeeded by metronomic, repeated acoustic piano cadenza, a throbbing organ vamp and a kicking drum backbeat. And that’s all in the first five minutes.

Soon, over a background of hollow, echoing tones, the pianist introduces the theme and its ancillary variations, while pulsating Morse code-like organ riffs soon segment the descending piano clusters. As the sounds intensify there’s much tension and very little release. With studio wizardry Abrahams -- and the others -- plays both soloist and accompanist roles.

Masters of understatement, mostly unobtrusive Buck and steady fingered Swanton are able to shift and accelerate the tempo almost inaudibly. That is until you realize that the backing instrumental riffs have become different when the sampled sounds of yelling and shouting children’s voice are added to the mix.

Warmer and still slightly quicker, the kids’ sounds presage intensified rhythmic tautness that accompanies the reoccurring piano motif that holds the piece together. Soon, as Buck begins cross sticking and Swanton’s beat stays forthrightly solid, the pianist redoubles his dynamics and feeds harder organ or electric piano chords into the mix. Oblique and unidentified oscillating waves shoot from one side of the soundfield to the other, as Abrahams ends his solo with repeated right handed piano flourishes. Shortly afterwards the bassist and drummer gear down the rhythm. It’s succeeded by what sounds like some exotic fowl warbling, and that continues for another 30 seconds after the formal music fades away

Listeners should feel as if they’ve gone on a physical journey, and one that is so mesmerizing that it has cleansed them in the process.

If DRIVE BY starts off slowly, then the other CD explodes like a blaze in a firecracker factory. Reminiscent of the go-for-broke rhythmic lyricism of Herbie Nichols, pianist Moore begins with blurred right handed runs that with extra pressure evolve to strummed and cascading chords. Soon he’s covering the keyboard with high- frequency repeated phrases, Abbs counters with a walking bass line and Taylor with flams and ruffs.

At intervals varying the production with reggae backbeats or Monkish runs, the three exhibit their facility with ballads, burners and rhythm tunes. Both the bassist ands the drummer get solo tracks to themselves, but ones which fit in with the overall conception rather than excuses to flaunt technique. Throughout the CD, you hear how Triptych manages to utilize the jazz tradition without being enslaved by it.

On “Spencer’s Eyes”, fort instance, the pianist shows that in spite of his fire elsewhere, he can capably handle a mid- tempo ballad. He plays a simple, light-fingered rondo while most of the action is expressed in Taylor’s busy paradiddles, cymbal smacks and understated mallet work.

“Susan”, on the other hand, is a carefully voiced and modulated swing fest, featuring jaunty interface between the three musicians. Using repetitive chording the pianist hunkers down on vibrating note clusters as he increases his dynamics, piling half-remembered quotes from other tunes into the mix, before cycling back to the main (Herbie) Hancockian theme. Finally this distinctive foot taper ends with drum rebounds and a powerful bass line.

“Spatter Matter” is more exciting still, as Moore, intent on subtle swing, unveils

flashing chords and chiming runs, then after double timing produces a waterfalls of splayed notes. His finger pressure is so fine that high frequency tremolos seem to dance off the black and white keys. Before a quick, to-the-point solo from Abbs, Moore sneaks over to the right hand side for some quick jabs, then using contrasting dynamics, reprises the theme one last time even quicker than before.

Musically there’s practically nothing displeasing on the trio’s debut CD. If there are bungles, it’s that the tracks have been numbered incorrectly, so that a couple of the “Stop Time” minute-long, break tunes appear out of sequence.

