Yoni Kretzmer Trio

Nevertheless
Hopscotch Hop 22

Nori Jacoby/Yoni Kretzmer/Haggi Fershtman

One Afternoon

Kadima Collective KCR 21

Part of the younger generation of Israeli improvisers proving who performs at the same elevated standard as his out-of-country equivalents, tenor saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer has ample opportunity to experiment on these CDs.

Jerusalem-born and now a Brooklyn resident, the reedist has played with sound explorers ranging from pianist Slava Ganelin to saxophonist Assif Tsahar. Yet these discs are particularly instructive since one was recorded in the Jewish state with fellow Israelis and the other in Brooklyn with American associates.

Neither trio has to take a back seat to the other. Nevertheless however features players better-known internationally, since drummer Mike Pride is in demand on the Alt-Rock scene and plays improvised music with the likes of saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton. Bassist Jason Ajemian has, among other ensembles, been part of cornetist Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra and guitarist Marc Ribot’s Sun Ship. Kretzmer’s Israeli partners on the other hand are violist Nori Jacoby, part of the Between the Strings improv trio, who also flits between notated orchestral music and Rock; and drummer Haggai Fershtman, who studied African, as well as Jazz drumming and plays with many of the country’s top improvisers, including saxophonists Ariel Shibolet and Albert Beger.

This empathy with saxophonists is apparent throughout the 15 tracks which make up – and were recorded in – One Afternoon. Although Fershtman is present to supply the back beat or shuffle rhythms as needed, most of his playing goes way beyond time-keeping. With multi-positioned clatters, bangs and pitch-stretching his role here is akin to a colorist not a beater. By the same token, Jacoby’s command of multiophonic runs plus a variety of spiccato and angled motions introduce his timbral contributions from many spectrums of the scale. His textures can be dissonant, sul ponticello and tapered at one point and swell to spacious multiphonics at others.

Kretzmer too isn’t limited by one narrative strategy. While principally sharp and pressurized with glottal punctuation and split tones on display, his playing can also be more legato and linear. Probably his most abstract soloing arises within the six miniatures in the CD’s centre where unattached flattement and overblowing abut the fiddler’s quivering, staccato squeaks. Divergence in performance is most apparent on “And There Is”, the melody of which recalls a pop tune. On top of Fershtman’s moderato smacks, slaps and ruffs, Kretzmer moves from a near-lyrical head to tongue gymnastics and finally exposes bugle-like cries, altissimo smears and extended reed pressure.

“Alternations” and “Bite Size” are the tracks which show off the trio’s communication at its best however. On the first, the saxophonist’s mid-range tongue fluttering moves upwards as it comes in contact with the drummer’s rattles and ruffs plus dobro-like plucks from Jacoby. After his split tones are further segmented with what could be a fanciful speech impediment, Kretzmer concludes with a satisfying deeper tone, propelled by Fershtman’s rolls and Jacoby’s pizzicato motions.

More conspicuously “Bite Size” finds the trio dividing into solo and duo sections as well as handing the contrapuntal continuum from one to another. While Kretzmer’s tremolo expression is taken moderato in real time, Jacoby’s twanged notes and the drummer’s rolls and cymbal clangs gradually accelerate in toughness and speed. When the saxophonist reaches a high-pitched summit, the violist takes on the bottom continuum; when Fershtman’s rhythm extensions begin rhythmically changing the chronology, Kretzmer cleaves to the central motif. Eventually the violist’s sul ponticello squealing and downwards sliding friction come to the fore, only to conclude in tandem with super-fast slurred tenor tones.

Performing in a more common sax-bass-drum trio on the Brooklyn-recorded CD, Kretzmer’s interaction with the others while no less thoughtful, seems more conventional. As each of the 10 sequences arrives, every one of the players seems to fall into his accepted role.

Not that there’s any let down in playing however. Pride’s contributions range from frenzied clip-clopping to cymbal concussions plus strokes and drags. Ajemian’s solo intermezzos include clanking and thumping lines, carefully positioned slaps and expected walking up and down the scale. Yet it’s Kretzmer who appears to be most committed to experimentation. His sax lines are often strained and stuttering, glissandi are sharpened and snorted and there’s more glossolalia than moderato note examination in his solos.

His storytelling on “Something with Tango” for instance, inflates from prickly tonguing to altissimo screams, as it meets the bassist’s four-square accompaniment and Pride’s delicately accented drumming. Finally as the backing becomes sparser, his repeated textures turn to eviscerating, tongue twisting jabs. It’s a similar story on “Sort of Despair”, where abrasive stopping from Ajemian and top-of-cymbal scratches from Pride stay in the background as Kretzmer’s quivering slurs move deeper into his horn’s body tube. After a series of rubato slurs and wind-tunnel-like bell muting, his vibrations turn guttural and conclusively dribble away.

