Wadada Leo Smith

Ten Freedom Summers
Cuneiform Records RUNE 350/351/352/353

By Ken Waxman

Striving to musically capture defining moments in African-American history, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has written 19 compositions to mostly reflect events of the Civil Rights era from 1954-1964; the Ten Freedom Summers of the title. In a gestation period that began in 1977 and consumed most of his time during a three-year stretch before this four-CD set was recorded in late 2011, Smith broadened his focus back to the Dred Scott case and forward to September 11th. Interpreted by the jazz-sophisticated members of his Golden Quartet/Quintet (GQ) plus the Southwest Chamber Music (SCM) group, 70-year-old Smith calls the program, “one of my life’s defining works”. Personal rather than pedantic, the compositions celebrate defining moments. Although there are related motifs among them, linkage is more psychological than sonic. Each composition is designed to stand on its own.

Smith has stated that Ten Freedom Summers was inspired by August Wilson’s 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle which similarly deals with the 20th Century Black experience; plus Civil Rights-era jazz compositions such as saxophonist John Coltrane’s “Alabama” and drummer Max Roach’s LP-length We Insist: Freedom Now!” suite. But as a theorist, educator, AACM member and improviser whose associates have ranged from multi-reedist Anthony Braxton to guitarist Henry Kaiser, the trumpeter created the compositions here after his own fashion. Very few are programmatic on their own, for instance.

The closest would probably be “Thurgood Marshall and Brown v. Board of Education: A Dream of Equal Education, 1954”. With stentorian beat promulgated by the military styled pacing of drummers Susie Ibarra and Pheeroan akLaff, the inevitability of the demands for equal education for all Americans is underlined. Added to this pulse are scrubbed bass lines, tremolo piano chording from Anthony Davis and the composer’s brassy grace notes. Piano key clips and R&B-styled percussion backbeats reminiscent of Julius Hemphill’s “The Hard Blues” reinforce the theme, which reaches its climax with a celebratory sequence that is carefully harmonized as it heralds the militancy of the following decade.

A valuable addition to Smith’s team is pianist Davis. Someone whose pedigree includes improvising with the likes of trombonist George Lewis, he also composes large-scale notated works. With impeccable keyboard finesse Davis negotiates between the two ensembles, minimizing any fissure that could arise in the mixture of styles. For instance on “Little Rock Nine: A Force for Desegregation in Education, 1957”, it’s Davis’ easy-going arpeggios which link Larry Kaplan’s recital-like flute passages and the SCM’s gentle string swells with the GQ’s freer voicing that encompasses Smith’s growling trumpet, bassist John Lindberg’s paced walking and drummer Ibarra’s pops and ruffs. During a finale of echoing tones, Smith’s slurred grace notes finally cement both factions.

Although secondary to Smith’s theme, many of Ten Freedom Summers’ compositions provide new validity for Third Stream creation. The most notable instance is “Lyndon B Johnson's Great Society and The Civil Rights Act of 1964”, where backed by the SCM, solos are divided between Smith and SCM violinist Shalini Vijayan. Over the course of 24 minutes, sensitized glissandi on the violinist’s part are not only are conveyed with an exquisite tone, but during the finale variations are stretched tautly without losing their warmth. Again encouraged by Davis’ skill in outputting both formalist and jazz-pulsed licks, the muted or plunger trumpet solos express textures that are as much “legit” as they are so-called jazzy. While Smith’s sequences are played in a congruent fashion rather than commenting upon or complementing violin passages, his instant theme-reshaping at times prevents Vijayan’s variations from moving too far out of sync. Parallel harmonies during crescendos ensure the narrative is never severed.

What’s more the underlying strength of Smith’s compositions is such that even when the SCM plays on its own, the focus isn’t lost in semi-classical prettiness. Interpreting “Medgar Evers: A Love-Voice of a Thousand Years Journey For Liberty and Justice”, the dirge-like tune Smith initially composed for violinist Leroy Jenkins, the SCM proves itself capable of mood-appropriate interpretations. Aided by Davis’ key fanning, the Jeff von der Schmidt-conducted nonet sustains the melancholy mood with pizzicato lines divided contrapuntally among harpist Alison Bjorkedal, violinists Vijayan and Lorenz Gamma plus violist Jan Karlin. Underneath the undulating strings, percussionist Lynn Vartan provides a thunder clap-like continuum of kettle drums resonations plus marimba bar hammering,

Outsized in more than bulk, this four-CD set manages to simultaneously commemorate major achievements in American race relations, legitimize Third Stream fusion and confirm Smith’s role as a major composer.

Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. Dred Scott: 1857 2. Al Hajj Malik Al Shabazz and the People of the Shahadah 3. Emmett Till: Defiant, Fearless* 4. Thurgood Marshall and Brown v. Board of Education: A Dream of Equal Education, 1954 5. John F Kennedy’s New Frontier and the Space Age, 1960 Disc 2: 6. Rosa Parks, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 381 Days+ 7. Black Church 8. Freedom Summer: Voter Registration, an Act of Compassion and Empowerment, 1964 9. Lyndon B Johnson's Great Society and The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Disc 3: 10. The Freedom Riders Ride* 11. Medgar Evers: A Love-Voice of a Thousand Years Journey For Liberty and Justice 12. The D.C. Wall: A War Memorial For All Times* 13. Buzzsaw: The Myth of the Free Press+ 14. Little Rock Nine: A Force for Desegregation in Education, 1957* Disc 4: 15. America, Parts 1, 2 & 3+ 16. September 11th, 2001: A Memorial 17. Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democracy Party, 1964 18. Democracy 19. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Memphis, the Prophecy*

Personnel: The Golden Quartet/Quintet: Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn; Anthony Davis: piano; John Lindberg: bass; Pheeroan akLaff+ and/or Susie Ibarra*: drums and Southwest Chamber Music: Jeff von der Schmidt: conductor; Jim Foschia: clarinet; Larry Kaplan: flute; Shalini Vijayan and Lorenz Gamma: violin; Jan Karlin: viola; Peter Jacobson: cello; Alison Bjorkedal: harp; Tom Peters: bass; Lynn Vartan: percussion

--For The New York City Jazz Record May 2013

May 8, 2013

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya
Leo Records CD LR 507

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row

hatOLOGY 649

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem

Henceforth Records 104

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning

Resonant Music 004

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone

Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row
hatOLOGY 649

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem

Henceforth Records 104

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning

Resonant Music 004

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone

Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya

Leo Records CD LR 507

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem
Henceforth Records 104

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row

hatOLOGY 649

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning

Resonant Music 004

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone

Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya

Leo Records CD LR 507

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning
Resonant Music 004

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row

hatOLOGY 649

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem

Henceforth Records 104

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone

Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya

Leo Records CD LR 507

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet

One Dance Alone
Songlines SGL SA1571-2

Paul Bley

12+6 In A Row

hatOLOGY 649

Lisle Ellis

Sucker Punch Requiem

Henceforth Records 104

Radio I-Ching

The Fire Keeps Burning

Resonant Music 004

Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff

Zemlya

Leo Records CD LR 507

Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds

Extended Play

By Ken Waxman

Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators.

One of the music’s distinctive stylists with profound effects on jazz’s evolution from the early 1950s-on was a Montreal-born pianist. No, not that one … but Paul Bley. Bley’s associations with reedists Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Giuffre put him in the midst of first Energy Music than Free Form experiments. A reissue from 1990, 12+6 In A Row hatOLOGY 649 is not only a milestone in Bley’s evolution, but point out another development the pianist helped to initiate: partnership with like-mind Europeans. Bley’s associates here are Austrian flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and Swiss reedist Hans Koch. The title’s inferences to 12-tone rows are realized with sparse contrapuntal harmonies, broken counterpoint and skittering runs from the pianist, tongue slaps and chalumeau vibrations from Koch’s bass clarinet and chromatic lip burbles from Koglmann.

Yet obtuse formalism doesn’t overshadow jazz roots. Bley’s “Solo 2” includes right-handed bass syncopation, and there’s an excursion into waltz time on “Duo 2”. Meanwhile “Solo 6” channels boogie-woogie forefather Jimmy Yancy, in a Europeanized fashion, with Bley bearing down on the keys, while simultaneously tinkling higher pitches. Koch’s nasal bass clarinet encompasses a solipsistic line on “Trio 3”; while the piano-less “Duo 3” highlights intersections between Koglmann’s brassy, triple-tonguing and overblown split tones from Koch’s alto saxophone. Fulfillment of the notated-improvised mandate is obvious on pieces like “Trio 5” which harmonizes distanced piano patterns, smeary reed obbligatos and airy brass nodes.

Bley was well-established as Vancouver bassist Lisle Ellis was making his first U.S. forays in the 1970s. Over time Ellis established himself in partnerships with California-based players like pianist Mike Wofford and flutist Holly Hofmann or East Coasters like trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Oliver Lake. Now a New Yorker, Ellis’ Sucker Punch Requiem, Henceforth Records 104 subtitled An Homage To Jean-Michel Basquiat, ruminates on the short life and creative sensibilities of the visual artist. Utilizing electronics and sound design as well as his bass, Ellis admixes Susie Ibarra’s percussion arsenal plus the vocal tones, sound samples and processing of Pamela Z. with instrumental contribution from his bi-coastal associates

Structured like a traditional mass, but with layers of sonic contributions, the program includes the musical equivalent of sfumato and grisaille painterly effects. While rough, meandering and a bit unfinished – like Basquiat’s art – the end product is true to the painter.

With an exposition and theme recapitulation that mirror one another, encompassing ghostly cries, street sounds and mumbling voices plus pulsating electronic wheezes, the purely instrumental passages still tell most of the story. Especially important are processional piano chording, aviary flute asides and the thick motions of Ellis’ plucked strings. Declarative alto saxophone, cocooning trombone slurs and watery flute burbles are often played off against one another, as are Ellis’ mellow arco lines, Wofford’s e hunt-and-peck comping and Ibarra’s pings, flams and rolls.