Other than that, either of these sessions can be held up as an indication that old forms like piano trios can certainly learn new tricks.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Drive: 1. Drive By

Personnel: Drive: Chris Abrahams (piano, electric piano, organ); Lloyd Swanton (bass); Tony Buck (drums, percussion, samples)

Track Listing: Triptych: 1. Stem Cell 2. Nautilus 3. The Fox 4. Stop Time #1 5. Ricochet 6. Harare 7. Stop Time #2 8. Raising Knox 9. Spatter Matter 10. Stop Time #3 11. Spencer’s Eyes 12. Susan

Personnel: Triptych: Cooper-Moore (piano); Tom Abbs (bass); Chad Taylor (drums)

April 5, 2004

FRED ANDERSON

Back At The Velvet Lounge
Delmark DG-549

He was a late starter when it came to a recording, but now in his early seventies, tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson turns out new CDs with regularity of a lunchtime chef at a down-home pancake house. Like that cook, Anderson’s stack of hotcakes are unpretentious, filling, and of uniformly high quality.

Anderson, who has owned, managed and played at his Velvet Lounge club in Chicago’s South Loop for more than 21 years, has dealings with the public on the par with any pancake spot manager. While the jazz he plays at the Lounge is consistently piping hot, he’s enough of as businessman to often vary the menu slightly.

This time out Tatsu Aoki, his regular bassist, shares the timekeeping duties with 8 Bold Souls’ Harrison Bankhead on one track, while Bankhead adds his acoustic guitar to Jeff Parker’s electric on another. Chad Taylor, who now lives in New York, holds down the drum chair. But the biggest change is with the brass section. Instead of Anderson’s longtime associate Billy Brimfield, the trumpeter is Maurice Brown, a player who is a scant 52 years younger than Anderson.

All and all, though, this is what you might hear on a typical evening at the Velvet, where any advertised band usually has a few guests sitting in before the end of the night. There are only fives tunes -- titled after the fact -- with the shortest running more than 10 minutes.

That one, “Syene”, gives the trumpeter space to show off his mellow, muted tone, playing at a leisurely pace before finally twisting out a brassy tone. After he works his way chromatically up to some spectacular buzzes that explode from the bell, Anderson takes over, slurring severe lines with just bass and drums behind him. By the end he’s leading Brown, who follows his lead like a puppy chasing a fox.

The older man’s barbed, biting tone gets a workout on the almost 15½-minute “Olivia”, a dissonant ballad. Anderson’ sour cutting tone with its hints of Sonny Rollins-style harshness, is put in greater relief by gentle chording from Parker. Throughout the six-stringer’s airy finger picking is light and smooth enough to earn comparisons with Jim Hall; there’s certainly little hint of the post-rock persona he used with bands like Tortoise or Isotope. After a solid, if unspectacular, low-toned workout from Bankhead, Anderson’s reenters and interrupts the growls, that help him scoop out great shovelfuls of perfectly balanced notes, for variations on the same seven-note pattern -- an old Rollins trick -- that gets him and the tune to the end.

That same sort of high intensity output enlivens the rest of the CD. Taylor adroitly sounds his cowbell, woodblock and snares, while Aoki’s deep tone cleaves to the beat, then slithers down the scale. Brown trills triplets and ricochets tones around the room, while never overpowering the rest with a Gabriel-like stance. When he solos, Brown approaches notes from many angles, then snaps out new variations at higher pitches. As always, Anderson sounds as he could go all night, pushing out R&B-style honks and tobogganing repeated split tones without the hint of difficulty or age.

“Job Market Blues”, featuring Bankhead’s acoustic guitar is the one misstep however. Clanking dual guitars make the piece sound a lot more like a bossa nova than a blues and Bankhead’s acoustic bottleneck grates against Parker’s more assured style. Overall the vamps and resonation appears to make the piece discordant in an off-handed manner, with the result shaped by confusion rather than plan. Even Anderson sounds little nonplussed.

Still you have to give the 74-year-old credit for experimenting with new condiments added to his usual menu. Skip over the blues and you’ll hear another first-class Anderson session all the way.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Fougeux+ 2. Olivia+* 3. Job Market Blues^* 4. Syene* 5. King Fish*

Personnel: Maurice Brown (trumpet); Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (guitar^, bass+); Tatsu Aoki (bass)*; Chad Taylor (drums)

March 1, 2004

DENNIS GONZÁLEZ NEW SOUTHERN QUINTET

Old Time Revival
Entropy Stereo Records ESR 014

JEFF CHAN
In Chicago
Asian Improv Records AIR 0063

Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) exemplar, and its southern roots, underlines the creativity of the combos on both these discs.

