Thomas, Storrs and Sarpolas

Time Share
Louie Records 036

FAB (Fonda/Altschul/Bang)
Live at the Iron Works, Vancouver
Konnex KCD 5158

Filled with flowing fancy fiddling, these West-Coast recorded CDs showcase the initial and most recent violinist from the long-running String Trio of New York.

They offer much more than that, of course and despite a similarity in personnel, the discs couldn’t be more different. An Eugene, Ore.-native on visit to Corvallis, Ore., violinist Rob Thomas slides through a set of spontaneous compositions in the company of local drummer – and label owner – Dave Storrs, plus other New York visitors, fellow Pacific Northwest expat, bassist Dick Sarpola and his son, percussionist George Sarpola. Thus the TS&S name. Backyard snapshots in the booklet testify to the informality of the session: everyone is wearing shorts and sandals and a nearby table is heaped with chips, dips and soft drinks.

On the other hand, Thomas’ long-ago antecedent, Billy Bang, works over six compositions and improvisations with the other members of the jocularly and alphabetically designated FAB trio, in a Vancouver, B.C. concert. Besides B, or Bang, F is Joe Fonda, who has performed with players as varied as pianist Michael Jefrey Stephens and Chinese guzheng player Xu Fengxia; while A is legendary drummer Barry Altschul, who backed Anthony Braxton long before percussionist Sarpola’s birth.

Along with Leroy Jenkins, Free Jazz’s pre-eminent violinist, Bang’s list of collaborators ranges from the late Memphis saxophonist Frank Lowe – honored on the second tune here – to Chicago percussionist Kahil El’Zabar and New York bassist William Parker. Less high profile, Thomas, associate professor of Strings at Boston’s Berklee College, is also a member of drummer Greg Bendian’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, and has worked with The Jazz Passengers and The Soldier String Quartet.

Relaxing into the homey vibe, his playing on Time Share is noteworthy, but all-and-all there’s a certainly sameness to the five tracks. Storrs lays down a strong beat as does the bassist, but the ratcheting percussion from Sarpola Junior often sounds vestigial, while overall it’s often hard to distinguish the improvisations on one track from those on the next.

Featuring one original each from Bang and Fonda, plus four group compositions, the skills and techniques of the veteran players on Live however, not only demarcate tunes that reflect FAB’s identity, but also present them with a variety of musical strategies.

For instance the nearly 14-minute “Tune for Barry”, features the drummer’s terpsichorean exposition of extended nerve beats, press roll, flams, paradiddles and ruffs, expressed with cross sticking and counter-crosswise rhythms. Yet this percussion extravaganza merely sets up sprawling, sharp screeches from Bang’s violin, that quote “Take the A Train” in a flurry of flying triple stopping, as Fonda slaps his strings as accompaniment. Continuing to outline the ostinato, the bassist’s pulses underline the fiddler’s work, which tapped and plucked with either hand moves from claw-hammer-like banjo strokes to flanging vibrations

More low-key, “For Frank Lowe” is built up from a basso bottom and cymbal quivers to chromatic bull fiddle strums, serpentine sul ponticello lines from Bang and break beats from Altschul. Exhausting in the fashioning of unique oscillating lines in honor of his former combo-partner, Bang eventually picks up the tempo along with the number of strings he vibrates. Meanwhile Fonda walks powerfully and the drummer colors the proceedings. While almost turning around the beat with rim shots and shattering cymbal feints, he martially gooses the rhythm by the composition’s finale.

Often working in tandem with the bassist, Bang not only holds up his part in polyphonic exchanges, but also melds his tremolo movements so the ricocheting pumps and patterns take on koto-like echoes as well as the more common guitar and banjo suggestions.

Climax is achieved on “Song For My Mother”, the Fonda-penned, nearly 16-minute final track. An intermezzo of deep bass notes and slap rhythms, the composition finds the bassist working his way on the strings from the tuning pegs to below the bridge as Altschul bounds and bounces and Bang exposes erhu-like textures for theme variations. In near-hoedown mode, Bang’s playing is tonic, legato and dance-like, with Fonda shadowing his every time shift. Accentuating watery undulating lines as he concludes his solo, Bang allows the drummer’s low-key irregular beats and the bassist’s fading single strokes to make the final comments.

