EUPHORIUM_freakestra

2 Trios & 2 Babies
EUPHORIUM Records EUPH 009

Wadada Leo Smith/Günter Baby Sommer

Wisdom in Time

Intakt CD 128

Nicknamed “Baby” by an early reviewer, who likened his playing to that of traditional New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds, East German percussionist Günter “Baby” Sommer shares his namesake’s instrumental inventiveness. But as these sessions prove, he isn’t limited by anyone’s definition of jazz or improvised music.

Interestingly enough, the CDs are almost the converse of one another – Wisdom in Time is reductive, while 2 Trios & 2 Babies is augmentative. Both those adjectives relate to the personnel rather than the music however. The first features Dresden-based Sommer improvising alongside sympathetic American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The reductive part comes about because the two were initially part of a trio with the late bassist Peter Kowald, memorialized on the track “Brass-Star Hemispheres”.

Oddly titled, the second CD finds Sommer and/or his protégé, fellow percussionist Christian Lillinger, in different combinations with the members of two drummer-less trios. M9 consists of trumpeter Matthias Mainz, cellist Matthias Lorenz and bassist Michael Haves; the GSN trio is tenor saxophonist Fabian Niermann, pianist Oliver Schwerdt and Konrad Grüneberg on bass. Leipzig-based Lillinger and Sommer not only amplify the others’ work with their rhythmic talents, but have a one track face-off, descriptively titled “2 Babies”.

Since, at points both bassists the cellist and the pianist play percussively, with all the mixing-and-matching going on, it often seems as if you need a scorecard to figure out who exactly is playing what with whom.

That isn’t the case on “2 Babies”. With hand drumming techniques crossing with bass and snare drum patterns, the percussionists play off one another, using rolls and ruffs that are paced allegro, adagio and andante. Added into the mix are resonating wooden pops that could come from a djembe, bell pealing, maraca-like shakes and a jew’s harp twang. When Sommer displays his reverberating rolls and backbeat, Lillinger counters with rim shots and concussive thumps; and so it goes round-and-round. Eventually the piece ends distinctively as the older “Baby” sounds his police whistle.

This whistle is also unexpectedly brought into play midway through “Geformter Dampf”, when Sommer suddenly brings the GSN trio improvisation to a halt when he has to tie his shoelaces. Earlier, among his snaps, ruffs and bounces, Niermann’s honking and growling tenor saxophone runs and Schwerdt’s metronomic piano patterning, the band steams ahead with a fiery approximation of pianist Cecil Taylor’s combos that featured free-form drummer Sunny Murray. Gathering his forces after another Reveille-like whistle blast returns his percussion to the fray, the drummer uses a series of rolling slaps and snap to herd the others’ ragged inventions into shape.

Proving that the twenty-something Lillinger, who has also worked with such respected figures as pianist Joachim Kühn and reedist Urs Leimgruber, has learned his lessons well, “Wie du willst…” is another percussion tour-de-force.

Played with the GSN three, Lillinger makes common cause with the pianist. Wooden pitter-patter, bass pedal pounding and more restrained timbres that sound as if a swizzle stick is striking a glass test tube, meld with Schwerdt’s portamento coloration and internal piano string snapping, stretching and stroking. If saxophonist Niermann’s tone is more moderato and segmented than elsewhere, the piece is still advanced with percussion slaps, pops and tingles. Meantime, the pianist speeds up his part to such an extent that at one point he seems to be playing a staccatissimo version of “Chopsticks”. Before the reedist’s summation – which also seems to be a reed-biting variation of “Taps” – bassist Grüneberg is heard briefly and faintly.

Grüneberg’s touch is tougher elsewhere, as is that of Haves, since on a tune like “2 Trios”, it’s up to them to provide the rhythmic impetus when the two percussionists lay out. Considering trumpeter Matthias Mainz, who has also worked with tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch, usually prefers whispy, lyrical serpentine lines and cellist Lorenz sul ponticello sawing, only the two basses and Schwerdt’s struck-and-stopped string set keep the diffuse themes from vanishing beneath squeaking textures.

Percussive scrapes and rumbles, brassy wah-wahs and double tongued reeds, spiccato sweeps and piano glissandi characterize the almost 10-minute finale, as all eight players collaborate in a dissonant free-for-all that positions the drummers on either side of the trios and squeezes contrapuntal inventions out of each group. Unrolling with quivering intensity, the clipping clapping and rumbling are goosed still further by Schwerdt’s kinetic key fanning and chording. Widening and narrowing sibilant reed slurs and blunt rim shots bump and ricochet against one another until the percussionists nerve beat action signal the climax.

On its own the GSN Trio constructs an enigmatic coda that’s all vocalized brass retches, timbre evacuation from deep in the piano’s bowls and pressured obbligatos from the saxophonist. A conclusive dagger-like col legno thrust from a suddenly emboldened Grüneberg brings these expansive interactions to a satisfactory close.

