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Reviews that mention Harris Eisenstadt

Harris Eisenstdat

Guewel
Clean Feed CF 123 CD

RIDD Quartet

Fiction Avalanche

Clean Feed CF 121 CD

Andy Milne-Benoît Delbecq

Where is Pannonica?

Songlines SGL SA-1579-2

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Live in New York

Greenleaf Paperback Series Vol 4

EXTENDED PLAY: Canadians at Home and Aboard

By Ken Waxman

Ancient but apt, the saying “you can take a boy out of the country, but can’t take the country out of the boy” is more accurate if the country is Canada and the “boys” are male and female musicians in the United States. No matter how busy they are, improvisers are always ready to play north of the border. Last month, for instance, Toronto-born, Brooklyn-based drummer Harris Eisenstadt played two Toronto shows in one day before continuing an American tour.

Being Canadian doesn’t mean cutting yourself from other interests as Eisenstadt demonstrates on Guewel (Clean Feed CF 123 CD. Named for the Wolof word for griots, the band – cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, trumpeter Nate Wooley, French hornist Mark Taylor and baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton – plays the drummer’s arrangements of West African pop music and ceremonial rhythms which he learned overseas. The tunes contain elements of southern dance tracks and brass band marches. Each horn man has the melodic smarts to meld with Eisenstadt’s multi-faceted drumming, producing catchy yet non-simplistic tunes. With his hunting horn sonorities, innate lyricism and pumping vamps, Taylor is a standout. The sympathetic arrangements stack horn parts atop one another in such a way that every solo becomes almost three-dimensional. Should a tune like Rice and Fish/Liti Liti begins mellow and impressionistic, then a drum beat signals a timbral shift with Taylor’s jujitsu tongue-fluttering matched with near Mariachi-styling from the other brass players. N’daga/Coonu Aduna transcends its marching band flavor as Sinton riffs harshly, accelerating to whoops and brays, while the meandering brass trill rococo detailing around him and Eisenstadt clatters, pops and ruffs.

Another notable reedist is Canadian turned Brooklynite Quinsin Nachoff, featured on bassist Michael Bates’ Outside Sources Live in New York (Greenleaf Paperback Series Vol 4 Another Brooklyn-Canadian, Bates studied double bass at Banff Centre for the Arts and the University of Toronto. Other players are trumpeter Russ Johnson and drummer Jeff Davis. Playing all Bates compositions, the band is straight-ahead enough to maintain a swinging pulse, yet imaginative enough to give everyone free range for creative expression. Nachoff for example, punctuates one tune with gradually accelerating glissandi; Johnson another with high-pitched triplet tonguing. A bravura performance on Damasa finds everyone discovering theme variants. Johnson offers tremolo vibrations; Nachoff snuffled and exhaled split tones; Bates chiming runs and Davis opposite sticking plus blunt backbeats.

Davis is also part of the RIDD Quartet on Fiction Avalanche (Clean Feed CF 121 CD with CanCon provided by his spouse Kris Davis, who studied at the U. of T, and the Banff Centre. Outstanding on 10 group compositions, solos are weighed among Davis’ sensitive drumming, sweeping colors from distaff Davis, Reuben Radding’s tough, but restrained bass, and the kinetic runs of saxophonist Jon Irabagon. On Fiction Avalanche, the pianist percussively chords a counter melody that extends rasping bass slides and flattened reed vibrations. Monkey Catcher is a screaming blues expanded by Irabagon’s fortissimo split tones, yet tamed by Davis’ chord progression, key-clipping and flailing. Sky Circles is both atmospheric and lyrical. In unison the saxophonist’s buzzy trills and the pianist’s comping outline the theme. Segmented by winnowing squeals from Irabagon, the pianist moors the improvisation while advancing the theme chromatically.

Double the number of pianos appears on Where is Pannonica? (Songlines SGL SA- two1579-2 It was recorded at the Banff Centre by Paris-based Benoît Delbecq who also participates in Vancouver’s Creative Music workshop, and Torontonian Andy Milne, who studied at York and Banff before heading south. Delbecq admits that he couldn’t always distinguish his touch from Milne’s during the playback, but the usual division of labor finds him manipulating inside strings and using electronic loops, while Milne’s stays the acoustic course. Bouncing off each other’s ideas, the impression the two give is of subtle invention. Still each can surprise with the use of spiky patterns and percussive note clusters. Dividing the composing chores as well, the molded and layered tunes are paced so that when they unwind the polytonal qualities available from the soundboard and other innards decorate the keyboard’s strums and resonations. Probably the best number is Milne’s two-part Water’s Edge. Demonstrating quick-moving, overlapping tremolo lines, the piece modulates from andante to allegro and is harmonized by default. Spacious with cascading portamento, sharpened key jabs glance off bell-pealing-like string plunks.

Fine efforts all, these CDs preview what you’ll hear next time one of these expatriates gigs in Toronto.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #3

November 2, 2009

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Live in New York
Greenleaf Paperback Series Vol 4

Andy Milne-Benoît Delbecq

Where is Pannonica?

Songlines SGL SA-1579-2

Harris Eisenstdat

Guewel

Clean Feed CF 123 CD

RIDD Quartet

Fiction Avalanche

Clean Feed CF 121 CD

EXTENDED PLAY: Canadians at Home and Aboard

By Ken Waxman

Fine efforts all, these CDs preview what you’ll hear next time one of these expatriates gigs in Toronto.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #3

November 2, 2009

Andy Milne-Benoît Delbecq

Where is Pannonica?
Songlines SGL SA-1579-2

Harris Eisenstdat

Guewel

Clean Feed CF 123 CD

RIDD Quartet

Fiction Avalanche

Clean Feed CF 121 CD

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Live in New York

Greenleaf Paperback Series Vol 4

EXTENDED PLAY: Canadians at Home and Aboard

By Ken Waxman

Fine efforts all, these CDs preview what you’ll hear next time one of these expatriates gigs in Toronto.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #3

November 2, 2009

RIDD Quartet

Fiction Avalanche
Clean Feed CF 121 CD

Harris Eisenstdat

Guewel

Clean Feed CF 123 CD

Andy Milne-Benoît Delbecq

Where is Pannonica?

Songlines SGL SA-1579-2

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Live in New York

Greenleaf Paperback Series Vol 4

EXTENDED PLAY: Canadians at Home and Aboard

By Ken Waxman

Fine efforts all, these CDs preview what you’ll hear next time one of these expatriates gigs in Toronto.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #3

November 2, 2009

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Clockwise
Greenleaf Music 09

Jeb Bishop/Harris Eisenstadt/Jason Roebke

Tiebreaker

Not Two MW 789-2

Francois Carrier/Michel Lambert/ Jean-Jacques Avenel

Within

Leo CD LR 512

John Heward-Joe McPhee

Voices: 10 Improvisations

Mode Avant 05

Expatriates or homebodies, Canadian improvisers interact with many first-class players from and in any country. The results can be imposing, even if there’s nothing intrinsically Canuck about the music.

