Jeff Davis

Leaf House
Fresh Sound New Talent FSNW407

Michel Lambert

Journal Des Épisodes

Rant 1244

Cojaniz/Maier/Kaučič

Dreiländer Trio

Palomar Records 39

Gabriela Friedli Trio

Started

Intakt CD 214

Something In The Air: New Takes on the Jazz Piano Trio Tradition

By Ken Waxman

Having arguably reached its zenith of popularity in the 1960s, with the legendary Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans combos, the piano, bass and drums trio continues to be the sine qua non for countless improvisers. But with any jazz trio performance weighted with the configuration’s illustrious history, it’s up to contemporary players to create a distinct musical personality.

Usually this is done subtly, as New York-based drummer Jeff Davis demonstrates on Leaf House Fresh Sound New Talent FSNW407. A frequent associate of Canadian-in-Brooklyn bassist Michael Bates, the drummer knows the value of a sophisticated time-keeper and has found one in Norwegian-born Eivind Opsvik. More crucially with Russ Lossing at the piano, the leader’s eight compositions are interpreted in a fashion which suggests an alternate piano trio history. Rather than the influence of either Peterson and Evans looming large – as it does for too many of their followers – Lossing operates at the edge of atonality, but never abandoning the legato. Throughout, his mixture of perceptive pacing, with forays into the instrument’s highest and lowest portals, plus a touch that ranges from intermittent key dusting to rock-ribbed staccato power, suggests a lineage that takes in Herbie Nichols, Lowell Davidson and Paul Bley, but just skirts Cecil Taylor’s revolutionary keyboard transformations. With such an arsenal of effects at his literal fingertips, the pianist can bring forth whichever is needed to illustrate individual Davis tunes. For instance the connections and variations that define Catbird’s conclusions are very Bley-like, especially when the bassist restates the motif he has begun the piece with, the better to again bond with the feather-light and gently chromatic melody with which he and the pianist first played. On the other hand the kineticism that marks tunes like the title track and the loping “Faded” relate back to Nichols, as Lossing elasticizes lines without breaking the chromatic thrust, while the drummer’s cuffs and clips or poised rim shots meet walking or bowed bass with sympathetic pacing. “William Jacob” may be the CD’s highpoint though. Moving from a lyrical exposition to a tremolo finale, the pianist craftily strengthens his touch and doubles his attack as the piece evolves, dovetailing into power chords from Opsvik and aggregated ruffs and rebounds from Davis before the conclusion.

Interestingly enough the pared-down approach of Canadian Bley, who often toured Europe, is one of the modes expressed by veteran Italian pianist Claudio Cojaniz, on the dozen instant compositions that make up Dreiländer Trio Palomar Records 39. Someone who often records solo, the pianist also infuses the tunes with large dollops of entrancing romanticism, and as might be expected from an Italian, matter-of-fact lyricism. At the same time, despite his expressive glissandi and busy note collections, never are his dynamics nor touch over-the-top. Helped by an innate jazz-swing sense, he ensures that each tune evolves in a linear fashion. Moreover since the band is a cooperative trio, as important to this CD’s achievement are bassist Giovanni Maier from Trieste and Slovenian percussionist Zlatko Kaučič, who has worked with the likes of American saxophonist Steve Lacy. An adept colorist, the drummer’s contributions are so self-effacing that the rhythm is often felt rather than heard. A master of cymbal shimmering, bell-tree shaking plus drum clanking, clipping and paddling, he cedes musical flamboyance to the other two. Maier, who is an experienced duo and trio player, takes full advantage, properly interrupting the pianist’s cascading glissandi on m&M with double stopping and rubber-band-like plucks from his strings and bringing a stirring cello-like range to “Trieste-Amman”. Along with Kaučič’s pinpointed clatters, Maier’s bow swipes add a needed toughness to the tune which otherwise is characterized by Cojaniz repeating note clusters in many keys, barely skirting 19th century impressionism. At the same time the pianist’s command of Evans-styled passing chords and patterns doesn’t stop him on a piece like “Izpoved” from deconstructing the gospel-like theme, making it more staccato so that it’s no longer European, but not quite American either.

