Pete Robbins’s Unnamed Quartet

Live in Brooklyn
NotTwo MW 845-2

By Ken Waxman

Setting himself and his unnamed quartet a major challenge, alto saxophonist Pete Robbins recorded this program of completely improvised music at a Brooklyn bar a couple of years ago. While the end product is slightly unpolished, this CD demonstrates that the right combination of players and circumstances can invest cerebral and technical experiments with emotion and dexterity.

It helps that Andover, Mass.-native Robbins, who has been New York for about a decade performing with everyone from John Zorn to Melvin Sparks, surrounds himself with some of the city’s most accomplished younger players. Trumpeter Nate Wooley’s abilities have been equally stirring in minimalist chamber excursions as in free jazz settings. The same can be said for cellist Daniel Levin, who here utilizes both his instrument’s rhythm section and front-line identities. As he does elsewhere, drummer Jeff Davis provides the ballast for free-flowing soloing.

That doesn’t mean Davis has a heavy foot however. A track such as “Improvisation 2” is built on measured rim clanks and backwards rolls. Later that piece moves from double-stopping from Levin and note-slurring from Wooley to reconstitute itself into a freebop showcase underlined by the drummer’s paradiddles and rebounds. By the finale, Robbins reed bites and stuttering curves intertwine in stop-time motion with the trumpeter’s elevated triplets.

Balanced on spiccato strums from Levin and Davis’ ruffs, other improvisations contrast the horn men’s approaches. Wooley masterfully uses staccato whinnies, whistles and rippling grace notes to challenge or complement the saxman’s constant note-stretching solos that are firmly in the Sonny (Rollins and Stitt) tradition.

“Improvisation 3” is the most characteristic tune with horn lines stacked and cello asides stretched angularly for distinctive disparity. Before Levin’s thick bowing helps direct the final variant into an almost harmonized and somewhat legato section, Wooley’s aggressive braying has cut across Robbins’ splattered glissandi, leading to a pleasurable finale of uncorked pressure.

With each quartet member a bandleader in his own right, this ensemble may not reconvene that frequently. But this live session proves the band doesn’t have to be unnamed for much longer.

Tracks: Improvisation 1; Improvisation 1; Improvisation 2; Improvisation 3; Improvisation 4; Improvisation 5

Personnel: Nate Wooley: trumpet; Pete Robbins: alto saxophone; Daniel Levin: cello; Jeff Davis: drums

--For New York City Jazz Record January 2012

January 5, 2012

Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures

Both/And
Meta Records META 013

After spending nearly four decades investigating the rhythmic and sonic inter-relations among sounds from different cultures, New York percussionist Adam Rudolph has moved past creating so-called World music. His aim, mostly realized with this CD and in live performances by his ensembles, is something more profound: individual music, which doesn’t distort the foundation sounds on which it’s based.

This may appear easier to do than it is. Most so-called World music presented to Westerners is an electrified variant, closely allied to Rock and Pop, with only the vocals left in native languages. Thankfully avoiding vocals, the Chicago-born drummer, composer and arranger instead studs his pieces with ethnic sounds which organically relate to one another. On top of this, brief solos with Jazz and improvised music backing are interleaved among other musical layers. Refining his vision, Rudolph adapts the idiosyncratic rhythms and time-signatures of South Asian, Middle-Eastern and African musics in this suite. Yet such is the unity of his vision – not to mention his arranging skills – that nowhere on Both/And does it appear as if any intonation or beat is shoehorned into another.

With most of the musicians, except for the string players, trying their hands as percussionists alongside the panoply of beats from different percussion sources manipulated by Rudolph, Brahim Fribgane and Matt Kilmer, most of the 10 tracks pulsate to unrelenting rhythm. Percussion ostinatos and backbeats are omnipresent, with the tunes’ themes including everything from backwoods harmonica-like moans from Joseph Bowie’s trombone to flutter-tongued cornet work from Graham Haynes, plus primitivist, decidedly non-Bluegrass banjo clanks from Kenny Wessel. Furthermore the exotic string instruments in use during a few of the pieces quiver with metallic-sounding oscillations that elsewhere would come from electronic programming. At one juncture, a Jerome Harris’ bass guitar intro seems to replicate the bass pattern from Weather Report’s “Birdland”; while another piece, alive with shifting cross patterns suggests what would have happened had Miles Davis and Tito Puente pooled resources.

Since Rudolph is someone whose associates have included such major reed stylists as Pharoah Sanders, Sam Rivers and especially Yusef Lateef – who is saluted by name in the title of one tune – it’s not surprising that many of the tunes are arranged to feature the talents of reedist Ralph M. Jones, who has played with Rudolph since 1974. Throughout, the gentling intonation of Jones’s flute is used as counterpoint to the thicket of percussion, though Jones distinguishes himself on his other horns as well. The chalumeau rumble from his bass clarinet is used to good effect on “Dance Drama Part 2”, where its timbres are contrasted with guitar chording and string-section squeaks. And the reedist brings a taut and febrile texture to “Dance Drama Part 4”, which further emphasizes pedal-point djembe beats as well as some Rock-guitar-like flanges from the plectrumists plus broken-octave upturned grace notes from the two-man brass section.