Take the Jeb Bishop/Harris Eisenstadt/Jason Roebke CD, Tiebreaker, Not Two MW 789-2. The crowd at this Krakow, Poland date probably thought they were applauding three Americans. Yet while astute trombonist Bishop and solid bassist Roebke are both Chicago-based, versatile drummer Eisenstadt is a Toronto native now in New York.

Bishop’s gutsy slurs and growls lock in place so completely with Roebke’s steady walking and Eisenstadt’s rumbling, funky beats that other instruments aren’t missed. While some tracks may be snappier, the key performance is the almost-39-minute medley that seamlessly links two of the trombonist’s compositions, one by the drummer and another by the bassist.

As the tunes flow into one another, Bishop’s buzzing grace notes elongate into brays, strengthened by Eisenstadt’s drags and rim shots. Moving to “Double Dog”, the second tune, brass chromaticism turns to horn whistles and squeaks, until the drummer’s cymbal embellishments signal the shift into his own “How Are You Dear”. Bishop’s lip burbles personalize the tender line, while adding vocalized tessitura. The bassist’s “Northstar” brings out trombone snorts and tongue gymnastics, answered with fidgety arco sweeps and timed drum strokes. The four compositions fit together as effectively as the players improvise together.

Another essay in co-operation is Clockwise Greenleaf Music 09 by Michael Bates’ Outside Sources, a long-standing quartet. Like Eisenstadt, bassist Bates and tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Quinsin Nachoff are ex-Torontonians now Brooklynites. Americans, trumpeter Russ Johnson and drummer Jeff Davis, join them to create notable sounds.

Steadfastly tonal, the bassist’s nine compositions flit among polyrhythms, waltz time, odd bar lengths and multi-part counterpoint to tell stories ranging from emotional balladry to rhythm dissertations. Bates’ admiration for composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich is expressed most profoundly on “The Russian School”, a nocturne with its drama and passion channeled through Nachoff’s saxophone. As the saxophonist’s guttural lines augment in pitch and strength, they transform into coarse, excited cries, as trumpeter Johnson’s muted harmonies add placid coloration. Balanced on top of the bassist’s fierce string-thumping, the tune darken, deepen and is resolved with a steadying confluence of measured sul tasto sweeps from Bates and flutter tonguing from Nachoff.

Nachoff confirms his clarinet credentials on “Fellini” and “Lighthouskeeping”. Stop-time, the later tune allows him to vibrate the pitch-sliding theme contrasted with parallel staccato trumpet, bass and drum intonation. Before the piece concludes diminuendo, both horns interlace with flowing flutter-tonguing. Like its namesake’s films, “Fellini” is buffo and sensuous, as waltz time advances slinky reed motions, ruffs and bounces from Davis and the trumpeter’s half-valve ornamentation. Eventually back-and-forth theme splintering resolves the tonal divide.

Featuring a similarly other-directed saxophonist and a solid bassist, but in trio form, Within Leo CD LR 512 provides a variation on this theme. Alto saxophonist Francois Carrier and his long-time associate, drummer Michel Lambert, are Montréalais, but bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel is French.

Like Tiebreaker, Within captures a first-time alliance that sounds as if the players have worked together for years. The three parts of the 60-minute improvisation, recorded at the Calgary Jazz Festival, depend on mind-melding between the guest and the long-time duo. Avenel’s spiccato thumps help stretch the thematic line to its furthest without shattering, whenever Carrier’s spetrofluctuation and reed-biting threaten to do so. In the tune’s mid-section however, the saxophonist’s slithery, human-sounding cries make common cause with each musician in turn. His contrapuntal interlude with Avenel features ground bass sweeps and col legno sawing used as connective tissue to bond with Carrier’s curt squeaks and flutter tonguing. A similar strategy is apparent on the Lambert-Carrier duets. The drummer’s opposite sticking and ratamacues subtly counter Carrier’s blustering pressure that metaphorically follows every note with an exclamation point. Expanding the time frame the drummer creates kalimba-like plinks and tam-tam resonations. His Asiatic echoes moderate Carrier’s strained Arabic textures so that the resulting timbres simultaneously resemble a gagku orchestra concertizing and Bird and Bags in a bop improvisation. In his duets with Carrier, Avenel’s tremolo plucking allows the saxophonist’s tensile reed-biting to downshift, creating a climatic section that is stately, harmonic and discreet.

Montreal-based visual artist John Heward organized a similar meeting with Poughkeepsie N.Y. multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee. Matching Heward’s drums and kalimba with McPhee’s pocket trumpet and soprano saxophone Voices: 10 Improvisations Mode Avant 05, aurally illuminates Heward’s skills and the extent of McPhee’s instrumental virtuosity. As comfortable in microtonal New music situations as screaming Free Jazz blowouts, except for some watery bluster from McPhee’s saxophone, Voices’ powerful improvisations angle more towards the later than the former.

McPhee’s tenor talents allow him to glide from harsh hocketing to portamento slurs in nanoseconds during “Improvisation 9”. When he reorients the line by blowing colored air through the instrument’s body tube, Heward’s response encompasses frame drum-like resonation and individualized strokes. Beginning the track with bugle-like emphasis in double counterpoint with Heward’s press rolls, the saxophonist’s glottal punctuation ceases by the climax. Completing the “Reveille” inference at the top, his final notes suggest “Taps”, with the drummer’s strokes appropriately martial.

Equally impressive on the trumpet, McPhee chromatically emphasizes various textures where appropriate. He brings an understated 1950s-Miles-vibe to “Improvisation 2” as his muted grace notes, coupled with Heward’s kalimba plucks, conjure up an African savannah as much as an American night club. Matched in broken-octave story-telling, Heward’s drum tops bangs and cymbal smacks complement McPhee near-static internal horn breaths and plunger squeaks.

These CDs don’t make the self-defeating case that Canadian improvisers are good enough to play with outsiders. Instead they confirm that this mixture of locals and others creates a common musical ground notable by any criteria.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #3

November 1, 2008

Jeb Bishop/Harris Eisenstadt/Jason Roebke

Tiebreaker
Not Two MW 789-2

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Clockwise

Greenleaf Music 09

Francois Carrier/Michel Lambert/ Jean-Jacques Avenel

Within

Leo CD LR 512

John Heward-Joe McPhee

Voices: 10 Improvisations

Mode Avant 05

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #3

November 1, 2008

Francois Carrier/Michel Lambert/ Jean-Jacques Avenel

Within
Leo CD LR 512

Jeb Bishop/Harris Eisenstadt/Jason Roebke

Tiebreaker

Not Two MW 789-2

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Clockwise

Greenleaf Music 09

John Heward-Joe McPhee

Voices: 10 Improvisations

Mode Avant 05

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #3

November 1, 2008

John Heward-Joe McPhee

Voices: 10 Improvisations
Mode Avant 05

Jeb Bishop/Harris Eisenstadt/Jason Roebke

Tiebreaker

Not Two MW 789-2

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Clockwise

Greenleaf Music 09

Francois Carrier/Michel Lambert/ Jean-Jacques Avenel

Within

Leo CD LR 512

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #3

November 1, 2008

The Diplomats

We Are Not Obstinate Islands
Clean Feed CF061

Utilizing only the tonal colors available from one trombone, one alto saxophone and one drum set, the Diplomats still create five varied and multi-hued improvisations.