Swiss pianist Gabriela Friedli also adapts the Bley-Evans concept, albeit with a harder touch on Started Intakt CD 214. But her mixture of notated and improvising designs is part of subtle avant-gardism that hides underneath lyrical narratives. Aided by Daniel Studer’s measured bass plucks and drummer Dieter Ulrich’s smooth pacing, she specializes in contrafacts of other tunes, telegraphing the transformation in song titles. “Come Lately” relates to Duke Ellington’s “Johnny Come Lately”; “Out of Nothing” to Johnny Green’s “Out of Nowhere”; and no prizes for figuring out the chord origin of “I Wrap My Dreams in Troubles”. Atop Studer’s chiming beat the last melody is stretched out by Friedli with expansive dynamics. The middle piece becomes a double-time exercise in fleeting cadenzas and string plucks from the pianist, contrasted with sul tasto rubs from the bassist, plus bull’s eye rim shots and cymbal pops from the drummer. As for “Come Lately”, Studer’s funky bass slaps and Ulrich’s backbeat underline the piece’s basic rhythm and blues feeling. Not content with that, the pianist makes the narrative tougher and more staccato with low frequency cadenzas and note clusters, eventually climaxing as she spins out emphasized glissandi while the drummer’s contrapuntal thumps emphasize wood and metal.

If the preceding trios quietly subvert the piano trio, the most radical reworking of the concept comes from Montreal drummer Michel Lambert. Assisted by pianist Alexandre Grogg and bassist Guillaume Bouchard his Journal Des Épisodes Rant 1244 is made of 92 [!] brief tracks originally composed for symphony orchestra, re-jigged to fit this format. Although tracks officially clock in at between six seconds and five minutes – with the majority fewer than 30 seconds – the end product sounds like anything but patchwork. Much of the credit has to go to Grogg who manages to maintain the narrative nature of his playing, even if the musical thoughts are interrupted by frequent pauses. Bouchard mostly concentrates on steady rhythmic motions; while Lambert not only exposes every variety of beats from Latin to arrhythmic to near-terpsichorean, but is likely responsible for the sonic add-ons. Besides slide-whistle shrills and alphorn lowing, snippets from a full orchestral usually in romantic mode, frequently bisect the performances. Given his head as he has on “Sans Commentaire II” plus “R 59 Liquide” or “Jour De Célébration” the pianist is able to display power voicing matched by Lambert’s ruffs and rolls or showcase moderato finger-tip explorations matched by the drum top strokes and cymbal shakes. When episodes inflate to a whole three minutes on “Le Marteau” or six [!] on “L’homme-Ciseaux” the three come across with sophistication. Straight-ahead jazz, the former mixes repeated octave jumps and key clipping with press rolls and a thumping bass solo. Even more swing oriented, the latter is cunningly harmonized with a walking bass line, rolls, drags and ruffs from Lambert and sparkling piano work encompassing tremolo runs and a sprinkling of ringing notes.

Accepting the weight of history, but cunningly or conspicuously moving familiar concepts into new areas, these combos preserve the piano trio for the 21st century.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 18 #7

April 11, 2013

Jesse Stacken

Bagatelles for Trio
Fresh Sound New Talent FSNT 398

The Mighty Mouse

Live at Glenn Miller Café

Barefoot Records BFRC 016CD

Perhaps the reason for the so-called classic piano trio’s longstanding popularity in Jazz is the number of musical permutations that the three instruments can create together. Think of nearly any track recorded by Bill Evans’ trio with Paul Motian in the early 1960s alongside a Red Garland set with Paul Chambers and Art Taylor at the same time, for instance, and completely different boundaries are starkly revealed.

Not that 21st century players who eschew the avant-garde have to rigidly follow either procedure, but certainly the discs here stack up on either side of formalist verses free form. , Created by two long-standing trios, instructively, and in a reversal of common geographic clichés, the Swedish-Norwegian Mighty Mouse combo set is more outgoing and swinging, whereas the New York-based three on the other disc are involved with illustrating an intellectual concept.