Overall, Both/And proves that a mixture of distinct musical sources can create a memorable program. It can, that is, just as long as the compositions and arrangements are imaginative and skilled polymath players are involved: In other words a Rudolph-led ensemble.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Return of the Magnificent Spirits 2. Love’s Light 3. Tree Line (Call) 4. Blues in Orbit 5. Dance Drama Part 3 6. Dance Drama Part 2 7. Interiors (for Yusef) 8. Dance Drama Part 4 9. Tree Line (Response) 10. Both/And

Personnel: Graham Haynes (cornet, flugelhorn, bamboo trumpet and percussion); Joseph Bowie (trombone, organic/electronics, vocal, harmonica, congas, bamboo trumpet and percussion); Ralph M. Jones (hulusi, bass clarinet, alto and c Germanic flutes, soprano and tenor saxophones, bamboo trumpet and bamboo flutes); Kenny Wessel (electric and acoustic guitars and banjo); Brahim Fribgane (oud, cajon, bendir, tarija and percussion); Jerome Harris (acoustic bass guitar, slide guitar and vocal); Matt Kilmer (frame drums, kanjira, bata [okonkolo] and percussion); Adam Rudolph (hand drum set [kongos, djembe, tarija, zabumba] thumb piano, bata [itotele], mouth bow and percussion) plus Organic Orchestra Strings: Sarah Bernstein, Charles Burnham, Trina Basu Mark Chung, Elektra Kurtis, Skye Steele and Midori Yamamoto (violins); Stephanie Griffin, Jason Hwang (violas) and Greg Heffernan, Daniel Levin (cellos)

November 25, 2011

Daniel Levin Quartet

Organic Modernism
Clean Feed CF 212 CD

Erik Friedlander

Fifty Miniatures for Improvising Quintet

Skipstone Records SR006

No longer an anomaly, the cello as part of an improvising ensemble is now as common as the presence of other so-called orchestral instruments in that context. Furthermore since modern cellists involved in Free Music are schooled in its unique history, rather than being doubling bassists, the breadth of the instrument’s colors, both pizzicato and arco, are more meaningfully adapted to these situations.

Two experienced American cello stylists demonstrate this freedom on these CDs. A variation of program music, Erik Friedlander’s session is inspired by the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The 50 miniatures gathered into seven separate tracks, reflect the 50 days or seven weeks the biblical Israelites wandered in the desert until they received the 10 Commandments. Although the cellist and his hand-picked combo – violinist Jennifer Choi, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Mike Sarin – all have experience working in Jewish music contexts, and the piece was created with support from The Contemporary Jewish Museum, the textures are hardly soldered to overtly Klezmer, Hebraic, Fralicher or liturgical themes. Considering too that each player has excessive experience with Rock, Jazz, notated and other musics limiting his or her musical expression would be self-defeating.

If Fifty Miniatures is a stylized suite, orchestrated to reflect differing moods, varying the textures through sonic washes as well as in-the-moment digressions, Organic Modernism encapsulates another chapter in the on-going tale of a simpatico working group. Together since 2002, with only two personnel changes, the latter of which took place four years ago, the low-key, chamber Jazz produced by this combo may make it the Modern Jazz Quartet of the 21st century – although it’s difficult to envision them sporting the MJQ’s matching tuxedos.

Almost a generation younger than Friedlander, the cellist’s band mates – trumpeter Nate Wooley, vibraphonist Matt Moran and bassist Peter Bitenc – are equally callow. Like the Friedlander crew though each is also a bandleader and collectively play Jazz, Rock and ethnic musics, and have worked with musicians ranging from drummer Paul Lytton to saxophonist Chris Speed.

With five compositions by Levin and the other seven group efforts, the CD’s emphasis is on the on storytelling and harmonizing extended techniques rather than eclecticism for its own sake. Considering the instrumentation as well, the overall sound is sometimes reminiscent of two ground-breaking 1950s chamber Jazz ensembles, vibist Red Norvo’s trio with bassist Charles Mingus and Chico Hamilton’s first quintet which matched Carson Smith’s bass with Fred Katz’s cello. This harmonic affiliation is perhaps best demonstrated on the Levin’s “Old School”, especially if venerable institution being celebrated is Third Stream chamber-improv. Commencing with a steaming bass line, the theme is first stated darkly but lyrically by the composer, then elaborated with cascading note showers from the vibes and hand-muted rubato brass notes. Linear and delicate these tasteful expressions mate conclusively with Levin’s angled string scratches. Eventually Moran’s motor quivers introduce a conclusive diminuendo, with the line fading as Bitenc’s strong pacing links its final notes to the exposition.

Overall though, the sparse arrangements of the Levin combo are tougher than those attempted by Hamilton’s or Norvo’s combos. That’s likely because of the dramatic asides available from Wooley’s brass instrument. “Active Imagination” for instance, concludes the set while leaving behind an aura reflecting the round-robin response of each quartet member. These include cylindrical vibe resonation mixes with stopped and scrubbed strings plus the friction created by the trumpeter’s curved air spits or inward breath gulps. With audacity, Wooley elsewhere lopes off the harmonized completion of Levin’s “Audacity”, after brightening the narrative with capillary squeaks and mutated cross tones from his mouthpiece. Leaving the bassist to preserve the rhythm, Moran’s vibes skim over the theme with multi-tonal clinks, while the cellist meditatively triple-stops. The composer obviously doesn’t protest these liberties taken. A similar display of rubato chromaticism from Wooley, plus ringing mallets on vibes and double bass pulsing is harmonized with Levin’s abrasive spiccato cadenzas in a piece entitled “My Kind of Poetry”.

A different sort of poetry is showcased on Fifty Miniatures for Improvising Quintet, which despite its celebration of Old Testament values is as in the modern moment as anything produced by the Levin Four. Paradoxically though, notwithstanding Friedlander’s desire to make original music, the sounds also hint at the traditional, especially during the seven melodies that make up the intermezzo that is track 2, and the inter-related miniatures of the same number that become track 6.