Transitions are evident on “Las Pulgas (Repelling Ghosts)” and “For Blues and Other Spells”. The former gives space to Lake’s multiphonic narratives, Ibarra’s backbeat plus sputtering basso flue and crystal-clear piano notes which bond several thematic variations. Encompassing textbook Hard Bop – including press rolls and cymbal-resonating drum breaks – the later evolves with multiphonics, once Lewis’s smeary theme is succeeded by a double counterpoint duet from Hoffman’s toughest blowing and Lake’s reed-twisting. Conclusion is a piano-bass double nocturne that owes more to sonatas than the blues.

If Ellis’ homage showcases musical tangents consider Radio I-Ching’s The Fire Keeps Burning, Resonant Music 004.Among the composers represented are jazzers Thelonious Monk and Roland Kirk, Arab stylist Hamnza El Din, Hollywood’s Alfred Newman and country picker Jimmie Driftwood. The trio relies on Dee Pop’s drums and percussion, Don Fiorino’s guitar, lap steel and mandolin and the saxophone and electronics of Andy Haas. Ex-Torontonian Haas was a member of 1970s New-Wave rock band Martha & The Muffins before moving to New York.

Ching’s strength lies in adapting its instruments’ textures to unexpected ends. For instance, while Haas’ triple tonguing on El Din’s “Gala 2000” relates to Arabic properties, Fiorino produces a lotar-like pulse by using claw-hammer banjo licks. Newman’s “Moon Over Manakoora” gets the Hawaiian lounge treatment, with slack key resonations, chuffing and chiming from Pop and syrupy sax trills. Meantime Kirk probably never imagined his “Volunteered Slavery” would include junkeroo steel drum echoes with metallic steel guitar riffs elaborating the theme. Alternately Driftwood’s folksy tune gets an injection of guitar distortion and sax squeals. Eclecticism has its own rewards, however. as the trio proves on the original “Good Evening Mr. Dammers” named for a punk-rocker. Rather than punk, the sound is that of surprise with chirping reed lines doubled by electronics, sharp finger picking and conga drum pops.

Moving from eclecticism to experience, Canadian improvised music’s Brangelina is Vancouver-based married couple cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Lee is featured in pianist Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet on One Dance Alone, Songlines SGL SA1571-2, a charming excursion into chamber jazz featuring cornetist Ron Miles and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. It was recorded in Seattle, as was Zemlya, Leo Records CD LR 507, which puts van der Schyff’s drums, percussion and laptop with Irishman Mark O’Leary’s guitar and electronics plus the viola and processing of Winnipeg-born, American-resident Eyvind Kang.

As filled with pulsating and triggered oscillations as the other CD offers pastoral suggestions, Zemlya doesn’t overuse electronics. In fact when Kang picks his fiddle mandolin-like, the three approximate the sound of a rural string band. Other tunes have Carnatic overtones.

“Story of Iceland Part II” and Sorcery” bring the partnership into focus. Multi-faceted, the later features rim shots and cymbal slapping from the drummer, scrapped and strained spiccato viola lines and spidery riffs from the guitarist extended with whammy-bar finesse. While O’Leary picks angled timbres above and below the bridge, Kang slashes jagged runs, and van der Schyff adds burbling basso electronics. Elements of staccatissimo stop-time lead to a climax of fiery timbral dislocation, abated by snare pounding, with the 10 strings reaching such whirling dervish-like speeds that they almost sonically blur.

More balladic “…Iceland” evolves from van der Schyff’s ruffs and in sympathy with Kang’s contrapuntal plucks. Folksy, chromatic, and splintered with irregular drum beats, the theme produced by O’Leary’s finger-style runs is surrounded by Kang’s rococo detailing.

Chamber jazz is the watchword for the Gravitas Quartet, with intermezzos and interludes more common than riffs or vamps. Yet recital-friendly instrumentation and bucolic licks can’t mask the hard-centre of Horvitz’s compositions, nor their jazz antecedents. “A Walk in the Rain” for instance, adds Lee’s sul ponticello squeals and Schoenbeck’s burbling accents to the swinging call-and-response between trumpet tongue flutters and slippery piano licks. It ends with sped-up bassoon riffs and harmonic piano swells, which then reverse themselves into Chopinesque keyboard chording and double-reed breaths.

This CD’s neither-fish-nor-fowl program keeps the tracks interesting. With eclogue-like formalism never fully accepted, many parts are gently subversive. For every bit of open-horned, romanticism from Miles, there’s a matching squeak from Lee; and for every moderato vibration from Schoenbeck, there’s astringent dynamics from Horvitz.

These Canadian-affiliated CDs are memorable outings. The inadvertent irony is that only Lee and van der Schyff haven’t had to immigrate to build careers.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #10

July 9, 2008

JOHN LINDBERG

Winter Birds
Between the Lines BTLCHR 71203

NU BAND
Live
Konnex KCD 5141

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

December 5, 2005

DAVID S. WARE

Live in the World
Thirsty Ear THI 57153.2

David S. Ware doesn’t shy away from the Free Jazz label. Unlike some contemporary improvisers who say they play Free Music and treat jazz the way nouveau riche yuppies view acquaintances still wearing last year’s clothes, the tenor saxophonist esteems the tradition that goes back through 1960s New Thing to take in distinctive reed stylists such as Sonny Rollins and before that Coleman Hawkins.