Not that strict Gnostic-like experimentation is the only forum for the American-based musicians however. Pianist/leader Jesse Stacken for instance, is part of a long-time duo with trumpeter/cornetist Kirk Knuffke interpreting traditional Jazz lines, and has works with everyone from saxophonist Michael Blake to kotoist Akiko Sasaki. Drummer Jeff Davis is part of different bands, including those featuring, Knuffke or bassist Michael Bates, while. Norwegian-born bassist Eivind Opsvik plays with saxophonist Tony Malaby as well as other New York-based players such as pianist Craig Taborn. Mighty Mouse’s drummer Håkon Berre is also Norwegian, but lives in Copenhagen where he works with players such as bassist Peter Friis-Nielsen. Copenhagen-born pianist Morten Pedersen is part of many Jazz combs in the Danish capital, whereas bassist Adam Pultz Melbye, another Dane, has played with saxophonist like the German Peter Brötzmann.

Recorded at Stockholm’s famous and often noisy Glen Miller Café, Mighty Mouse’s seven originals are built up from thumping bass notes, drums ruffs and stop-time piano chording that often makes the shorter tunes flash past freneticly. More generic are the lengthier performances, which are done with such powerful aplomb that even the audience members who usually talk throughout the bass introductions are quiet by the finale(s). Often times, as on the concluding “Sneaky”, the strategy involves fore-and-aft tremolos building up powerfully, with all three figuratively firing on all cylinders as they play. Moving between percussiveness, lyricism and convention on “Nature morte à la palette” – one interpolated phrase sounds suspiciously like “Hernando’s Hideaway” – Pedersen’s double-gaited cadenzas and jumping patterns perambulate, moving the narrative at a moderate pace. Adding to this is the drummer’s claps and clatters plus Melbye slicing textures up and down his strings; and the end result is a jolly dance-like refrain.

Still the CD showpiece is the 26½-minute “Incommunicado/Proxylakkt” with kinetic note cascades and two-handed rumbles from Pedersen that swiftly turn into line elaboration. Contrapuntal coordination is apparent from the sluicing bass line and the drummer’s rat-tat-tats as the pianist’s glissandi fragment into different variations including an unidentified Bebop-styled melody. Balancing the delicate dusting of keyboard notes with powerful double bass string strokes and side and bottom percussion clinks, the tempo speeds up and slows down repeatedly as the theme is passed from one to another, finally spiking to a climax made up of Berre shaking chains and bells plus the pianist stroking internal string. A descending series of final variations finds Pederson crowbarring processional chords into his solo – incidentally silencing the noisy crowd – then with walking bass and drum paradiddles behind him showing off wide handed, febrile runs that could have come from Oscar Peterson or Errol Garner. Completed the tune becomes an intermezzo of unison key clips, bass-string plucks plus pronounced rim shots from the drummer.

Reflecting the stained glass window motif on the CD booklet cover, Stacken’s Bagatelles for Trio is as much a studio-oriented experiment in cerebral instant composition as Live is, well, Live. Highlighting 13 “bagatelles” ranging from ones barely two minutes in length to slightly less than seven minutes, the intellectual exercise fully distinguishes different keyboard experiments from one another, while fully involving the other two members of the trio. Both propositions are a bit iffy, and, possibly because of juxtaposition, there’s an excess of sameness in execution of the pianist’s compositions. Explanations in the notes move the baker’s dozen of fantasias away from Keith Jarrett-like pretentiousness, but it may take a piano student to fully appreciate the skill in consecrating “Bagatelle No. 1” for instance, to a slow-moving demonstration of ringing piano lines, and the final “Bagatelle” to speedy, thumping angular octave piano lines.

More satisfying are tracks such as “Bagatelle No. 12”, which ostensibly uses slightly wrong chords to illustrate the thematic material, but is more notable for Davis’ bass drum and snare slapping and Stacken hardening a simplistic melody through strumming fortissimo and high-frequency arpeggios. Another notable instance occurs on “Bagatelle No. 2”, when thumping bass and pressurized drum beats back the pianist’s illuminating a swing sequence in one hand by dramatically contrasting it with sprawling cross pulses from the other hand. Additionally Stacken may be aiming for the rondo form on “Bagatelle No.4”, but the parallel lines and metronomic pacing only become animated when near Boogie-Woogie intensity plus emphasized glissandi are brought forward.