Commencing with an exposition that could be a Hebraic anthem, its quixotic qualities are quickly stripped away beneath dynamic piano chording and internal string-scrapes from Courvoisier plus Sarin’s heavy drum beats. Choi’s squeaky lines and a waterfall of keyboard stops and starts confirm the thematic dissonance. This becomes even more apparent as drum flams and string sluices provide a broken-chord contrast to the composer’s moderato plucking. As for track 6, it’s the pianist who introduces a mock-baroque interlude one-third of the way through, with this invention joined by Choi’s limning of the allegro, romantic theme. Nevertheless the massed string swells, plus Dunn’s vibrating bass line which start off the piece, soon concentrate with further sul ponticello glissandi and sul tasto rasps, and are extended with the drummer’s near march tempo and subsequent highly rhythmic kinetic piano lines.

Dissonance and legato textures play peek-a-boo through the seven brief lines which make up track 3. There are points though where the arrangement, which stack high-pitched stops and harmonies from the three stringed instruments, make the results seem like a chamber trio parody. Contrapuntally the converse of this melody’s (mock) tenderness rests with wood resonating strategies from the pianist that bring in the action, soundboard and capotes as much as the keys.

Throughout as well, even though ornamental, impressionistic and ever-so-vaguely Arabic colors make their way into the performance, Friedlander’s 50 miniatures are more noteworthy for their encouragement of dexterity and virtuosity than any attempt to shackle individual sounds to programming.

Whether the genesis was religious in Friedlander’s case or organic as in Levin’s, the substance of these sessions is that both are made up of exceptionally played absolute music. Either can be appreciated without looking at track titles or program notes.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Fifty: 01: 1. Stepping 2. Tangle 3. Like a Dream 4. Spider 5. A Settling Fog 6. The Fool 7. Solitary // 02: 8. War Cry 9. Harbinger 10. Retaliation 11. The Fool: Repose 12. Blink 13. Express 14. Soul Bird// 03: 15. Bad Pool 16. The Moon 17. Night Flower 18. Death Rattle 19. No Answers 20. Machine 21. Hunted // 04: 22. Molting 23. Swift 24. Flow 25. Spikes 26. Dainty 27. The Fool: Serious Matters 28. Undulation// 05: 29. Liquid 30. Headlong 31. Bone 32. Run Into Waves 33. Taking Hold 34. Show of Force 35. Fracture // 06. 36. Drought 37. Balance 38. On Point 39. Crossing 40. Stacks 41. Soft Steps 42. Tussle // 07. 43. Meditation 44. A Story Ends 45. Hazards 46. Acorn 47. Noir 48. Salon 49. Blackberry 50. Persist

Personnel: Fifty: Jennifer Choi (violin); Sylvie Courvoisier (piano); Erik Friedlander (cello); Trevor Dunn (bass) and Mike Sarin (percussion)

Track Listing: Organic: 1. Action Painting 2. Zero Gravity 3. My Kind of Poetry 4. Lattice 5. Kaleidoscope 6. Old School 7. Constellations 8. Furniture as Sculpture 9. Audacity 10. Expert Set 11. Wild Kingdom 12. Active Imagination

Personnel: Organic: Nate Wooley (trumpet); Matt Moran (vibraphone); Daniel Levin (cello) and Peter Bitenc (bass)

July 2, 2011

Daniel Levin Quartet

Bacalhau
Clean Freed CF 195 CD

Tim Daisy Vox Arcana

Aerial Age

Allos Documents 004

Jean-Marc Foltz

To The Moon

Ayler Records AYLCD-112

Kathryn Ladano

Open

No Label

Extended Play: Chamber Improvisations

By Ken Waxman

Derided in the past as effete or derivative, chamber-style improvising has fascinated musicians at least since the 1920s, both on the jazz (Benny Goodman, Red Norvo) and classical (George Gershwin, Ferde Grofé) sides. However, as this group of CDs demonstrates, with contemporary musicians conversant with both strains of sound, the transitional awkwardness of the past has been replaced by inspired flexibility

Take for instance, Jean-Marc Foltz’s To The Moon Ayler Records AYLCD-112 Although at first it seems as if the 10 sparkling miniatures performed by the French clarinetist and his American sidemen pianist Bill Carrothers and cellist Matt Turner, are high-gloss examples of composed music, careful investigation reveals just the opposite. All of these instant compositions were improvised by the trio in one studio session. Inspiration came partially from the tale that inspired Schönberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” plus the wintery moonlight of the studio setting. The result is atmospheric and elegiac in equal doses. Often showcased are the chalumeau textures of Foltz’s bass clarinet which soar and buzz as they contrapuntally meet up with doleful cello slides and strummed metronomic passages from the piano. As improvisers, the three expose a subversive post-modernity as well. “Crosses”, for instance begins with Carrothers recital-styled harmonies melding with vibrated slides from Turner. Yet while the broken octave-style theme is played by an unperturbed pianist, Foltz constantly interrupts with twittering atonal chirps from the highest regions of his clarinet. The pianist’s reflective thumps which shake his instrument’s capotes and speaking length perform a similar function on “Knitting Needles”. Elsewhere the cello’s quivering vibrations and low frequency organic patterning from the piano are often only there to sooth Foltz’s more intense flutter tonguing.