Featuring song titles even further out than FAB’s, you get the feeling that TS&S’ free-form antics resulted in track naming after the fact. As accomplished in instrument manipulation as FAB, the veteran trio’s polyrhythm and contrapuntal interaction keeps the five tunes from dragging, while tyro Sarpola judiciously adds sonic colors from what sound like lightly smacked bongo drums, rattled maracas and undifferentiated drum heads.

The most accommodating of pals, the bassist and drummer are similarly unobtrusive. Keeping the rhythmic emphasis going with pumping bass pulses and clattering pops and chops from the drum set, they allow Thomas to be the cynosure, while subtly guiding him away from exhibitionism.

On his own, the violinist adapts multiphonic sideswipes and carefully focused legit phrasing with the same ease. Frequently double-stopping, as on the title tune, he alternates breakneck pizzicato strumming with gypsy-fiddle-like spiccato at such blinding speeds that you often don’t realize he’s shifted from fingers to bow and vice-versa until that motion has already concluded. Allegro is a favored pace and agitato a preferred performance directive.

Throughout, whether Thomas shuffle bows, triple stops or saws staccato-like, Storrs plus Sarpola and son are there with the proper blunt rhythm or cascading vibration to frame his bravura patterning. Teamwork even allows for the subtle mitosis of the three dividing the beat into its component parts without altering the size and shape of the tune.

However as educational as it must have been to expose the younger Sarpola to profound free-form improv, and as much fun as it allowed the older musicians to renew their association in a smaller forum than Storrs’ Tone Sharks band, discipline is lacking. With every track a showpiece – especially for Thomas’ impressive technique – the ebb and flow goes missing.

Storrs describes it this way: “We talked about a session for a few years … And finally …we went out to the studio and played for a few hours.” Spectacular in some of the cooperation and soloing, a better strategy would have involved more shape and focus like FAB’s CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Time: 1. It’s Not Always Pretty 2. Clay Hippopotamus 3. Time Share

4. Tut Tut Tudala 5. Helping Hand

Personnel: Time: Rob Thomas (violin); Dick Sarpola (bass); Dave Storrs (drums); George Sarpola (percussion)

Track Listing: Live: 1. FAB 2. For Frank Lowe 3. B.B. 4. Tune for Barry 5. For Don Cherry 6. Song For My Mother

Personnel: Live: Billy Bang (violin); Joe Fonda (bass); Barry Altschul (drums)

November 7, 2006

FAB (Fonda/Altschul/Bang)

Live at the Iron Works, Vancouver
Konnex KCD 5158

Thomas, Storrs and Sarpolas
Time Share
Louie Records 036

Filled with flowing fancy fiddling, these West-Coast recorded CDs showcase the initial and most recent violinist from the long-running String Trio of New York.

They offer much more than that, of course and despite a similarity in personnel, the discs couldn’t be more different. An Eugene, Ore.-native on visit to Corvallis, Ore., violinist Rob Thomas slides through a set of spontaneous compositions in the company of local drummer – and label owner – Dave Storrs, plus other New York visitors, fellow Pacific Northwest expat, bassist Dick Sarpola and his son, percussionist George Sarpola. Thus the TS&S name. Backyard snapshots in the booklet testify to the informality of the session: everyone is wearing shorts and sandals and a nearby table is heaped with chips, dips and soft drinks.

On the other hand, Thomas’ long-ago antecedent, Billy Bang, works over six compositions and improvisations with the other members of the jocularly and alphabetically designated FAB trio, in a Vancouver, B.C. concert. Besides B, or Bang, F is Joe Fonda, who has performed with players as varied as pianist Michael Jefrey Stephens and Chinese guzheng player Xu Fengxia; while A is legendary drummer Barry Altschul, who backed Anthony Braxton long before percussionist Sarpola’s birth.