A good deal of exceptional playing is highlighted on these discs, either of which can serve as a defining introduction to Kretzmer. Nonetheless with One Afternoon recorded in 2007 and Nevertheless in 2009, one wonders how the saxman sounds today. Hopefully the ferocious experimentation so aptly expressed on the Israeli CD is still being rerfined.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Nevertheless: 1. Looks Like Not 2. A New Start 3. Improv Two 4. Nevertheless 5. Something with Tango 6. Four Notes 7. What a Pity 8. Sort of Despair 9. Till We Got There 10. Four Notes Ending

Personnel: Nevertheless: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Jason Ajemian (bass) and Mike Pride (drums)

Track Listing: One: 1. Arrival 2. Story In Two 3. Alternations 4. Cupboard Song 5. Lonely Markets 6.-11. Six Miniatures 12. Bite Site 13. In Jerusalem 14. And There Is 15. Passacaglia

Personnel: One: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Nori Jacoby (viola) and Haggai Fershtman (drums)

Part of the younger generation of Israeli improvisers proving who performs at the same elevated standard as his out-of-country equivalents, tenor saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer has ample opportunity to experiment on these CDs.

Jerusalem-born and now a Brooklyn resident, the reedist has played with sound explorers ranging from pianist Slava Ganelin to saxophonist Assif Tsahar. Yet these discs are particularly instructive since one was recorded in the Jewish state with fellow Israelis and the other in Brooklyn with American associates.

Neither trio has to take a back seat to the other. Nevertheless however features players better-known internationally, since drummer Mike Pride is in demand on the Alt-Rock scene and plays improvised music with the likes of saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton. Bassist Jason Ajemian has, among other ensembles, been part of cornetist Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra and guitarist Marc Ribot’s Sun Ship. Kretzmer’s Israeli partners on the other hand are violist Nori Jacoby, part of the Between the Strings improv trio, who also flits between notated orchestral music and Rock; and drummer Haggai Fershtman, who studied African, as well as Jazz drumming and plays with many of the country’s top improvisers, including saxophonists Ariel Shibolet and Albert Beger.

This empathy with saxophonists is apparent throughout the 15 tracks which make up – and were recorded in – One Afternoon. Although Fershtman is present to supply the back beat or shuffle rhythms as needed, most of his playing goes way beyond time-keeping. With multi-positioned clatters, bangs and pitch-stretching his role here is akin to a colorist not a beater. By the same token, Jacoby’s command of multiophonic runs plus a variety of spiccato and angled motions introduce his timbral contributions from many spectrums of the scale. His textures can be dissonant, sul ponticello and tapered at one point and swell to spacious multiphonics at others.

Kretzmer too isn’t limited by one narrative strategy. While principally sharp and pressurized with glottal punctuation and split tones on display, his playing can also be more legato and linear. Probably his most abstract soloing arises within the six miniatures in the CD’s centre where unattached flattement and overblowing abut the fiddler’s quivering, staccato squeaks. Divergence in performance is most apparent on “And There Is”, the melody of which recalls a pop tune. On top of Fershtman’s moderato smacks, slaps and ruffs, Kretzmer moves from a near-lyrical head to tongue gymnastics and finally exposes bugle-like cries, altissimo smears and extended reed pressure.

“Alternations” and “Bite Size” are the tracks which show off the trio’s communication at its best however. On the first, the saxophonist’s mid-range tongue fluttering moves upwards as it comes in contact with the drummer’s rattles and ruffs plus dobro-like plucks from Jacoby. After his split tones are further segmented with what could be a fanciful speech impediment, Kretzmer concludes with a satisfying deeper tone, propelled by Fershtman’s rolls and Jacoby’s pizzicato motions.

More conspicuously “Bite Size” finds the trio dividing into solo and duo sections as well as handing the contrapuntal continuum from one to another. While Kretzmer’s tremolo expression is taken moderato in real time, Jacoby’s twanged notes and the drummer’s rolls and cymbal clangs gradually accelerate in toughness and speed. When the saxophonist reaches a high-pitched summit, the violist takes on the bottom continuum; when Fershtman’s rhythm extensions begin rhythmically changing the chronology, Kretzmer cleaves to the central motif. Eventually the violist’s sul ponticello squealing and downwards sliding friction come to the fore, only to conclude in tandem with super-fast slurred tenor tones.

Performing in a more common sax-bass-drum trio on the Brooklyn-recorded CD, Kretzmer’s interaction with the others while no less thoughtful, seems more conventional. As each of the 10 sequences arrives, every one of the players seems to fall into his accepted role.

Not that there’s any let down in playing however. Pride’s contributions range from frenzied clip-clopping to cymbal concussions plus strokes and drags. Ajemian’s solo intermezzos include clanking and thumping lines, carefully positioned slaps and expected walking up and down the scale. Yet it’s Kretzmer who appears to be most committed to experimentation. His sax lines are often strained and stuttering, glissandi are sharpened and snorted and there’s more glossolalia than moderato note examination in his solos.