Comfortably probing this third stream is Vox Arcana Aerial Age Allos Documents 004, a similarly constituted trio with Tim Daisy’s percussion and marimba, clarinetist James Falzone and Fred Lonberg-Holm’s cello and electronics. Daisy’s eight compositions equally reference minimalism, the so-called New York school as well as the improvisation which permeates the music of the trio’s home town Chicago. Throughout, the instrumental tones often hocket and undulate in triple or double counterpoint. Perfectly illustrating this cohesion is “Falling”. After the tutti exposition splinters into episodes of reed-biting intensity, driven by the drummer’s pumps and rebounds, Lonberg-Holm lets loose. Doubled sul ponticello runs are extended almost infinitely without breaking the glissandi, and only gradually superseded by single-note reed twitters. Reverberating kettle-drum-like pops set up a final variant of plucked cello and melodic mid-range clarinet whistles. Another example of this skill occurs on “Chi Harp Call in E”. While no one could mistake Falzone’s coloratura trills or Daisy’s popping marimba rolls for the harmonica-led blues the tune salutes, the cellist’s scraping his strings into an agitated polyphonic mass easily equals timbres produced by blues guitarists. Still, the roiling marimba strokes and liquid clarinet asides link the melody to the ongoing European sound tradition.

Strings and percussion – with vibraphone played by Matt Moran – are also featured on cellist Daniel Levin Quartet’s Bacalhau Clean Freed CF 195 CD But Peter Bitenc’s bass is added and the horn is Nate Wooley’s trumpet. Paradoxically a full-time bassist makes this the most “jazzy” of these sessions. It also means that on a piece such as “Bronx #3”, when agitato bass lines combine with the trumpet’s sputtering triplets, the subsequent contrapuntal framing gives Levin a staccato forum to practically duet with himself. More impressive still is the epic “Soul Retrieval”, which evolves in several distinct sections. Initially a mid-tempo mix of brassy trumpet and mournful cello, a mid-section expansion of sul tasto bass work and downward string slides moves the trumpeter towards an interlude of tongue-stopping intensity. Chiming vibraphone pulses then collide with intense, discordant bowing from both string players, only to have the theme re-developed with broken-octave concordance by the end.

Not all this chamber improv comes from jazzers however, as bass clarinetist Kathryn Ladano demonstrates with Open. Classically trained and co-founder of the Kitchener-Waterloo Improvisers Collective, Ladano mixes solo and group pieces; notated music with improv. Her swelling glissandi, harsh flutter tonguing and aleatoric trills give her work a definite identity. While an episode of broken chord variants that matches her breathy echoes with ringing vibraphone tones is particularly noteworthy, elsewhere her repetitive trills, which confirm impressive reed control, are needed to modulate feverish interface from some of the other players. Overall, multiphonic inventions on composed material may be her strongest attribute.

Singly and together, the CDs confirm that persuasive improvisation can result without being fortissimo or frantic.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 16 #3

November 1, 2010

Nate Wooley

Throw Down Your Hammer and Sing
Porter PRCD-4022

Daniel Levin Quartet

Live at Roulette

Clean Feed CF 147 CD

One of the trumpeters who, over the past few years, have committed to lower-case improvisation, Brooklyn-based Nate Wooley has also subtly adapted his distinctive playing to different situations. As a matter of fact, listening to these noteworthy CDs, it may appear as if Wooley, who was born in the Pacific Northwest, has a separate Midwestern and East Cost persona.

That statement may be a bit louche however. That’s because the fragmented texture-gliding he exhibits with Chicagoans cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm – who may be the most-frequently recorded cellist in New music – and bassist Jason Roebke, who anchors a clutch of Windy City combos – is close to what the trumpeter brings to some New York groups. However as a charter member of cellist Daniel Levin’s quartet since 2001, he attentively tries to meld with the impressionistic and legato impulses from the cellist as Live at Roulette attests. The band is filled out by vibist Matt Moran, who also plays in drummer John Hollenbeck’s ensembles, and bassist Peter Bitenc.

On the other hand, jagged, discordant and slightly off-centre timbres on the five tracks on Throw Down Your Hammer and Sing aptly demonstrate how fungible textures from buzzed brass growls and portamento string slices can be. Although Roebke mostly sticks to pedal-point shuffles and rhythmic thumps, the resulting tones from his bull fiddle are the only ones that can’t be mistaken for others from the remaining improvisers’ instruments.

“Sans Aluminumius” for example, builds up from metallic, unattached ruffling and buzzing lines that are so opaque that only latterly do they partition into string scrubs and elongated air blowing. Precedents could come from New music, but very few of those designed compositions include what sounds like the string players abrasively rubbing their knuckles on their instruments’ exposed wood. Further, as string strategy sluices to tremolo runs and rubato slides and stops, Wooley brays unaltered air through his horn’s body tube. The finale finds the others still figuratively wrenching their instruments’ bodies apart as the trumpeter flutters an epistle of rubato grace notes

Sul ponicello and col legno string expositions figure into other tracks as do brass twists and tremolo pacing, but the contrapuntal results are usually kept from sounding too similar when Lonberg-Holm unleashes electronic-patched slide-whistle-like shrills and burbles.

On “Anywhere, Anyplace At All” – a spot-on description of an improviser’s life plan – the signal-processed whirligigs switch on-and-off in seconds, coloring the string players’ combined sul tasto rumbles and the trumpeter’s unvarying tongue positions. Eventually as the program jump from elevated to sonorous pitches and from andante to adagio, sandpaper-like bass string thumping and scrubbing plus dislocated chromatic note twists provide a polyphonic backing to the cellist’s strident scratches and spiccato runs.

“Saint Mary” on the other hand is more concerned with diverted clicks of the bow against strings and unprocessed air circulating through valves and tubing. Echoes and minute sweeps are reminiscent of some of Levin’s sonic strategies.

With distinct syntax, the 10 group-compositions on Live at Roulette are in the main, gentler, more legato and touching on mainstream elements from both jazz and so-called classical chamber ensembles. Sometimes the set up involves waves of chromatic brass tones and pitter-patter vibe resonation, backed by Bitenc’s pedal point and shaded by harmonies from the cellist.