This three-CD set of live performances helps stake his claim as one of the foremost jazz tenor saxophone stylist in the 21st century. Made up of one 1998 Swiss concert and two Italian gigs from 2003, it features three different drummers: the band’s former trapsperson, Susie Ibarra; its present one Guillermo E. Brown; and Hamid Drake, the gentleman from Chicago who often plays with the quartet’s longtime bassist William Parker. Ware’s tough love jazz values are such that they run roughshod over any tendency towards electronica or world music in which some of the other players have indulged at other times. The three hours of music also confirm Ware’s status as a major league jazzer.

Key statement here is the first disc and two additional tracks from the same session on discs two and three that couldn’t have been squeezed onto CD1. By the time it ends, the Ware-Parker-Ibarra-pianist Matthew Shipp four has fused into an indivisible unit of improvisational skill, sort of like the Modern Jazz Quartet or John Coltrane’s classic quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. Here and on the other CDs, Shipp demonstrates that in the right situation his jazz credentials are fully in order and his comping and pianisms perfectly mesh with the rest; ditto for Parker’s rasping and rhythmic double bass underpinning.

Somewhat constrained by the band’s heavy jazz orientation, Ibarra’s use of offbeat and miscellaneous percussion still confirms that she offered the most varied percussion response to the others’ testosterone-fuelled playing. Drake, whose experience with Chicago veterans like tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson allows him to mix the unexpected with heavy time keeping is also a fine addition. Brown, a beat-meister does his job thoroughly and competently.

His powerful yet commonplace rhythmic work is why CD3 is the weakest of the three discs. Although the lengthening and recasting of Rollins’ “Freedom Suite” are noteworthy, especially for Shipp’s high-frequency gospellish piano work, the four tracks are most impressive to “Suite” virgins. Ware recorded his definitive studio version of the suite for AUM Fidelity (AUM 023) that same year, and the necessity for the preservation of a live version is somewhat louche. Rollins himself only recorded the original once.

Back to the Swiss date however, and the almost 32-minute “Aquarian Sound”. Pivoting on Parker’s walking, modal fills from Shipp, and steady cymbal clinks and bouncing bass drum beats from Ibarra, Ware initially enters mimicking the rhythmic backbeat. Soon, however, he pushes himself into double-tonguing glossolalia, encompassing a swelling crescendo of resonating honks and reverberating blasts. Depending on extended variation provided by sonorous bass thumps, Shipp begins to vigorously voice patterns that seem to draw on Herbie Hancock’s freebop period. Shipp’s dramatic voicing extend the music even further, sluicing from treble to bass clef without interrupting its vigorous flow, and only gearing down half way through to make space for a low-pitched arco solo of strained, high-pitched motions from Parker that melt into moderato and legato shuffle bowing. Meanwhile, Ibarra is cunningly altering the backing with gourd-shaking, gong-soundings and cymbal claps.

When the head is finally recapitulated, by Ware’s droning tongue stops and Shipp’s stolid heavy chording, she has switched to brisk cross rhythms. This precedes a climatic, extended – and concluding – renal scream from Ware.

Ibarra brings similar inventiveness to “Stargazer”, CD3’s bonus track from 1998 appended to the 2003 material. Except in this case the pianist varies his output as well. Feeding prepared, almost harpsichordic tones or quivering, theremin-like timbres to the composition, Shipp’s foreshortened piano expressions meet up with cymbal cracks, varied patterning on the snares, and crosswise stick thumps. Parker’s penetrating bass lines link these quirks with focused comping from Shipp that resembles mainstream nightclub strategies. On top of all this is Ware’s majestic soling, which creeps in mildly then distends into colossal foghorn-like honks and overblowing, nasally masticating the notes.

For the unconvinced, there’s how Ware recomposes Marvin Hamlisch’s “The Way We Were”, as it morphs from unrecognizable to almost familiar. Low-key rumination, split-tone variations and body-tube blasts a cappella is Ware’s initial strategy, until a few minutes later false register glissandi hints at the melody’s harmonics. With his droning vibrato wide and wider and his use of glottal punctuation and double tonguing referencing Rollin’s and Coltrane’s way with a ballad, by the finale he finally double-times the recognizable tune. His variations may be like the tail wagging the dog, but what a tail it is.

Drake’s interface brings out the Tyner-like modal emphasis in Shipp’s playing, scraping and sawing double-stopped runs from Parker and some of Ware’s most emotional soloing. But considering his cross-handed deliberations hardly let a phrase from the others pass without a flam, rebound or ruff comment, lesser histrionics are really Drake’s forte.