His storytelling on “Something with Tango” for instance, inflates from prickly tonguing to altissimo screams, as it meets the bassist’s four-square accompaniment and Pride’s delicately accented drumming. Finally as the backing becomes sparser, his repeated textures turn to eviscerating, tongue twisting jabs. It’s a similar story on “Sort of Despair”, where abrasive stopping from Ajemian and top-of-cymbal scratches from Pride stay in the background as Kretzmer’s quivering slurs move deeper into his horn’s body tube. After a series of rubato slurs and wind-tunnel-like bell muting, his vibrations turn guttural and conclusively dribble away.

A good deal of exceptional playing is highlighted on these discs, either of which can serve as a defining introduction to Kretzmer. Nonetheless with One Afternoon recorded in 2007 and Nevertheless in 2009, one wonders how the saxman sounds today. Hopefully the ferocious experimentation so aptly expressed on the Israeli CD is still being rerfined.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Nevertheless: 1. Looks Like Not 2. A New Start 3. Improv Two 4. Nevertheless 5. Something with Tango 6. Four Notes 7. What a Pity 8. Sort of Despair 9. Till We Got There 10. Four Notes Ending

Personnel: Nevertheless: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Jason Ajemian (bass) and Mike Pride (drums)

Track Listing: One: 1. Arrival 2. Story In Two 3. Alternations 4. Cupboard Song 5. Lonely Markets 6.-11. Six Miniatures 12. Bite Site 13. In Jerusalem 14. And There Is 15. Passacaglia

Personnel: One: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Nori Jacoby (viola) and Haggai Fershtman (drums)

September 15, 2011

Bill Dixon

17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur
AUM Fidelity AUM 046

Bill Dixon

With Exploding Star Orchestra

Thrill Jockey Thrill 192

More than an elderly lion in winter, 83-year-old trumpeter Bill Dixon seems to have reasserted his place in the jazz firmament during the dozen years since he retired from academe after nearly three decades of teaching at Vermont’s Bennington College.

Both of these big band CDs resulted from a purple patch of creativity in the summer of 2007, when Dixon was able to lead different orchestras in New York and Chicago through some of his extended compositions. Both the 56½-minute “Darfur” suite in New York and the two 18-minute versions of “Entrances” in the mid-West are shaped around a combination of composed work and spontaneously cued solos. The tonal colors emphasized on both are orchestral rather than standard big band arrangements, with woodwinds, strings and miscellaneous percussion prominent.

Recorded live at the Vision Festival, the 16-piece New York ensemble – Dixon is the 17th “searcher” – is sprinkled with younger players, although the majority of the band members are experimental music veterans. A studio date, recorded just after a different 13-piece group performed the material at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Windy City crew leans towards young veterans and tyros. Despite – or perhaps because – of this, each program is individually satisfying and each band equally praiseworthy. The Exploding Star Orchestra also handles cornetist Rob Mazurek’s more-than-24-minute “Constellations For Innerlight Projections (For Bill Dixon)”.

In New York, the 13-part Dafur is performed mostly adagio, suffused with an undercurrent of sorrow for the beleaguered people of the African nation – but, as usual for Dixon’s work, the emotion is acutely understated rather than overt. Overall the composition builds up to and retreats from “Sinopia”, its nearly 24-minute centerpiece. Defined as a reddish brown pigment used in frescos, the suggestion is that Dixon, who is also a visual artist, appropriated the word to define this section’s Klangfarbenmelodie. Following “Contour Three”, a mellow, moderato trumpet intermezzo, the performance canvas is widened and the pitches pushed higher than those intermediate tincture dabs including brass grace notes and reed growls which characterized and colored the preceding theme variations.

Here guttural reed snorts operate as pedal-point contrast to fortissimo brass spirals which seems to sub-divide into alpine echoes from one cornetist (perhaps Stephen Hayes) and irregularly vibrated blasts from another (perhaps Taylor Ho Bynum). As the brass continues with angled and mercurial capillary trills plus tongue stops, swelling reeds adumbrate further variations on the theme. Rondo-like, the direction of the composition then changes as melded, split-tone reed obbligatos and muted trumpet triplets give way to bass saxophonist JD Parran’s rhythmically varied tone colors and multiple pitches distributed among different instruments, most prominently Karen Borca’s slithering bassoon lines, sul ponticello strings, plus friction and thumping concussion from percussionists Warren Smith and Jackson Krall. Balancing delicacy and strength, the low-pitched brass slurs and high-pitched bugle-like brays swell outwards as all players work to a climatic multi-tones crescendo.