Divide the octet by four and you have the duo that manipulates the nine instant compositions on Wisdom in Time. An understated outing compared to other CD, none of the tracks reach the unfettered exuberance exhibited on 2 Trios & 2 Babies. Yet with Smith’s trumpet and flugelhorn lines multiplied through the use of electronics and Sommer rappelling swiftly through nearly every item in his percussion kit a variety of tones and textures are available. Also, as the title posits, the 64-year-old drummer and the 66-year-old brassman pace the program here to express the accumulated wisdom that comes with time.

For instance, “Woodland Trail to the Giants” gets its initial resonance from rhythmic textures that could arise from melodic pressure on a steel drum. As Smith extends his contribution from deep-inside-the-bell wah-wahs that almost sound synthesized to heraldic growls and slurs, Sommer counters with strokes that could arise from a stitched together mutation of a drum pad and a darbuka.

“Gassire’s Lute” on the other hand melds near Afro-Cuban, bongo-like bounces with a shower of muted grace notes from the flugelhorn. Making the most of a triggered delay available from electronics, Smith’s output slides between open-horn and muted passages. Creating two definite personas, there are points where both are audible simultaneously. Not wishing to upset the mood, Sommer links finger-tip patting and ratamacues to Smith’s growling rubato passages. He then rebounds into connective harmonies as the trumpet seems to be searching for lost notes within his instrument’s lead pipe.

Then there’s the nearly 7½-minute “A Silent Letter to Someone”. Mystically Asiatic, Smith confines himself to altissimo-pitched chromatic note expansion and echoplex-style plunger tones. Meanwhile Sommer busies himself with simple gong-like reverberations and temple bell-like concussions. Nearly timbral twins, each man’s chromatic interplay fades simultaneously.

Fittingly, however, the two musicians most categorically define themselves as a duo with the Kowald threnody, “Bass-Star Hemisphere”. As Sommer, adagio and meditative, pops and thwacks different parts of his kit, vibrating timbres predominate. Chimes resonate and the ride cymbal shrieks as a drum stick is dragged across its surface. Similarly, Smith, whose electronics are used elsewhere to project raw power, constricts his tone. Abstract and melancholy, it almost appears as if the notes are being scraped from the inside of the capillary section a moment before they head towards the mouthpiece. Just when you think the mood can’t darken any further, the pace slows to funereal and the horn man actually sounds as if he’s playing “Taps”.

While the sense of loss may be palpable, the two prove their resolution-partnership with a climatic ending that melds the metallic timbres of the blowing trumpet with metallic striations from the cymbals.

Saddled with an unfortunate nickname at his age, each CD here showcases a different “Baby” Sommer who is long past the tyro stage. And these CDs also prove that in his maturity, this “Baby” plays well with others.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Wisdom: 1. A Sonic Voice Enclosed in the Wind 2. Tarantella Ruticana 3. Pure Stillness 4. Gassire’s Lute 5. Woodland Trail to the Giants 6. Brass-Star Hemispheres (dedicated to P.K.) 7. Rain Cycles 8. Old Time Roll – New Times Goal 9. A Silent Letter to Someone

Personnel: Wisdom: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn and electronics) and Günter “Baby” Sommer (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: 1. Babies: Soujhmar 2. Wie du willst… 3. Mood-schliche on Pancake 4. Chamber chair discussion again 5. Geformter Dampf 6. 2 Trios 7. 7 Wooing Away 8. 2 Babies 9. Dingaling Intermint 10. Konrads Ausprag 11. 2 Trios & 2 Babies 12. Kardiff Canar

Personnel: Babies: Matthias Mainz (trumpet); Fabian Niermann (tenor saxophone); Oliver Schwerdt (piano and percussion); Matthias Lorenz (cello); Michael Haves and Konrad Grüneberg (bass) and Christian Lillinger and Günter Baby Sommer (drums and percussion)

October 19, 2007

Wadada Leo Smith/Günter Baby Sommer

Wisdom in Time
Intakt CD 128

EUPHORIUM_freakestra

2 Trios & 2 Babies

EUPHORIUM Records EUPH 009

Nicknamed “Baby” by an early reviewer, who likened his playing to that of traditional New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds, East German percussionist Günter “Baby” Sommer shares his namesake’s instrumental inventiveness. But as these sessions prove, he isn’t limited by anyone’s definition of jazz or improvised music.

Interestingly enough, the CDs are almost the converse of one another – Wisdom in Time is reductive, while 2 Trios & 2 Babies is augmentative. Both those adjectives relate to the personnel rather than the music however. The first features Dresden-based Sommer improvising alongside sympathetic American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The reductive part comes about because the two were initially part of a trio with the late bassist Peter Kowald, memorialized on the track “Brass-Star Hemispheres”.

Oddly titled, the second CD finds Sommer and/or his protégé, fellow percussionist Christian Lillinger, in different combinations with the members of two drummer-less trios. M9 consists of trumpeter Matthias Mainz, cellist Matthias Lorenz and bassist Michael Haves; the GSN trio is tenor saxophonist Fabian Niermann, pianist Oliver Schwerdt and Konrad Grüneberg on bass. Leipzig-based Lillinger and Sommer not only amplify the others’ work with their rhythmic talents, but have a one track face-off, descriptively titled “2 Babies”.

