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Reviews that mention Kevin Norton

Joëlle Léandre & Kevin Norton

Winter in New York - 2006
Leo Records CD LR 499

Proving once again that the limitations of musical improvisation are only what can’t be imagined, French bassist Joëlle Léandre and American percussionist Kevin Norton combine for a live set that utilize every timbre of their respective instruments.

Norton finds unique and unexpected textures, rhythms and tones to whack, stroke, pulse and pop as he moves among standard drum kit, vibraphone, bells and other miscellaneous percussion during these eight variations on a theme. His occasional trans-oceanic collaborator, Léandre has revelled in similar meetings since the early 1980s. Strumming, bowing and thumping the heavy instrument’s strings and wood, plus scatting conspiratorially at times, the bassist’s command of double bass vocabulary in such that every percussion challenge is handed with aplomb.

Often shifting the tonal centre and sliding from staccato to stop-time in an instant, the two quickly establish an interlocking strategy. Should Norton pulse connective tremors with his vibes, then Léandre saws thick col legno lines. If she concentrates on

sul ponticello sweeps and sways, then he shakes bells, strikes cymbals and worries single tones half speed, causing an instantaneous double tempo of sways and spiccato vibrations. With Norton immediately able to utilize a variety of percussion tools – frequently to play one after another in quick succession – Léandre often pitches voluptuous sul tasto thrusts until a shrill single line partial is exposed, reverberating on its own until joined by the percussionist’s scrapes and scuffs.

A dialogue not a contest, the fervor and intensity with which the two bring to this meeting make this a Winter’s tale that often bears retelling.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For CODA Issue 336

December 4, 2007

Ann Arbor’s Edgefest expands in its Ninth Outing

for CODA

Participants, including members of Chicago’s AACM, representatives of Montreal’s Musique Actuelle scene and a New York-based musician and hybrid instrument designer who’ll jam with a golf club and an umbrella, will all take part in Ann Arbor, Michigan’s ninth annual Edgefest, October 19 to October 22.

Taking place in a medium-sized college city, home to the University of Michigan, about an hour’s drive west of Detroit, Edgefest has steadily expanded from its one-day debut to the four-day 2005 festival. Besides American musicians, particular emphasis is on innovators from the music scenes in Holland and Quebec. This year, for instance, Claude St-Jean’s Les Projectionnistes is the featured Quebec ensemble – its second Edgefest appearance – with saxophonist Tobias Delius’ Quartet – including cellist Tristan Honsinger and drummer Han Bennink – representing the Netherlands.

Les Projectionnistes’ second CD will be released in time for Edgefest, and its celebration at the festival may include an expanded band line-up. Besides the Delius Quartet, filled out by Amsterdam-based, Icelandic bassist Valdi Kolli; Dutch trombonist Wolter Wiebos will appear opening night as a member of German tubaist Carl Ludwig Hubsch's Longrun Development of the Universe trio.

American-based performers, include a group fronted by AACM mainstays, saxophonist Ed Wilkerson, Jr. and flautist Nicole Mitchell; drummer/vibraphonist Kevin Norton’s Bauhaus Quartet; legendary bassist Henry Grimes’ trio with saxophonist Andrew Lamb and drummer Newman Taylor Baker; and the all-star FAB: bassist Joe Fonda, drummer Barry Altschul, and violinist Billy Bang. Hybrid instrument designer Ken Butler brings his self-constructed axes from Manhattan to jam with a contingent of local musicians for one show, with other players from the Ann Arbor-Detroit axis featured on other shows, including an all-star nonet.

Both festival venues – the Kerrytown Concert House, which is the organizer and presenter of the festival – and the Firefly Club, are within easy walking distance of each other in pedestrian-oriented Ann Arbor. Each can seat about 110 people. Total festival attendance is usually in the 600-person range, with all-inclusive festival passes on sale for a reduced fee.

Featuring afternoon educational workshops at the concert house throughout the festival, Edgefest is supported by a local businesses and some government funding. As Festival director, David Lynch says: “despite its small size, Edgefest brings a bit of an international perspective to Ann Arbor.

“It’s nice to have musicians from Montreal and Amsterdam sharing the festival stages with musicians from New York City and Chicago, “he adds. “Perhaps it’s one small strike against cultural isolationism.” Check www.kerrytownconcerthouse.com for updates.

-- Ken Waxman

September 12, 2005

Ann Arbor’s Edgefest expands in its Ninth Outing

for CODA

-- Ken Waxman

September 7, 2005

KEVIN NORTON’S BAUHAUS QUARTET

Time-Space Modulator
Barking Hoop BKH-008

TONY MALABY TRIO
Adobe
Sunnyside Records SSC 1137

Evolving his improvising from the odd side of convention, while maintaining a healthy respect for tradition, soprano and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby could be the successor to Joe Lovano in terms of being an all-around, advanced inside player.

Like the older woodwind player, he teaches sax workshops, is on call as a sidemen for many bands as well as his own, interprets standards, jazz and otherwise, as well as writing his own material. Heck, with his girth and beard he could pass for Lovano’s kid brother.

Unlike the Cleveland-born Lovano however, Jersey City resident Malaby is initially from Tucson and draws on his southwestern background for color in his compositions. Often, on ADOBE as well, he keep his tenor tone light enough to almost be in alto range. Also, unlike Lovano, Malaby has still to make his definite statement on CD. Working with veteran drummer Paul Motian, who backed Bill Evan and Keith Jarrett, plus bassist and Tim Berne associate Drew Gress on this date, for instance, his deference means that a distinctive identity fails to appear. With the nine compositions, including his own, paramountly group music, he’s more distinctively adventurous as a sideman in percussionist Kevin Norton’s Bauhaus Quartet.

A fellow Jerseyite, Norton’s background ranges from New music percussion performances to gigs backing iconoclastic composer Anthony Braxton and Swing Era bassist Milt Hinton. Moving effectively among drum kit, miscellaneous percussion and vibraphone, Norton is also an incisive composer, which he shows on TIME-SPACE MODULATOR, as he has on a series of discs since the late 1990s. Boasting as impressive a line-up as Malaby’s solo CD, the band is filled out by bassist John Lindberg, co-founder of the String Trio of New York, and trumpeter Dave Ballou, who has recorded in pianist Satoko Fujii’s band and with French hornist Tom Varner.

Overall you get the feeling that the eight compositions on TIME-SPACE MODULATOR are connected by a definite vision -- Norton’s. In contrast ADOBE, which mixes Cole Porter tunes and Ornette Coleman lines plus Malaby’s pieces new and old, comes across as a professionally played collection of songs. Sameness in time and tempo haunts the disc as well.

Surely his own man -- he works with impressionistic pianist Fred Hersch as well as more outside players, Gress’s backing ranges from plucked, near-country runs to powerful walking. He holds things together most of the time. “No Brainer”, for instance, a jaunty, smeary tune written by Malaby’s wife Angelica Sanchez, features darker chromatic picking, plus cross sticking rattles and rebounds from Motian. It also highlights one of the saxman’s better performances as he flutter tongues and irregularly vibrates half tones and partials.

Gress’s low-key andante solo is also one of the highlights of “Dorotea La Cautiva”, an Argentinean ballad. Applying torque to his strings, Gress works up and down them, creating his own harmony as he goes along. With Motian behind him on brushes, Malaby smoothly negotiates the bends in the tune as well, sometimes hitting high, but not shrill notes, creating a tone that’s like bittersweet chocolate, honeyed without being sickly sweet.

The there’s “Gone”, appropriately the final track, where echoing spiccato bowing from Gress and double sticking in odd patterns from Motian encourages Malaby --playing soprano -- to pour out speedy arched cries and end with triple-tongued, aviary fluttering.

Other than that, even though the reedist sometimes trills obbligatos and blows more intensely from time to time, one track on ADOBE seems pretty much like the next.

However, almost from the first note he sounds on TIME-SPACE MODULATOR Malaby sounds on top of things. Filled with smeary, sweaty altissimo squeaks, screeching trills and sideslipping explorations, “Mother Tongue” provides a more complete aural picture of Malaby. Perhaps it’s because of Norton’s stronger compositional skills or a combination of other factors at that time -- this is improvised music after all. Lindberg is as impressive a bassist as Gress, strumming out a faultless beat on this jagged, New Thing-oriented tune and other pieces. Norton contributes press rolls, runs and cymbal clatters and Ballou alternate plunger action with ceiling-glancing notes.