Postlude variations include four “Pentimento” tracks, which use elongated lines and contrapuntal matches to alleviate the remaining guttural and altissimo timbres and bring the suite to a polyphonic finale. The earlier exposition and variations work through long undulations encompassing vibrating brass, hissing cymbal tones and reed growls stretched over broken-octave jumps. Most notably “Scattering of the Following” makes its point through pointillism and pitch-sliding, as subterranean slurps from the bassoonist and tubaist Joseph Daley roll out concurrent notes, while above them a series of brass soloists slice apart the main theme with patterns ranging from single-note, off-centre bites to chromatic spit-resonations.

Appropriate brass expression is also on show in Chicago, although New York’s seven-person trumpet-trombone-tuba section shrinks to Jeb Bishop’s trombone, Dixon’s trumpet and the cornets of Mazurek and Josh Berman. However the rhythmic and chordal exposition is intensified with three percussionists, Jeff Parker’s guitar, Jim Baker’s piano, Matthew Lux’s bass guitar and Jason Ajemian’s bass.

In fact both versions of “Entrances” depend more than any part of the Dafur suite on repetitive bass guitar thumps and heavy beats from Mike Reed’s tympani and John Herndon’s drums. Mazurek, who has experimented with electronics in the past isn’t listed as adding wave form distortions anywhere here, but an oscillating sheen can be sensed if not definitely heard. Hocketing and cumulative harmonics accelerate on the climatic “Entrances/One”, with definite roles for soloists Mazurek and Dixon. With contrasting guitar licks ricocheting behind, one brass man produces quicksilver smears and note flurries, while the other speedily tongues grace note and internal resonations. Following a dramatic pause, the theme downshifts to diminuendo in a penultimate variation, before reappearing for the finale.

Dixon’s presence is more obvious on “Entrances/Two” with his solo characteristically hushed and uniquely angled with chromatic lines. More concentric in execution than the first version of “Entrances”, which showcased Parker and Jason Adasiewicz’s vibraphone contrapuntally trading off choruses with pulses from trilling saxophone coloration and tuba snorts; this version differs in other ways as well. Here the protracted silence in the composition precedes a condensed piano nocturne and before the cacophonic finale, layers of walloping tympani and snorting brass are heard.

Adasiewicz’s tubular bells get a work out on Mazurek’s “Constellations For Innerlight Projections”, as do Nicole Mitchell’s chromatic flute buzzes and staccato clarinet trills from Matt Bauer. However the composition, initially envisioned to be performed with video screens, seems musically to be more of a throwback. The arrangements list towards standard big-band-era riffing and the recitation from Damon Locke involves beatnik-like intonation and Sci-Fi imagery. More memorable instrumentally, with distant brass glowering and tongue-splattering, plus engorged Bronx cheer-like textures from the horns in general and pinpoint fills from Parker, the resolution seems to be caught between the ecclesiastical and minimalism.

While Dixon may have been surprised at the form his homage took, minus the recitation “Constellations For Innerlight Projections,” while a lesser work, is certainly palatable. Overall though, both “Entrances” and “Dafur” are superior large-canvas expressions of Dixon’s sometimes constricted tonal language.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Darfur: 1. Prelude 2. Intrados 3. In Search of a Sound 4. Contour One 5. Contour Two 6. Scattering of the Following 7. Darfur 8. Contour Three 9. Sinopia 10. Pentimento I 11. Pentimento II 12. Pentimento III 13. Pentimento IV

Personnel: Darfur: Bill Dixon (trumpet); Graham Haynes, Stephen Haynes and Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet and flugelhorn); Dick Griffin and Steve Swell (tenor trombone); Joseph Daley (tuba); Will Connell Jr. (bass clarinet); Michel Côté (Bb contrabass clarinet); Karen Borca (bassoon); Andrew Raffo Dewar (soprano saxophone); John Hagen (tenor and baritone saxophones); JD Parran (bass saxophone and bamboo flute); Glynis Loman (cello); Andrew Lafkas (bass); Jackson Krall (drums and percussion) and Warren Smith (vibraphone, tympani and drums)

Track Listing: Exploding: 1. Entrances/One 2. Constellations For Innerlight Projections (For Bill Dixon) 3. Entrances/Two

Personnel: Exploding: Bill Dixon (trumpet); Rob Mazurek and Josh Berman (cornet); Jeb Bishop (trombone); Matt Bauer (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Nicole Mitchell (flute and voice); Jim Baker (piano); Jeff Parker (guitar); Matthew Lux (bass guitar); Jason Ajemian (bass); John Herndon (drums); Mike Reed (drums and tympani); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone and tubular bells) and Damon Locke (voice)

December 8, 2008

Bill Dixon

With Exploding Star Orchestra
Thrill Jockey Thrill 192

Bill Dixon

17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur

AUM Fidelity AUM 046

More than an elderly lion in winter, 83-year-old trumpeter Bill Dixon seems to have reasserted his place in the jazz firmament during the dozen years since he retired from academe after nearly three decades of teaching at Vermont’s Bennington College.