Elsewhere, giving Davis and Opsvik more room to express themselves with clicking and buzzing bass lines plus intermittent drum drags and distanced pumps and claps provides more of a trio feel to the performance. With the others’ parts in place, Stacken’s variations encompass stretched shimmering runs, extended soundboard reverberation and tremolo pumping is more thematically cohesive.

Confirming the piano-bass-drums line-up’s versatility, each of these CDs is notable in a different way. In its experimental formalism Bagatelles for Trio may call for more listener concentration and perhaps an enthrallment with the piano. Live at Glenn Miller Café is easier to appreciate, but also more of an expected night club Jazz session. The devil may be in the details, but so are preferences.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Bagatelles: 1. Bagatelle No. 1 2. Bagatelle No. 2 3. Bagatelle No. 3 4. Bagatelle No. 4 5. Bagatelle No. 5 6. Bagatelle No. 6 7. Bagatelle No. 7 8. Bagatelle No. 8 9. Bagatelle No. 9 10. Bagatelle No. 10 11. Bagatelle No. 11 12. Bagatelle No. 12 13. Bagatelle No. 13 (2:13)

Personnel: Bagatelles: Jesse Stacken (piano); Eivind Opsvik (bass) and Jeff Davis (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Central Park Houdini 2. Incommunicado/Proxylakkt 3. Objekt 4. Lost at Sea and Never Found 5. Kassipoeg 6. Nature morte à la palette 7. Ublit 8. Sneaky

Personnel: Live: Morten Pedersen (piano); Adam Pultz Melbye (bass) and Håkon Berre (drums)

November 1, 2012

Mike Baggetta Quartet

Source Material
Fresh Sound New Talent FSNT 388

By Ken Waxman

Trying to forge a singular path with a saxophone-guitar quartet is the monumental task guitarist Mike Baggetta has set himself in this package of attractive originals. But Baggetta, who plays with everyone from trumpeter Tom Harrell to drummer Kevin Norton, and has recorded on-the-edge free improv with trumpeter Kris Tiner, appears content to stay within the parameters set by such reed-string teams as Vic Juris-Dave Liebman and Jim Hall-Sonny Rollins.

Still the source material of Source Material played by Baggetta’s working group of reed man Jason Rigby, bassist Eivind Opsvik and drummer George Schuller is too often low key. Although there are points at which the geometric arrangements recall the thematic repetition of early Carla Bley compositions, but as one mellow narrative follows another, the startling spikiness found in her work is never present and sorely missed. Schuller’s paced pops rarely upset the intensive interplay, nor do Opsvik’s solid thumps. Rigby’s well-modulated tenor saxophone trills sometimes suggest an updated Zoot Sims, especially when they connect in broken octave harmonies with Baggetta’s smartly paced licks, but most of the nine tracks drag at mid-tempos.

Breaking free from these moody, overly polite tunes filled with carefully positioned strums and vibrations, are a couple that impress with their speedy freedom however. For instance, “A Trust Issue” includes arpeggiated guitar licks, whose synced reverb links impressively with Rigby’s balanced timbres. Likewise “Momentum” is staccato and swinging with drum paradiddles, pats and ruffs and a secure walking bass line. Before Schuller’s cymbal resounding signals a unison guitar-sax head recapping, Baggetta again picks up the pace with slurred, nearly seamless runs which match the saxophonist’s upwards slurping trills and repeated pressurized snorts.