Although only three of the nine players involved are AACM members -- the late trumpeter Ameen Muhammad, bassist Malachi Favors and drummer Alvin Fielder -- the cooperative archetype that the Chicago association feels must be mixed with creative improvised music is on show each time.

IN CHICAGO is another CD that mixes Windy City players with members of the Asian Improv (AI) movement, a musical co-op inspired by the AACM. OLD TIME REVIVAL, features trumpeter Dennis González, whose organization Daagnim tries for a similar, AACM-like supportive role in the Dallas music scene, exploring the collective southern identity of himself, two AACMers and two saxophonists. The musicians are better-known on this disc, but IN CHICAGO may have a slight edge, with organized arrangements on tap, rather than relying on solo luster as do many of OLD TIME REVIVAL’s tunes.

Case in point is “Centuries”, the more-than-12-minute final live cut on the Chicago disc. Purportedly inspired by a traditional rhythm from p’ungmul or Korean folk drumming, it still sounds like jazz, especially when Muhammad, known for his membership in saxophonist Ernest Dawkins’ bands, lets loose. Although you could link his brassy triplets to ceremonial heraldic trumpeting, it’s likely that no traditional Korean musician on either side of the DMZ exhibits as many bent notes and plunger expositions as this Mississippi-born improviser. Soon he’s adding jazz shakes and what could be piccolo-trumpet flourishes to his output. Chicagoan drummer Chad Taylor, who works in different bands featuring AACM guitarist Jeff Parker, offers up rim shots and a quivers from a tambourine lodged on his hi-hat, while carrying the beat on his ride cymbal.

San Francisco-based soprano and tenor saxophonist Jeff Chan, titular leader of the date, begins playing straightahead, but ends up elaborating the theme in split tones, displaying an exaggerated vibrato that advances to double tonguing. In one bow to Orientalism, though, when Chan’s line faces counterpoint from Muhammad, the instrument the trumpet chooses to use to reply is a conch shell, which in this context has the timbres of a Korean sho.

Besides South-Asian influences the other leitmotif on the CD is from another son of the South, Fort Worth, Tex.’s Ornette Coleman, with at least two of the tunes resembling the work of the Texas saxophonist’s pioneering 1960s quartet. “Bells/Falling”, written like all the compositions but one here by Chan, has a definite Coleman-like head, taken andante. Here and on at other places on the CD, the arrangements are held together by the steady bass pulse of Tatsu Aoki. An organizer par excellence, he’s the link between AI and the AACM, working as bandleader or sideman with local luminaries like saxists Fred Anderson and Mwata Bowden.

On this disc his work isn’t showy, but holds the rhythmic centre, as on this tune, when Chan tries for a stoptime effect sounding out glottal honks, emotional, elongated smears and vibrating reed tones. When Muhammad isn’t commenting on Chan’s forays with his arsenal of little instruments, which seems to consist of bells, claves and even a tiny steel drum, he creates some of his most profound work. Using grace notes to go up the scale, he slurs out other tones and accentuates the output with hand plunger trills. Taylor keeps up constant pressure on snare top, Aoki walks, and the piece climaxes with brassy blasts from the trumpeter and the saxman trying out chesty variations on the theme.

Composed by another AIer, Francis Wong, with whom Chan plays in the Saxophone Summit, “Persistence of Vision” has a tint of Imperial Chinese processional music about it. With a sandpaper tone vibrations the tenorist advances the theme that is then commented upon by Muhammad. His squealing continuum and Taylor’s shimmering ride cymbal, plus ruffs and drags add an African element to the piece. Finally it downshifts before the end, its stately advance marked by deep bass line and guiro-like percussion scratches.