Both of these big band CDs resulted from a purple patch of creativity in the summer of 2007, when Dixon was able to lead different orchestras in New York and Chicago through some of his extended compositions. Both the 56½-minute “Darfur” suite in New York and the two 18-minute versions of “Entrances” in the mid-West are shaped around a combination of composed work and spontaneously cued solos. The tonal colors emphasized on both are orchestral rather than standard big band arrangements, with woodwinds, strings and miscellaneous percussion prominent.

Recorded live at the Vision Festival, the 16-piece New York ensemble – Dixon is the 17th “searcher” – is sprinkled with younger players, although the majority of the band members are experimental music veterans. A studio date, recorded just after a different 13-piece group performed the material at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Windy City crew leans towards young veterans and tyros. Despite – or perhaps because – of this, each program is individually satisfying and each band equally praiseworthy. The Exploding Star Orchestra also handles cornetist Rob Mazurek’s more-than-24-minute “Constellations For Innerlight Projections (For Bill Dixon)”.

In New York, the 13-part Dafur is performed mostly adagio, suffused with an undercurrent of sorrow for the beleaguered people of the African nation – but, as usual for Dixon’s work, the emotion is acutely understated rather than overt. Overall the composition builds up to and retreats from “Sinopia”, its nearly 24-minute centerpiece. Defined as a reddish brown pigment used in frescos, the suggestion is that Dixon, who is also a visual artist, appropriated the word to define this section’s Klangfarbenmelodie. Following “Contour Three”, a mellow, moderato trumpet intermezzo, the performance canvas is widened and the pitches pushed higher than those intermediate tincture dabs including brass grace notes and reed growls which characterized and colored the preceding theme variations.

Here guttural reed snorts operate as pedal-point contrast to fortissimo brass spirals which seems to sub-divide into alpine echoes from one cornetist (perhaps Stephen Hayes) and irregularly vibrated blasts from another (perhaps Taylor Ho Bynum). As the brass continues with angled and mercurial capillary trills plus tongue stops, swelling reeds adumbrate further variations on the theme. Rondo-like, the direction of the composition then changes as melded, split-tone reed obbligatos and muted trumpet triplets give way to bass saxophonist JD Parran’s rhythmically varied tone colors and multiple pitches distributed among different instruments, most prominently Karen Borca’s slithering bassoon lines, sul ponticello strings, plus friction and thumping concussion from percussionists Warren Smith and Jackson Krall. Balancing delicacy and strength, the low-pitched brass slurs and high-pitched bugle-like brays swell outwards as all players work to a climatic multi-tones crescendo.

Postlude variations include four “Pentimento” tracks, which use elongated lines and contrapuntal matches to alleviate the remaining guttural and altissimo timbres and bring the suite to a polyphonic finale. The earlier exposition and variations work through long undulations encompassing vibrating brass, hissing cymbal tones and reed growls stretched over broken-octave jumps. Most notably “Scattering of the Following” makes its point through pointillism and pitch-sliding, as subterranean slurps from the bassoonist and tubaist Joseph Daley roll out concurrent notes, while above them a series of brass soloists slice apart the main theme with patterns ranging from single-note, off-centre bites to chromatic spit-resonations.

Appropriate brass expression is also on show in Chicago, although New York’s seven-person trumpet-trombone-tuba section shrinks to Jeb Bishop’s trombone, Dixon’s trumpet and the cornets of Mazurek and Josh Berman. However the rhythmic and chordal exposition is intensified with three percussionists, Jeff Parker’s guitar, Jim Baker’s piano, Matthew Lux’s bass guitar and Jason Ajemian’s bass.

In fact both versions of “Entrances” depend more than any part of the Dafur suite on repetitive bass guitar thumps and heavy beats from Mike Reed’s tympani and John Herndon’s drums. Mazurek, who has experimented with electronics in the past isn’t listed as adding wave form distortions anywhere here, but an oscillating sheen can be sensed if not definitely heard. Hocketing and cumulative harmonics accelerate on the climatic “Entrances/One”, with definite roles for soloists Mazurek and Dixon. With contrasting guitar licks ricocheting behind, one brass man produces quicksilver smears and note flurries, while the other speedily tongues grace note and internal resonations. Following a dramatic pause, the theme downshifts to diminuendo in a penultimate variation, before reappearing for the finale.

Dixon’s presence is more obvious on “Entrances/Two” with his solo characteristically hushed and uniquely angled with chromatic lines. More concentric in execution than the first version of “Entrances”, which showcased Parker and Jason Adasiewicz’s vibraphone contrapuntally trading off choruses with pulses from trilling saxophone coloration and tuba snorts; this version differs in other ways as well. Here the protracted silence in the composition precedes a condensed piano nocturne and before the cacophonic finale, layers of walloping tympani and snorting brass are heard.