Since, at points both bassists the cellist and the pianist play percussively, with all the mixing-and-matching going on, it often seems as if you need a scorecard to figure out who exactly is playing what with whom.

That isn’t the case on “2 Babies”. With hand drumming techniques crossing with bass and snare drum patterns, the percussionists play off one another, using rolls and ruffs that are paced allegro, adagio and andante. Added into the mix are resonating wooden pops that could come from a djembe, bell pealing, maraca-like shakes and a jew’s harp twang. When Sommer displays his reverberating rolls and backbeat, Lillinger counters with rim shots and concussive thumps; and so it goes round-and-round. Eventually the piece ends distinctively as the older “Baby” sounds his police whistle.

This whistle is also unexpectedly brought into play midway through “Geformter Dampf”, when Sommer suddenly brings the GSN trio improvisation to a halt when he has to tie his shoelaces. Earlier, among his snaps, ruffs and bounces, Niermann’s honking and growling tenor saxophone runs and Schwerdt’s metronomic piano patterning, the band steams ahead with a fiery approximation of pianist Cecil Taylor’s combos that featured free-form drummer Sunny Murray. Gathering his forces after another Reveille-like whistle blast returns his percussion to the fray, the drummer uses a series of rolling slaps and snap to herd the others’ ragged inventions into shape.

Proving that the twenty-something Lillinger, who has also worked with such respected figures as pianist Joachim Kühn and reedist Urs Leimgruber, has learned his lessons well, “Wie du willst…” is another percussion tour-de-force.

Played with the GSN three, Lillinger makes common cause with the pianist. Wooden pitter-patter, bass pedal pounding and more restrained timbres that sound as if a swizzle stick is striking a glass test tube, meld with Schwerdt’s portamento coloration and internal piano string snapping, stretching and stroking. If saxophonist Niermann’s tone is more moderato and segmented than elsewhere, the piece is still advanced with percussion slaps, pops and tingles. Meantime, the pianist speeds up his part to such an extent that at one point he seems to be playing a staccatissimo version of “Chopsticks”. Before the reedist’s summation – which also seems to be a reed-biting variation of “Taps” – bassist Grüneberg is heard briefly and faintly.

Grüneberg’s touch is tougher elsewhere, as is that of Haves, since on a tune like “2 Trios”, it’s up to them to provide the rhythmic impetus when the two percussionists lay out. Considering trumpeter Matthias Mainz, who has also worked with tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch, usually prefers whispy, lyrical serpentine lines and cellist Lorenz sul ponticello sawing, only the two basses and Schwerdt’s struck-and-stopped string set keep the diffuse themes from vanishing beneath squeaking textures.

Percussive scrapes and rumbles, brassy wah-wahs and double tongued reeds, spiccato sweeps and piano glissandi characterize the almost 10-minute finale, as all eight players collaborate in a dissonant free-for-all that positions the drummers on either side of the trios and squeezes contrapuntal inventions out of each group. Unrolling with quivering intensity, the clipping clapping and rumbling are goosed still further by Schwerdt’s kinetic key fanning and chording. Widening and narrowing sibilant reed slurs and blunt rim shots bump and ricochet against one another until the percussionists nerve beat action signal the climax.

On its own the GSN Trio constructs an enigmatic coda that’s all vocalized brass retches, timbre evacuation from deep in the piano’s bowls and pressured obbligatos from the saxophonist. A conclusive dagger-like col legno thrust from a suddenly emboldened Grüneberg brings these expansive interactions to a satisfactory close.

Divide the octet by four and you have the duo that manipulates the nine instant compositions on Wisdom in Time. An understated outing compared to other CD, none of the tracks reach the unfettered exuberance exhibited on 2 Trios & 2 Babies. Yet with Smith’s trumpet and flugelhorn lines multiplied through the use of electronics and Sommer rappelling swiftly through nearly every item in his percussion kit a variety of tones and textures are available. Also, as the title posits, the 64-year-old drummer and the 66-year-old brassman pace the program here to express the accumulated wisdom that comes with time.

For instance, “Woodland Trail to the Giants” gets its initial resonance from rhythmic textures that could arise from melodic pressure on a steel drum. As Smith extends his contribution from deep-inside-the-bell wah-wahs that almost sound synthesized to heraldic growls and slurs, Sommer counters with strokes that could arise from a stitched together mutation of a drum pad and a darbuka.

“Gassire’s Lute” on the other hand melds near Afro-Cuban, bongo-like bounces with a shower of muted grace notes from the flugelhorn. Making the most of a triggered delay available from electronics, Smith’s output slides between open-horn and muted passages. Creating two definite personas, there are points where both are audible simultaneously. Not wishing to upset the mood, Sommer links finger-tip patting and ratamacues to Smith’s growling rubato passages. He then rebounds into connective harmonies as the trumpet seems to be searching for lost notes within his instrument’s lead pipe.

Then there’s the nearly 7½-minute “A Silent Letter to Someone”. Mystically Asiatic, Smith confines himself to altissimo-pitched chromatic note expansion and echoplex-style plunger tones. Meanwhile Sommer busies himself with simple gong-like reverberations and temple bell-like concussions. Nearly timbral twins, each man’s chromatic interplay fades simultaneously.