Although the result may seem slightly thin without chordal instruments, the performances are imbued with enough polyphonic variety to overcome this. For comparison envision to-the-point, skeletal forms painted by Klee and Miro, not Van Gogh’s or Monet’s abundant detail. Brassy gutbucket slurs from trombonist Steve Swell, tart split tones from saxophonist Rob Brown plus drum and cymbal resonation from Harris Eisenstadt supply all the needed tinctures.

Manhattan-based veterans of their own combos and larger ensembles let by bassist William Parker, the hornmen often utilize intense vibrato and double tonguing to express hide-and-seek counterpoint, while Toronto-born Eisenstadt, who first collaborated with California improvisers and recently moved east, prods and pushes the others with woody rim shots, understated press rolls and bass drum pressure. At points the parameters are reduced even further when one or another player lays out for a time. Yet the pan-tonal sound field isn’t disrupted.

Acerbic and focused, the alto saxophonist’s piercing squeals mix with Swell’s braying textures and the drummer’s ruffs and flams to turn the concluding “Buoyed In Great Days” into a representative showcase. Stretching the tune’s fabric without tearing it, the resonating finale references both the initial note clusters and staccato variations on the theme. Throughout the CD, the trio provides ample aural coloration without excess.

-- Ken Waxman

For Whole Note Vol. 12 #2

October 3, 2006

IAN SMITH/SIMON H. FELL/HARRIS EISENSTADT

K3
Bruce’s Fingers BF 58

HARRIS EISENSTADT
Ahimsa Orchestra
Nine Winds NWCD0237

Having established himself with hard work as an in-demand percussionist and band leader in Los Angeles, Toronto-born Harris Eisenstadt is branching out. He’s traveling to the East Coast, Europe and Africa to match wits with his improvising contemporaries and writing more involved compositions for larger ensembles.

K3 is an example of the former, where he hooks up with British-born bassist Simon H. Fell, who now lives in France, and Dublin-born, London-based trumpeter Ian Smith. Conversely the Ahimsa Orchestra is a local project, featuring the percussionist, conductor Omid Zoufonoun and two differently constituted, 12-piece ensembles running through two of Eisenstadt’s compositions, the three-part “Non-Violence” and the four-section “Relief”. Kudos must go to the young drummer for attempting different projects. However, while he fits comfortably with Smith and Fell, his reach seems to have exceeded his grasp with the 67-minute CD by the band named with Mahatma Gandhi’s word for enemy-loving non-violence.

Throughout the parts are greater than their sum, since some of the West Coast’s most accomplished, outsides players – including trumpeters Dan Clucas and Kris Tiner, tubaist Mark Weaver, reedists Vinny Golia, Kyle Bruckmann and Sara Schoenbeck, guitarist Noah Phillips, and trapsmen Alex Cline and Eisenstadt himself

– get to show off their skills.

Unfortunately, the surrounding through-composed passages are non-connective and nearly threadbare. Orphan riffs are one thing, but when they resemble intermezzos and leitmotifs that can’t decide whether to be impressionistic or early 20th century classical, chutzpah takes the place of coherence.

Probably the best playing comes in the last section of the second suite when several countermelodies featuring Ellen Barr’s flute, Clucas’ muted trumpet and Bill Casale’s pulsating bass give way to an undulating stentorian tuba solo from Weaver that’s perfectly backed by bounces and flams from Eisenstadt. When the drummer turns to a more conventional rhythm, the trumpeter’s tremolo trills shine, suggesting that “Relief IV” may be a postlude rather than a proper climax.

Earlier in the same suite, driven by the rattles and rims shots from the understated percussion of the composer and Cline, massed orchestral harmonies give way to a squirming clarinet solo from Brain Walsh and a glottal lower register bassoon line from Schoenbeck that precede an conclusive crescendo. Splayed, cross-sawed textures from guitarist Phillips’ follow bell resonation from the percussionists, with both players rolling and rumbling through the penultimate thematic variation as sputtered split tones and pitch-sliding vibrations courtesy of Walsh and Golia produce diffuse harmonies. Still, despite Weaver’s obbligato and a horn crescendo, the overall impression is cold because the compositional glue holding the piece together seems to be lacking.

It’s the same story with “Non-Violence” despite some harmonic coloration created by a piccolo-trumpet tremor, valve twisting plunger work from trombonist Toyoji Tomita, reed squeaks and aviary twitters and sophisticated bass drum spots and reverberating cymbal parts from Eisenstadt. Here the connective material appears even more prettified than on the subsequent composition. Simultaneously though, there’s too little of it as well, often exposing the disconnected motifs among the yowling, rubato reed and brass timbres.

The situation was more balanced a year earlier at London’s Klinker club during the trio meeting. A memento of the drummer’s visit to the United Kingdom, Eisenstadt’s apparently more relaxed in the improvisational role on the four instant compositions here. Fell, who is has been a consummate combo player for years – as well as being an ambitious composer – is an asset in any circumstances, but the biggest surprise is Smith.

A far cry from his tentative work from three years previous when he recorded alongside some BritImprov veterans, his confident soloing in all registers of the horn easily allows him to hold up his part of the triangular equation. Perhaps consistent work with the London Improvisers Orchestra, consisting of some of the city’s most accomplished improvisers has toughened his chops.

No matter the cause, the spurts of resolute brass timbres with which he decorates his solo on the last three minutes of “Voiceless Velar Stop” are some of the most impressive trumpeting anywhere. Smith appends a few bent notes as a coda, having been hectored along by steady bowing from Fell and blunt ratamacues from Eisenstadt. Prior to that, the trumpeter moves from audacious mouthpiece tongue kisses to wah-wah buzzes plus clenched teeth slurs; he’s so in step with the drummer, that often a tone could be as much brass as percussion.

Imbued with the sprit of older British rhythm makers like Tony Oxley and Roger Turner, Eisenstadt sleekly works his way through his kit, matching heavy knocking on the rims with split-second whispering reverberation, and clanging chains on top of the heads as often as he attacks them full force. Someone who has studied with the griots in Africa, he brings darbuka and djembe hand-drum resonations to other sections, such as an extended work-out on the final track which contrasts nicely with Fell’s legato, Europeanized bowed notes.