This high standard is maintained throughout until “Moonstruck”, the final, more-than-13-minute piece that demonstrates what can be done with four committed musicians working together. Combining tougher bass and drum beats and contrapuntal horn parts, the reedist and brassman soon break through polyphonically and head up into the highest registers. Ballou’s wiggling and hocketing slurs turn to swaggering blasts, while Malaby’s smeary overblowing takes on the yelping of a disoriented pooch. Ballou keeps up his chromatic cherry picking, always hitting the proper note with the proper brassy flourish and maintaining his purity of tone no matter what. Perfect counterpoint comes from Malaby’s chesty tenor tones, that sometimes operate with bop-style construction. Triple stopping strums from the lowest point of the bass plus press rolls and nerve beats from the drums signal the piece’s final variation, letting the horns reprise the theme, then ending with a faint saxophone whistle.

Other tunes accent Norton’s chiming bells mixed with Lindberg strumming below the bridge of his bass, Malaby producing a rubato clarinet-like tone from his soprano, plus trumpet and vibe close harmony that sounds like the work on Eric Dolphy’s OUT TO LUNCH LP.

The band is able to play a non-greasy blues on “Didkovsky”, most notable for the work of Ballou and Lindberg. Over counterpoint that includes snorted overblowing from the saxophonist, the brassman pingpongs from clear to muted tones, that references Joe Wilder at one point and Donald Ayler at another, but never misses a beat. Neither does the bassist, as he slaps his strings to such an extent that it seems as if they’re being rammed with a drumstick. Later Lindberg downshifts to percussive taps on the instrument’s ribs and belly. With Norton bearing down on his kit, the tune reaches a climax with a walking bass line and swirling, squealing timbres from both horn men.

Finally there’s “Milt’s Forward Looking Tradition”, which honors both the late bassist Hinton with whom Norton played, and theorist/composer George Russell, with whom the Swing Era bassist recorded some of his challenging work. The steady bass and drum pulse complemented by horn obbligatos soon gives way to flighty sketched lines from Ballou, mated with some restrained impressionism from Malaby. Moving between rolling drum paradiddles and shimmering vibe accompaniment, Norton manages to capture both the primitive and progressive sides of Hinton’s ever-swinging and ever-evolving playing.

TIME-SPACE MODULATOR is another major work by Norton and his musicians, including Malaby. Since ADOBOE was recorded more than a year before the Norton session, it’s likely that the tenor man’s playing and conception is steadily improving. But Malaby still lacks a major recorded statement.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Adobe: 1. Humpty Dumpty 2. Maine 3. Abobe Blues 4. Dorotea La Cautiva 5. No Brainer 6. Mia 7. What is This Thing called Love 8. Cosas 9. Gone

Personnel: Adobe: Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone); Drew Gress (bass); Paul Motian (drums)

Track Listing: Modulator: 1. Mother Tongue 2. Seoul Soul 3. Didkovsky 4. Milt’s Forward Looking Tradition 5. Microbig 6. Atie Aife 7. Difficulty 8. Moonstruck

Personnel: Modulator: Dave Ballou (trumpet and cornet);Tony Malaby (tenor and soprano saxophones); John Lindberg (bass); Kevin Norton (vibraphone, drums and percussion)

March 14, 2005

EDWARD RATLIFF WITH RHAPSODALIA

Barcelona in 48 Hours
Strudelmedia CD 008

More than a soundtrack, yet as descriptive as program music should be, BARCELONA IN 48 HOURS is a minor classic, codifying and amplifying the sounds composed by New York-based Edward Ratliff for a short film of the same name he co-directed and co-produced with photographer Anja Hitzenberger.

Designed both as a portrait of choreographer David Zambrano and a reflection of the Catalan city’s blended cultures, it can stand on its own divorced from the images. Ratliff himself plays cornet, trombone, accordion, celeste or Fender Rhodes on different tracks, and isn’t present at all for three of the 11 selections. Auspiciously as well, he’s employed nine of the most accomplished improvisers in the New York area to help him out.

Playing everything from Middle Eastern dumbek drum to conventional jazz’s saxophone and trombone, the others work with Ratliff to create an impressionistic, idiosyncratic set of variations on the themes. You could define the CD as world music, if the term didn’t carry intimations of watering down local rhythms to pander to Western tastes. The composer hasn’t done this in the least. Instead he uses strands of Catalan, North African, French, Spanish and North and South American sounds to weave an original synthesis.

Shorter tracks are mere image interpretation intermezzos. Usually they involve accordionist Charlie Giordano squeezing out variations on the theme in the French or Spanish style by himself or in duo. Sometimes it’s with the composer himself on celeste, sounding all the world like the what you would hear as a toy ballerina spins atop a music box.

Longer compositions rate higher. Starting at the conclusion, “Sintuba”, the final track manages to mix a North African-Sephardic flavor via musette-resembling alto saxophone line from Michaël Attias, who often plays with pianist Anthony Coleman, with percussion sounds that are more Afro-Cuban jazz than Catalan traditional. Considering that drummer Kevin Norton has worked with everyone from composer Anthony Braxton to Klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, and dumbek pounder Seido Salifoski is part of the cross-cultural Paradox trio this tradition melding is no surprise.

Negotiating hocketing blats on trombone and bee-buzzing triplets on muted cornet, Ratliff is often cushioned by massed polyphonic horns. Sometimes double time flams and bounces from Norton then give way to snaky lines from violinist Sam Bardfeld, whose background encompasses work with composer John Zorn and Latin jazz groups. Venturing musically across the Straits of Gibraltar here, Bardfeld’s output ends up being half Indo-Arabic and half Stuff Smith. Meantime Attias’ note construction comes across as if Sonny Stitt was playing in a souk. Friction and rattling from the exotic percussion overlay walking bass from John Herbert, until everyone masses to reprise the theme as a climax and conclusion.

Earlier, “Night Dance”, which adds guitarist Doug Wieselman, an erstwhile Lounge Lizard to the band, features string sounds that draw alternately on neuvo tango, faux Heavy Metal and Santo & Johnny’s “Sleepwalk”. Norton supplies both a backbeat and ringing chimes, while the slinky theme and variations revolve from Ratliff’s airy muted cornet and rave-up guitar distortions. On the first of four versions of the main theme “Barcelona”, Attias honks out stentorian baritone saxophone slurs, Ratliff contributes plunger trombone lines and the fiddler moves from waggling minor chord Yiddishkite suggestions to lovely, legato jetes.

Members of the ensemble are versatile enough -- and the compositional impulse so strong -- that a piece like “Horsey” can follow “Barcelona (duo)” without major disconnect. This is despite the fact that the later is a straightahead ancien tango --if such a term exists -- played full-force by Giordano, who has backed folks like saxist James Carter, plus Hebert, ponticello -- swinging and ethnically satisfying at the same time. The former is a haunting, near modern classical piece that voices Ratliff’s accordion with arco bass, sul tasto violin and low-pitched bass clarinet from Andy Biskin. It moves at a slow pace without dragging

The only puzzle is the need for pre-programmed guitar and drum beats from Chris Kelly that face off with Ratliff’s cornet and electric piano on “BCN”. With the jungle beat patterns off-putting and very repetitive, the fit is with the piano and definitely not with the mutating chromatic romantic brass tones. Perhaps the result makes more sense if you see the film.

No matter, everywhere else BARCELONA IN 48 HOURS doesn’t need visuals to be appreciated as a memorable creation.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Barcelona (band version) 2. BCN^ 3. Glass* 4. Barcelona(duo) 5. Horsey+ 6. Mies 7. Barcelona (dreaming) 8. Estació de Frabnça+ 9. Night Dance 10. Barcelona (solo) 11. Sintuba

Personnel: Edward Ratliff (cornet, trombone, accordion+, celeste* and Fender Rhodes^); Michaël Attias (alto and baritone saxophones); Andy Biskin (bass clarinet); Doug Wieselman (guitar); Seido Salifoski (dumbek); Sam Bardfeld (violin); Charlie Giordano (accordion); John Hebert (bass); Kevin Norton (drums); Chris Kelly (programming)

January 10, 2005

KEVIN NORTON’S LIVING LANGUAGE

Intuitive Structures
Cadence Jazz Records CJR 1166

LARRY OCHS/JOAN JEANRENAUD/MIYA MASAOKA
FLY, FLY, FLY
Intakt CD 092

Cellos and tenor saxophones have similar timbres, which means that increasingly composers are putting together combos that use this musical blend as a starting point for improvisation.

Even though both CDs here feature that line up as well as four long compositions each, the results couldn’t be more different. That’s because New Jersey-based percussionist Kevin Norton plays up the jazz-orientation of his quartet, while Oakland, Calif.-based saxist Larry Ochs of ROVA Quartet fame, injects his cellist into a musical situation that draws on structured and cued improvisations mixed with elements of so-called New and World music.