Fittingly, however, the two musicians most categorically define themselves as a duo with the Kowald threnody, “Bass-Star Hemisphere”. As Sommer, adagio and meditative, pops and thwacks different parts of his kit, vibrating timbres predominate. Chimes resonate and the ride cymbal shrieks as a drum stick is dragged across its surface. Similarly, Smith, whose electronics are used elsewhere to project raw power, constricts his tone. Abstract and melancholy, it almost appears as if the notes are being scraped from the inside of the capillary section a moment before they head towards the mouthpiece. Just when you think the mood can’t darken any further, the pace slows to funereal and the horn man actually sounds as if he’s playing “Taps”.

While the sense of loss may be palpable, the two prove their resolution-partnership with a climatic ending that melds the metallic timbres of the blowing trumpet with metallic striations from the cymbals.

Saddled with an unfortunate nickname at his age, each CD here showcases a different “Baby” Sommer who is long past the tyro stage. And these CDs also prove that in his maturity, this “Baby” plays well with others.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Wisdom: 1. A Sonic Voice Enclosed in the Wind 2. Tarantella Ruticana 3. Pure Stillness 4. Gassire’s Lute 5. Woodland Trail to the Giants 6. Brass-Star Hemispheres (dedicated to P.K.) 7. Rain Cycles 8. Old Time Roll – New Times Goal 9. A Silent Letter to Someone

Personnel: Wisdom: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn and electronics) and Günter “Baby” Sommer (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: 1. Babies: Soujhmar 2. Wie du willst… 3. Mood-schliche on Pancake 4. Chamber chair discussion again 5. Geformter Dampf 6. 2 Trios 7. 7 Wooing Away 8. 2 Babies 9. Dingaling Intermint 10. Konrads Ausprag 11. 2 Trios & 2 Babies 12. Kardiff Canar

Personnel: Babies: Matthias Mainz (trumpet); Fabian Niermann (tenor saxophone); Oliver Schwerdt (piano and percussion); Matthias Lorenz (cello); Michael Haves and Konrad Grüneberg (bass) and Christian Lillinger and Günter Baby Sommer (drums and percussion)

October 19, 2007

HENRY KAISER/WADADA LEO SMITH/YO MILES!

Sky Garden
Cuneiform Rune 191/192

One of the most memorable -- if not the most memorable -- tributes to Miles Davis, the exultant Yo Miles! band makes its case for a variety of reasons.

First of all, it leaves the BIRTH OF THE COOL and ALL BLUES emulation to the neo-cons and instead concentrates on Davis’ little-appreciated 1971-1975 electric period. Second, unlike younger fusion bands that have recorded embarrassingly overwrought electric Miles imitations, Yo Miles! bandleaders -- guitarist Henry Kaiser and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith -- are old enough to have heard the sounds when they first appeared. Third, the two and their sidefolk approach the concept languidly, having worked on and refined their ideas -- while involved in other projects -- since 1998.

Like Davis, Kaiser and Smith mix musicians from both jazz and rock on this two CD set -- big name musicians at that. Danish tenor and soprano saxophonist John Tchicai, for instance, was an early New Thinger; alto saxophonist Greg Osby an early M-Baser; keyboardist Tom Coster played with Santana, and drummer Steve Smith was in the band Journey. Plus tabla player Zakir Hussein -- featured on two tracks -- and the ROVA saxophone quartet -- featured on one -- don’t exactly show up on every studio session.

The strength of the musicianship is such that SKY GARDEN was recorded live off the floor directly to stereo DSD. Unlike Davis, however, what was recorded is what you hear. No Teo Macero or Bills Laswell types edited and reorganized the sounds afterwards.

This non-linear approach gives the minimum of 10 and maximum of 16 players two CDs of more 75 minutes each in which to uncoil. However SKY GARDEN’s strength is also its weakness, because there’s only so far you can go with electric guitars, electric keyboards and a drummer leaning on the backbeat. That’s why the most memorable tracks are those which bring Smith and Kaiser’s individual musical personalities forward.

Smith’s composition “Who’s Targeted” at first depends on chunky rhythm guitar line and clanging tabla manipulations from Hussein, who founded Shakti with ex-Davis guitarist John McLaughlin. But very soon the output moves past jazz-world music fusion. Kaiser, whose associations have included folk-based pickers like Amos Garrett and David Lindley plus ethnic musicians from Hawaii and Madagascar begins stretching his guitar intervals to suggest mountain-music flailing. Adding to this primitivism, Mississippi-born Smith, whose exposure to rural music precedes his academic prowess and gigs with experimenters like Anthony Braxton, wriggles out an echoing timbre that could come from an melodica or even a Mississippi trumpet: the harmonica. As the almost 21½-minute tune sinuously slithers from mid-tempo to adagio and into prestissimo, mutated Farfisa organ-like nodes mix it up with cowbell and hollow log drum beats as well as something that could be a bean bag shaken with a metal stick -- South Asian percussion perhaps?