Along with Leroy Jenkins, Free Jazz’s pre-eminent violinist, Bang’s list of collaborators ranges from the late Memphis saxophonist Frank Lowe – honored on the second tune here – to Chicago percussionist Kahil El’Zabar and New York bassist William Parker. Less high profile, Thomas, associate professor of Strings at Boston’s Berklee College, is also a member of drummer Greg Bendian’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, and has worked with The Jazz Passengers and The Soldier String Quartet.

Relaxing into the homey vibe, his playing on Time Share is noteworthy, but all-and-all there’s a certainly sameness to the five tracks. Storrs lays down a strong beat as does the bassist, but the ratcheting percussion from Sarpola Junior often sounds vestigial, while overall it’s often hard to distinguish the improvisations on one track from those on the next.

Featuring one original each from Bang and Fonda, plus four group compositions, the skills and techniques of the veteran players on Live however, not only demarcate tunes that reflect FAB’s identity, but also present them with a variety of musical strategies.

For instance the nearly 14-minute “Tune for Barry”, features the drummer’s terpsichorean exposition of extended nerve beats, press roll, flams, paradiddles and ruffs, expressed with cross sticking and counter-crosswise rhythms. Yet this percussion extravaganza merely sets up sprawling, sharp screeches from Bang’s violin, that quote “Take the A Train” in a flurry of flying triple stopping, as Fonda slaps his strings as accompaniment. Continuing to outline the ostinato, the bassist’s pulses underline the fiddler’s work, which tapped and plucked with either hand moves from claw-hammer-like banjo strokes to flanging vibrations

More low-key, “For Frank Lowe” is built up from a basso bottom and cymbal quivers to chromatic bull fiddle strums, serpentine sul ponticello lines from Bang and break beats from Altschul. Exhausting in the fashioning of unique oscillating lines in honor of his former combo-partner, Bang eventually picks up the tempo along with the number of strings he vibrates. Meanwhile Fonda walks powerfully and the drummer colors the proceedings. While almost turning around the beat with rim shots and shattering cymbal feints, he martially gooses the rhythm by the composition’s finale.

Often working in tandem with the bassist, Bang not only holds up his part in polyphonic exchanges, but also melds his tremolo movements so the ricocheting pumps and patterns take on koto-like echoes as well as the more common guitar and banjo suggestions.

Climax is achieved on “Song For My Mother”, the Fonda-penned, nearly 16-minute final track. An intermezzo of deep bass notes and slap rhythms, the composition finds the bassist working his way on the strings from the tuning pegs to below the bridge as Altschul bounds and bounces and Bang exposes erhu-like textures for theme variations. In near-hoedown mode, Bang’s playing is tonic, legato and dance-like, with Fonda shadowing his every time shift. Accentuating watery undulating lines as he concludes his solo, Bang allows the drummer’s low-key irregular beats and the bassist’s fading single strokes to make the final comments.

Featuring song titles even further out than FAB’s, you get the feeling that TS&S’ free-form antics resulted in track naming after the fact. As accomplished in instrument manipulation as FAB, the veteran trio’s polyrhythm and contrapuntal interaction keeps the five tunes from dragging, while tyro Sarpola judiciously adds sonic colors from what sound like lightly smacked bongo drums, rattled maracas and undifferentiated drum heads.

The most accommodating of pals, the bassist and drummer are similarly unobtrusive. Keeping the rhythmic emphasis going with pumping bass pulses and clattering pops and chops from the drum set, they allow Thomas to be the cynosure, while subtly guiding him away from exhibitionism.

On his own, the violinist adapts multiphonic sideswipes and carefully focused legit phrasing with the same ease. Frequently double-stopping, as on the title tune, he alternates breakneck pizzicato strumming with gypsy-fiddle-like spiccato at such blinding speeds that you often don’t realize he’s shifted from fingers to bow and vice-versa until that motion has already concluded. Allegro is a favored pace and agitato a preferred performance directive.