In this, their second outing, Baggett’s band members confirm their cohesion as a group as well as an ability to create a pleasant variant on the guitar-saxophone combo style. Hopefully though, the band’s next CD will be a bit less perfectly balanced and add some stimulating roughness to the program

Tracks: Tonic; Nathan; Liberty; Momentum; The Sky & The Sea; The Winter Moon; A Trust Issue; Projections; Camp

Personnel: Jason Rigby: tenor and soprano saxophones; Mike Baggetta: guitar; Eivind Opsvik: bass; George Schuller: drums

--For New York City Jazz Record October 2012

October 7, 2012

Harris Eisenstadt

Canada Day II
Songlines SGL 1589-2

Although he left Toronto more than a decade ago, Brooklyn-based drummer Harris Eisenstadt hasn’t abandoned his home town … or country. This thoroughly modern session is the second CD is by one of his working band, whose name came from its first gig on July 1. Complete with a cover painting – with canoe – reminiscent of the Northern Ontario summer camp the drummer attended, Eisenstadt’s eight originals are played by a quintet of top-flight New York jazzers, none of whom is Canadian, although bassist Elvind Opsvik is Norwegian.

Well engineered, “Canada Day II” balances on Opsvik’s upfront bass rhythm, as well as the never-obtrusive beats of the drummer. With Chris Dingman’s ringing vibraphone clanks recurrently moving from foreground to background, most of the swinging pieces are elaborated by Nate Wooley’s buzzing trumpet technique and Matt Bauder’s vamping tenor saxophone.

Both the trumpeter and bassist are showcased on To See/Tootsie as the bassist keeps up a steady pace and Wooley delves into slurry stutters, mouthpiece kisses and capillary cries. Subsequently, Bauder states the tuneful theme and Eisenstadt accompanies with off-side flams and rim shots. Cottage country cool rather than downtown hot, most of the pieces on “Canada Day II” are like that. With the horns or rhythm instruments often working in tandem, other solos stand out as well. Jagged flutter-tonguing from the saxophonist erupting from a foundation of vibe resonation from Dingman enlivens Now Longer, a bass vamp that became a suite. During the piece, Opsvik slithers all over the strings or walks authoritatively while the blurry unison horn work confirms the transformation.

Overall the expatriate Torontonian’s playing, arranging and composing is so accomplished that one doesn’t known whether to give it an “A” or an “Eh”.

--Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 17 #2

October 5, 2011

Mostly Other People Do the Killing

This Is Our Moosic
Hot Cup 082

Jon Irabagon

Outright!

Innova Records 699

Alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon, who migrated from suburban Chicago to Astoria, Queens, working with different bands in clubs and studying music along the way, won the 21st annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition last October. On the evidence of these CDs, it’s easy to see why.

Possessed of an upfront style, strong chops and a thorough understanding of the tradition, Irabagon composes swinging and sometimes complex tunes and is a mainstream polymath who obviously impressed representatives of the jazz establishment who hand out awards. No show-boater, the reedist takes only slightly more solo space on his debut session as he gets on This Is Our Moosic and is surrounded on both discs by the highest grade of young New York-centred talent. Overall though, he fares better as one interlocking clog of bassist Moppa Elliott’s extravagantly named Mostly Other People Do the Killing (MOPDtK), then on his own.

Why? Evidently trying to touch all bases on Outright, the alto man and his squad – trumpeter Russ Johnson, keyboardist Kris Davis bassist Eivind Opsvik drummer Jeff Davis plus guitarist Jesse Lewis and programmer Chris Cash on different tracks – brush against nearly every modern jazz current without settling on or buttressing any one with an exclusive statement. MOPDtK’s equally eclectic session at least cleaves to its stance as a “terrorist Bebop” band and interpolates unexpected sound currents on Elliott’s version of POMO deconstruction.

With a CD cover that parodies Ornette Coleman’s “This is Our Music” LP – MOPDtK’s previous disc lampooned original Blue Note records’ distinctive colossal typography and faux-erudite liner notes – the band parades its influences upfront, but isn’t afraid to mess with expectation, something Irabagon merely touches on as leader.

Plus the MOPDtK tunes seem to better articulate the band members’ varied backgrounds. Trumpeter Peter Evans for instance, also plays microtonal solo trumpet, has worked with European avant gardists like British saxophonist Evan Parker, plus performs on piccolo trumpet in Baroque settings. Kevin Shea also drums with synthesizer player Matt Mottel in Talibam! and has a duo with guitarist Mary Halvorson; while Elliott teaches math and music. On his own, Irabagon plays in both Bop and 1980s pop cover band. MOPDtK covers Billy Joel’s “Allentown” at his insistence.