Hussein’s tabla pulse is maintained, as are Kaiser’s licks which seems to recall cowboy as well as rockabilly tones. As he picks southward, Smith’s grace notes also descend and both mix it up with the sine wave loops from the electronic keyboards. By the end you’d swear Kaiser is playing a steel guitar, while the finale is signaled with a definite woodblock whack from one of the drummers.

That’s also one of the few definite end points in any of the compositions, for most of the tracks mesh seamlessly together with no pauses.

Another standout, this time written by Davis with some help, is the more-than-10-minute “Sivad/Gemini Double Image/Little Church”. Gorgeous, legato reed harmonies from ROVA give the piece some added spaciousness, especially at the very end when vibrations shift polyharmonically from Tchicai’s tenor saxophone to the saxophone quartet. Earlier Kaiser’s bent note flanges move into psychedelic territory then dissolve into note shards as the beat is maintained by the twin, burbling keyboard runs of Coster and Mike Keneally. Unlike his work other spots, Steve Smith’s drumming is comfortably sympathetic, suggesting the attack he used in Journey can sometimes be altered.

Then there “Great Expectations”, which at almost 35½-minutes, would have been an entire LP in itself 30 years ago. Climax and resolution here is a set of duets -- some between the tabla and the trumpet and the others between the tenor sax and the tabla. Smith and Hussein are at it almost from the beginning, trading fours and eights --or is it fives and sevens plus half tones -- as soon as the piece begins. Soon, the trumpet’s plunger tones are submerged by electric piano runs, a steady funk rhythm from bassist Michael Manring and clunky, feedback-laden guitar runs by the three guitarists. This expanding tonal color easily distributes the themes among several different instruments.

Tchicai’s double tonguing and finger vibrations meet up with carefully positioned smacks from the tabla until a choppy bass guitar run leads onto another section. Smith’s slowly descending trumpet runs make themselves heard again, joining Hussein for a set of stop-and-start note sprinkling. Cymbals shading and an organ vamp percolate behind them until Tchicai’s sourer version of what would have been Wayne Shorter soprano saxophone line intrudes. With a heavier backbeat from the percussionists expanding, Coster’s low-intensity slides and glissandi flash and octave jump to keep things interesting. Eventually, the finale is reached with speedy tabla strokes and Smith backing out of this climatic duet with animalistic flutter tonguing that turns softer and mellower.

Just as long as ostinato bass lines, lead guitar exhibitionism that could have come from Santana and Ten Years After at Woodstock and this-side-of circular-motion hit everything Heavy Metal-like percussion dramatics are kept to a bare minimum Yo Miles! succeeds on its own terms.

When excess reaches the surface, however, the reasons for jazz-rock fusion’s rapid decline to irrelevance are highlighted. Luckily that happens infrequently. Instead the listener is usually treated to slippery, elastic guitar runs; trumpet lines distorted through a wah-wah pedal, percussion tones that are so subtle they could be played with a whisk broom and broken octave polyphony and buzzing cadenzas from Tchicai and portamento alto saxophone smears from Osby. There’s even a point on “Miles Star” where the muted trumpet and nonchalant electric piano fills presage jazz-inflected slurred thumb picking that could come from Wes Montgomery and probably come from Dave Creamer in his one appearance, rather than Kaiser, Keneally (who is playing second keyboard) or Chris Muir.

Died-in-wool Davis and fusion fans will probably treat this, the band’s second album in five years as the aural equivalent to touching part of the shroud of Turin. It definitely puts lesser fusion syntheses to shame. But with both discs adding up to a total of 2½ hours, judiciously, exploration of a couple of tracks at a time will probably make more of an impression for most listeners.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. It’s About That Time/The Mask 2. Jabali (part I) 3. Shinjuku 4. Great Expectations# 5. Directions Disc 2: 1. Sivad/Gemini Double Image/Little Church* 2. Miles Star^ 3. Who’s Targeted?# 4. Jabali (part II) 5. Willie Dixon 6. Cozy Pete

Personnel: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet and electric trumpet); Greg Osby (alto saxophone); John Tchicai (tenor and soprano saxophones); Henry Kaiser and Chris Muir (electric guitars); Mike Keneally (electric guitar and keyboards); Dave Creamer (guitar)^; Tom Coster (keyboards); Michael Manring (bass); Steve Smith (drums and electric guitar); Karl Perazzo (percussion); Zakir Hussein (tabla and percussion)#; ROVA [Bruce Ackley, Steve Adams, Larry Ochs, Jon Raskin (saxophones)]*

November 22, 2004

JOE MCPHEE/BILL SMITH ENSEMBLE

Visitation
Boxholder BXH 034

LEO SMITH/BILL SMITH ENSEMBLE
Rastafari
Boxholder BXH 035

Long before its present infamy -- for Americans -- as home for runaway TV and movie productions and North American SARS headquarters, hipper types knew that Toronto was a welcoming refuge for U.S. jazzers -- from the most traditional to the most avant garde.