Unfortunately, Chan’s soprano sax work doesn’t measure up to his tenor sax playing or composing talents. On most of the tunes such as “Sunbeams”, his lines, whether legato or staccato, lines appear pretty unsubstantial. This forces the compositions to gain color from Taylor’s ride cymbal, Aoki’s time-keeping bass and the scratching, whistles and bird calls [!] from Muhammad’s little instruments.

In contrast there is plenty of multi-faceted reed playing exhibited on OLD TIME REVIVAL. New Orleans resident Tim Green weighs in with his saxello, tenor and bass saxophones, while North Carolina-born, New York dweller Andrew Lamb brings his tenor saxophone. Rhythm section is made up of Malachi Favors, who since he left Lexington, Miss. many years ago has made his reputation with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the Ritual Trio and numerous other bands in Chicago. Drummer Alvin Fielder, who is also a pharmacist, spent only a few years in Chicago in the 1960s, though he did participate in many AACM sessions. Back in Jackson, Miss., he’s involved with most creative music ventures in the Deep South, usually involving AACM members, González and New Orleans saxist Kidd Jordan.

On this date, González, who is also a schoolteacher and a visual artist, appears to be so buoyed by the presence of so many exceptional musicians that he lets them solo to their heart’s content. But a string of solos is only impressive in certain situations, as on the title track.

A fast, vamping blues based on an infectious line driven by the bass and drums, the composition begins with a trilling, irregular cadenza from Green’s saxello, as the other horns riff in the background. His speedy solo is followed by strident triplets from González riding on the relentless rhythm of Fielder and Favors. Open-horned, the trumpeter then seems to be quoting spirituals, proving a gritty commentary on what he played previously. Then, as the horn riffing gets faster and faster until the end, a tenor saxist -- likely Lamb -- sounds out gospelly glossolalia, scooting up the scale and introducing multiphonic feints.

“Hymn for Albert Ayler”, González’s devotional piece written for a man who definitely knew his old time religion, features intimations of “Go Down Moses” in the trumpet solo. Slurred affirmation comes from one of the tenormen and powerful bass strokes amplify this. Soon the tenorist -- Lamb? -- expels an undulating Ayler-like cry, all guttural split tones, but with not as wide a vibrato as the deceased saxist exhibited. As the trumpeter tongues out an euphonious rubato trumpet solo that’s closer to Coleman associate Don Cherry than anything Don Ayler ever played, Green’s saxello produces sweeping bagpipe-like nasal, buzzing timbres. Propelled forward by the bassist and drummer, the piece ends with the brassman easing into gospel shouts again.

Green’s subterranean bass saxophone tones and Fielder’s bass drum toe pedal whacks personalize “Hordes of the Morning Star”. Although at first you can almost hear the pedal’s hard felt making contact with the drum skin, the versatile veteran is soon breaking up the beat with shuffles, ruffs and drags. Green doesn’t just use his dinosaur horn for low down effects either. Once he gets started he pumps out a variation on the theme, using false fingering and split tones to leap in tempo and introduce split-second, soaring screeches among the reverberating bass honks. While all this is going on, Lamb creates a vibrated tenor saxophone line touching on multiphonics, and González’s solo, studded with grace notes, is heavy on the Spanish tinge. Rat-tat-tats from Fielder’s snare bring everything together for a unison horn exit.

Perhaps the most complicated tune is written by Fielder, who like all the players except Lamb is a longtime associate of the trumpeter. His “Four Moods for Carol” appears to feature four-curlicue themes going at the same time. With the bass sax creating a snorting pedal point, the tenor contributes an irregular vibrato and the trumpeter blasts out a mellow chromatic line. Fielder then underscores the proceedings with oscillations from blustering wind chimes, log drum beats, the shimmers of a bell tree and the whistling draughts of an African whirl drum. Those percussion accessories may only be approximated, but he certainly internalized the AACM’s skill with little instruments.

Favors expresses himself in a focused, single-note, thumping bass solo, while one saxist varies from reed-biting, echoing extra tones to forcing pure, colored air through his horn’s body tube. After a clatter of rim shots, the composer creates a coda of marital bass drum beats and snare ratamacues.