Able to express spiccato vibrations with the same ease as walking, the bassist’s string organization encompasses buzzing sul tasto excursions and sections where he moves the tonal centre with polyrhythmic scratches and reverb. Strumming and sometimes nearly in slap bass territory, Fell is never at a loss as to how to rebound the pulse back and forth to the others. Plus the trumpeter is there to let loose with anything including sonorous pedal tones, purring valve whistling, fowl-like quacks, speedy brass bites and plunger whines.

Maybe one day Eisenstadt can translate his impressive performing and compositional talent from small combos to larger ones. Perhaps working with a more compact group would have benefited his conception for the AHIMSA ORCHESTRA. As it stands now though, K3 is a keeper, with the other CD of most interest to those who want to preserve every marker in the drummer’s accelerating career.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: K3: 1. Potassium 2. 1024 Words 3. Voiceless Velar Stop 4. The Unit Vector Along the Z-Axis

Personnel: K3: Ian Smith (trumpet); Simon H. Fell (bass); Harris Eisenstadt (percussion)

Track Listing: Ahimsa: Non-Violence: 1. I 2. II 3. III Relief: 4. I 5. II 6. III 7. IV

Personnel: Ahimsa:

Tracks 1-3: Liz Allbee and Kris Tiner (trumpet); Toyoji Tomita (trombone); Phillip Greenlief (b-flat clarinet); Kyle Bruckmann (oboe); Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon); Steve Adams (C flute); Bill Horvitz and Noah Phillips (guitars); George Cremaschi (bass); David Branddt (vibraphone); Harris Eisenstadt (percussion); Omid Zoufonoun (conductor) Tracks 4-7: Dan Clucas (trumpet); George McMullen (trombone); Mark Weaver (tuba); Brian Walsh (b-flat clarinet); Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon); Vinny Golia (bass clarinet); Ellen Burr (C flute); Phillips (guitar); Jessica Catron (cello); Bill Casale (bass); Eisenstadt and Alex Cline (percussion); Omid Zoufonoun (conductor)

January 30, 2006

NATHAN HUBBARD

Skeleton Key Orchestra
Circumvention 039 A-B

Perhaps it’s the number of music schools in California, the dissatisfaction musicians in the West have with regular commercial gigs they have, or a Left Coast insistence on group companionship, but the number of big – make it massive – bands extant seems to have grown exponentially there in recent years.

Los Angeles-based multi-reedist Vinny Golia has one, drummer Adam Rudolph’s Organic Orchestra is another in the Bay area, and trumpeter Jeff Kaiser Ockodektet works out of Ventura – and there are others. Individually though, percussionist Nathan Hubbard’s San Diego-based Skeleton Key Orchestra (SKO), is unique in many respects.

Most of the other aggregations are usually staffed by veteran pros and pretty Free Jazz-oriented. SKO, organized in 2001 by Hubbard, a member of the Trummerflora Collective, combines players of a number of San Diego’s creative music ensembles, most of whom have some association with the University of South California at San Diego. Building on the wide-ranging interests of these young performers, the eight compositions here reflect not only Free Jazz, Free Music and so-called contemporary serious music, but also electronics, environments and field recordings, text and voices and a patina of ethnic strains.

That accounts for some frustration in the more than 2½ hours of music on this, SKO’s debut double-CD. With only eight tracks, the longest of which is slightly less than 36½ minutes, and the briefest [sic] slightly less than 11½ minutes, the tendency to pack too much into the compositions is rife. Featuring groupings ranging from nine to 27 pieces, SKO tries to excel, as its bumf puts it, in “surreal electronic landscapes, free-wheeling high-energy collective improvisations, meditative woodwind fugues, improvised street marches and minimalistic repetition”.

Even Barry Guy’s decades long established London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra couldn’t do all that – and Guy didn’t try either. What’s encouraging about SKO is how well it and producer/composer/engineer/part-time conductor/field recordist Hubbard do first time out. Consider “A Murder of Crows” and “Raincastle”, which at 36:22 and 34:19 respectively each could have been single LPs in the 1960s.

More derivative, the former’s exposition mixes swirling eddies of polyphonic horn lines, electronic loops and a flanged guitar line. It’s reminiscent of experiments involving Alan Silva’s Celestrial Communication Orchestra or Alexander von Schlippenbach’s Globe Unity Orchestra in the 1970s. Here the spit out, circumscribed or swelling lines are expressed so often and in such profusion, that outside of a certain undulating movement the outcome is nearly muddy and shapeless. Initial variations involve harsh interface between metallic textures and intermittent sawing strings, redirected and distorted with effects pedals.

Following a near baroque string and horn interlude, only contorted, echoing guitar lines and a double-tongued, plunger exploration by trombonist Michael Dessen, in a half bop/half rock vein, prevent the sound from sliding into cop show soundtrack territory. Taped voices, funk licks and clanging ring modulator output make appearances along with short bursts of Aylerian reed squeaks and glottal punctuation, ringing guitar tones, laptop twists and fuzz-toned guitar licks. Soon a polytonal mix of marimba stings, hollow wood echoes, bell-ringing and drum rumbles are added from Hubbard and the four other percussionists. Eventually the repetitive resonation are reminiscent of those tunes on which Sun Ra gave every member of his Arkestra some percussion instrument. Stabilizing itself from a “Machine Gun”-like miasma, the reshaped theme simmers down to shakes, friction and rattles from hybrid trap kit, vibraphone, sampler and marimba, climaxing with offbeat rim shots and a final ride cymbal reverberation.

Lacking the same sort of definite finale, the more original “Raincastle”, dribbles away at the end without reaching a climax. From the top the idea is to mix pre-recorded sounds of a real rain shower with looping electronic fuzz, zigzagging flute lines plus grace notes from the brass and a massed orchestral countermelody. After Harris Eisenstadt introduces the pitter-patter of marimba mallet tinctures, the transition involves a low-key but propulsive flat picking guitar fill from Al Scholl, prepared piano scrapes from Stephanie Robinson, legato soaring strings from the section and bright fluting from Lee Elderton. As thematic shards are tossed back and forth, boppish cymbal beats and hollow percussion echoes give way to a vamping reed section in double counterpoint with brassy horn embellishments, both of which are superseded by an unidentified soprano voice singing a folksy ditty.

On top of roistering blasting trumpets, bass trombonist Alex Panos outlines a chromatic call to colors until three bassists divide a measured, tandem solo into sections that from one depends on slaps on ribs and belly of instrument, and another, harsh sul tasto lines figuratively cutting the bass in half. Before the unsatisfactory conclusion, guitarist Jon Garner picks out a pretty, light-fingered solo with ringing notes and impressive finger control. But divorced from any instrumental backing it sounds out of character, a divergence not a variation on the theme.