For the later, one particular purple patch began in the mid-1970s, when local Sackville records first took it upon itself to document the work of American experimenters such as multi-reedist Anthony Braxton. The label’s commitment to the style continued into the early 1980s -- it has since turned more mainstream -- when these memorable discs were cut. Woodstock, Vt.’s Boxholder label has reissued both CDs. Other outside Sackville sessions from the same time are being reissued in limited editions by the Toronto label itself.

One of the reasons Toronto was so popular among improv experimenters was that the visiting musicians could work as part of a sympathetic group of players organized by writer/photographer Bill Smith, who was an avant saxophonist as well as editor and art director of Coda magazine.

Interestingly enough, although the core group of Smith, violinist David Prentice and bassist David Lee are augmented by percussionists on both these CDs, the usual band that toured with these and other American hornmen was drummerless. True to their desire to experience new modes, no musician complained, and you wonder if the success of that configuration encouraged the Americans and Europeans who now play sans percussion to give it a try.

VISITATION is the more impressive of the two discs simply because it was one of the first that showcased the mature style of multi-hornman Joe McPhee. The Poughkeepsie, N.Y. native had been recording since 1967, but it was only around this time and in collaborations with Europeans that the saxophonist and brass player evolved from being a New Thing-oriented energy player to unveiling his unique style.

“Ghosts”, a version of Albert Ayler’s famous composition, shows this most clearly. Although the line-up superficially resembles that of Ayler’s rendition on LIVE IN GREENWHICH VILLAGE with its prominent strings, this version is no cacophonous blowout. Instead the track begins with whacks from drummer Richard Barnard’s bells, cymbals and little instruments, straight plucked octaves from Lee and a massive arpeggio attack from Prentice, who now crafts violins as well as plays them.

Eventually, McPhee’s tenor saxophone begins elaborating the familiar theme and is met with thumping drums plus soaring glissandos from both string players. Following growls and whining multiphonics, the tenor man reprises the lurching melody staccato.

Other tracks show off descending string textures that resemble Anton Webern-like chamber music leavened with Free Jazz inserts, when the bowing bassist and violinist produce defiantly atonally piercing shrills. On others saxophone McPhee produces rolling spit tones, yet on pocket trumpet at one point he double-tongues what could almost be a bebop line with the power and facility of a Dizzy Gillespie.

The session culminates in McPhee’s “Eleuthera”, blending strings and reeds into a faux classical homage, until Prentice heads for his fiddle’s highest pitch, squawking out his notes. Lee holds down the bottom, contouring grace notes in the background, while Smith and McPhee overblow in Aylerian fashion.

Shorter, with only four tracks to McPhee’s six, and vibraphonist Larry Potter in for drummer Barnard, RASAFARI is inviting, but not as cohesive as VISITATION. It’s probably because a then pre-Wadada Leo Smith has never been as focused in his music as McPhee is and was. Dizzy Gillespie Chair at the California Institute of the Arts, over the years Smith has been involved with electronics, spoken word, early sound experiments with the likes of Braxton and violinist Leroy Jenkins and recently a Miles Davis tribute disc with guitarist Henry Kaiser.

Involving himself with what he called multi-media Ritual Drama pieces at that juncture, the CD compositions -- granted only one of which is written is written by trumpeter Smith -- seem to meander from one style to another.

Written by Leo Smith, the title track, celebrates his conversion to Rastafarianism, and begins with the brassman’s brief vocalization of the title. A polyrhythmic piece, played andante to largo it’s carefully arranged so that the five musicians orchestrate the tonal qualities of many more. It helps, of course, that Lee plays cello as well as bass here; Bill Smith plays sopranino and soprano saxophones plus alto clarinet; and Smith solos on trumpet, flugelhorn, and percussion. At times the musicians move together for certain passages; other times each is completely on his own.

At points mellow flugelhorn grace notes mesh with the violin’s tone; elsewhere high-pitched pocket trumpet notes blast into the stratosphere. With the rhythmic underpinning again carried by the bassist, Bill Smith plays a sweet, almost semi-classical line, and Potter’s exuberant vibes reverberates in a metallic Khan Jamal-(early) Bobby Hutcherson style.

Elsewhere though, the vibes playing is so gentle and laid back that Gary Burton comes to mind; or purring trumpet lines brushing against the pulsating metal bars suggest Miles Davis with Milt Jackson. Some tunes find Smith confining himself to chirping slurs from the sopranino; and nowhere here does Prentice drop his semi-classical mode to add the same ragged, semi-roughness he exhibits with McPhee.

Pointedly, “Rituals”, a nearly 12-minute composition of Bill Smith’s, is imbued with a Third Stream cast, featuring silence broken by distant, fragrant strings and an alto clarinet line that moves portamento as it’s doubled by abstruse brass. Slow moving, with a steadily shifting background motif, the tune features string parts that are more dissonant than atonal, plus meshed reed and vibe sections that are infrequently pierced by extended, plunger grace notes supplied by trumpeter Smith.