Surprisingly, one of González’s longtime associates, isn’t present . But tenor saxophonist Charles Brackeen, is honored on “Document for Charles Brackeen”, a freeboppish line that features both reedists on tenor saxophone. One creates a double-time, slurred line that turn to emphasized screams, while the other enters with a sobbing portamento pattern that expands until split reed overtones make it more angrily staccato. One would expect Brackeen was capable of both of these techniques, as well as an innate soulfulness that explodes in the later part of the piece when Favors’ suddenly exposes a funky bass line that could underpin Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say”.

Listening to it and the other tunes on OLD TIME REVIVAL give you the feeling that at least where jazz/improv is concerned, the South will rise again.

Now all González has to do is to head into the studio with more focused arrangements to likely produce a session that’s not only very good, but as outstanding as IN CHICAGO.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Chicago: 1. ‘Round and ‘Round 2. Persistence of Vision 3. Sunbeams 4. Bells/Falling 5. Waiting 6. Twilight 7. Waiting (reprise) 8. Centuries

Personnel: Chicago: Ameen Muhammad (trumpet, conch shell and small percussion instruments); Jeff Chan (soprano and tenor saxophones); Tatsu Aoki (bass); Chad Taylor (percussion)

Track Listing: Old: 1. The Matter at Hand 2. Document for Charles Brackeen 3. Hordes of the Morning Star 4. Hymn for Albert Ayler 5. Four Moods for Carol 6. Old Time Revival

Personnel: Old: Dennis González (C, Bb, pocket trumpets); Andrew Lamb (tenor saxophone); Tim Green (saxello, tenor and bass saxophones); Malachi Favors (bass); Alvin Fielder (drums)

November 3, 2003

TIGERSMILK

Tigersmilk
Family Vineyard 19

JEFF PARKER
Like-Coping
Delmark DG-543

Fame may initially have come to the members of the Chicago Underground bands for their phase-shifting mixture of jazz, rock and electronica dubbed post-rock. But over time the sounds have become more predictable pastiche than innovative.

Far more palatable are the newest trio projects by two of the musicians: founder conetist/electronicist Rob Mazurek, who is one-third of Tigersmilk, which is showcased on a self-titled CD; and guitarist Jeff Parker, who debuts his own group on LIKE-COPING. Without fanzine fanfare, either CD provides a sound picture of Windy City improv eclecticism. Each is also impressive in its own way.

Knowing Mazurek’s background, TIGERSMILK is unsurprisingly more concerned with electronics than the other CD. But his playing partners -- local bassist Jason Roebke and Vancouver drummer Dylan van der Schyff -- keep the brassman away from the beat mongering of his work with Isotope 217 and some Chicago Underground discs. At times his playing almost resembles his original jazz style.

Roebke himself has experience encompassing bands with cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, guitarist Scott Fields and clarinetist François Houle. Van Der Schyff has worked with Fields, Houle, saxophonist John Butcher and just about every improviser who passes through his hometown in British Columbia.

Strangely enough, considering both his mates -- bassist Chris Lopes and drummer Chad Taylor -- were on the Chicago Underground Orchestra’s PLAYGROUND CD, and Parker is a member of Isotope as well, Parker’s CD is an all-out jazz effort. Then again, the guitarist was also a member of Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizon Ensemble, while the now New York-based drummer played with Chicago tenor legend Fred Anderson and is in a co-op trio with multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore and bassist Tom Abbs.

Consisting of all instant compositions, TIGERSMILK certainly shows off Mazurek’s Harmon mute. From the very first tune, little flurries of brass blats and squeals, plus electronic alterations distinguish his playing.