Titled with the participants’ names, a few of the tracks could be designed as miniature musical portraits, but in band context. “Matt” for instance, may depend on repeated sustain pedal notes and continuous double-timed rhythm from Moran, but Levin and Wooley contribute as well. The cellist builds up from a buzzing murmur to sul ponticello runs while a similar initial silence on the trumpeter’s part is replaced by internal Bronx cheers.

Not to be outdone, the two tracks entitled “Nate/Daniel I” and “Nate/Daniel II” includes participation from the others. While “Nate/Daniel II” encompasses mutual inchoate dissonance made up of growls and squealing split tones from Wooley and rhythmic string thumps from Levin, “Nate/Daniel I” is more collegial

Levin’s faltering string patterns are given added strength from Bitenc’s sweetening thumps and plucks. These background colors could allow Wooley’s chromatic gestures to transform into a skewed version of “Summertime” – if he could rouse himself from languendo to do so. That promise remains unfulfilled, but the trumpeter’s understated tone splinters are given added poignancy by an additional sonic undercurrent from Moran’s vibe motor pulses.

Additionally each of these solo, duo or party-line conversions exhibit strategies that include building on enharmonic patterns to showcasing singular techniques. Moran’s bell-like ringing and chiming mallet work decorates or bonds certain tracks; while portamento string runs frequently shatter into col legno wood slaps or double bass walking. Buzzing and dislocating multiphonics come into play from the brass, string and rhythm instruments, but if partials are exhibited as well as the root notes, it’s always with modest understatement; never in-your-face.

Each of these CDs offers a double bonus. Not only can you chart the improvisational progress of Wooley, but you also get a glimpse into the compositional strategy of evolving Chicago and New York-centred musicians.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Throw: 1.Tacones Altos 2. Sans Aluminumius 3. Southern Ends Of The Earth 4. Saint Mary 5. Anywhere, Anyplace At All

Personnel: Throw: Nate Wooley (trumpet); Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello) and Jason Roebke (bass)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Conversation I 2. 2. Matt 3. Delicate 4. 4. Peter 5. Lightspeed Particles I 6. Nate/Daniel I 7. Conversation II 8. Scratchy 9. Lightspeed Particles II 10. Nate/Daniel II

Personnel: Live: Nate Wooley (trumpet); Daniel Levin (cello); Peter Bitenc (bass) and Matt Moran (vibraphone)

December 12, 2009

Daniel Levin Quartet

Live at Roulette
Clean Feed CF 147 CD

Nate Wooley

Throw Down Your Hammer and Sing

Porter PRCD-4022

One of the trumpeters who, over the past few years, have committed to lower-case improvisation, Brooklyn-based Nate Wooley has also subtly adapted his distinctive playing to different situations. As a matter of fact, listening to these noteworthy CDs, it may appear as if Wooley, who was born in the Pacific Northwest, has a separate Midwestern and East Cost persona.

That statement may be a bit louche however. That’s because the fragmented texture-gliding he exhibits with Chicagoans cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm – who may be the most-frequently recorded cellist in New music – and bassist Jason Roebke, who anchors a clutch of Windy City combos – is close to what the trumpeter brings to some New York groups. However as a charter member of cellist Daniel Levin’s quartet since 2001, he attentively tries to meld with the impressionistic and legato impulses from the cellist as Live at Roulette attests. The band is filled out by vibist Matt Moran, who also plays in drummer John Hollenbeck’s ensembles, and bassist Peter Bitenc.

On the other hand, jagged, discordant and slightly off-centre timbres on the five tracks on Throw Down Your Hammer and Sing aptly demonstrate how fungible textures from buzzed brass growls and portamento string slices can be. Although Roebke mostly sticks to pedal-point shuffles and rhythmic thumps, the resulting tones from his bull fiddle are the only ones that can’t be mistaken for others from the remaining improvisers’ instruments.

“Sans Aluminumius” for example, builds up from metallic, unattached ruffling and buzzing lines that are so opaque that only latterly do they partition into string scrubs and elongated air blowing. Precedents could come from New music, but very few of those designed compositions include what sounds like the string players abrasively rubbing their knuckles on their instruments’ exposed wood. Further, as string strategy sluices to tremolo runs and rubato slides and stops, Wooley brays unaltered air through his horn’s body tube. The finale finds the others still figuratively wrenching their instruments’ bodies apart as the trumpeter flutters an epistle of rubato grace notes

Sul ponicello and col legno string expositions figure into other tracks as do brass twists and tremolo pacing, but the contrapuntal results are usually kept from sounding too similar when Lonberg-Holm unleashes electronic-patched slide-whistle-like shrills and burbles.

On “Anywhere, Anyplace At All” – a spot-on description of an improviser’s life plan – the signal-processed whirligigs switch on-and-off in seconds, coloring the string players’ combined sul tasto rumbles and the trumpeter’s unvarying tongue positions. Eventually as the program jump from elevated to sonorous pitches and from andante to adagio, sandpaper-like bass string thumping and scrubbing plus dislocated chromatic note twists provide a polyphonic backing to the cellist’s strident scratches and spiccato runs.

“Saint Mary” on the other hand is more concerned with diverted clicks of the bow against strings and unprocessed air circulating through valves and tubing. Echoes and minute sweeps are reminiscent of some of Levin’s sonic strategies.

With distinct syntax, the 10 group-compositions on Live at Roulette are in the main, gentler, more legato and touching on mainstream elements from both jazz and so-called classical chamber ensembles. Sometimes the set up involves waves of chromatic brass tones and pitter-patter vibe resonation, backed by Bitenc’s pedal point and shaded by harmonies from the cellist.