A former member of the Kronos String Quartet, Joan Jeanrenaud, who is featured on FLY FLY FLY, has expanded her palate from contemporary classical to improv in the company of players with catholic interests like Ochs and guitarist Fred Frith. INTUITIVE STRUCTURES’ cellist on the other hand is Tomas Ulrich, who is firmly in the jazz orbit working with saxophonist Ivo Perelman, guitarist Don Minasi and for many years with Norton.

FLY’s third participant is kotoist Miya Masaoka, a veteran of through composed and ethnic situations, whose instrument’s 21-strings have blended with the reeds of John Butcher as well as Ochs. Meanwhile Norton’s band is filled out with other Free Jazzers -- bassist John Lindberg, co-founder of the String Trio of New York, and tenor and soprano saxophonist Louie Belogenis, a longtime associate of seminal jazz figures like drummer Rashied Ali. Notwithstanding this, Norton’s prowess on vibraphone, drums and percussion add yet another dimension to his disc.

On its own, the quartet isn’t afraid to turn out its version of swing -- consider there are two run-throughs of Norton’s “Walking the Dogma”. The instrumentation conjures up memories of vibist Red Norvo’s drum-less trio on one hand, and with the cello treated as another horn, Ornette Coleman’s piano-less quartets on the other.

“Etude for Ricky W.” unites these various strands in diverse ways. Soon after the piece begins, for instance, Lindberg’s slinky ponticello lines are followed by double tongued musette-like nasal quacks from Belogenis’ soprano. Shuffle bowing from Ulrich and Pops Foster-like slap bass from Lindberg opens up a soundfield for Norton, who takes advantage of the gap with wood block thwacks, tubular bell resonation, güiro-like scrapes and tones that could come from Kulingtang gongs. As the two string players alternate between walking bass lines and bouncing string patterns at one another, Belogenis on tenor saxophone, smears, soars and split his notes into harsh shards with intense vibrato and squeaking overtones. Norton exits the tune with a quasi march tempo that then dissolves into smacks on a single cymbal plus the sound of what seems to be a cloth wiping the drum tops.

Polyphony and double counterpoint characterize many of the other compositions, whether they start from a through composed section or develop from group improvisations. On vibes Norton combines Gary Burton-like multi-mallet work with the sort of well-paced reverberating timbres you’d associate with Milt Jackson. Of course his concept is more advanced and abstract than either man. It would have to be, since Belogenis’ John Coltrane-influenced attack could bury delicate instruments like the vibes and cello.

During the course of the two “Dogma”s for instance, the reedist’s output moves from floating, slurred pitches to bottom feeder honks and from frenzied note pecking to wider, more vibrato-laden lines that recall Trane’s modal work mixed with a bagpipe-like drone. Lindberg contributes long-lined portamento bowing that touches on legit technique and rock steady pulses. Ulrich’s snaking tones can be positioned with violin-like jettes or swing with convergent arpeggios. On drums Norton rumbles when he has to, or produces a snare and cymbal tap dance, the better to meld with the double stopping bass and cello.

In contrast, FLY’s string section is limited to a single person with Jeanrenaud’s more formal style a sharp contrast to Ulrich’s freer output with Norton. Then again her role on this CD is different as well. Sometimes the tunes depend on her legato sweeps to provide a backdrop upon which the cascading waterfall of koto strings blend -- or at least meet -- harsh, altissimo squeals from Ochs’ sopranino.

In other spots, there are contrapuntal harmonic duets between the quivering tones of Ochs’ sax and lightly pressured arco cello parts. When this happens, it’s Masaoka who provides the comprehensive continuum. The koto isn’t just used as an exotic color organ either. On a blusey section of “Mystery Street”, as the saxman creates irregular vibrations and double tongued trills, Masaoka counters with chromatic flat-picking that could come from a Neapolitan mandolin. Alternately, Ochs mouthpiece buzzing and jagged, shuffle bowing from Jeanrenaud bring forward an assembly line of single strong snaps and sweeps from the koto.

Electronics, anathema to more orthodox Free Jazzers makes its appearance on the final track here. Still, the sine wave treatments, courtesy of Masaoka, merely diffuse the sound or let the koto’s 21 strings resonate with more depth. They don’t become an end in themselves. Providing cyclic accents among the koto’s glissandos, the plug-in moments are weighted against integers of intermittent sopranino squeaks and flutter tonguing plus percussive suggestions from the cello that appear to go beyond col legno and sul tasto to open handed smacks on the ribs.

Central to the session is the appropriately titled more than 23-minute “Heart of the Matter”, with its constant changes in mood, tempo, direction and harmonies. Beginning with bravura sopranino obbligatos, as if it was a folk air, the kotoist provides chromatic strumming and the cellist shuffle bowing.

After Ochs’ air raid siren nasality is moderated into an Arabic sounding theme, a deluge of variations from the koto polyphonically fill the spaces. Jreanrenaud, meanwhile, slides out a pitch that could come from a muted trumpet, finally creating fulsome double stops upon which Ochs introduces glottal punctuation and Masaoka chromatic flat-picking.

Finally, after ponticello strokes from Jeanrenaud, irregular vibrations and false fingering from Ochs and a set of glissandi from Masaoka, slither back-and-forth for emphasis, the climax arrives. It turns out to be breathy, folkloric smears from the saxist and vague classical arpeggios from the cellist, which link the theme to its beginning.

Eastern, Western, notated, cued and improvised musics meet on these two sessions to auspiciously demonstrate how versatile bands that texturally partner saxophone and cellos can be.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Fly: 1. Fly Fly Fly 2. Mystery Street 3. Heart of the Matter 4.It Happened One Night*

Personnel: Fly: Larry Ochs (sopranino and tenor saxophones); Joan Jeanrenaud (cello and sampling*); Miya Masaoka (koto and electronics*)

Track Listing: Intuitive: 1. Walking the Dogma #2 2. Etude for Ricky W. 3. Aquarius 4. Walking the Dogma #1

Personnel: Intuitive: Louie Belogenis (tenor and soprano saxophones); Tomas Ulrich (cello); John Lindberg (bass); Kevin Norton (drums, vibes and percussion)

September 13, 2004

PAUL DUNMALL/PAUL ROGERS/KEVIN NORTON

Go Forth Duck
CIMP #296

PRESENT TENSE WITH PAUL DUNMALL
Infinity Calling
Foxy Productions Foxy 203

Fusion, jazz’s equivalent of the f-word, has its negative reputation because of the bombastic technique exhibited by most of its practitioners, especially those from the rock side of the fence. So when a quick-witted, almost highbrow CD like INFINITY CALLING comes along, you’re loath to describe it as a fusion effort, even though the three members of the Bristol, England band Present Tense don’t shy away from the label.

Not that anything from guitarist Philip Gibbs, percussionist Marco Anderson and synthesizer whiz Ben Williams is particularly restrained, but the three are aided and abetted by the saxophones of Paul Dunmall, one of that country’s most accomplished improvisers in any idiom. He confirms that reputation on GO FORTH DUCK, a non-electric, non-fusion effort whose three overlong selections match Dunmall on reeds and bagpipes with long-time associate Paul Rogers on six-string bass and American Kevin Norton on vibes, percussion and drums.

On his solo sessions, with his octet and as part of the co-op Mujician with Rogers, the reedist has shown that he can play at great length without lacking ideas or stamina. He has to on the quartet CD to hold his own among a panoply of electric and percussion instruments.

Gibbs, who often works with Dunmall in lower-key situations, shows that he can emit as many fuzztones and distortions as any ProgRock idol, strum with yeoman’s strength in the rhythm guitarist’s roll, and create funky bass-guitar-like vamps when needed. Distorted, spaceship invader lines are often his stock in trade, especially when they meet up with polyrhythmic rumbles, smacks and rebounds from Anderson.

Someone whose background includes stints in rock bands, the Happy End Big Band, as a session player for pop and Bhangra dates and as house writer for an ad agency, the drummer easily moves from tempo shifting output to more abstract rumbles and pops. His triggered loops and sonic landscapes provide many of the panoramic background textures, as do Williams’ synthesizers and sequencers.

Not content with relying on burbling synthesizer washes and electronic wiggles to decorate and frame the compositions, Williams uses the organ settings of his instruments to solo as well. The results are varied. Sometimes the Morse code pulsation remains in cushioning mode; other times, as on “Augermentative”, he provides Jimmy Smith-like, soulful pulsation, letting out his pedal stops and slurring away.