Not to be outdone, the other players stay away from common rhythm section sounds as well. “Right on Agitate”, for instance, feature van der Schyff rapping his sticks to produce a continuous ostinato, while Roebke snakes out deep, dark bowed lines that resolve themselves as a theme. Before a conclusion featuring a steady drum rat-tat tat and cowbell blows, the brassman has distorted his plunger tones through electronics. “There are Ghosts” lives up to its title, with sounds that imply contorted communication from outer space. You can hear the squeak of a drumstick on a cymbal, and electronic keyboard-like tones matched with arco bass slices. If the drummer smashes his floor tom for emphasis, then cornet tones head upwards as a crescendo.

Elsewhere the drone of electronic impulses pulls together a symphony of tiny gestures from all three men, with van der Schyff most outstanding, creating what appears to be the sound of marbles rolling on the floor, chirping grasshoppers and an imaginary elf tap dancing. At the same time, a few of what appears to be video game soundtracks and the sounds of percussive toys veering across the studio could be electronic, rather than percussive impulses.

In contrast to all this, “Secret and Mask”, the longest piece on the CD, appears to have all the qualifications of a traditional jazz tune. Encompassing walking bass, ascending lip vibratos and with Taylor’s brushes used on cymbals, drum heads and rims, it opens up with an intermittent, buzzing pulse and ricocheting string sounds, as the percussionist creates squeals by rubbing his drum heads with a wet finger and Mazurek exhibits hushed, this-side-of-Miles horn lines. Finally the tune decelerates with bowed bass and clip-clop percussion.

If TIGERSMILK sometimes sounds Miles-Davis-like jazzy, there are times on LIKE-COPING that you may feel that the ghosts of guitarists Grant Green or Tal Farlow have entered the studio during many of the 12 tracks. This is especially apparent in the disc’s mid-section.

On “Onyx”, written by Parker, for example, slithering finger-picking guitar chords in the bass clef join with subtle drum brush accents, while the thumping bass appears before the theme is again reprised on six-string. As traditional sounding as anything you’d hear in a smoky jazz bar, Parker reprises the single-note head again and again until the fade. “Watusi” seems to be a throwback to those pseudo-primitive dance riffs of the early 1960s, with an Afro-Cuban beat and Parker’s crystal clear picking bringing the work of another Chicago guitar hero -- George Freeman -- to mind.

Lopes’ “Pinecone” is an understated swinger like “Onyx”, built around a shifting vamp carried on Parker’s top strings, which then shifts to a more legato sound as it expands with echoing grace notes. A four-note riff assembled by the guitarist forms the cubic basis of his tune entitled “Cubes”. Working in extensive guitar tremolo and single note embellishments, the speedy, slinky lines meet quiet bass plucks and Taylor’s understated brushwork.

“Roundabout” written by the drummer, but featuring him on classical guitar and Lopes on flute, is an airy bossa nova advanced with percussive cowbell, while “Days Fly By”, a sweet Latinesque song Parker wrote for his daughter, moves through andante single note picking and gentle strumming that bookends a straightforward bass solo.

Even when the guitarist distorts his tone to whistle noises through his amp on one track, or brings out the Korg synthesizer on another, the pieces revert to jazzy, finger-snappers before they end.

Away from the Chicago Underground, Parker and his pals are easily able to prove he can turn out a mainstream jazz album. While Mazurek and his men show that there’s still plenty of musical terrain left to explore in the Windy City.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Tigersmilk: 1. Frequency Location 2. Long to Win 3. The Soft Releases 4. Little Pleasures 5. Right on Agitate 6. There are Ghosts 7. Secret and Mask 8. Waiting on Ferrari 9. Long, Past Time

Personnel: Tigersmilk: Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics); Jason Roebke (bass); Dylan van der Schyff (drums)

Track Listing: Like: 1.Mariam 2. Like-Coping 3. Days Fly By 4. Holiday for a Despot 5. Onyx 6. Watusi 7. Omega Sci Fi 8. Pinecone 9. Cubes 10. Plain Song 11. Scrambler 12. Roundabout

Personnel: Jeff Parker (guitar, synthesizer); Chris Lopes (bass, C flute); Chad Taylor (drums, vibraphone, classical guitar)

May 12, 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

CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO

Axis and Alignment
Thrill Jockey Thrill 106

Stripped down to bare essentials of little more than brass, percussion and electronics, the Chicago Underground Duo still manages to produce a sound similar to what it creates with larger groups with similar names.