Titled with the participants’ names, a few of the tracks could be designed as miniature musical portraits, but in band context. “Matt” for instance, may depend on repeated sustain pedal notes and continuous double-timed rhythm from Moran, but Levin and Wooley contribute as well. The cellist builds up from a buzzing murmur to sul ponticello runs while a similar initial silence on the trumpeter’s part is replaced by internal Bronx cheers.

Not to be outdone, the two tracks entitled “Nate/Daniel I” and “Nate/Daniel II” includes participation from the others. While “Nate/Daniel II” encompasses mutual inchoate dissonance made up of growls and squealing split tones from Wooley and rhythmic string thumps from Levin, “Nate/Daniel I” is more collegial

Levin’s faltering string patterns are given added strength from Bitenc’s sweetening thumps and plucks. These background colors could allow Wooley’s chromatic gestures to transform into a skewed version of “Summertime” – if he could rouse himself from languendo to do so. That promise remains unfulfilled, but the trumpeter’s understated tone splinters are given added poignancy by an additional sonic undercurrent from Moran’s vibe motor pulses.

Additionally each of these solo, duo or party-line conversions exhibit strategies that include building on enharmonic patterns to showcasing singular techniques. Moran’s bell-like ringing and chiming mallet work decorates or bonds certain tracks; while portamento string runs frequently shatter into col legno wood slaps or double bass walking. Buzzing and dislocating multiphonics come into play from the brass, string and rhythm instruments, but if partials are exhibited as well as the root notes, it’s always with modest understatement; never in-your-face.

Each of these CDs offers a double bonus. Not only can you chart the improvisational progress of Wooley, but you also get a glimpse into the compositional strategy of evolving Chicago and New York-centred musicians.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Throw: 1.Tacones Altos 2. Sans Aluminumius 3. Southern Ends Of The Earth 4. Saint Mary 5. Anywhere, Anyplace At All

Personnel: Throw: Nate Wooley (trumpet); Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello) and Jason Roebke (bass)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Conversation I 2. 2. Matt 3. Delicate 4. 4. Peter 5. Lightspeed Particles I 6. Nate/Daniel I 7. Conversation II 8. Scratchy 9. Lightspeed Particles II 10. Nate/Daniel II

Personnel: Live: Nate Wooley (trumpet); Daniel Levin (cello); Peter Bitenc (bass) and Matt Moran (vibraphone)

December 12, 2009

Daniel Levin Quartet

Blurry
hatOLOGY 653

Drummer-less chamber-improv without compromise, this CD is more lucid than Blurry. Cellist Daniel Levin, trumpeter Nate Wooley, vibraphonist Matt Moran and bassist Joe Morris clearly and resourcefully demonstrate how extended techniques can be interlaced with shaded pointillism to create a satisfying group effort.

Throughout the cellist’s multi-toned arches and spiccato interjects plus the trumpeter’s smeary growls and plunger excavations are as germane for the evolution of the eight tracks as the bassist’s stolid thumps and the vibist’s shimmering key bounces. Encompassing smooth transitions from one instrument’s contributions to another’s, these mostly Levin-composed lines, feature uncommon exchanges involving say a splintered chromatic aside from Wooley, supported by fundamental connective plucks from Morris. Frequently polyphonic, the tunes are melded and molded using note clusters that move them through quasi-romanticism, stark improvisation and luminescent vibrations.

If Wooley’s muted purring plunger work and Levin’s pizzicato rhythms suggest Cootie Williams and Jimmy Blanton when “Sad Song” begins, then tonal dislocations attain English garden delicacy rather than Ellington’s robust depictions by the finale. Yet Morris’ striated double-stopping halts the slide to gentleness. Crackling brass flanges perform the same function on “Cannery Row” balancing too lustrous reverberations from the vibraphone.

Most distinctive is “209 Willard Street”, a gently shaded piece that could be defined as impressionism with prickly asides. Moderato and andante, the theme is depicted by the cello’s sonorous tones, yet the rubato exposition is cycled through enough excursions in double counterpoint from muted trumpet and staccato vibe smacks that sentimentality is leeched from it.

-- Ken Waxman

-- In MusicWorks Issue #102

November 20, 2008

Joe Giardullo Open Ensemble

Red Morocco
Rogue Art ROG-0012

Highly orchestrated, multi-faceted and engrossing, Red Morocco is a breakthrough large-form suite composed by veteran reed player Joe Giardullo. It rationally illustrates how his notated ideas can be interpreted by a group of 14 American and Canadian improvisers.

Largely self-taught as a composer and instrumentalist, Giardullo’s interest in musical creation was fed by an appreciation for Stockhausen, Berio and Indian music, study of George Russell’s Lydian Theory of Tonal Organization; plus playing situations with Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, Lester Lanin (!) Peg Leg Bates (!!) Pauline Oliveros and others. It reaches inventive fruition with this 10-part creation.

Evidently skewed towards New music at first, by the end of the final, and incidentally, title track, the contributions of notable improvisers mean that those tilts towards formalism are surmounted. How else could it be, with sonic interjections from the likes of Joe McPhee on trumpet and trombone, cellist Daniel Levin, violinist David Prentice and Giardullo himself on sopranino saxophone, alto flute and bass clarinet? At the same time there’s no confusing the program with doctrinaire modern jazz, experimental or otherwise. Not only are there microtonal and/or legato undulation from the three fiddlers and two cellists, but the rhythm section lacks a double bassist and a traps drummer. Percussion is the province of Brian Melick using almost any instrument that can be whacked, scraped, scratched, ratcheted and shaken; plus the chiming resonation of David Arner’s xylophone.