This casts Dunmall, on tenor, in the soulful Stanley Turrentine role, but since the saxman at one point traded blues licks with Johnny “Guitar” Watson, he’s perfectly at hone, double tonguing and smearing -- letting his solo spin out into snorts and a bouncy counter motif. Gibbs contributes chicken scratching rhythm work and Anderson busily paradiddles and press rolls.

Introducing Brian Augur-type rumbling organ lines, Williams and the others reorganize the nearly 17-minute title track around distorted lead guitar licks, heavy on the wah-wah pedal, plus steady two-handed, martial-style drum work. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- the thunder and lightning exploding behind him, Dunmall is unperturbed, growling whole notes out of middle register, unspooling tough tones, and squealing his way up to altissimo and shrill pitches above that, while sneaking into every crevice of the tune.

Present Tense isn’t all ghost town whistles, lowing Pharoah Sanders-like honks, backbeats and sizzle cymbal resonation, though. Anderson’s reverberating Tibetan bowl and unselected cymbals, extended with loops and cymbal scratches are front and centre on “C-Thing”, for instance. Soon legato tenor sax tones, swoops and obbligatos succeed those sounds, as percussive pings and accents provide the backdrop. Gibbs outputs echoing fills as Dunmall flutter tongues in front of a deep cushion of organ tones. Finally, as the saxman twitters and overblows, bowl percussion and circuitous keyboard tones return.

With this CD a fine -- can one say -- fusion effort, it will be interesting to see how Present Tense fares when Dunmall’s mixture of rubato dexterity and imperturbable smoothness is replaced by another soloist’s input.

Exposing another part of his personality on the other CD, Dunmall’s hard bopper-like ability to play all night, is put to a test on the title track. At more than 36½-minutes, it’s longer than most hard-bop LPs. However, he and his confreres manage to make the piece seemingly fly by in an instant, with no sense of boredom, repetition or overreaching. Still the mind-meld is so pronounced on this track, that it puts the other two numbers into the also-ran category.

Beginning with a moderato, shuffled arco bass line and clattering cymbals, a clear tenor line soon sinuously adds the timbres of a musette. A dusting of vibe mallet tones allows the buzzing of Rogers six-string to provide the bass line, as Dunmall smears and trills in coloratura range. Before the reedist turns to split tones, the bassist has gone from ponticello motion to exposing deep tones, as Norton, on drums, flams and bounces

Bustling with the same speed and energy he brings to INFINITY CALLING, the saxman then double tongues and vibrates new lines as he works his way around the reed, adding a grating, kazoo-like tone. With the bassist moving back-and-forth and side-to-side on his axe, Norton chimes in with metallic side shots and ride cymbal shakes as Dunmall extends and intensifies his reed patterns.

Moving from a bouncing spiccato pulse, Rogers works on the space beneath his instrument’s bridge producing deadened, shifting semitones. As the strings are both pulled and scraped, the percussionist offers up rim shots and tiny mallet tips on metal keys plus rolling snare and ride cymbal motions. These encourage Dunmall to introduce Trane-like overblowing. Soon the grainy smears become so jumbled and siren-like that they start to resemble some of Arthur Doyle’s more obtuse outpourings, like a man muttering to himself.

Ultimately the piece reaches a crescendo with thumping double stopping from the bass, flashing gyrations from rim tops and vibes from the percussionist and the saxman producing quacking granulated lines and squealing tongue slaps.

“Come Back Weirdness Day”, with its steady arco pulse and Uillean pipe bellows serves as intermission until the regrouping on the almost 24-minute “I Am Not a van (Ofocals)”. Alive with speedy bowing from Rogers, pitch vibrations from Dunmall and glissandos from Norton’s vibes, it still can’t measure up to the tour-de-force on track one. Perhaps it’s because the saxist plays whole passages in squeaky altissimo, that the bassist at one point sounds as if he’s playing the introductory riff to “Bag’s Groove” and that the drummer seems to be attacking his kit none too gently.

Granted that exceptional skills are on show, though, with Rogers, for example, simultaneously squealing his top strings and dragging his bow across the bottom ones so that single-handedly he becomes a string quartet. Yet the overall impression left is of motifs unraveling at a modest pace, with all the playing, including Dunmall’s doits, growls and smears a touch unfocused.

Probably by playing it in two separate sitting, one for track one, the other for the remaining two. GO FORTH DUCK will be more memorable. As it is, both CDs confirm Dunmall’s talents in disparate settings. They also confirm that done right, neither fusion nor abstract are four letter words.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Infinity: 1. Yo Bloop! 2. Infinity Calling 3. Augermentative 4, An Act of Mindless Charity 5. C-Thing 6. Memory Refit 7. Ring Fence

Personnel: Infinity: Paul Dunmall (tenor and soprano saxophones); Ben Williams (synthesizers and sequencers); Philip Gibbs (fretless and standard electric guitars); Marco Anderson (drums, percussion, Tibetan bowls, Reaktor loops and sonic landscapes)

Track Listing: Go: 1. Go Forth Duck 2. Come Back Weirdness Day 3. I Am Not a van (Ofocals)

Personnel: Go: Paul Dunmall (soprano and tenor saxophones and border bagpipes); Paul Rogers (A.L.L. 6-string bass); Kevin Norton (drums, marimba and percussion)

July 12, 2004

ANTHONY BRAXTON

Ninetet (Yoshi’s) 1997, Vol.2
Leo CD LR 382/383

Ever get one of those melodies inside your head that you keep hearing over and over again and that you can’t get out of your memory, no matter how hard you try?

Well, Anthony Braxton seems to be trying to create a similar situation with his Ghost Trance Music (GTM). A preoccupation of the composer/reedman since at least the mid-1990s, GTM compositions are usually played by larger bands and include a repetitive -- and nearly identical theme -- leavened by improvised solos.

Like the unique soundworlds created by other distinctive improvisers such as AMM or The Necks, to truly appreciate GTM you have to accept Braxton’s compositions on their own terms. Each time you have to simultaneously focus on the leitmotif that controls the piece’s shape as well as listen to the instrumental work around it.

That’s certainly true with these two long -- around 58 minutes each -- pieces recorded on a California foray by Wesleyan professor Braxton and his cohorts, all of whom except reedist J.D. Parran, percussionist Kevin Norton and bassist Joe Fonda, were at one point Braxton students.

Because of this great influence --- and the band room full of saxes and clarinets the reedmen play -- it’s difficult to pinpoint individual solos. One is tempted to ascribe most of the solo work to either Braxton, who variously plays alto, F alto, soprano, and C-melody saxophones and flute plus Bb, bass and contrabass clarinets; or to Parran, another Free Jazz veteran who plays soprano and bass saxophones and flute.

On “Composition No. 209”, for instance, several themes, variations and solos seem to appear at the same time as the music propels the ensemble from percussion-reed textures that resemble the sound of busy manual typewriters to a merry go round of high, wiggling vibrations. Peeping through this dense curtain of notes are false register growls, clarinet glissandos, tongue slaps and bass saxophone snorts. With the massed horn section polyphonically repeating the initial theme every few minutes or so, other solos are sometimes clocked within the reed fanfare. Someone does, however, produce foghorn-like contrabass clarinet noises, a pastoral flute passage and some shrill New Thing-like alto sax overblowing.

Meanwhile Norton marshals his hocketing vibe impulses into a veil of shimmering tones, guitarist Kevin O’Neil reverberates flat-picked lines and Fonda’s well modulated bass line appears and then vanishes again. Thanks to the scraped guiro-like tones, descending guitar licks and bass continuum, the piece has enough of a foot-tapping beat to not descend into mesmerizing trance music. But with the horns usually operating in slurred unison, no one, except for Braxton as a composer really makes a standout impression.

Slightly longer, “Composition No. 210” is more of the same, though the ululating tones do sway at a slighter faster tempo. Early on one of the saxists -- Braxton? -- comes out with a snaky, double-tongued reed abrasion. Considering the appreciative applause that greets this departure from the other strained, whistling horn timbres, the audience at this 1997 club gig may have yearned for more committed soling as well.

Later on, however, the few other demonstrations of extended reed techniques including nasal alto honks, an oomph pah pah ostinato from the bass saxophone and a weedy tone that could come from an oboe don’t call forth the same reception. That could mean that the crowd was finally committed to the ins-and-outs of the composition or had inured itself against further outbursts.