True to their solidifying musical personalities, these reissues by Smith and McPhee are valuable because they catch the featured musicians at transitional points in their careers. They should also remind increasingly xenophobic Americans just how much good music -- jazz and otherwise -- was produced -- and still comes from -- north of the 49th parallel.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Visitation: 1. Exuma 2. Eleuthera 3. Home at Last 4. Ghosts 5. If I Don’t Fall 6. A-Configuration

Personnel: Visitation: Joe McPhee (pocket trumpet, flugelhorn, soprano and tenor saxophones); Bill Smith (sopranino, soprano and alto saxophones) David Prentice (violin); David Lee (bass); Richard Bannard (drums)

Track Listing: Rastafari: 1. Rastafari 2. Ritual 3. Madder Lake 4. Little Bits

Personnel: Rastafari: Leo Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn, harmonica, percussion); Bill Smith (sopranino and soprano saxophones, alto clarinet) David Prentice (violin); David Lee (cello and bass); Larry Potter (vibraphone)

August 4, 2003

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Live from the Vision Festival
Thirsty Ear THI 57131.2

The next best thing to being there, this combination CD and DVD package offers a distillation of some of the outstanding performances from last year’s Vision Festival in New York’s Lower East Side. Lacking the name recognition of Newport, Montreux, or any other capitalist entity-associated international star festival, in its less than 10 year existence, Vision has still promulgated a unique artistic vision.

Built around the vision of bassist William Parker, it’s a place where pioneering avant gardists from the 1960s mix it up with younger players who are carrying on experimental ideals. It’s cross-cultural, national and international as well, with the musicians showcased on this session arriving from Germany, Korea, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Valencia, Calif., New Orleans… and Brooklyn,

Substantiating his ubiquity, Parker holds down the bass chair on five of the nine tracks --in five different bands, Fellow bull fiddle masters Tyrone Brown, Reggie Workman and the late Peter Kowald are represented as well.

Longest performance, at more than 11 minutes, is “Crepuscule IV in Powderhorn Park”, which reunites three founding members of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Music who now reside in different parts of the country. Minneapolis-based Douglas Ewart shows up with his reed collection -- some of which are homemade -- to improvise with the woodwinds of Brooklyn’s Joseph Jarman. From California, Wadada Leo Smith adds his trumpet to the duo, and the three members of the front line are backed by the unbeatable rhythm section of Chicago’s Hamid Drake and Parker.

Perhaps it’s the strength of the go-for-broke rhythm of the bassist and drummer, but the performance is more convincing than some recent CDs by each of the front line partners. Expelling a mixture of gritty bluesiness and elegant, brassy grace notes, Smith states the theme, which is then elaborated by Jarman’s soprano saxophone. Using whistles and straining his notes sharply to make a point, the saxman turns rubato with a brief stop-time section, which is then echoed by Ewart’s tenor sax undertow and Parker’s perfectly proportioned bass line. Finally the three horns conclude triple forte, with Drake’s rolling roughs giving them enough leverage on which to soar.

The same rhythm team backs up tenor veterans Kidd Jordan from New Orleans and Chicago’s Fred Anderson. Each pushing 70, the extended multiphonics they propel from their horns often mix with a primeval funkiness, hinting at how Johnny Griffin and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis might have handled Free Jazz. At a little more then four minutes though, “Spirits Came In” is barely long enough to let everyone feel the spirit.

Almost double in length, but flashing by at supersonic speeds is “Bangart 100”, performed by unconventional fiddler Billy Bang, World Saxophone Quartet anchor, baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, and contemporary composer Jin Hi Kim on Korean komungo. With his unaccompanied attack as reminiscent of hoedown as Heifetz, here Bang’s technique keeps up with his emotionalism. Working the opposite end of his horn’s palate, Bluiett ignites basement tones, altissimo wild pig squeals and growling feline feints. Keeping this all-together fingerpicking on her multi-stringed traditional instrument is Kim.

Other highlights include the definition of “Existence” provided by the duo of Dave Burrell on piano and bassist Brown. Cognizant of jazz history, like the late Jaki Byard, Philly’s piano pride mixes several of the music’s key streams on his keyboard. Initially he outputs high frequency, percussive cadenzas that are as far out as anything practiced by the New Thing, which counted Burrell as a member for his work with Archie Shepp. Later, providing fills behind Brown’s ringing tones, he shows off his lyric side that characterized him as a “song man” when he played with David Murray.

Then there’s Kowald’s stinging, more then 10½-minute solo “Improvisation”. Sometimes appearing to make his bass talk in several voices, the German maestro wraps together pizzicato buzzing strings, vocal drone and some grating, yet impressive arco thrusts into a characteristic show-stopping display.

Running down the outstanding merits of every track would be pointless, since each offers a different perspective on modern free sounds. The weakest piece, in fact, is also the first: “Truth Is Marching In”. Not the Albert Ayler standard, this reunion tune by alto saxophonist Jameel Moondoc’s Muntu quartet, featuring trumpeter Roy Campbell, drummer Rashid Bakr and bassist Parker seems, like the composition’s title, to be more caught up in New Thing revivalism than inventing the music anew. But isn’t nostalgia one construct of reunions?