One of those tunes is “Unknown Mansion”, an edifice that seems to have been partially built on the calypso-chanting Caribbean island where Rollins likes to dwell. Varying his beat patterns with doubled smashes and Latinesque prettiness, Drake somehow manages to get the usually dour-sounding Ware to appear as if he’s swinging a Louis Jordan ditty. At one point you can swear you hear the riff from “Open the Door, Richard”. Meantime Shipp is uncoiling cadences that contain Monk-like key clipping and steady, left-handed percussive notes. Harmonically conservative compared to Ibarra’s accompaniment, Drake is as externally directed in his solos. Apparently spanking his toms and snares with his palms, he also horizontally cross patterns a single drum on those same surfaces, while simultaneously propelling the beat with hi-hat and cymbal resonation. Ware, almost mellow, returns to sound broken cadences in tandem with Shipp and provides a clenched-teeth version of the head.

Subsequent tunes like “Sentient Compassion” and “Co Co Cana” may feature harder reed tone and shrill whinnying from Ware, but, possibly because of Drake, his abrasive tone is less than it would be with Brown. On the first he reverberates split tones back and forth, as Parker bows vibrating double stops, bringing out the woodenness of his bass along with the solidity of his strings. Combined, the four produce almost ballad-like twittering lines that echo onto themselves. On the later, Ware’s high-pitched yelps, Drake’s rim shots and Shipp’s high frequency double counterpoint serve as backing for a Parker display. Moving from walking to relay race string action on the fretboard, Parker double stops with masculine power and by the end of his solo has Shipp spinning out circular patterns to sustain his momentum.

LIVE IN THE WORLD is a major achievement in quantitative heft as well as music.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD 1: 1. Aquarian Sound 2. Logistic 3. Sentient Compassion 4. Mikuro’s Blues CD 2: 1. Elder’s Path 2. Unknown Mansion 3. Sentient Compassion 4. Co Co Cana 5. Manu’s Ideal 6. Lexicon CD 3 [Freedom Suite]: 1. Part One 2. Part Two 3. Part Three 4. Part Four 5. Stargazer

Personnel: Disc One: David S. Ware (tenor saxophone); Matthew Shipp (piano); William Parker (bass); Susie Ibarra (drums): Disc Two: Ware; Shipp; Parker; Hamid Drake (drums) Disc Three: Ware; Shipp; Parker; Guillermo E. Brown (drums)

September 12, 2005

KLOBAS/STORRS/HUNDEMER

An Hour of Now
Louie Records 031

SUSIE IBARRA & MARK DRESSER
Tone Time
Wobbly Rail WB014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

March 15, 2004

JOHN LINDBERG

Ruminations on Ives and Gottschalk
Between the lines btl 025

Seven compositions joined together in a suite form this CD, honoring two idiosyncratic American classical composers, but featuring -- not surprisingly -- jazz players rather than members of the so-called serious music fraternity.

What do you expect? While classical snobs’ abhorrence of jazz as mere popular music is well known and exists to this day, the symphonic establishment has also never been particularly welcoming to visionary composers, especially of the non-European variety.

Thus it takes bassist John Lindberg, linchpin of the String Trio of New York and associate of jazzers ranging from drummer Andrew Cyrille to trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith to create music that honors his compositional and performance forefathers. Jazz inflections vie with classical virtuosity here, and true to musical miscegenation of North American sounds, Lindberg and company amplifies the pieces with Indian bansuri flutes, Chinese gongs and the Philippine kulintang.

Lesser known of the two honorees, Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), was a New Orleans-born Creole world traveler, whose virtuosic piano playing gained him an enthusiastic following in Europe and the Americas. (He died in Brazil). Pan-American, he composed piano pieces, operas and orchestral work. The Yankee maverick Charles Edward Ives (1874-1954) was entrepreneurial enough to head up the country’s largest insurance brokerage. Yet his frequently humorous compositions for all sizes of ensembles were not only defiantly American, but used such devices as counterpoint, polytonality and polyrhythms long before they were accepted. Both composers led truncated artistic lives. Gottschalk had to leave the United States in 1865 following a scandal involving a female student. Ives, who suffered heart attacks and fits of depression, stopped writing after 1927. Performances of his works were infrequent until just before his death.

Although two of his compositions here directly refer to Gottschalk and Ives, Lindberg doesn’t crassly invoke any of their music. RUMINATIONS is definitely a suite though, with the first and final tracks assuming a circular continuum. Bouncy and vamp-like, the CD takes shape through instrumental virtuosity. Frequently expressing his time keeping, the bassist also opens up the tunes for the other members of the quartet. Moving confidently from the regular kit to the distinctive, junk store percussion sounds of Chinese gongs and kulintang or brass gongs, for instance, Susie Ibarra, who has enlivened the bands of saxophonist David S. Ware and John Zorn, mixes urban Free Jazz with new takes on traditional stylings.