Yet, as the band’s foundation, Rob Mazurek on cornet and piano plus drummer and vibes player Chad Taylor seem to be able to take a few liberties with the band formula, so that it sounds more like ambient minimalism than anything you would expect from the City of Broad Shoulders.

Despite this, however, the ponderous outlines of the Underground style remain to such an extent that the 11 tracks, which make up this little more than 41 minutes long CD, appear to take an inordinate amount of time to pass under the laser. Often sounding like what would have happened if brassman Chet Baker at his most muted sat in with vibist Gary Burton at his most effete, the duo spends most of its time meandering along a minimalist path. Simple, repetitive note patterns are introduced, exhibited and showcased often appearing to be identical to other sets, no matter where they appear on the disc.

The situation doesn’t change that much even when Mazurek turns to the piano or Taylor the guitar. When he sticks to the bass strings, at least Taylor gives some of the tunes rhythmic shape, but as a soloist, he has an unfortunate resemblance to placid Earl Klug. Overdubbing drums and vibes, as is done often here, at least provides some texture, but what’s produced is still more cushiony than upfront.

Throughout, you get the feeling that you’re experiencing a inverted formula to what innovators like saxophonist Julius Hemphill developed in the 1970s. Then the idea was to restrict to rhythmic pulse to a steady beat to give the soloists polyrhythmic freedom.

Perhaps the fault is that two musicians function as both soloists and rhythm section. In fact, the few times, as on “Particles and Transfiguration” when the drummer produces a Latinesque, foot tapping rhythm or the cornetist rips off some unexpected arching notes, the unvarying backing patterns pulls everything down to earth again. “Rotation” may serve as the title of another tune that introduces miscellaneous percussion to the mix, but the improvisation still seems to follow a straight line. Taylor’s paradiddles meshed with electronic rumbles, that in other cases would be organ tones, turn “Access and Enlightenment” into a sprightly tune. But the few whooshes, whizzes and splashy vibrations on these outer space oriented pieces certainly won’t make anyone forget the advances of Sun Ra.

Deviations from the formula appear briefly on “Average Assumptions and Misunderstandings”, a mouthful of a title for a less than two minute piece. Vaguely reminiscent of pianist Cecil Taylor’s work with vibist Earl Griffith in 1958, but Taylor (Chad) is much more frugal mallet soloist, while Mazurek, as a pianist, is somehow more bombastic and/or minimal than Taylor (Cecil) ever was. On the other hand, “Exponent Red” contains real excitement as Taylor creates low-pitched patterns with his guitar, produces bass drum beats and stomps, while the cornetist growls -- cleanly -- his way into a higher range.

Happily on “Two Concepts For the Storage of Light”, the longest track at more than nine minutes the duo puts minimalism aside for a time and, after a brass band intro rife with multiphonics, creates a simple, hummable melody that finally dissolves into electronic whooshes. In between, Taylor, who after all has played with Chicago tenor titan Fred Anderson lets himself go, creating cymbal splashes and snare accents, while Mazurek dirties his tone enough to head into the stratosphere as he works variations on the standard patterns.

It may be reductive to say, but working alone apparently allows Taylor and Mazurek to come with music out of the ordinary Chicago Underground Trio or Quartet orbit. It’s still not as ground breaking as it could be, but this newest disc gives you some hope for future sonic adventures.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Micro Exit 2. Lifelines 3. Particles and Transfiguration 4. Exponent Red 5. Average Assumptions and Misunderstandings 6. Lem 7. Two Concepts For the Storage of Light 8. Memoirs of a Space Traveller 9. Rotation 10. Access and Enlightenment 11. Noon

Personnel: Rob Mazurek (cornet, piano, electronics); Chad Taylor (percussion, vibraphone, guitar)

May 17, 2002