Here again, among the accordion tone suggestions that come from the combined horns and the odd, curt reed peeps and beeps, Norton is a stand out. Besides outlining a standard repertoire of ruffs, rolls and flams from his kit, he produces shattering electronic-like cymbal resonation and puts pressure on the hard wood of his marimba’s keys to give a steadying rhythmic direction to the concluding section of the performance. O’Neil too acquits himself with stuttering flailing on the portion of his strings below the bridge.

In conclusion, before exiting with whole note chirping that’s almost mainstream mellow, an alto saxophonist -- Braxton again? -- honks out more New Thing-like glossolalia after a whining clarinet has gathered all the horns into tone-passing circles like a sheep dog rounding up his flock.

Braxton followers will no doubt welcome this newly revealed chapter in his oeuvre, while neophytes may look for a smoother entry point to his massive catalogue. It’s a credit to his vision that both pieces are never less than improvisationally exciting. Still, with its overriding tonal similarity, a little GTM goes a long way, and no one except the Braxtonphile should attempt to listen to both CDs here in one sitting.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD1: 1. Composition No. 209 CD2: 1. Composition No. 210

Personnel: Anthony Braxton (alto, F alto, soprano, and C-melody saxophones, flute, Bb, bass and contrabass clarinets); Brandon Evans (tenor, C and sopranino saxophones, bass clarinet, flute); James Fei (soprano and alto saxophones, bass clarinet); Jackson Moore (alto saxophone, Bb clarinet); André Vida (tenor, alto, soprano and baritone saxophones); J. D. Parran (soprano and bass saxophones, flute); Kevin O’Neil (guitar); Joe Fonda (bass); Kevin Norton (drums, marimba, percussion, vibraphone)

April 12, 2004

DENMAN MARONEY

Fluxations
New World # 80607

SOPHIE AGNEL/OLIVIER BENOIT
Rip-stop
IN SITU IS 237

Orchestral and monochordal at different times, the piano is the cornerstone of Western music because of its versatility. But this versatility sometimes limits its adaptability to more experimental music.

Over the second half of the 20th century composers and pianists decided that one way to overcome the keyboard’s innate conventionality was to prepare the strings with different objects. These two CDs -- one American and one French -- show how these preparations can be used in the context of improvised music. Each is vastly different. American Denman Maroney’s quintet is strongly allied to jazz, whereas the Parisian duo of pianist Sophie Agnel and guitarist Olivier Benoit leans towards free music and electronics.

Over the course of RIP-STOP’s four instant compositions Agnel and Benoit don’t so much play their instruments as extract sounds from them. The textures and patterns created owe more to what the copper, wire and steel strings of the two chordal sources are capable of than conventional playing. Both musicians have long been involved with similar experiments. The pianist has been part of bands featuring Lionel Marchetti on tapes and electronics and Jerome Noetinger on electroacoustic devices, as well as other formations with saxophonist Michel Doneda or harpist Hélène Breschand. For his part, Benoit has been in formations that range from his duo with alto saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet to his conduction of the 25-member Grand orchestre d’improvisation.

As early as “rs-1”, resonating plinks from within the piano and oscillating accordion-like tones from the guitarist’s reverb pedal extend the instruments’ tonal fields. Soon rolling, repetitive piano chords and scratching, buzzing fills give way to what appears to be objects pressed against the strings. These quiet internal rumbles are met by near-inaudible guitar resonation and string strikes and lead to almost complete silence.

Mechanized flat picking, together with scatter shot clinking on guitar strings alternate with fist-smashing bangs on the fall board plus low frequency chording on “rs-2”, the CD’s longest track. With the piano dampers muted, mechanical sounding textures appear, followed by right-handed vibrations from the keyboard itself. While this is going on, Benoit produces whistling timbres and note crackles that eventually coalesce into faint grasshopper chirps. Agnel’s response tops these teeny guitar clips with miniscule, single notes resonation that move inside and around the key frame and which are extended with pinpoint pedal pressure. “Rs-3” is more percussive on Benoit’s side, with his strumming on his heaviest strings. Slightly off-key note clusters and bell-like sounds from the keys encourage the guitarist to unleash accelerating feedback. Busy, distorted echoes take the piece out.

When “rs-4” appears, both musicians almost seem to become part of their chosen instruments. Benoit’s crashing guitar chords turn from shaking near-bottleneck to wood cracking, as if the guitar was being pulled apart piece by piece. For her part Angel appears to be rolling marbles onto the piano strings until her finger pressure drives individual notes deeper into the piano innards. Soon, singular sounds drone against the escapement and soundboard, causing sympathetic vibrations from the other strings.

There’s no sign of electronics on FLUXATIONS. Looking at the personnel, in fact, you could imagine that the six-part composition is being played by a standard jazz aggregation of trumpet, reeds, bass, percussion and keys. But the keys here are in the hands of Maroney, the piece’s composer, and manipulated on his “hyperpiano”. This involves working the keys with one hand, while bowing, plucking, strumming and striking the strings directly with the other hand using a variety of tools including copper bars, brass bowls, rubber blocks, bells, knives, mallets, plastic mashers, boxes and bottles.

Maroney, who has exhibited his skills in duet situations with guitarist Hans Tammen and in many bands with bassist Mark Dresser, has the bassman’s rock-solid time keeping helping here. Ned Rothenberg, who plays alto saxophone and bass clarinet, has collaborated with Japanese musicians in the band R.U.B., and explored all varieties of world and improv music. Drummer and vibist Kevin Norton leads his own bands and works with Anthony Braxton, while trumpeter Dave Ballou has been featured in the bands of Satoko Fujii and Andrew Hill.

One of those compositions that oscillates between improvised and written sections, “Fluxations” is just as impressive if you can’t figure out which section comes from Maroney’s pen and which is made up on the spot by the players. On “Part 4” for instance, after a drum roll brings the trumpet-led melody forward, brass shrills and bent notes presage a double tremolo of uneven piano note clusters. Rothenberg introduces a series of descending slurs that are then mirrored by the keyboard with a metal bowl pressed against the strings to produce ringing harshness. Next up is a whinnying horn line and plucked bass tones. Finally the pianist creates a nasal-sounding ending by sliding down the strings ponticello.

“Part 3”, at nearly 13-minutes gives the pianist plenty of scope to explore his instrument with two different touches. One is a double striding, harpsichord-like texture that gets faster and more diffuse as he jumps from one key tone to another and ends with a faint right-handed ruffle. The other evidentially takes place completely in the strings’ speaking length. Meanwhile, Maroney doubles the pulse fields with definite stopped action, Ballou responds with a muted trumpet wiggle and Dresser with a bowed bass line. Soon that line intersects with hocketing piano sounds and vibraharp shimmers. The bassist turns to stretches and scrapes, the vibist to resonating, four-mallet tones and the pianist literally strums his instrument’s inside strings.

On the other hand, the theme from “Part 2” is carried by pseudo steel guitar riffs from the piano as Norton -- on drums -- plays a careful shuffle rhythm and Rothenberg contributes sliding glissandos. Ballou then introduces a brassy, joyous trill that wouldn’t be out of place in a Mahler lieder. Eventually, Maroney pushes his keys so hard that the output move from doubled regular piano tone to stretched textures that could come from an African lute.

When all the rhythmic and harmonic possibilities have been explored the two-minute coda of “Part 6” is a contrapuntal exercise in opposing tones from the trumpet and alto saxophone, as the pianist chimes metronomic chords behind them.

Two digs into the inner workings of the piano from two different countries show that revolutionary timbres are still available from this Western World’s most traditional instrument.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Fluxations 1. Fluxations Part 1 2. Fluxations Part 2 3. Fluxations Part 3 4. Fluxations Part 4. 5. Fluxations Part 5 6. Fluxations Part 6

Personnel: Fluxations: Dave Ballou (trumpet); Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone and bass clarinet); Denman Maroney (hyperpiano); Mark Dresser (bass); Kevin Norton (drums and vibraphone)

Track Listing: Rip-stop: 1. rs - 1 2. rs - 2 3. rs - 3 4. rs - 4

Personnel: Rip-stop: Sophie Agnel (prepared piano); Olivier Benoit (guitar and electronics)

April 12, 2004

BRETT LARDER/JOËLLE LÉNDRE/KAZUHISA UCHICASHI

No Day Rising
Spool Line SPL-121

KEVIN NORTON/JOËLLE LÉNDRE/TOMÁS ULRICH
Ocean of Earth
Barking Hoop BY-BKH007

Recording studios may have been frequented as often as classrooms during the time French bassist Joëlle Léandre spent as a visiting professor at Oakland, Calif.’s Mills College between September and December 2002. These CDs are just two of the many sessions the peripatetic bassist was involved with during that time.