That goes double for the contributions of Steve Gorn, who on bamboo flute, soprano saxophone and clarinet, draws from classical Indian and so-called World music as well as jazz to make his points. A film, television, dance and theatre composer, Gorn has recorded with folks as different as singer/songwriter Paul Simon and jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette. On “Yatan-Na”, for instance, his trebly, flatish Indian flute trills take little from the ongoing jazz interface. His soprano saxophone playing on “Implications” is ritualistic and middle-Eastern, almost Hebraic in its ney-like melancholy. Ibarra adds some Native Indian war party style drumming, while the ascending trumpet lead lines from Baikida Carroll appear to be ready to lead old country dances. An early associate of alto saxist Julius Hemphill, Carroll’s output here and elsewhere ranges from hard core to hard bop.

Nodding to a Gottschalk-composed hymn, “Spirit Great, Golden Shine” is all muted flugelhorn, soft woodwind tones and brush strokes. Definitely spiritual, the trumpeter’s open-horned grace notes soaring through the skies also bow to another spiritual-World music proponent, Don Cherry. Conveyed on taunt bass string pumps and what appears to be drumsticks banging the floor, “Generations” is a salute to Ives, who, like Lindberg, began in music playing snare drum in a brass band. Mid-range, legato clarinet passages from Gorn and clashing cymbals from Ibarra suggest the marching band tradition, while Carroll’s vocalized grace notes, gritty and circuitously emphasized, call upon the African-American tradition.

Then there’s “Beau Theme”, where resonating bass flute tones, subtly manipulated near-vibraharp timbres and andante, double-stopping bass lines make up the centre. Ibarra seems to be rattling attached chains when she isn’t manipulating the Southasian gongs. And Lindberg finally exhibits his virtuosity during a solo that moves from hushed, atmospheric strumming to strongman-like bass slapping à la New Orleans’ Pops Foster. Perhaps Foster’s shared birthplace with Gottschalk again emphasis the continuation of American music.

Want a further irony? This expressive CD, which is rootsy American down to its centrehole, is released on a German record label.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Powerful Reflections 2. Yatan-Na 3. Beau Theme 4. Spirit Great, Golden Shine 5. Generations 6. Implications 7. Upon Powerhouses

Personnel: Baikida Carroll (trumpet and flugelhorn); Seven compositions joined together in a suite form this CD, honoring two idiosyncratic American classical composers, but featuring -- not surprisingly -- jazz players rather than members of the so-called serious music fraternity.

What do you expect? While classical snobs’ abhorrence of jazz as mere popular music is well known and exists to this day, the symphonic establishment has also never been particularly welcoming to visionary composers, especially of the non-European variety.

Thus it takes bassist John Lindberg, linchpin of the String Trio of New York and associate of jazzers ranging from drummer Andrew Cyrille to trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith to create music that honors his compositional and performance forefathers. Jazz inflections vie with classical virtuosity here, and true to musical miscegenation of North American sounds, Lindberg and company amplifies the pieces with Indian bansuri flutes, Chinese gongs and the Philippine kulintang.

Lesser known of the two honorees, Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), was a New Orleans-born Creole world traveler, whose virtuosic piano playing gained him an enthusiastic following in Europe and the Americas. (He died in Brazil). Pan-American, he composed piano pieces, operas and orchestral work. The Yankee maverick Charles Edward Ives (1874-1954) was entrepreneurial enough to head up the country’s largest insurance brokerage. Yet his frequently humorous compositions for all sizes of ensembles were not only defiantly American, but used such devices as counterpoint, polytonality and polyrhythms long before they were accepted. Both composers led truncated artistic lives. Gottschalk had to leave the United States in 1865 following a scandal involving a female student. Ives, who suffered heart attacks and fits of depression, stopped writing after 1927. Performances of his works were infrequent until just before his death.

Although two of his compositions here directly refer to Gottschalk and Ives, Lindberg doesn’t crassly invoke any of their music. RUMINATIONS is definitely a suite though, with the first and final tracks assuming a circular continuum. Bouncy and vamp-like, the CD takes shape through instrumental virtuosity. Frequently expressing his time keeping, the bassist also opens up the tunes for the other members of the quartet. Moving confidently from the regular kit to the distinctive, junk store percussion sounds of Chinese gongs and kulintang or brass gongs, for instance, Susie Ibarra, who has enlivened the bands of saxophonist David S. Ware and John Zorn, mixes urban Free Jazz with new takes on traditional stylings.

That goes double for the contributions of Steve Gorn, who on bamboo flute, soprano saxophone and clarinet, draws from classical Indian and so-called World music as well as jazz to make his points. A film, television, dance and theatre composer, Gorn has recorded with folks as different as singer/songwriter Paul Simon and jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette. On “Yatan-Na”, for instance, his trebly, flatish Indian flute trills take little from the ongoing jazz interface. His soprano saxophone playing on “Implications” is ritualistic and middle-Eastern, almost Hebraic in its ney-like melancholy. Ibarra adds some Native Indian war party style drumming, while the ascending trumpet lead lines from Baikida Carroll appear to be ready to lead old country dances. An early associate of alto saxist Julius Hemphill, Carroll’s output here and elsewhere ranges from hard core to hard bop.