Throughout, whether Thomas shuffle bows, triple stops or saws staccato-like, Storrs plus Sarpola and son are there with the proper blunt rhythm or cascading vibration to frame his bravura patterning. Teamwork even allows for the subtle mitosis of the three dividing the beat into its component parts without altering the size and shape of the tune.

However as educational as it must have been to expose the younger Sarpola to profound free-form improv, and as much fun as it allowed the older musicians to renew their association in a smaller forum than Storrs’ Tone Sharks band, discipline is lacking. With every track a showpiece – especially for Thomas’ impressive technique – the ebb and flow goes missing.

Storrs describes it this way: “We talked about a session for a few years … And finally …we went out to the studio and played for a few hours.” Spectacular in some of the cooperation and soloing, a better strategy would have involved more shape and focus like FAB’s CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Time: 1. It’s Not Always Pretty 2. Clay Hippopotamus 3. Time Share

4. Tut Tut Tudala 5. Helping Hand

Personnel: Time: Rob Thomas (violin); Dick Sarpola (bass); Dave Storrs (drums); George Sarpola (percussion)

Track Listing: Live: 1. FAB 2. For Frank Lowe 3. B.B. 4. Tune for Barry 5. For Don Cherry 6. Song For My Mother

Personnel: Live: Billy Bang (violin); Joe Fonda (bass); Barry Altschul (drums)

November 7, 2006

FAB

Transforming the Space
CIMP #284

MALCOLM GOLDSTEIN/MATTHIAS KAUL
Christian Wolff: Bread and Roses
Wergo WER 6658 2

Combining the timbres from the violin and percussion symbolically characterizes the miscegenation that has defined modern music since at least the beginning of the last century. There’s probably a no more European instrument than the violin, or a more African one than the drum. Thus contemporary musical history involves a gradual rapprochement between those two powerful sources.

Take the results of manipulating these two sounds and find the midpoint where notated scores meet free improvisation means that the mixture becomes even more volatile and rewarding. That’s precisely what these two CDs set out to do.

Interestingly enough, both come from supposedly diametrically opposite sources. FAB’s Billy Bang (violin) and Barry Altschul (drums) -- aided by a distantly recorded bassist Joe Fonda -- are out and out Free Jazzers, working their magic on six original compositions. Vermont-based violinist Malcolm Goldstein and German percussionist Matthias Kaul are from the New music side of the fence and on the 13 tracks here interpret five compositions by American composer Christian Wolff.

Wolff, whose improvisational experience included music making with the British band AMM, created pieces whose shape gives the performers enough latitude to distend the written score. Goldstein, who has collaborated with sonic seekers raging from composer John Cage to Canadian percussion John Heward and German bassist Peter Niklas Wilson, is an old hand at these sorts of improvisations. A bit younger, Kaul, whose coworkers have included such composer/performers as John Zorn, Carla Bley and Slovenian trombonist Vinko Globkar is easily able to do the same.

Linchpin of the session is “For 1, 2 or 3 People” in 10 separate sections, with Kaul cranking the hurdy-gurdy as well as playing percussion and Goldstein vocalizing -- well sort of -- as well as fiddling. The ratcheted buzzing of string friction from the hurdy-gurdy actually extends the assembly line of abrasive scratches that make up the violinist’s part on these tracks. At the same time, though, between the murmured nonsense syllables and alpine yodels and growls, you hear Goldstein’s extensive violin technique that allows him to suddenly sound out a single emphasized line as well as its vibrations.

On their normal instruments, Goldstein and Kaul don’t so much play together as improvise or read in parallel, a distinctive difference from the close cooperation among the FAB three. They also make more use of silence then the American trio does. Applying torque to his arco lines, either high up, almost near the pegs or bandsaw-like across all four strings, Goldstein is able to move from a sonority that’s almost textbook legit to a shrilling in the furthest reaches of experimentation. And all this is done in the time it takes to gliss from one note to another. Elsewhere he demonstrates protracted string swoops, split-second pizzicato plucks, and concentrated mouse squeaks and bird chirrups.