Attempts at apocalyptic, Beat-influenced poetry read by Hubbard and Valley Girl/Lit major erotic verses voiced on another track, would probably have been better relegated to another outing, though the percussionist does evoke Albert Ayler’s name to set up a feature for nearly all the reed players. Ancillary disconnect appears as well, however when besides sax screams and accelerating polyphonic horn smears, the track adds irregular scratching loops and buzzing signals and climaxes with consolidated riffs that seem more in Ray Coniff’s than Sun Ra’s territory. Jay Easton’s subterranean exhortation on contrabass saxophone is the track’s saving grace however.

Elsewhere multiple counterpoint among the horns can rang from Free Jazz to Swing in sections with slippery rhythm guitar work adding a Booker T and the MG’s funk melodiousness. This euphony also appears when the strings and woodwind tonal colors become almost recital-like pastoral. In contrast, another piece is partially built around a duet between sharp fiddle jettes and distorted, almost dirty, agitated guitar lines. The remainder has exciting broken octave work from bassists Joscha Oetz and Scott Walton, one slapping buzzy tremolos, the other exposing near shudders as he loosens the strings on the neck. Other echoes include processional trombone lines, undulating percussion tones and wavering reed tones that are reminiscent of the sort of Cool Jazz associated with 1950s’West Coast big bands.

With all these colors, textures and ideas available from nearly 30 musicians, Hubbard may have attempted a bit too much on SKO’s debut. But considering what was accomplished here, judicious editing next time out may make the ensemble a group to be reckoned with far beyond the Western United States.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Disc 1: 1.Is That You (Earl)?/Dogs Don’ Bark at Ghosts 2. Raincastle* 3. Sleeping Against Other Warnings (Limited Only by Our Dreams)# 4. East on 53rd Street

Disc 2: 1. A Murder of Crows+% 2. Making My Way Thru It/Waiting in Vain 3. Next Love (All Things Want to Fly) 4.Don’t Look Says the Crow (I Don't Believe You)*

Personnel: Isaac Tubb (trumpet, flugelhorn, pipe-processed trumpet, Tibetan bell and megaphone feedback); Karl Soukup (trumpet, pipe-processed trumpet, and conductor #); Steve Vertigan (trombone and pipe-processed trombone); Michael Dessen, Scott Kyle (trombones); Alex Panos (bass trombone and dopplerophone #4); Angela House (French horn); Eric Sbar (euphonium, pipe-processed euphonium and low bell); Derrick Oliver (tuba); Lee Elderton (alto and soprano saxophones, flute and dopplerophone #5); Ellen Weller (flute); Adnan Marquez (alto saxophone); Jason Robinson (tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass flute and dopplerophone #1); Ward Baxter (tenor saxophone, flute, alto flute, bass clarinet, electronics, high bell conductor %); Gabriel Sundy (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, handclaps and dopplerophone #3); Jay Easton (baritone, bass and contra bass saxophones, bassoon); Gascia Ouzounian, Adam Ainsworth, and Louis Caverly (violins); Al Scholl (guitar, pedals, wobble board and handclaps); Jon Garner (guitar, sampled guitar, gourd shaker, pedals and wobble board); Jarrod Chilton (cello); Justin Grinnell (bass, electric bass, pedals, mini disc and handclaps); Joscha Oetz (bass and pedals); Scott Walton (bass and prepared piano); Leah Meadows (harp); Christopher Adler (piano and conductor*); Stephanie Robinson (pipe organ, prepared piano, sampler, synthesizer and processed voice); Harris Eisenstadt (drums and marimba); Nathan Hubbard (drums, percussion, congas, vibraphone, tapes, Tibetan bells, tam tam, tamalin frame drum, bohran, piano with mallets, simmons drums, sampled pipeophones, pitch-shifting vibes, processing, field recording, megaphone, drum machine poetry and conductor +]); Jon Szanto (glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, maracas, minidiscs and metal can); James Burton (drums and percussion); Curtis Glatter (hybrid trapkit, glockenspiel, chimes); Marcos Fernandes (CD player, electronics, percussion kit); Darren Evans(low conga, random surface drumming and loops); Damon Holzborn (laptop); Marcelo Radulovich (air synth and electronics)

June 20, 2005

SAM RIVERS/ADAM RUDOLPH/HARRIS EISENSTADT

Vista
Meta 009

Three generations of improvisers gather for a meeting of the minds on VISTA proving once again that musically age isn’t as important as time signatures.

Saxophonist and flautist Sam Rivers, a sprightly 81, is known for the advanced combo and big band sessions he led in the 1960s and 1970s as well as Studio Rivbea, which gave many avant gardists of that time a place to play in New York. Holding down the traps set is Los Angeles-based drummer Harris Eisenstadt -- 52 years his junior -- who has played with musicians ranging from saxophonist Yusef Lateef to trumpeter Roy Campbell and who has studied percussion both academically and with drum masters in Gambia.

Contributing his talents on hand drums and percussion is Adam Rudolf, the link between the two. Leader of the massive Organic Orchestra with Lateef, his collaborations have involved other improv masters like Rivers and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. A Chicagoan turned Californian, Rudolf also studied in Ghana about the time Eisenstadt, as a two-year-old in Toronto, was likely first appreciating music.

With the percussionists familiar with a variety of rhythmic patterns from different musical cultures, and Rivers comfortable on soprano and tenor saxophones and flute, there’s no chance of this session turning into a variation of an exotica drum demonstration CD. Still, as well as each plays, there are still points here where the interpolation of a chordal instrument would have added more compatible tones to the wall of percussion and reed textures.

Although he’s most distinctive when exhibiting his unique muzzled soprano saxophone tone or smearing passages from his tenor, Rivers uses his flute as solo instrument on “Plumaseria”, the set’s longest track at almost 9½ minutes. Sounding somewhat constricted at first, the reedist eventually positions the hollow metal tube to peeping higher notes, hisses and shaky, double-tongued passages. This is around the point where the beat speeds up considerably as the two drummers begin a Latinesque triple time that sounds more like the work of jazz-influenced congueros like Candido or Mongo Santamaria than the Africanized timbres with which they began the tune.

Here and elsewhere Eisenstadt’s contributions usually involve press rolls, bass drum resonation and other combined kit patterns. Rudolph kicks-in unidentified and extraordinary percussion passages that sound as if they come variously from clattering wooden logs, the three sizes of batà drums or steel drums. It’s also probably he who produces the verbalized mouth snaps, bounces and pops that often meld with the flautist’s whistles and offbeat trills.

On many other tracks the percussion build up is more Olatunji and company than say Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali together. Still, Rivers plays with the same power and jazz-like syncopation as if he was in front of a standard piano, bass and drums rhythm section. As the two skin-ponders curve around his tenorman’s snorting and wavering pitches on pieces like “Philio” he calibrates his phrases to singular call-and-response. Growling and smearing double-tongued arpeggios, he plays one phrase than answers himself with slight variations in pitch and tempo.