Adasiewicz’s tubular bells get a work out on Mazurek’s “Constellations For Innerlight Projections”, as do Nicole Mitchell’s chromatic flute buzzes and staccato clarinet trills from Matt Bauer. However the composition, initially envisioned to be performed with video screens, seems musically to be more of a throwback. The arrangements list towards standard big-band-era riffing and the recitation from Damon Locke involves beatnik-like intonation and Sci-Fi imagery. More memorable instrumentally, with distant brass glowering and tongue-splattering, plus engorged Bronx cheer-like textures from the horns in general and pinpoint fills from Parker, the resolution seems to be caught between the ecclesiastical and minimalism.

While Dixon may have been surprised at the form his homage took, minus the recitation “Constellations For Innerlight Projections,” while a lesser work, is certainly palatable. Overall though, both “Entrances” and “Dafur” are superior large-canvas expressions of Dixon’s sometimes constricted tonal language.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Darfur: 1. Prelude 2. Intrados 3. In Search of a Sound 4. Contour One 5. Contour Two 6. Scattering of the Following 7. Darfur 8. Contour Three 9. Sinopia 10. Pentimento I 11. Pentimento II 12. Pentimento III 13. Pentimento IV

Personnel: Darfur: Bill Dixon (trumpet); Graham Haynes, Stephen Haynes and Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet and flugelhorn); Dick Griffin and Steve Swell (tenor trombone); Joseph Daley (tuba); Will Connell Jr. (bass clarinet); Michel Côté (Bb contrabass clarinet); Karen Borca (bassoon); Andrew Raffo Dewar (soprano saxophone); John Hagen (tenor and baritone saxophones); JD Parran (bass saxophone and bamboo flute); Glynis Loman (cello); Andrew Lafkas (bass); Jackson Krall (drums and percussion) and Warren Smith (vibraphone, tympani and drums)

Track Listing: Exploding: 1. Entrances/One 2. Constellations For Innerlight Projections (For Bill Dixon) 3. Entrances/Two

Personnel: Exploding: Bill Dixon (trumpet); Rob Mazurek and Josh Berman (cornet); Jeb Bishop (trombone); Matt Bauer (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Nicole Mitchell (flute and voice); Jim Baker (piano); Jeff Parker (guitar); Matthew Lux (bass guitar); Jason Ajemian (bass); John Herndon (drums); Mike Reed (drums and tympani); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone and tubular bells) and Damon Locke (voice)

December 8, 2008

STICKS & STONES

Shed Grace
Thrill Jockey thrill 140

DRAGONS 1976
On Cortez
Locust Music 40

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

--Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

June 7, 2004

MATT BAUDER

Weary Already of the Way
482 Music 482-1025

MATT BAUDER/JASON AJEMIAN
Object 3
Locust no. 38

Probably the biggest challenge facing listeners to reedist Matt Bauder’s two new CDs is figuring out how much of the music is composed, how much is improvised and how much is the result of studio manipulation. On the other hand you can merely allow the sounds to seep from your organ of Corti into your consciousness, reacting to them on a purely visceral level.

Bauder is one of the many young Chicago improvisers whose allegiance is as much with post-rock, contemporary classical and electro-acoustic drone as it is with jazz. Most of the players work in each others’ bands and a considerable number of them -- including at least three on the sextet date -- have played with the scene’s most prominent representative, saxist Ken Vandermark.

Yet considering that the duo with bassist Jason Ajemian features the two improvising with pre-recorded versions of their own sounds, and the sextet date is more about pitches and textures than composition, the way this music is approached makes even Vandermark appear as traditional as Louis Armstrong.

Consider WEARY ALREADY OF THE WAY. The defining of the four untitled tracks is probably the first more than 20-minute outing. Working with all-acoustic instruments, the band still manages to reconfigure and manipulate the sound in such a way that it often appears as if the oscillating tones and wiggles are coming from electronic treatments. In fact, a good five minute elapses before the breath suggestions from sound holes and body tubes finally morph into a gentle, unison cornet line from Todd Margasak, who has recorded with reedist Scott Rosenberg and Rob Mazurek, leader of the Chicago Underground bands.

Overlaid on top are clarinet tones from Bauder and Aram Shelton, who is one-half of the Grey Ghost duo. Underneath is strumming bumps and grinds from bassist Jason Roebke, whose trio features Shelton, and who is in a trio with cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, who contributes glissandos to this pieces, and who seems to be on every alternate CD from Chicago, including some of Vandermark’s sessions. In front of the cellist’s arching arco tones and bubbling brass continuum are tiny flutter tonguing from trombonist Jeb Bishop, another Vandermark sideman. As the reeds take on melodica textures, the entire output sweeps across the soundfield, coming in and out of focus like shimmering patterns in the desert sands.