For his part, Kaul moves from applying gentle pressure on unselected and attached cymbals and creating miniature pealing bell noise to scraping a drum stick right on top of a heavy brass cymbal, formulating press rolls and kettle drum resonation and unveiling an unvarying assembly line of rhythmically resonating wood -- drum stick upon drum stick. Finally, on “Edges”, the scrapes, clawing and plucking become even more diffuse with Kaul introducing gamelan-like timbres and Goldstein somehow managing to replicate harmonica inflections.

Solo, the shrill modernism and double stopping the violinist displays during “For 2, or 3 People” turns to primitive Americana as he elaborates the theme of the CD’s title composition. Playing legato, but with enough dissonance to herald his reconstitution of the melody, Goldstein manages to simultaneously recreate the old ballad and comment on it.

Using only the snare drum for his solo feature, “Exercise 27”, Kaul, like a New music Max Roach, uses brushes for polyrhythmic slides and scrapes. With the sensitive recording equipment picking up his every nuance, he whistles at, blows on and rubs other spots than the drum head using the metallic results as counterpoint to decidedly non-militaristic rat tat tats.

Violinist Bang’s storied Viet Nam experience notwithstanding, the only militaristic influences in FAB’s campaign experience is the time spent as foot soldiers in the jazz wars. Collectively the three have been in the biz for a good 75 years, leading their own bands and working behind such leaders as Anthony Braxton and William Parker, to pick two at random.

This connection to history is made most obvious on Altschul’s “For Papa Jo, Klook & Philly Too”, where the thoroughly modern trapsman salutes and recreates approximations of the styles of some of his predecessors: (Papa) Jo Jones, Kenny “Klook” Clarke and Philly Joe Jones. Defiantly anachronistic when expressing the emulations, Altschul soon extends his skills into the 21st century in this finger-snapper. He’s backed by a walking, but distant Fonda and an unrestrained Bang, using short bow strokes like an updated Stuff Smith.

On his own “Tales from Da Bronx” -- home borough of the fiddler and percussionist -- Bang starts off playing slowly than in lockstep with Fonda. He accelerates to a swinging bounce complete with sprawling screeches, vocal encouragement from the bassman and heavy bass drum thumps plus surging snare rolls from Altschul. Coda is an extended legato string fantasia. Squirming, squeaking, near-atonal glissandos and multi-stops characterize most of Bang’s work elsewhere, with the string high jinks aurally suggesting the picture of a whirling dervish fiddler.

Bang’s dissonant output can be used in many ways as he demonstrates on Fonda’s more than 16½-minute “Song for My Mother”. Here his abrasive runs turn into string kisses, then almost classically cliched buzzing bee tones. With the drummer playing as softly as he can, enlivening the proceedings with the odd rim shot, you can usually hear sporadic ringing notes from Fonda’s bass and his verbal encouragement to himself. As the piece gets faster and more orotund, Bang sweeps out some shrill triple stops and Altschul drops a few bass drum bombs.

As you can see musical miscegenation like this produces some of the most memorable and thought-provoking sounds. And that description characterizes both these sessions.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Transforming: 1. Be Out S’cool 2. The Softness of Light 3. For Papa Jo, Klook & Philly Too 4. Tales from Da Bronx 5. Song for My Mother 6. Coligno Battatta

Personnel: Transforming: Billy Bang (violin); Joe Fonda (bass); Barry Altschul (drums)

Track Listing: Bread: For 1, 2 or 3 People: 1. I (violin and percussion) 2. II (voice and hurdy-gurdy) 3. III (violin and percussion) 4. Exercise 27 (Snare Drum Peace March) For one, two or three People: 5. IV (violin solo) 6. V (violin and hurdy-gurdy) 7. VI (percussion solo) 8. VII (voice and body duo) 9. Bread and Roses (for violin solo) For 1, 2 or 3 People: 10. VIII (violin and percussion) 11. IX (violin and percussion) 12. X (violin and percussion) 13. Edges (violin and percussion)

Personnel: Bread: Malcolm Goldstein (violin and voice); Matthias Kaul (percussion, voice, hurdy-gurdy)

December 29, 2003

ANTHONY BRAXTON

News from the 70s
Felmay/Newtone FY 7005

With his MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and his tenured position at Wesleyan University now part of his storied past, it would seem that Anthony Braxton has attained the respect he deserves as an academic and a serious American composer. However, a document like this CD -- or “text” as the academics would term it -- serves as a reminder of how he achieved what he did.