Couple the more than 70½-minutes of music with the images available on the DVD and you’ll yearn to be in attendance at the Fest next time it takes place. Making light of geography, this VISION package means you can experience some of festival highlights at home.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing:1. Truth is Marching In 2. Existence 3. Bangart 100 4. Crepuscule IV in Powderhorn Park 5. Speech of Form 6. 45 Hours 7. Synchronicity 8. Sprits Came In 9. Improvisation

Personnel: 1. Muntu: Roy Campbell (trumpet); Jameel Moondoc (alto saxophone); William Parker (bass); Rashid Bakr (drums) 2. Dave Burrell (piano); Tyrone Brown (bass) 3. Hamiet Bluiett (baritone saxophone); Billy Bang (violin); Jin Hi Kim (komungo) 4. Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet); Douglas Ewart (bass clarinet, clarinet, tenor saxophone); Joseph Jarman (alto clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, bass flute, alto saxophone); William Parker (bass); Hamid Drake (drums) 5. Mathew Shipp (piano); Mat Manner (viola); William Parker (bass) 6. Rob Brown (alto saxophone); Karen Borca (bassoon); Reggie Workman (bass); Newman Taylor Baker (drums) 7. Ellen Christi (vocals); Rolf Strum (guitar); William Parker (bass); Hamid Drake (drums) 8. Kidd Jordan; Fred Anderson (tenor saxophones); William Parker (bass); Hamid Drake (drums) 9. Peter Kowald (bass)

June 16, 2003

WADADA LEO SMTH AND THE GOLDEN QUARTET

The Year of the Elephant
Pi Recordings P104

Without trying to be flippant, it seems that a lot of Miles Davis' conception has rubbed off on trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith since did his YO, MILES! tribute disc with guitarist Henry Kaiser a couple of years back.

While this new CD with his all-star Golden Quartet only pays homage to Davis on two tracks, much of Smith's Harmon-muted work here resembles the sort of brass constructions Miles used in the period from IN A SILENT WAY through BITCHES BREW and beyond. Smith doesn't come up with an outright imitation, or produce a CD that's less than attractive. It's just with the talent involved, you feel so much could have been accomplished. As a matter of fact when you're not reminded of Miles here, the tunes often take on that air of precocious profundity that characterize the style of Keith Jarrett, a former Davis sideman and present employer of drummer Jack DeJohnette.

Now much less in the foreground than during his time with Davis, or with his own series of excellent bands featuring everyone from trumpeter Lester Bowie and guitarist John Abercrombie to saxophonist David Murray up to the 1980s, most of the time here the drummer appears content to produce light, practically metreless accompaniment. Pianist Anthony Davis doesn't come across that differently either. Acknowledged for the four operas he has written plus his academic studies at the University of California at San Diego, the pianist loosens his formal structuralism here only to the extent that his touch resembles at various times different Davis including Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Jarrett and Chick Corea.

Linchpin of bands ranging from the Art Ensemble of Chicago to the Ritual Trio, bassist Malachi Favors, an early member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), fares best in his role. Although the andante tempo of most of these pieces doesn't allow room for the arco and pizzicato advances of which he's capable, he prods the rhythm enough so it doesn't collapse into stasis.

Perhaps it's the forthright mysticism that Smith, Dizzy Gillespie chair at the California Institute of the Arts, now professes that appears to strip the backbone from his compositions here. But his dabbling with electronics, chamber ensembles, spoken word, philosophy and poetry also seems to have altered the writing and playing ideas of someone who was an early AACM associate of experimenters like multi-reedist Anthony Braxton and violinist Leroy Jenkins.

That's why, when compared to the hushed, meditative sounds -- all long-lined muted trumpet and feathery electric or acoustic piano meditations, that characterize the rest of the tracks -- the two Davis salutes take on a different mien.

Based on a hearty, blues-based pattern complete with right-handed comping and keyboard clipping from Davis, "I-II) Star/Seed" gets most of its character from Favors' acoustic rhythms. You could say, in fact, that his asides and excursions offer more basic bass color than any of Miles' more-vaulted electric bass sidemen. Noteworthy too is the pianist's unison work with Smith, combining for a time to create a single timbre. However DeJohnette's cymbal-rich solo is so low-key that it doesn't cause a ripple on the surface of the tune.

Even better is "III) Blue Fire", a 14-minute-plus composition where Davis varying his approach from acoustic Evans-Kelley coloration to Corea-Joe Zawinul electric incisions plus a frequently reprised gospel theme which relates more to some of Cannonball Adderley or Charles Mingus' tunes than anything Davis ever performed.

While there's no disputing that these veteran musicians deserve their impressive status and have created a disc that will interest those who want to catch up with their newest musical designs, others will find the end product less sanguine. Considering what else could have been done, maybe silver or bronze could be a better description for this quartet than gold.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Al-Madinah 2. Piru 3. The Zamzam Well a Stream of Pure Light 4. Kangeroo's Hollow 5. The Year of the Elephant 6. Miles Star in 3 parts: I-II) Star/Seed III) Blue Fire

Personnel: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet and flugelhorn); Anthony Davis (piano and sythesizer); Malachi Favors Maghostut (bass); Jack deJohnette (drums and sythesizer)

December 30, 2002