Should a variant such as “Q-2G (e)” begin with near-rococo styling from massed strings, pitter-pattering xylophone keys, and curvaceous hide-and-seek saxophone and clarinet lines, then the track’s completion refers to a contrapuntal arrangement advanced on “OPD”, two tracks earlier. On the former, a perfect balance is realized between double and triple pizzicato string stopping and the crunch of reverb and distortion feedback from the dual guitars of Dom Minasi and Rich Rosenthal. Yet negating the rules of standard jazz-rock fusion, the guitar licks aren’t framed in an unvarying drum beat, but by the percussionists’ buzzing timbres, glockenspiel chiming, maracas shaking, plus brass slurs and hocketing from McPhee and trumpeter Gordon Allen.

Elsewhere muted trumpeting is cushioned in overtone layering from massed strings and horns, only to be interrupted by staccato discord from one violinist – plus a contrapuntal counter-line from McPhee’s trombone. Other places the two trumpets circle one another in different guises – one playing smooth connective grace notes and the other triplets in broken octaves – until they link and complement one another. Then there are spots where the two reedists divide their interaction between irregular vibratos, split tones and staccatissico tongue slaps, with this unfolding on top of wooden marimba-like pressures and whining string striations.

Red Morocco, the CD and “Red Morocco”, the composition concludes with xylophone and cello chipping tones at one another, following a moderato trumpet and reeds variation and two intermezzos: one for gentling violin and xylophone, and the other for tough sul tasto cello runs and squeaky violin double stopping.

Confirmation of Giardullo’s compositional skills, the CD is a memorable listening experience.

-- Ken Waxman

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Track Listing: 1. OPB 2. OPG 3. 2T(m) 4. Memory Root 5. OPD 6. NFRTT-1 7. Q-2G(e) 8. Calabar 9. Hikori 10. Red Morocco.

Personnel: Gordon Allen (trumpet); Joe McPhee (pocket trumpet and valve trombone); Joe Giardullo (bass clarinet, sopranino saxophone and alto flute); Lori Freedman (clarinet and bass clarinet); Rosie Hertlein, David Prentice and Michael Snow (violins); Daniel Levin and Martha Colby (celli); Steve Lantner (piano); Dom Minasi and Rich Rosenthal (guitars); David Arner (xylophone) and Brian Melick (percussion)

August 5, 2008

Daniel Levin Quartet

Some Trees
Hatology 632

Near flawless chamber jazz, cellist Daniel Levin’s quartet inhabits eight unforced improvisations without ever turning effete or enervated.

Inspired soloing from all concerned – especially the leader, and trumpeter Nate Wooley – provides some of the session’s impetus, while the remainder comes from the powerful rhythmic thrust of Joe Morris’ bass and Matt Moran’s vibes. Morris – a dual threat, best-known as a guitarist – provides the ostinato underpinning for many tunes; while Moran, a member of the Claudia Quintet, sounds quivering key vibrations as often as accompanying wallops, especially when playing in unison with Morris.

Levin, who also works with drummer Whit Dickey and alto saxophonist Rob Brown, uses this session to showcase his compositions plus pay homage to such jazz elders as Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman and Steve Lacy. Throughout, the delicate balance between formalism and freedom is maintained, without falling definitely either way. New to this band is trumpeter Nate Wooley. But the innovative brassman, who partners trombonist Steve Swell among others, brings memorable flair to the proceedings.

Establishing his presence from the first, Wooley’s slurred half-valve work on the lead-off track “It’s For You”, marks his accommodation to the already existing combo with less experimental playing than his solo sessions. Throughout, however, he easily links Levin’s sawing strokes and Moran’s moderato quivers, while on the atmospheric title tune he adopts sequenced grace notes à la mid-period Miles Davis. Often his chromatic obbligatos are matched in double counterpoint by splayed shuffle bowing from the cellist that’s both lyrical and legato.

Careful linear vibe reverberation adds another facet to the interplay as Moran’s pitter-pattering joins the others in polyphonic expression on Lacy’s “Wickets”. With Morris stroking traffic-directing pulses on the bottom, the brass man and the cellist extend themselves still further. Wooley narrows his exhalation to squeal narrowed timbres and Levin amplifies this outpouring with spiccato patterns. Metaphorically adapt, he skims his strings from sul ponticello to sul tasto tones.

Memorably impressive throughout, the only time Some Trees loses a bit of momentum is when Moran lays out on Coleman’s “Morning Song”, the final tune. Interlocking musical alliances which have worked so well until then suddenly reveal a deficiency with one voice subtracted.

Other than that minor caveat, the CD satisfies on all counts.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. It’s For You 2. Out To Lunch 3. Some Trees 4. Sitting On His Hands 5. Zolowski 6. Wild Palms 7. Wickets 8. Morning Song

Personnel: Nate Wooley (trumpet); Matt Moran (vibes [except 8]); Daniel Levin (cello); Joe Morris (bass)

October 17, 2006

YVES ROBERT

In Touch
ECM 1787

DANIEL LEVIN QUARTET
Don’t Go It Alone
RITI CD009

Brass, percussion and cello are the points of symmetry between these sets of modern, improvised chamber music. Atmospheric IN TOUCH, helmed by veteran French trombonist Yves Robert, features his longtime associate cellist Vincent Courtois as well as drummer Cyril Atef. DON’T GO IT ALONE is an appropriate title for the debut release by young American cellist Daniel Levin, whose brass input comes from cornetist Dave Ballou. Vibraphonist Mat Moran adds subtle percussion, and the session is anchored by Joe Morris, who proves that his convincing guitar techniques can be transmitted to double bass playing.

Replete with suggestive titles, IN TOUCH seems ever so French with Robert’s trio liming what could be the soundtrack for a seduction or perhaps coitus. Not that anything as crude or sweaty as the later is suggested by the disc. Impeccably recorded and abstruse, it’s also in the French tradition of similar recorded exercises in so-called imaginary folklore organized by tubaist Michel Godard -- featuring Courtois -- or clarinetist Louis Sclavis -- with both Courtois and Robert. Vichy native Robert has a solid jazz grounding as well, with stints in Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath and the first edition of the Orchestre National de Jazz.