Nodding to a Gottschalk-composed hymn, “Spirit Great, Golden Shine” is all muted flugelhorn, soft woodwind tones and brush strokes. Definitely spiritual, the trumpeter’s open-horned grace notes soaring through the skies also bow to another spiritual-World music proponent, Don Cherry. Conveyed on taunt bass string pumps and what appears to be drumsticks banging the floor, “Generations” is a salute to Ives, who, like Lindberg, began in music playing snare drum in a brass band. Mid-range, legato clarinet passages from Gorn and clashing cymbals from Ibarra suggest the marching band tradition, while Carroll’s vocalized grace notes, gritty and circuitously emphasized, call upon the African-American tradition.

Then there’s “Beau Theme”, where resonating bass flute tones, subtly manipulated near-vibraharp timbres and andante, double-stopping bass lines make up the centre. Ibarra seems to be rattling attached chains when she isn’t manipulating the Southasian gongs. And Lindberg finally exhibits his virtuosity during a solo that moves from hushed, atmospheric strumming to strongman-like bass slapping à la New Orleans’ Pops Foster. Perhaps Foster’s shared birthplace with Gottschalk again emphasis the continuation of American music.

Want a further irony? This expressive CD, which is rootsy American down to its centrehole, is released on a German record label.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Powerful Reflections 2. Yatan-Na 3. Beau Theme 4. Spirit Great, Golden Shine 5. Generations 6. Implications 7. Upon Powerhouses

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

(bansuri flutes, clarinet, and soprano saxophone); John Lindberg (bass); Susie Ibarra (Chinese tuned gongs, kulingtang, percussion, and drums)

August 4, 2003

JEROEN VAN VLIET

Red Sun
EWM 51172

COURVOISIER/LÉANDRE/IBARRA
Passagio
Intakt 075

Back in the pre-feminist 1950s, jazz critic Leonard Feather put together a “cats verses chicks” jam session. On it, an all-female band including vibist Terry Pollard and guitarist Mary Osborne went head to head with an equal number of male musicians including vibist Terry Gibbs and guitarist Tal Farlow, trading solos on such appropriate tunes as “Anything You Can Do … I Can Do Better”. The sentiment seemed to be that this would prove that women could play jazz just as well as men.

While subsequent and preceding decades have produced distaff jazzers as good or better than their male counterparts, the idea of comparing particular musicians as to gender seems as antiquated as concern about the racial make up of sports teams. As point of reference Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier’s trio is all female, while Dutch pianist Jeroen Van Vliet and his associates all are male. Yet the differences between these two fine sessions have almost nothing to do with the gender of the participants. Very simply, any more antithetical approaches to a modern jazz piano trio session then these groups have found, are practically non-existent.

Van Vliet, who has been linchpin of bassist Eric van der Westen’s band since its formation in 1995, is an unabashed romantic, who has also written for dance and film. His third solo album, RED SUN, finds him smack-dab in the middle of the impressionist jazz tradition. But careful listening to the playing and writing here -- all the tunes but two miniatures are his -- reveals a chilly intelligence underneath the romance, sort of like an updated Paul Bley.

More experimental, PASSAGGIO, featuring three of the world’s most accomplished free improv practitioners. There’s Courvoisier, who often works with American violinist Mark Feldman as well as veterans such as Swiss drummer Lucas Niggli and American cellist Erik Friedlander; French bassist Joëlle Léandre, known as a paramount interpreter of the work of John Cage as well as an improviser with other master musicians such as British guitarist Derek Bailey and Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer; and American drummer Susie Ibarra, whose sound has been an important part of groups led by saxophonist John Zorn and David S. Ware and bassist William Parker.

Cast in the form of a suite, Van Vliet’s CD features a dozen compositions, and during the course of which he proves that attributes like beauty and delicacy are not exclusively feminine traits. There are times, however, that the pianist seems to be pacing himself to not press too firmly on the keys. Another weakness is that for all the passion expended, these tunes, which range from a little more than six minutes all the way down to barely one minute, appear to have been constructed with a POMO sensibility. That is, unlike, say, a 19th century tale which would sum up its message at the end, these compositions are more like 20th or 21st century short stories: many of them end without coming to a resolution. Perhaps, though, like New Criticism analysis which is concerned more with the words than their meaning, RED SUN should be seen as being affected by resonance and tone, rather than forward motion.

This is particularly noticeable on “I Never Said Goodbye”, which sounds more like a lullaby than a leave taking. Bassist Frans Van Der Hoeven, a fellow Netherlands native, who has played with everyone from American brassman Art Farmer to the Dutch Jazz Orchestra, has a carefully delineated solo here. But rather than challenging the treatment, he too sounds as if he’s carefully moving small butterfly specimens from glass case to case without upsetting anything.

“Glider”, one of those Pat Metheny/Bill Frisell-like country-flavored ballads, offers more of the same. Van Der Hoeven’s to-the-point solo appear to be limited to a few notes before he works his way back to the melody, which earlier had been defined from the piano’s highest keys. Even the title track is so slow moving that it’s barely there. The bassist seems to be merely tickling his instrument, while Belgian drummer Dré Pallemaerts is reduced to being a mere colorist with minute snare smacks and tiny cymbal reverberations on his palate. This probably reminded him of his New York period playing with American pianist Fred Hersch, but one would think he had a larger role as part of Belgium guitarist Philip Catherine’s group and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra.