Then there’s the title tune, which serves as a less-than-8½ minute aural essay on Rivers’ musical evolution. Beginning with the sort of smooth, well-modulated dialogue he would have used when he was leading night club bands in Boston backing the likes of singers Jerry Butler and BB King, he’s soon triple tonguing and resonating tones within the horn’s body tube. With the percussionists worrying the sides and tops of their drums behind him, Rivers’ output becomes more barbed and abstract. Soon he’s honking and producing two or more tones at once by reed biting then sideslipping into irregularly vibrated zones -- finally creating spetrofluctuation that could be to-the-colors bugle call.

Rumbles, ruffs and thwacks pour from the drummers’ hands and wrists. And as sax lines undulate, the piece ends with shattering, swaying cymbal reverberation.

More proof that improvised music is the least ageist -- as well as racist and sexist -- sound around, VISTA will be welcomed by anyone eager to catch up with Rivers and appreciate the skills of his associates.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Susurration 2. Capacious 3. Motivity 4. Philio 5. Plumaseria 6. Specular 7. Vista

Personnel: Sam Rivers (soprano and tenor saxophones, flute); Adam Rudolph (hand drum and percussion); Harris Eisenstadt (drums)

December 6, 2004

HARRIS EISENSTADT QUINTET

Jalolu
CIMP #300

DEAD CAT BOUNCE
Home Speaks to the Wandering
Innova 593

By looking sideways for inspiration to sounds that encompass the brass band tradition, intricate African rhythms, plus hearty helpings of modern jazz and pure improv, two youngish bands have come up with noteworthy CDs that reconfirm eclecticism.

Stacked up next to one another though, JALOLU may have a slight edge over HOME SPEAKS TO THE WANDERING. That’s only because the Gambian and Ghanaian inspirations of drummer Harris Eisenstadt are less familiar than the outcome of many Dead Cat Bounce (DCB) compositions, whose voicings draw on sources like Charles Mingus and the World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ).

Los Angles-based Eisenstadt also has the advantage of having his original compositions interpreted by two adaptable veterans and two veteran adapters. One older musician, trumpeter Paul Smoker, has recorded with multi-reedman Anthony Braxton and a collection of freebop bands, while the other, multi-brassman Roy Campbell, is a close associate of bassist William Parker. As for the younger participants, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum has duetted with Braxton and been in Boston’s Fully Celebrated Orchestra, while baritone saxist and clarinetist Andy Laster, is a 40-something whose band experience stretches from cerebral cellist Erik Friedlander’s group to swingsters Ballin’ the Jack. Meanwhile the Toronto-born drummer has worked with Yusef Lateef and Sam Rivers

Boston roots are very familiar to DCB, whose name is guaranteed to offend animal right activists. With the exception of leader and composer Matt Steckler, who recently moved to Brooklyn after years in Beantown, all live in Massachusetts. One saxophonist, Drew Sayers, still attends the New England Conservatory (NEC), where bassist Arie Werbrouck graduated in 2003. Percussionist Bill Carbone has had different pop and jazz gigs since his 1999 NEC graduation, while woodwind player Jared Sims is an academic who has played with people as different as bassist Cecil McBee and the Jimmy Dorsey ghost band.

DCB’s musical sophistication comes from alto and baritone saxophonist Charlie

Kohlhase, a longtime former member of Boston’s Either/Orchestra (E/O). He has recorded with Braxton, co-lead a band with Danish saxophonist John Tchicai and fronted his own combos for years.

With its four-saxophone front line and backbeat drumming, DCB draws on the rhythmic New Orleans-style marching band tradition as much does the three-brass-and-one-reed of Eisenstadt’s quintet. But by sticking to the head-solo-head format and pushing its influences, the sextet appears to be more wedded to pastiche.

For instance, “Dis You, Dear” starts with a snaking Second Line beat as Steckler’s breathy flute passage suggests Moe Koffman and/or Herbie Mann in their jazz/R&B phases. Sims’ clarinet, Werbrouck’s near slap bass and the other horns threaten to parade into Dixieland territory and even Kohlhase’s honking baritone is only as modern as what is played by Fats Domino’s band. By the end, at least, the two-beat line has given way to some walking bass leading DCB into Cool Jazz territory.

Additionally, with its various inspirations “Angelic & Podlike” makes DCB sounds a lot like that other Boston institution the E/O. The saxes morph from a unison rondo to sounding like Count Basie’s 1950s sax section, to soprano-led passages that could have come from jazz-rockers Ten Wheel Drive. Overall, though, the head of steam dissipates due to the lightness of the attack.

Then there’s “Myopia Hunt Club” where pinched, boppy sax riffs back up Steckler’s penny whistle. The leader’s double tongued solo has a thinner sound than a dyed-in-the-wool bopper would produce and the voiced vamp underneath sounds a lot more like Woody Herman’s Four Brothers band then the WSQ -- an impression not helped by Carbone’s flashy Buddy Rich-style drumming.

More exciting, but still with transparent influences are “Department of Homeland Strategy” and “Hepcat Revival”. At least the later mixes suggestions of Kwela and TV soundtrack music with a direct tribute to Mingus. Held on course by foursquare bass playing, the jittery beat is extended by a slinky, light-toned soprano line from Sims and some soulful tenor honks from Steckler. Once someone starts chanting “oh lordy” and handclapping, however, you start to think you’re listening to an earnest emulation of “Better Get It In Your Soul.

Booker Ervin, Mingus’ star tenor soloist, is recalled by Sims on “Department …”, a foot tapper rife with a gospelish call-and-response sections. Here though, the Texas tenor sound is cut with unexpected pecking thrusts from the other horns and a military-style rat tat tats from Carbone. Finale and crescendo finds the six loosening their mooring and going out in a blaze of horn slurs and drum rolls.

Featuring rip snorting collective improvisations and a back beat that rarely stops, HOME SPEAKS TO THE WANDERING is a pleasant swinger, well worth your time. Next time out, though, it would be better to know just exactly who the members of DCB are, rather than their influences.

In a contrasting fashion JALOLU suffers from a bit of confusion as well. None of the brass solos are identified, which makes it hard to knock -- or more likely praise -- any brassman for his work on a particular track. Moreover with no bass player Laster has to do double duty, usually using low tones to supply the continuum upon which the others solo. Furthermore, a couple of the tunes arrive in two different versions, which bespeaks decision-making uncertainty on the leader’s part.

There’s no quarrelling with Eisenstadt’s percussion prowess however. Interestingly enough, as well, probably because of JALOLU’s links to the polyrhythms of Mother Africa, he depends a lot less on his cymbals than a traditional jazz drummer and makes more use of cowbells, woodblocks and other percussion.