While many would associate an expression of the commodification of desire with New Orleans bordellos, the three only approximate Dixieland excitement on “L’air d’y toucher”. Atef, who divides his time between work with the trombonist and French funksters Bum Cello, would never be mistaken for George Wettling or Robert for Jack Teagarden. However, the former’s shuffle beat and the latter’s wheezing plunger trombone jabs are approximated in the sound, filtered through the mindset of modern, trained Europeans, that is. Cowbell whacking and tambourine shaking even appears at one point, although Courtois’ cello fantasia is about as far from slap bass as you can imagine. Still the polyrhythmic movement that encompasses consistent string slides and ‘bone yelps recalls that New Orleans had a French history, but one that was truncated. At least it never reached the modernity of the piece’s ending that exhibits pure air being forced through the horn.

By contrast, the other jazz musician’s work which the CD echoes is that of arranger Gil Evans, especially with Robert’s solo showcase on “Let’s lay down” [sic]. With its irregular Afro-Cuban style percussion, suggestion of a ghostly string section from Courtois and tempo-changing, muted ‘bone fantasia, you’re reminded of how Evans framed Jimmy Knepper on OUT OF THE COOL.

Elsewhere, Robert is very much his own man, purring where Knepper and other Americans would have been braying. This is especially apparent on pieces like “Basculement du désir” and “La tendresse”. On the former the trombonist’s command of pedal point makes it sees like his tones are arising at far away on the horizon and gradually coming into focus. Pizzicato, Courtois’ cello reconstitutes itself into an acoustic guitar, speeding up the tempo as Robert majestically maintains his line and Atef accompanies with obtuse cymbal and maracas resonation.

On the later, and very much longest, track, the cellist and trombonist take turns caressing the vaporous theme, while the other plays a counterline. Exceptionally quiet, but doing his job with offbeat and rumbles, plus the hitting of sticks against one another, the drummer gives the others plenty of space to indulge in twisting tones. That involves a muted buzz from the brassman and multi-string, arco double-stopping expanding into power thrusts on all strings simultaneously from the cellist.

More boisterous and more abstract as the CD revolves, DON’T GO IT ALONE also could have an antecedent: trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s RASTAFARI session from 1983, with his axe framed by violin, cello or bass and vibes as well as light reed playing. Vibes in a chamber-like setting also bring forth echoes of the Modern Jazz Quartet and Red Norvo’s trios. However some of the lines probably reflect Moran’s background with the New music/improv Claudia Quintet and playing ethic percussion with The Slavic Soul Party.

This reaches a climax on “Bronx No. 2”, the final composition, which highlights polyrhythms going every which way. Over a steady walking pulse form Morris, Levin’s cello lines speedily twist and sprawl, Moran makes leprechaun leaps onto his metallic bars and Ballou produces half-valve, weeping horn flourishes that are strangely legato compared to the full body English the string players are putting into the performance. Eventually the brassman opens up with a heart-felt growl.

Ballou, who has been aptly represented as a mainstreamer on CD, and who produces hushed, Joe Wilder-like peeps at times here, mostly plays more freely than usual. But then again his non-recorded gigs include some with violist Mat Maneri’s quintet and hyperpianist Denman Maroney’s group. He can also morph from one roll to another, as he demonstrates on “Interlude”, where his romantic, but sour-sounding cornet tone faces low-pitched, almost marimba-like slides from Moran and portamento cello loops.

Classically-trained since he was six, Levin has his technique down pat, yet in his compositions and playing is also able to innovate, occasionally plucking the cello guitar-like, as Courtois did on Robert’s CD. Someone who has also performed with Morris associates such as alto saxist Rob Brown and Maneri, the cellist doesn’t play second fiddle to anyone here. There is a time on “Underground”, though, that his sharp, sprayed arco slides and long lined repetitions almost make it sound like he’s playing a fiddle at a hoe-down. But this fits well with the cornetist’s scowling rubato grace notes and Moran’s ringing vibe attack.

What defines the session in toto though, is the tension that exists between the chamber music poses and the jazz/improv impulses. The first work when, say, the vibe motor is slowed down so the peal of the bars melds appropriately with the bass liming of an atmospheric theme, or when shaded cello lines meet plunger expressions and flutter- tongued murmurs from the cornet. But the second is just as prominent on a piece like “In Parts”. Here whizzing, stroking, pizzicato lines from the cello are seconded by a double- stopping bowed triumphant bass line, while speed demon, elemental vibe excursions make time with plunger brass work, modernizing the barnyard sounds that go back to the Original Dixieland Band and the origins of so-called Classic Jazz.

Don’t be frightened by the chamber trappings of these sessions. With dead-on technique and historical allusions, both bands can produce unfettered ferment without raising their collective voices.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Touch: 1. In touch 2. Let’s lay down 3. La tendresse 4. In touch (var. 1) 5. L’air d’y toucher 6. Basculement du désir 7. L’attente reste 8. In touch (var. 2)

Personnel: Touch: Yves Robert (trombone);Vincent Courtois (cello); Cyril Atef (drums)

Track Listing: Don’t: 1. Unfortunate Situation 2. Underground 3. 17th Street 4. In Parts 5. Interlude 6. Non-sense 7. Sad Song 8. Nervous 9. Fleeting 10. Bronx No. 2

Personnel: Don’t: Dave Ballou (cornet); Daniel Levin (cello); Joe Morris (bass); Matt Moran (vibraphone)

December 29, 2003