Not that this reflects opportunism or any lowering of Léandre’s high musical standards however. As a European improviser she welcomed the chance to play with as many non-Europeans as possible. Plus, as a true improviser committed to creativity of the moment, it wasn’t as if studio work took up oodles of time, even if, as in the case of OCEAN OF EARTH, she was away from her California base.

Unlike rock bands which spend weeks, months, and -- in the case of audio procrastinators like Boston -- years in the studio, improvisers often find that an intensive day is often enough time to create an exceptional CD. Unlike rockers as well, they’re sure enough of their creativity and understand their instruments well enough to do this.

Listening to both albums, recorded in October 2002 on subsequent days on opposite American coasts, doesn’t give you any sense of hasty preparation or non-musical tension. What you hear instead is five musicians performing at the height of their powers -- though you may wonder if the bassist has some particular curative for jet lag.

Making NO DAY RISING even more of an international affair, neither of Léandre’s partners is American. Brett Larner, who plays three different kotos here is a transplanted Canadian now in San Leandro, Calif. Someone who spent years in Tokyo studying koto with master Kazue Sawai, Larner, is also involved with electroacoustic improvisations. He has played with composer Anthony Braxton, guitarist Taku Sugimoto and with no imput mixing board stylist Toshimaru Nakamura. Another member of the American/Japanese experimental scene is the CD’s third participant. Guitarist and daxophone player Kazuhisa Uchihashi a former member of Ground Zero, who more recently was in the band R.U.B. with American saxist Ned Rothenberg.

Larner, who reveals that the CD was put together in the 12 hours following Uchihashi’s solo performance at Mills, just after Léandre returned from the East Coast, calls it “a peculiar set of short pieces, almost a pop album”. American Idol fans and improv followers will likely disagree.

Instead what’s here are 13 mid-length pieces ranging from less 90 seconds to more than seven minutes, titled for the time of day at which they were recorded, and dedicated to creating unexpected sounds. Interestingly enough, the daxophone, which when bowed, scraped, tapped or otherwise vibrated can produce a variety of sounds from falsetto to basso is actually used sparingly. It’s the traditional koto, bass and guitar which are most put to use.

Thus on a piece like “11:42 p.m.”, you figure the intermittent beeps probably come from prepared bass koto, the high pitched Appalachian-style fiddling from the top range of the bass strings, and undercurrent of strumming from the guitar -- or do they? In the same way it’s pretty clear that the arching snorts, falsetto cries and dog yowls on “11:01 p.m.” are coming from the dax. But the later dialogue that resembles a wolf howling at the moon meeting a burrowing anteater, is that Uchihashi’s doing, Léandre’s or Larner’s?

On the other hand, cross-cultural and musical asides resonate on a piece like “2:42 a.m.” Here among a collection of pauses and silences, the guitarist seems to reverberating fireside cowboy tune chords and the bassist roughly punishing and scraping her strings, as the bass koto provides a dramatic continuum on the bottom.

Or take “9:15 p.m.”, also the longest track. Beginning with definitely focused arco strokes from the bass that dissolve into bow-tip squeaks, currents resembling electronic impulses hang in the air. Soon, after resonating metal-against-metal scrapes and guitar strumming thumps further muddy the sound, a sudden pacific interlude arises as if bamboo flute tones had leaked into the soundstage. With Uchihashi turning to speedy flat-picking that recreates the tone of a National steel guitar, Larner appears to counter with vibes-like pings from the koto, using the tsume or ivory plectra as mallets.

Other timbres seemingly replicated are as unrelated as bass flute tones, electronic organ crescendos, waterlogged cries, bottleneck guitar runs and ghostly harp glissandos. So describing the music as either Oriental, Occidental, North American, European, Canadian, American, French or even acoustic or electronic seems reductive. Some of it is staccato, some legato. Some involves many notes bunched into a statement, other parts concentrate on the spidery manifestation of a single note.

Keeping you guessing, it illustrates musical rule bending without fear or let down, which is what masterful sustained experimentation should exhibit.

This is even more apparent on OCEAN OF EARTH. Recorded the day before in New Jersey, these 20, more expressively titled tracks are the result of a first-ever musical meeting between Léandre and two Americans, cellist Tomas Ulrich and percussionist Kevin Norton.

Someone who has played in different Braxton ensembles for nearly a decade, Norton has also involved himself in many forms of improv, working with players as different as guitarist James Emery, trombonist Steve Swell and saxist Alfred Harth. Featured on three of Norton’s earlier CDs, Ulrich has also performed with contrasting stylists such as tenormen Joe Lovano and Ivo Perelman, not to mention Braxton and bassist Dominic Duval.

Unambiguously more percussive than the previous disc for obvious reasons, the CD isn’t weighted down with drum action however. Instead Norton’s hands are usually shaping elongated and glinting vibraphone or marimba chords or extracting offbeat rhythmic pulses from what is described as “homemade and store-bought percussion”.

On “Trio for the end of time” he jockeys up and down the metal bars as the bassist saws away effervescently and the cellist double-stops to produce further decoration. When Ulrich’s tone turns more discordant and shrill, and Léandre somehow sound as if she’s broom sweeping with her bull fiddle, Norton lets loose with a protuberance of cymbal whaps then turns his bars into bells and finally back to the vibes. Then the two string players combine for arco swoops.

Legit-sounding unison bowed bass and cello also makes its appearance on “Opposite action”, but expressing himself on toms and snares the drummer’s time is closer to what many would hear as jazz. As the cellist and bassist move up the scale to involve themselves in an Impressionistic fantasia of repeated grace notes and glissandos, Norton varies the tempo to such an extent that they decelerate into low gear, surrounding his final, near military drum tattoo with eddying, squeaking slides.

There are even times as on “Goodbye Blues” when Norton’s ringing vibe timbres and Léandre’s steady pulse could have come from the Modern Jazz Quartet’s Milt Jackson and Percy Heath respectively, so straightforward do they sound. Here as elsewhere, though, Norton appears to favor a multi-mallet Gary Burton approach over Jackson’s concentrated single stick approach. And it’s doubtful that Heath ever murmured pseudo-operatic gibberish and definitely, if not deliberately obscure French syllables while (wo)manhandling the bass as Léandre does on “Saltimbanques/Acrobats”.

With the repertoire of bent notes, extended techniques, tugs, sweeps, shakes, rasps and glisses -- not to mention piercing shrills from Acme slide and non-Acme whistles -- the textures and tones here are extended even further than on the California-recorded session. And surprises abound.

Thus something like “Fairport confusion blues” doesn’t pay homage to the British folk-ballad group of the 1970s, but with powerful cello-plucks resembles the visceral folk-blues that Julius Hemphill often created. Unison pizzicato strings and a steady shuffle beat from the drums would have been familiar to Hemphill, but even he may have wondered which object Norton is striking besides drum rims and wooden blocks to produce what could be the sound of a slinky working its way down the stairs. Then there’s “Edye”, where, without electronic augmentation, the strings manage to replicate a woodwind choir.

Elsewhere arco strings rasp like angry birds, Old-Timey string band suggestions vie for space with Impressionistic chamber trio output as vibes sound like rolling logs and marimbas like a tolling clock.

By the time the clock actually tolls for this session you’re convinced that as long as the mood and pulsation are aligned with the proper participants, there’s no questioning the musical worth of one-off meetings like these.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: No: 1. 5:15 p.m. 2. 5:48 p.m. 3. 6:48 p.m. 4. 8:03 p.m. 5. 9:15 p.m. 6. 11:01 p.m. 7. 11:42 p.m. 8. 1:02 a.m. 9. 2:00 a.m. 10. 2:42 a.m. 11. 4:04 a.m. 12. 5:09 a.m. 13. 5:31 a.m.

Personnel: No: Kazuhisa Uchihashi (electric guitar, daxophone); Joëlle Léandre (bass); Brett Larner (koto, bass koto, prepared bass koto)

Track Listing: Ocean: 1. Océan de terre/Ocean of earth 2. Nous de nous 3. Saltimbanques/Acrobats 4. Pour Guigou, Sophie et Leo 5. Inclusive radiance 6. Goodbye blues 7. Flying blind, seeing everything 8. Edye 9. Pour Eva B 10. A book of great worth and importance 11. Trio for the end of time 12. D Major 13. Opposite action 14. C minor 15. Mai se découvre... 16. Parallel text 17. Je ne vous ai jamais connu 18. Attainable syntactical destinations 19. Fairport confusion blues 20. L’adieu/The farewell

Personnel: Ocean: Tomas Ulrich (cello, voice, non-Acme whistle); Joëlle Léandre (bass, voice); Kevin Norton (drums, vibraphone, marimba, homemade and store-bought percussion (including Acme slide whistle)

January 12, 2004

POSITIVE KNOWLEDGE

Live In New York
Edgetone Records EDT 4018

KEVIN NORTON’S METAPHOR QUARTET
Not Only in That Golden Tree…
Clean Feed CF011CD

The latter half of 2002 wasn’t a particularly good year for improvising double bass players. Not only did German bass master Peter Kowald fall victim to a heart attack at 58 in September, but 64-year-old New Yorker Wilber Morris also died of lymphoma in early August.