Although there are times you feel like slipping the three an alarm clock to wake them up during some of the almost motionless passages, that near stasis is obviously the group’s chosen style, although the most memorable tunes here seem to be those which swing -- albeit sensitively-- rather than only setting moods.

On “Derwisj”, the disc’s longest piece, a mid-tempo ballad, the three have created something that sounds instantly familiar and which is helped by the impeccable recording done in Oslo by ECM’s favorite engineer. Van Vliet at one point unveils a small flurry of notes and at another creates some double timing arpeggios. Pallemaerts responds with some light cross sticking, though that then causes the pianist to stop himself, as if he was getting too showy.

Finally there’s “Solid Air”, an out-and-out swinger. While the pianist still suggests Evans’ work on KIND OF BLUE, at least he’s using the entire keyboard -- sometimes ostentatiously so. Van der Hoeven double times and the drummer plays his best solo of the date as well, roaming the kit for snare rolls, cymbal scratches and a steady tom tom beat -- though he does it too in a definitely unpretentious manner.

Moving from Oslo to Zürich, Switzerland, we find 12 instant compositions performed by three musicians unlike any others. Although the burlesque trappings of some of Léandre’s more vocal performances are missing, the three seem to be having a grand time. There’s no overt humor, but neither is there the sombreness that intentionally or not, Van Vliet & Co., appeared to portray. Definitely improvised music, many of the Courvoisier tracks begin with silence, as the three seem to be discussing what they will be playing next.

As with many other session in which she’s featured, bassist Léandre could carry the entire performance by herself. During the course of these 51-odd minutes, she draws falsetto screeches from her instrument’s strings; scratches its wood, sides and pegs; strums it like a giant guitar; plucks it like a Dixielander’s bull fiddle; (wo) manhandles it so you can hear the wood reverberating as the strings pull; bows away as if she was replicating the sound of a swarm of insects; and offers up other arco legerdemain that transforms her four strings into that of an entire orchestral string section.

Not that the other two are far behind in inventiveness. Homegirl Courvoisier ‘s work ranges from producing speedy, restless, piano patterns to gliding over they keys with massed arpeggios and using implements and her hands to mute the keyboard action inside the piano. Other times she’ll stroke the internal strings as if they were really inside a harp and bang the sides and cover for additional percussive notes. Individual in approach, there’s still a point, almost at the end of the disc, when she and Ibarra duet like Max Roach and Cecil Taylor ranging hell bent for leather -- or wood -- over all parts of their respective instruments.

From her position, the drummer alternates between loudness and silence. Momentarily, she produces a ghostly cymbal continuum or what could be precious glass hit every so slightly. Then she’ll build up to a crescendo of tapping or knocking snare work that sounds as if she’s outside a door and wants in. Rattling chains, bells and tam tams, often a distinct Oriental gong reverberation will appear as well.

Military march time makes its appearance here, as does the closest thing to traditional jazz tempo on “Taktlos 2”. As Léandre moves from European classical harmonics to American country hoedown suggestions with a flick of her bow, Ibarra suddenly stops cross sticking on the drum rims and produces a deep Gene Krupa-like swing bass drum sound.

Nothing is done in isolation, of course. Never does it seem that one musician is the patriarchal leader and the others merely sidefolk. On “Mini Four”, for example, Courvoisier’s fleet passages at the top of her range are altered by Léandre’s arco pyrotechnics and Ibarra’s approximations of Aboriginal tambourine music. Soon all are in the forefront, improvising at the same level of loudness. “Taktlos 3” works that way as well, where straightforward swing from the piano and bop cymbal work moves in and out of standard time led by the bassist lacerating the highest part of her string set and the section behind the extended bridge. What results is music that is as outside, as it is inside.

At times, as well, the three are involved in such a cauldron of group improvisations that you’re not sure which instrument produces which sound, something that never happens on RED SUN.

Unabashed free improv fans, who want to experience the full range of a piano trio, should seek out PASSAGIO. Those whose tastes run more to quieter and less confrontational sounds will probably be more impressed by RED SUN.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Prologue 2. Like Fall 3. Still 4. Glider 5. Red Sun 6. Thaw 7. Solid Air

8. So Long, Brother 9. Oslo 10. Derwisj 11. I Never Said Goodbye 12. Epilogue

Personnel: Jeroen van Vliet (piano); Frans van der Hoeven (bass); Dré Pallemaerts (drums)

Track Listing: 1. Mini one 2. Mini two 3. Mini three 4. Mini four 5. Mini five 6. Taktlos encore 7. Taktlos 1 8. Taktlos 2 9. Taktlos 3 10. Fact one 11. Fact two 12. Fact three

Personnel: Sylvie Courvoisier (piano); Joëlle Léandre (bass); Susie Ibarra (drums)

September 30, 2002