Other tracks are less experimental with built up reed lines harmonized into a canon at one point and enlivened with tongue slaps at another. Working as much inside the tubing as from the bell, the cornetists advance muted ghostly echo that quickly vanish into the ozone layer, while plunger trombone sounds sometimes interrupt the too perfect symmetry.

Construction of distinctive thematic phrases voiced by the reeds reaches a climax on the final track where Bauder’s tenor saxophone keeps repeating an unvarying theme pattern that serves as the rhythmic undercurrent of the piece. Supporting first a plucked bass line and the by cello double stops, the ostinato gives the others freedom for Dixieland-like polyphony, with slurred reed bites from the altoist, blaring, open-horned processional music from the cornets and bleating ‘bone tones. After fusing into a single tone, mitosis takes place, with different instruments producing counterpoint to one another. As the grace notes fade, studio wizardry appears, as buzzes pulsate and orchestral suggestions float through the piece, diminishing in audibility ever so slowly so that first impulses and then fading echoes are left ringing in your ears.

OBJECT 3’s entire 31-minute piece includes undulating machine-like rustles, rather like the circular drones you’ll sometimes sense just out of earshot on AMM discs. Eventually you can be lulled into an almost dream-like trance as the bowed solid tones of the bass and reed trills dissolve into a single drawn-out dirge. Eventually the extended stopping from the bass gets darker, higher, undulating pitches from the reed vibrate more roughly until they approach siren territory.

Just when you’ve decided that you can’t tell whether the creation is studio static or single breaths, the two minidisks which have recorded the first half of the performance are put into shuffle mode and paradoxically more sound pitches enter the aural picture. Reed harmonies expand to presage saxophone quartet suggestions -- and the kazoo-like peep -- while the built up, unison arco basses coalesce into a solid organ-like tone.

Thought provoking in some senses, your appreciation of these experiments will still depend on how much melody and rhythm you want to jettison in your listening habits. Bauder and company will be heard from in the future. But as maturing musicians, it will be instructive to see if the sonic territory here will continue to be their only conclusion he -- and they -- draw as to how to create an original style.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Weary: 1. 20.05 2. 7:58 3. 8:21 4. 16:08

Personnel: Weary: Todd Margasak and Rob Mazurek (cornets); Jeb Bishop (trombone); Aram Shelton (alto saxophone and clarinet); Matt Bauder (tenor saxophone and clarinet); Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello); Jason Roebke (bass)

Track Listing: Object: 1. Normal

Personnel: Object: Matt Bauder (tenor saxophone); Jason Ajemian (bass)

February 9, 2004

TRIAGE

Twenty Minute Cliff
Okka Disk OD12045

JASON ROEBKE
Rapid Croche
482 Music 1016

Every three decades or so Chicago improvisers become the focus of the music world -- or perhaps the rest of the planet merely catches up with what’s been happening in the Windy City all along.

This first took place in the late 1920s when Young Lions such as Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines revolutionized jazz music with a solo-oriented approach. Then in the mid-1960s, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) appeared with explorers like Roscoe Mitchell and Muhal Richard Abrams who showed that Free Music could be complex and meticulous as well as blues-based and emotional. Fast forward to the 21st century, and everyone from Austrian laptopers to German ecstatic soloists appears to be working with a new wave of Chicago-based players.

Fulcrum on which this all rests is multi-reedist Ken Vandermark, whose numberless groups, endless promotion and MacArthur “genius” grant status help spread the word. In truth, the essence of the new Chicago Sound isn’t that much different from what perspicuous improvisers are doing elsewhere: adding their own spin to ideas and influences from everywhere.

Sometimes, though, hubris gets in the way, as a comparison of these CDs by players from the Vandermark circle demonstrates. Bassist Jason Roebke’s Rapid Croche trio has created an almost wholly satisfying session of eight Roebke compositions. On the other hand, the CD by saxophonist Dave Rempis’ Triage trio, recorded only a month previous to RAPID CROCHE and with the same drummer, isn’t as stimulating. Clocking in at almost double the length of Roebke’s, TWENTY MINUTE CLIFF is laden with extraneous material.

Rempis, best-known as the second reedist in the Vandermark5, is an evolving saxophonist who seems anxious to try out different styles on the nine self-penned compositions that make up his disc. That means he’ll be exploring the microscopic intricacies of BritImprov-like insect music at one point or be rocking out on a near honky-tonk tenor sax groove elsewhere. But will the real Dave Rempis please stand up?