Kowald’s spectacular work has been justly celebrated, as he was one of the primary European innovators from the 1960s on. But Morris, backbone of many bands from Manhattan’s Lower East Side was often undervalued, in part because of the number of other first-rate bassists around, and by the mere fact of being conductionist Butch Morris’ older brother.

Even in a sector as egalitarian as jazz/improvised music, the achievements of one family member often overshadow the other sibling’s achievement -- recall the situation of pianist Buddy Montgomery and cornetist Nat Adderley to take two examples. Yet most people could tell you that Buddy was almost as fine a blues and ballad player as his guitarist brother Wes; and Nat was not only as voluble and impressively funky in his soloing as alto saxophonist brother Cannonball, but he wrote jazz standards like “Work Song”.

Initially from Los Angeles, the Morris brothers arrived in New York in the 1970s. Butch soon moved beyond cornet playing to conducting saxophonist David Murray’s large group projects and to the creation of improvised conduction. Intuitive and versatile, Wilber was able to play with proto-boppers like drummer Charlie Persip and singer Abbey Lincoln as easily as he fit in with such outcats as Murray, violinist Billy Bang and trombonist Steve Swell. He was the sort of sure accompanist that everyone wanted, whether officially, as a member of percussionist Kevin Norton’s Metaphor Quartet, or in a pick-up situation, as when he joined West Coast visitors, multi-reedman Oluyemi Thomas and his wife, spoken work artist Ijeoma Thomas on a New York gig.

That 2001 gig captured on LIVE IN NEW YORK finds him and percussionist Michael Wimberly fusing as if they always were the Thomas’ rhythm partners, though only the drummer and woodwind player had worked together before, as the last two tracks recorded in 1999 demonstrate.

Throughout the seven tunes recorded at that year’s Vision Festival, Morris’ strong, unspectacular bass lines hold the ensemble together, mostly keeping the melody line firm and straightforward and occasionally letting loose with some arco inventions. Even on “Mother Africa”, which is dedicated to him, the emphasis is on subtlety not showiness. Andante, his solo includes a straightahead walking intro, largo double stopping and the sort of skillful mindset that causes him to measure each string for its possible sound overtones before striking it. He may upend the bass to stroke its strings with his bow, but again his natural reticence takes over, so that what would be a tour de force in another’s hand in his becomes a prelude to fading back into the rhythm section.

That’s precisely what he does here. Considering the front line, it’s no surprise he and the drummer seem to be taking figurative back seats. With a vocal exposition that’s part arousing and part acrimonious, Ijeoma Thomas’ lyrics range from descriptions of the poetic process itself, to celebrations of heroes and heroines associated with creative Black music. Frequently mere words aren’t enough and she turns to a variation of scat singing, more often than not blending her vocal secretions with the tones from Oluyemi Thomas’ mouth instruments.

If anyone doesn’t remember that some of the major New Thing figures such as Eric Dolphy, Dewey Redman and Pharoah Sanders were either Californians or spent considerable time there, Thomas’ playing will prompt you. Don’t forget that some of John Coltrane’s most mystical albums, such as LIVE IN SEATTLE and OM, were recorded in the West as well.

On bass clarinet, Thomas’ low-pitched exposition and gospelly turns relates back to Dolphy, a supposition confirmed when his wife joins her wordless tones to his to give the bass reed added resonance. On flute and musette his approach is definitely West African like Redman’s and Sanders’, bringing forth the subcontinent properties of the instruments that presage their Arab usage. This becomes especially apparent when the axes are singly or together paired with rhythm makers like shaken maracas or the unique scratching sound of the elongated guiro, which was used by the Bantu people before becoming a fixture in Afro-Cuban bands.

In his duets with Wimberly and other times on the disc, Thomas uses these instruments to sound out primitivist sound shards and complement the drummer’s more modern percussion asides and Ijeoma Thomas’ evocative lyrics with bell shaking and other percussion forays. Additionally, while he might best express himself on the primitive C-melody as well as the soprano sax, his output is pure Sanders-Coltrane, alive with reed-biting trills, honking and squealing lines, exaggerated bent notes and irregular vibrations that are more expressions of emotion than pure composition.

More sophisticated in conception, the pieces Norton wrote for the Metaphor Quartet affirm their individuality through the members’ instrumental virtuosity, and his combination of narrative, through-composed structures with more typical jazz forms.

Best known for a seven-year association with composer Anthony Braxton’s more difficult projects, Norton has also worked with a cross section of other musicians. He and Morris clicked rhythmically in bands led by saxophonist Alfred Harth and Swell, among others. Japanese trombonist Masahiko Kono, who often alters his sound with sampling also worked with the bassist and drummer in the past and has also played with stylists ranging from trumpeter Toshinori Kondo to bassists Kowald and William Parker.

Originally from Nagoya, Japan, vibist Hitomi Tono’oka, Metaphor's youngest member, was a student of Norton’s at William Paterson University, following her homeland degree in percussion studies. She is also a member of saxophonist Fred Ho’s Afro Asian Music Ensemble.

Interesting enough, although the sympathies of the quartet members are definitely POMO, the blend of vibes and ‘bone that characterize these compositions recall progressive hard bop from the 1950s which would find trombonist J. J. Johnson and vibist Milt Jackson on the same date. With Kono often relying on cushiony pedal tones and Tono’oka using four mallets to slide over her bars, it’s again up to Morris to steady the course, especially when Norton solos.

No time keeper, when the percussionist is given his head as on the almost 20 minute “Missed You in Coutances, Babe”, he goes Buddy Rich one better, turning from allegro rumble and thump to faster and faster snare, tom and cymbal showcases. In a change from his steady walking, Morris is almost swaggering in his solo. Guitar-like strumming his strings, he puts more torque into his output, double stopping, slowing down and speeding up his lines, the better to meet Norton’s anything-but-traditional accompaniment. The climax is reached when slurred ascending trombone sounds meld with silvery vibe tinkles.

Freebop to the Nth degree, the appropriately named “Walking The Dogma”, is so traditional with its trombone and vibe blend and walking bass, that it resembles Herbie Mann’s 1960s’ hit “Comin’ Home Baby”. It is modern enough though, that Kondo gets a chance to expressively peck out some slide positions and Tono’oka varies her output from that of a chiming glockenspiel with expansive slides across the bars. Electronics from the ‘bone man and a wooden Bobby Hutcherson marimba-type attack characterize “It Must Be”, with Norton churning out drags and rolls on his skins and Morris again almost selflessly modulating the rhythm.

As a matter of fact, the only tune that seems almost somnolent is the final one, where rolling ride cymbal whacks and largo, almost bounce-less trombone and vibe connections make the composition seem slower than it actually is. Morris’ rhythmic thrust seems less lively and more melancholy than elsewhere. Considering that it was recorded about 18 months after the first three selections and six months before the bassist died, you wonder if intimations of his mortality was affecting him and the other band members as well.

Despite this, either CD -- not to mention many, many others -- stand as impressive testimony to the underappreciated skills of Wilber Morris.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Live: 1. Proofs (for Alan Silva) 2. Secrets of Imperfection 3. The Upper Chamber House of Prayer 4. Righteous Intent 5. Ask Eric/Iron Soul (for Eric Dolphy) 6. Mother Africa (for Wilber Morris) 7. In One Heart (for Jeanne Lee) 8. Direct Focus* 9. Beauty is Hidden*

Personnel: Live: Oluyemi Thomas (bass clarinet, c-melody sax, flute, musette, percussion); Wilber Morris (bass [except*]); Michael Wimberly (drums, percussion); Ijeoma Thomas (spoken word, percussion [except*])

Track Listing: Tree: 1. Missed You in Coutances, Babe 2. Walking The Dogma 3. It Must Be 4. Not Drunk, But Stunned

Personnel: Tree: Masahiko Kono (trombone and electronics); Hitomi Tono’oka (vibraphone); Wilber Morris (bass); Kevin Norton (drums and percussion)

August 25, 2003

WILL HOLSHOUSER TRIO

Reed Song
Clean Feed CF005CD

Most people’s idea of accordion music is summed up by a Farside cartoon featuring St. Peter facing a row of newly deceased supplicants. “Welcome to Heaven”, he says to some. “Here’s your harp.” “Off to hell,” he says to others. “Here’s your accordion.” While sophisticated music followers may know that over the years accordions have been taught to swing by the likes of jazzman Art van Damme and Zydeco legend Clifton Chenier, aural nightmares of Lawrence Welk-style purgatory still haunt most of us.