Press rolls and hocketing bounces characterize his work on “Mwindo”, a triumphant line that also features fanfares and honks from the brassmen. As they take turns soloing -- one with brassy insouciance, another with smeared buzzes and the third with double-tongued grace notes -- the drummer plays varied and opposing patterns beneath each one. Turning from snapping out phrases with hand mutes, the three reprise the theme and exit with a series of bent notes.

At more than nine minutes each, both versions of “Seruba” give a different view of the piece. “Seruba (take 2)” features mellow and muted crossed lines from the brass meeting baritone slurs and Mandinka song and dance beats from the drummer with flams and rolls from snares and toms. One trumpeter -- Campbell? -- takes a precise muted solo, then another -- Smoker? -- answers with a jolly bugle-like call. By the end, the piece morphs into a mid-tempo jazz-like dance, with bass drum whacks adding to the heavy bottom ostinato produced by Laster, seemingly as much from his bow as his reed.

“Seruba (take 1)”, which is more impressive, at first comes across like a perverse version of Gerry Mulligan’s quartet with Art Farmer, with the baritonist and one trumpeter mixing it up together. When the drums shift first to march tempo, then to a Second Line shuffle, trumpet lines trill and splash and a few sax phrases suggest “Night Train”. After a stop time section featuring massed trumpets advances the theme, Eisenstadt tries some doubled bounces, rebounds and cymbal snaps on for size, while mid-range sax playing and higher-pitched trumpets give the tune a Hi Life overlay.

A similar situation exists with the two versions of “Jumpin In”. Although the almost 10-minute first run through includes some rapid syncopation from one horn and buzzy rubato trills from another -- not to mention vibrating false fingering and glottal punctuation from Laster -- the feel is that of a ragged march. A crescendo of screeching unison tongue fluttering then takes it out.

“Jumpin In (take 2)”, is far superior. Partially a showcase for the drummer, quicksilver trilling brass lines and chirping obbligatos from the sax appear to loosen his attack. Using press rolls and rim shots he turns around and encourages Laster to bend his notes and one trumpeter to snap off rapid triplets. Soon two of the brassmen are trading phrases of different lengths, while another plays completely at variance, offering up hocketing tones. Adding what could be Native American pow wow beats to the piece, the drummer helps build up the theme to a crescendo, then abruptly cuts it off. Overall quieter and more self-consciously tunes don’t work as well in this configuration.

All and all, though JALOU is definitely worth hearing for what Eisentadt’s quintet has accomplished. It also makes you impatient to see what the percussionist can create from now on.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Home: 1. Hiram Hinkler’s Shrunken Heads 2. SOS Ankara 3. Hepcat Revival 4. Myopia Hunt Club 5. Hear My Flow 6. Cat: Is It Fish or Finite? 7. Dis You, Dear 8. Angelic & Podlike 9. I Once Was Vaccinated with a Phonograph Needle 10. Department of Homeland Strategy

Personnel: Home: Jared Sims (soprano and tenor saxophones and clarinet); Matt Steckler (soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, flute shaw whistle, holler); Charlie Kohlhase (alto and baritone saxophones); Drew Sayers (alto, tenor and baritone saxophones); Arie Werbrouck (bass); Bill Carbone (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Jalolu: 1. Boogie on Lenjeno 2. Seruba (take 2) 3. Mwindo 4. Go 5. Jumpin In 6. Seruba (take 1) 7. Ahimsa (Non-Violence #2) 8. Jumpin In (take 2)

Personnel: Jalolu: Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet); Paul Smoker (trumpet); Roy Campbell (trumpet, picket trumpet, flugelhorn); Andy Laster (baritone saxophone and clarinet); Harris Eisenstadt (drums)

July 26, 2004

BABY DODDS

Talking & Drum Solos + Country Brass Bands
Atavistic Unheard Music Series UMS 241

BRASSUM
Warning Light
Plutonium PLU-003

Bands consisting of just brass and percussion have always been popular, whether they’re European martial concert bands, New Orleans social club orchestras or projects put together by more sophisticated players who add a POMO fillip to the proceedings.

Brassum, made up of three of Los Angles’ top players as well as the tuba and compositions of Albuquerque New Mexico’s Mark Weaver, is definitely one of the later, as it proves on its excellent CD.

But what the quartet -- and by extension other modern brass and drum outfits -- accomplishes wouldn’t be possible without the foundation of rhythmic polyphony created by early 20th century New Orleans brass bands -- and others before them. The two country brass bands, recorded in Alabama in 1954, which take up 20 of the tracks on the BABY DODDS CD are examples of that. But considering they were selected by folklorist Frederic Ramsey Jr. to illustrate how pre-Jazz bands may have sounded, the results are more unabashedly primitive than anything Brassum -- not to mention citified Crescent City brass aggregations -- would ever record.

One of the standout players on WARNING LIGHTS is Toronto-born percussionist Harris Eisenstadt. While he brings his original ideas and adaptations of other jazz and ethnic styles to his playing, much of his conception wouldn’t have been possible without the craft of early Classic Jazz drummers. One of the first to determine how to optimize playing the entire kit was Warren “Baby” Dodds (1898-1959). Eight tracks on his eponymously titled CD are a reissue of a rare Folkways EP, recorded in 1946 by Ramsey. It gave the drummer a solo forum in which to explain and demonstrate his style and by inference the roots of jazz drumming.

Back to the future though -- the 21st Century to be exact -- where rambunctious Brassum nearly tore down the walls of a small Los Angeles theatre creating this CD in spring 2003. Weaver, comfortable in solo forays, but cognizant of his instrument’s history as the brass bass in Classic Jazz, fills both functions admirably here. Someone who also recorded with Swedish saxist Biggi Vinkeloe and Bay area bassist Damon Smith, he helps keep experimental music alive in his hometown. Veteran trombonist Michael Vlatkovich divides his time between commercial projects and improv gigs with Vinny Golia’s Large Ensemble and Rob Blakeslee’s quartet to name two. Cornetist Dan Clucas has been in bands as different as Jeff Kaiser’s massive Ockodektet and backing up Love vocalist Arthur Lee. He was also part of bassist Henry Grimes’ first public comeback performance. In the short time Eisenstadt has been on the scene he’s managed to play and record with outstanding musicians on both coasts and beyond, ranging from saxophonist Yusef Lateef and Sam Rivers to trumpeters Roy Campbell and Taylor Ho Bynum plus violinist Phillip Wachsmann.

Brash, and with a sense of fun, the quartet struts its stuff on pieces like “Minus”, a slinky nightclub blues borne along on Weaver’s raucous low tones. As Clucas climbs up the scale with brassy, double-tongued open horn notes, Vlatkovich counters with snorting plunger mute emanations straight from Tricky Sam Nanton’s Jungle band repertoire. Weaver’s rhino snorts add to all this as Eisenstadt keeps the beat steady.