Organized by Italian jazz writer Francesco Martinelli and consisting of almost 75 minutes of tapes from Braxton’s private tape stash, the newest track dates from 1976 and the oldest from 1971. Braxton’s improvising and band leading is emphasized as much as his composing here, and hearing him in contexts ranging from solo to quartet you quickly pick up on the skill, technique and intensity that drew people to him in the first place. Hitherto-unknown compositions and new versions of older compositions are exposed, as are unique or under-recorded partnerships.

Case in point is “Composition-2”, which features Braxton on sopranino, clarinet, piccolo and alto saxophone, flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler and two French musicians better known for their New music leanings and film scores than for improvisations. Yet it was performances like this with pianist Antonine Duhamel and bassist François Mechali which helped make Braxton’s name in France. And it’s easy to see why.

Even without a percussionist, the four are able to formulate a lively theme stretched over a walking bass line and sharp piano overtones that almost sound like vibes. When he briefly gets the solo spotlight, in fact, Duhamel displays a tone that could easily have come from a player piano. Canadian-born, British-domiciled Wheeler, who since then has reverted to his persona as the cautious, colorist of shades of gray, which first got him noticed in mid-1960 Britain, surprises as well. When he’s not working in duple counterpoint with the reedman, he offers up some high-pitched Don Cherry-like note substitutions and explorations.

For his part Braxton, who jumps back-and-forth from one horn to another, takes solos that seem to be one-third Charlie Parker, one-third Eric Dolphy and one-third New Thing madman. It’s hard to link that energy to the comfortable, bespectacled pedagogue he now chooses to portray.

There’s no mistaking that a percussionist is on hand for “Composition 23E” and “Four Winds”, however, with New Yorker Barry Altschul behind the traps. A freebopper par excellence, he hits everything he can -- including what sound like bells and triangles -- when he gets a chance. Showiness and overwhelming aren’t part of his vocabulary, however. As a mater of fact adding his timekeeping on the cymbals plus the occasional press roll to Dave Holland’s low toned, steady bass lines throughout and you’d think you were listening to a bunch of beboppers.

Well, at least until you got to the front line. On the first tune Wheeler strains notes into the stratosphere, while on the second, trombonist George Lewis adds a brassy fillip to the proceedings when he’s not modulating in unison with Braxton. Lightly inflected, Braxton’s sopranino playing sounds very much of the 1970s here as well, with modulations that suggest Wayne Shorter or Dave Liebman more than John Coltrane.

Holland also exhibits his cello prowess on “Composition-1”, a track left off the recording of the reedist’s epochal 1972 concert at New York’s Town Hall. In a more than 14-minute duet with Braxton, who takes the black stick from a warm, low tone to squeaky upper register vibrations, Holland holds his own, both with bow and fingers. At times he produces sonorous passages of almost meltingly legitimate tones.

Completed by two examples of Braxton’s solo alto saxophone work, this CD, despite its definitely non-archival sound, is both musically and historically fascinating. Braxton apparently has more unreleased tapes. Perhaps it’s time for a second volume.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Composition 23E*#+ 2. Composition 8C 3. Composition -1# 4. Composition -2% 5. Composition 8G 6. Four Winds^#+

Personnel: Kenny Wheeler (flugelhorn)*; George Lewis (trombone)^; Anthony Braxton (sopranino, clarinet, piccolo, alto saxophone); Antonine Duhamel (piano)%; François Mechali%, Dave Holland# (bass); Barry Altschul (percussion)+

January 24, 2002