His partners here do the best they can under the circumstances., bringing their varied experience to the fore. Daisy, who is now also a member of the Vandermark5 and in some of that multi-reedist’s larger projects, is part another band featuring keyboardist Jim Baker, a longtime associate of AACM saxman Fred Anderson, Rempis and Roebke, while bassist Jason Ajemian has a duo with reedist Matt Bauder, and is part of Dragons 1976 with Daisy and woodwind player Aram Shelton, who is also in Rapid Croche. Starts to sound like the genealogy of the British Royal Family doesn’t it?

Ajemian’s buzzy walking bass and Daisy’s brush work fold into a serpentine, swinging beat on “Lamento” meeting up with Rempis’ sluicing flutter tonguing and squeaking reed tones. The piece has a memorable, irregular pulse, but like others here, it seems to end without making a summary statement. Additionally, guitar-like strumming characterize the bassist’s work on “Glass” as it and the drummer’s cross-sticking metronomic pulse complement the alto saxist splattering split-toned mewls and trills all over the tune. Happily, at 10 minutes on the nose, this composition has a definite shape, which can’t be said for the four [!] other pieces of about the same length.

Longest and most disappointing is “Portrait of the Stone Age”, which besides being pretentious seems to move at the pace of Ice Age glaciers receding. Beginning with ponderous bass and bass drum sounds plus reverberations that may be pressure on unselected cymbals, it picks up midway through with some African-sounding drum drags and ruffs and irregular vibrations from Rempis’ tenor. Again it seems just to end rather than come to a resolution.

That’s why “Mohandiseen”, a straightforward, Gene Ammons-style rhythm tune with a walking bass line and shuffle beat works so well. Rempis double tongues and peeps out the odd note and adds a few bottom-of-the-bow honks as well. Because the tune is relaxed as well as short, sharp and spiky, it appear that no one -- especially the composer -- is trying to prove anything -- and the endproduct is better for it.

Elsewhere Daisy produces sounds that could come from a talking drum or a gamelan and adds his cowbell and woodblocks -- not to mention moistened finger pressure on a drumhead -- to the proceedings where they’re needed.

This sort of versatility also comes in handy on RAPID CROCHE. Overall, though, Roebke, who wrote all the compositions as well, seems to have decided what and how to play, while Rempis is still trying on different styles.

Someone whose experience encompasses collaborations with Japanese musicians in that country, dance groups, membership in Tigersmilk with cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer Dylan van der Schyff, plus sideman work with cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm’s Valentine Trio and Terminal 4, Roebke has made Rapid Croche his working trio for the past two years. It shows. While the bassist’s morose take on things compositionally could use with some livening up, each piece at least seems to reach the target at which it aims.

“It’s Enough” and “Like You Thought It Might Be”, for instance, are andante excursions informed by the type of jiggly rhythms Ornette Coleman introduced with his Prime Time band. With a reed tone here midway between Coleman’s and AACMer Henry Threadgill, who sometimes works the same territory, Shelton turns out a perky, shaded solo on the later tune, then growls out split tones from his body tube. On the former he reed bites, flutter tongues and changes the pitch as he plays, concentrating his sound into a claxon-like tone as Daisy drags and paradiddles. Shuffle rhythms predominate on the later with Roebke showcasing a four-to-the-bar beat on an elongated solo.

“Whatever You Think Is Beautiful”, guided by unison trilling clarinet and bowed bassline, moves forward in reedy lockstep as if Roebke was playing bass clarinet instead of the stringed kind. Daisy contributes mallet sounds on his drum heads and the tune ends with the undertow of Shelton’s constricted reed tone joining the bassist’s double-stopping arco line.

In other spots Roebke’s production ranges from powerful, near swinging string tugs and melancholy, bowed bass lines to spidery rubberband-like speed. Also, while Shelton may introduce a slow moving, but vibrated full clarinet tone, on faster tempos his fluid runs are as light as those played by Jimmy Noone when Hines was his sideman in the 1920s.

RAPID CROUCHE confirms the creative Chicago continuum that has lasted from the 1920s to the 21st century, and outlines what can be done with a concentrated trio effort. TWENTY MINUTE CLIFF is more iffy, though a good effort. Still if the amount of music described in the title would have been cut from the CD, Rempis and friends may too have created an exceptional 50-minute session.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Twenty: 1. Angles of 90° 2. Leo’s Leaving the Room 3. Sound Sound 4. Sun Dawgs 5. Lamento 6. Mohandiseen 7. Portrait of the Stone Age 8. River Rouge 9. Glass

Personnel: Twenty: Dave Rempis (alto and tenor saxophones); Jason Ajemian (bass); Tim Daisy (drums)

Track Listing: Rapid: 1. Please 2. Sensor 3. Any American 4. Whatever You Think Is Beautiful 5. It’s Enough 6. Like You Thought It Might Be 7. Just Before It Starts 8. Northern Cross

Personnel: Rapid: Aram Shelton (alto saxophone and clarinet); Jason Roebke (bass); Tim Daisy (drums)

November 10, 2003