“Avenue” on the other hand has a shuffling, near R&B beat, where the polytonal and polyrhythmic output includes the cornetist and trombonist growling notes back and forth at one another with ascending in triplets. King Oliver and Kid Ory memories anyone? Later Clucas, likely using his hand as an artificial mute, squeals out a separate melody accompanied by a light Dodds-like underpinning from the drummer.

Pumping tuba blats and duple paradiddles and rim shots aren’t all that’s on show either. On “Riparian Creatures”, above Weaver’s pedal point accompaniment, and Eisenstadt’s shuffle, the cornetist plays a Spanish-tinged rhythm that Dodds’ old employer Jelly Roll Morton said was necessary for jazz. But Morton’s Red Hot Peppers never had an arrangement featuring the lead brassman working his way chromatically up the scale as the lower horns encircle him with deeply vibrated notes.

Other elements come play as well. Slower than other tunes, “Elements” features what could be interpreted as quasi-African rolling drum tones and “talking” cornet lines. Then, after Clucas slurs out some adagio bent notes, the piece continues at a stately pace with a brass bottom from the tuba and roistering Eisenstadt on snares. With the drummer’s rumbling over the kit meeting elephant-like trumpeting from the tuba, the regal tune finally resolves itself as these two meld with the other horns for creamy smooth brass combinations.

“Elastomeric” features a serpentine, Balkan-like dance rhythm with the lead carried on the cornet’s melodic grace notes, leiderhousen outfit memories implicit in Weaver’s oomph pah pahs and the drummer keeping time with sticks on his rims.

Finally there’s “Mesa Negra”, the longest tune, that features versatile Clucas on flute, tooting out a Brazilian-style theme. Following a flute cadenza, the band gets brassier, with the tuba taking the lead and the other horns riffing like the JBs behind James Brown. Following some slurs from the trombonist, the drummer shows off his command of Dodds’ language. Coda highlights include the flute and horns reprising the theme and an ultimate drum thump.

There are plenty of thumps, smashes and bangs on show during the performances by The Laneville-Johnson Union Brass Band and The Lapsey Band on the other CD. There’s also a goodly collection of out-of-tune horn squawks, wavering tempos, frayed rhythms, mushy off-mic dialogue and a general program of unrehearsed discordance.

But even in 1954, these country cousins wouldn’t be confused with the worldly brass bands that worked New Orleans Second Line celebration and funeral parades. For a start, their instruments are beat up and more than ancient. Second, the rural musicians captured here are elderly amateurs, last of the breed, lacking the appreciative young disciples they would have in the Big Easy. The tracks were recorded outdoors, at night, during cotton-picking season.

Constructing tunes out of short motifs with sodden beats, the drums, sousaphones and tubas come through most clearly. When a trombone or cornet lead does appear it isn’t isolated for long -- a practice given up in Classic Jazz combos as early as the end of the First World War. With the bands playing a repertoire of sacred and secular material, it’s often hard to distinguish the blues from the hymns, or even from one another. It’s possible that some of the musicians couldn’t even whistle “Dixie”. They don’t seem able to play it.

Maybe it’s reading too much into it, but when the Lapsey Band does attempt to play the Confederacy’s national anthem, what comes out sound a lot more like “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” a musical gesture that may have been subversive in small west central Alabama towns near the Mississippi line. Perhaps, though, the groups were so unschooled that they really didn’t know the difference between the tunes, though. Their ragged, irregular performances testify to that.

Still there’s a certain archeological fascination listening to these examples of involuntary free counterpoint and improvisation by accident by the unidentified band members. Brass bands organized during the 19th Century sounded something like this, according to Ramsey (1915-1995), and provided the power that matched the culture of higher-brow Crescent City musicians that gave birth to jazz. Listen carefully to the lines that range from “Sun Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday” to “When I Lay My Burden Down” and you’ll hear -- albeit imperfectly -- the expanse that would soon be filled with talent by jazz’s first master musicians.

One of those was definitely Baby Dodds. A percussionist who developed his craft before ride cymbal solos and the connected hi-hat were in common use, he was versatile enough to play any kind of job, creating his own rhythms and tempos. Pit bands, marching bands and show bands all employed him, as did all three of Classic Jazz’s most influential ensembles: King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Seven and the Red Hot Peppers.

Articulately explaining his musical philosophy to Ramsey as he plays on the disc, Dodds with his one snare, one bass drum, sizzle cymbals and quartet of cowbells, demonstrates how a solo drummer can be an orchestra by himself. Snatches of records by the bands he was featured in are heard to amplify this. When he plays a “Careless Love” made up of press rolls, you hear the origins of modern stickmen like Max Roach or Jerome Cooper. Other time he plays riffs, biffs, ratchets and lots and lots of rim shots.

Dodds was current and old-fashioned at the same time in 1946 as he shows off his shimmy press rolls and cowbell mastery. Furthermore when he starts demonstrating what he calls “nerve beats”, rattling the sticks in one hand, immediately the ear flashes to the sound of ethnic percussion preferred by many contemporary drummers.

Merely two CDs, but three centuries of percussion -- the 19th, the 20th and the 21st -- are showcased here.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Talking : 1. Spooky Drums No. 1 2. Drums In The Twenties 3. Shimmy Beat/Press Roll Demonstration 4. Careless Love Blues 5. Rudiments 6. Maryland 7. Spooky Drums No. 2 8. Tom Tom Workout 9. Precious Lord Hold My Hand 10. Take Rocks & Gravel To Build A Solid Road 11. Wild About My Daddy 12. Sun Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday 13. I’m Going On 14. O Lord Let Thy Will Be Done 15. Conversation 16. My Baby Gone And She Won’t Be Back No More 17. Fare You Well Daddy, It’s Your Time Now 18. Sing On 19. Dixie 20. Going Up The Country 21. I Shall Not Be Moved 22. Ship Is Over The Ocean, The 23. Mama, Don't You Tear My Clothes 24. Nearer My God To Thee 25. Like My Lord 26. I’m All Right Now Since I’ve Been Converted 27. Just Over In The Gloryland 28. When I Lay My Burden Down

Personnel: Talking: Baby Dodds (drum kit [tracks 1 to 8]); The Laneville-Johnson Union Brass Band [tracks 9 to 17]); The Lapsey Band [tracks 18 to 28])

Track Listing: Warning: 1. Seven Enchiladas 2. Riparian Creatures 3. Minus 4. Clear 5. Movie 6. Avenue 7. Elastomeric 8. Elements 9. Mesa Negra

Personnel: Warning: Dan Clucas (cornet, flute); Michael Vlatkovich (trombone); Mark Weaver, (tuba); Harris Eisenstadt (drums)

January 12, 2004