Will Holshouser knows all about this situation. A journeyman, he’s played his squeeze box in every situation imaginable from accompany Parisian-style chansonniers and in Cajun honky-tonk bands to working in combos led by R&B saxophonist Lenny Pickett, guitarist-crooner John Pizzarelli and Klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer. He also worked with the Mamou/Elisa Monte Dance Company, studied with Anthony Braxton, scored films, recorded for NBC and NPR and studied Cajun and Creole Music in Louisiana.

REED SONG, for which he wrote all the music here, tries to reflect this and does present a composite representation of 21st century accordion playing. Unfortunately, while the 10 tuns offer something for the committed accordionphile, a sameness in execution and tempos prevents the disc from being wholly satisfying.

Intent on avoiding the rickety-tick accordion curse, Holshouser recruited musically sophisticated partners. Trumpeter Ron Horton, a members of the much-praised Jazz Composers Collective, plays regularly with pianist Andrew Hill. Bassist David Phillips leads his own jazz combo and also plays classical music and Broadway shows. Drummer/composer Kevin Norton -- added on two tracks -- frequently works with Braxton as well as other jazzers like guitarist James Emery and saxophonist Alfred Harth.

Truthfully it’s Norton’s splashes of straightahead drum rolls and quirky, tap-dancing percussion on “Dry” and “For the Birds” (sic), which gives those compositions added presence. Phillips’ hones in with some walking bass, Horton contributes some high note blaring --even sounding like a brass section on “Dry” -- and Holshouser splashes out bouncy, tango-based cadences.

Earlier, especially on speedy numbers, the trumpeter shows off his pliancy, mixing a brassy, Lee Morgan-style attack with soaring choruses that wouldn’t be out of place in a Balkan or Italian wedding. When he isn’t comping like a 1950s jazz pianist, the accordionist double-times Zydeco rhythmic smears and trades fours with the trumpeter. Meanwhile Phillips’ foot tapping is as prominent as his pizzicato lines.

Trouble is, the three can only make like a Roma jump band on so many numbers. While tarantella dance or musette café pulses go far, when the tempo decelerates, joy leeches from the tunes. The title track, for instance, finds the arco bass lines meshed with a light bed of accordion reeds to such an extent that the result almost sounds liturgical. Plus Horton’s pert, walking measures end up resembling the playing of a Salvation Army hymn.

Other times, as waltz time, German beer rhythms and Parisian bistro schmaltz is expressed by the meld of accordion keys and buttons, the output begins to resemble Continental romanticism rather than Euro jazz. At times, in fact, despite his skill, it seems that at any moment Holshouser will break into “Love is a Many Splendored Thing”, or “Music To Watch Girls By”. In other places the music is too familiar sounding by half.

All in all, while the members of the Holshouser trio don’t deserve a one way ticket to a Larsonian hell, a bit of accordion music --even some as non-traditional as this -- can go a long way. What can be hoped is as the three mature and experiment, a future CD will be 100% satisfying, not 65% like this one.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Nocturnal 2. Blue Light Special 3. Tang 4. Reed Song 5. Inside the Park 6. Dry* 7. Unfried 8. Sparkle of Never 9. It Got Bad 10. For the Birds*

Personnel: Ron Horton (trumpet); Will Holshouser (accordion); David Phillips (bass); Kevin Norton (drums)*

December 9, 2002

TRIO VIRIDITAS

waxwebwind@ebroadway
Clean Feed CF 003 CD

As first-generation European Energy players reach middle age and beyond it’s interesting to see them adopt strategems already tried by their American counterparts. Most commonly, they seem to be pacing themselves, preserving their strength for distinctive showcases. As well, there appears to be a new interest in ballad playing. Underneath it all, though, whether the musician in question is Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor Peter Brötzmann, or in this case Alfred Harth, proficiency wins out in the end.

German saxophonist Harth, who was working with such driving players as Brötzmann, pianist Heiner Goebbels, British vocalist Phil Minton and the Swedish percussionist Sven Åke Johansson as long ago as the early 1970s, was often described as having a tone like Archie Shepp’s. And there are times at the beginning of this disc recorded with Trio Viriodtas, a co-op filled out by Americans, bassist Wilber Morris and percussionist Kevin Norton, that Harth’s low key balladic tone makes you wonder if, like Shepp, he’s trying to cover up a loss of lip.

The program picks up considerably as the 12 selections over almost 68 minutes unreel. By the end of the disc you wonder what those initial concerns were. Harth, who has also composed music for films and theatre productions, recorded this CD on New York’s East Broadway and most of the tunes seem to reflect his outsider’s view of he city’s Lower East Side, especially it’s restaurants.

For the first five numbers, Harth exhibits a deep, breathy tenor saxophone tone that suggests Shepp’s recasting of Ben Webster’s, which when paired with Norton’s vibes also brings to mind BAGS & TRANE, John Coltrane’s mainstream meeting with Milt Jackson. Throughout, Morris takes so much of the weight on his shoulders --and bass -- that you don’t even notice the lack of steady drumming.

Even here, though, the reedist is no Old Lion. On saxophone he introduces a bit of reed-biting, slap-tonguing and even some percussive spetrofluctuation to make his sound bigger. On clarinet, his trills and air hisses are a perhaps-unintentional tribute to Jimmy Giuffre, who proved in the early 1960s that a clarinet could produce advanced music without being shrill.

Eye-opening and longest tune, “Interstice” written by Morris, finds the composer plucking the taunt strings beneath his instrument’s bridge while Norton creates percussion sounds that resemble sand rustling in a foil plate, and Harth wiggles lines from his clarinet. On tenor saxophone, he then creates enough intense, weeping multiphonics that the piece starts to resemble one of those John Coltrane-Pharoah Sanders freak outs of the 1960s, as Norton gets into the mood by smashing his cymabls and battering away on the toms and snares. Eventually, the horn climbs to the altissimo range as Morris (probably) begins wordlessly vocalizing along with the strong thrusting bow work, again suggesting the chants that enlivened some of Trane’s compositions at the time. Finally, the storm subsides, the percussionist goes back to panning gold with his auciliary instruments, the bass sounds an occasional tone and the saxophone quietly growls.

Things pick up from then on. For example, “Age pl @ mandarin court” -- initiated by a visit to a Chinese restaurant perhaps -- finds press rolls introducing a hearty Oriental imperial court march from the saxophone, then relaxes into click-clacks of stick percussive that in the right hands could be crated by chopsticks. Following a stop-time tenor excursion that gets louder and wilder, Morris reintroduces the theme with string patterns that could come from a pipa, the four-stringed traditional Chinese lute.

“Cue (ball) #1” uses the thump of the bass and flams and paradiddles of the snares and sticks to recreate the balls-and-table atmosphere of a pool hall. But should we hear the whiny scratch of a bow on a cymbal as a stick being tempered? Plus what about the unaccompanied clarinet solo followed by silence. Did someone miss the pocket?

On the other hand, the liquid multiphonics spilling from Harth’s clarinet on “Major Airports” recalls Eric Dolphy’s dissonance a lot more than flight plans. Plus the bending of clarinet and bowed bass on “Fur die katz’s dell (ght)” has a distinct Mingus sound about it, which might only be explained by the late bassist/composer’s large capacity for food. That would definitely be satisfied at cavernous Katz’s Deli on Houston, honored by this composition of Harth.

Trying to interpret the CD as program music is probably reductive though. Suffice it to say that with everyone pulling his weight Trio Viriditas come across as an exceptional debut session by three fine musicians. Listen to it and you’ll probably want to sample it again.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing:1. From The North 2. Braggadoclo 3. Auda-city 5. Starbucks 6. Interstice 7. Fur die katz’s dell(ght) 8. Cue(ball) #1 9. Age pl @ mandarin court 10. Route 23 11. Starbucks variation 12. Major airports

Personnel: Alfred Harth (tenor saxophone, clarinet); Wilber Morris (bass); Kevin Norton (drums, vibraphone, percussion)

August 5, 2002