More generic to the group’s concept is Elliott’s compositional conceits. “My Delightful Muse” for instance is labeled funk, but comes across more like Dixieland call-and-response. On its axis is Evans spraying choruses of growls and tattoos, followed by piles of staccato triplets. With Irabagon alternately snorting and squeezing agitato wails and mouse squeaks, the tune reaches a climax of echoing double counterpoint while Shea rings glass armonica-like concussions and Elliott slaps his strings. With the horns and rhythm section sounding similar notes in different tempi, all eventually slide back to the Trad-Jazz replication with sul tasto bass lines serving as the finale.

Other pieces reference everything from the Batman theme to “Sidewinder”-styled funk, with Hard Bop licks and rock-styled backbeats appearing and vanishing at different junctures. “Drainlink” for example, has the saxophonist building tension while stuttering a stop-time chorus, as the bassist hits strings and wood repeatedly. “Fagundus” is another jumping Bebop tune encompassing a rasping counter line from Evans as simultaneously Irabagon extends his emotional flutter tonguing with pulsating slurs.

Defining and definitive “Effort, Patience Diligence” is a bravura 12/8 head, which packs nearly every blues cliché into fewer than six minutes. With Elliott walking, Shea shaking bells and tambourines plus Evans squeezing notes until they bray, it’s an undulating, chromatic melody that could have sneaked over from a Preservation Hall Jazz Band session, until, of course, the saxophonist breaks things up with tongue stops and reed bites.

Perhaps Irabagon’s debut disc should have demonstrated the same faith in eclecticism. Never less than professional, it resounds with a Back to the Future vibe much of the time. Included are a POMO run through of “Groovin’ High”; unaccompanied downward slurs and burbles from the horns on another tune that seems to replicate the “Lonely Woman” head; and a skewed neo-Dixieland party-time take on the band’s theme complete with fluid clarinet licks and lurching, almost inchoate rhythmic overflow.

More notable are “Charles Barkley” and “That Was Then”. The former is built on stops from bassist Opsvik, a Norwegian living in New York, who also works with tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby, and the strumming arpeggios and block chords of Canadian expatriate pianist Davis. As drummer Davis rolls and pumps and Johnson blasts a near freylach line, Irabagon turns the piece around with stop-time and rubato meandering, halving the tempo with a cut-and-thrust solo that’s half Hard Bop and half Free Time. With the husband-and-wife piano/drums team playing at double tempo, hip-hopping back to the original swinging theme, the alto man eventually reveals his inner Hank Crawford, while Johnston exposes his inner Marcus Belgrave.

As for the later tune, a sweeping panoramic trumpet exposition over woody bass thumps eventually gives way to Davis eschewing low-frequency chords at the top end for lurching organ note clusters mated with the drummer’s shuffle beat. Following a mid-section taken up by guest guitarist Lewis spewing sprays of pop-rock licks and crunching, distorted chords, vocal backing from the so-called “mixed choir” of musicians doesn’t quite get the piece back on track.

In fact, the most out-of-character composition – for Irabagon at least – is “Quorum Call”, which posits a move away from the expected. Pianist Davis introduces the later tune with some inside-piano string clipping and soundboard rumbles that soon mix it up with muffled grace notes from Johnson and cascading vibrations from the saxophonist. Defining itself as an antiphonal freeform interlude, the composition rests on busy paradiddles and military-style press rolls from drummer Davis. Also present are oscillated knob-twisting from Cash that practically redefines the composition until a Hard Bop-like head kicks in, redirecting the piece to exit with rolling, kinetic cadences from the pianist and pops and drags from the drummer.

Obviously someone with a burgeoning reputation, Irabagon has promise – definitely as a sideman in a close-knit, organized band as MOPDtK’s CD demonstrates –but thus far has yet to make a major recorded statement. Nevertheless, judging from these discs, it’s hoped that in future he will develop into a notable stylist – and not just another poll winner.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Moosic: 1. Drainlick 2. Two Boot Jacks 3. Fagundus 4. The Bats in Belfry 5. East Orwell 6. My Delightful Muse 7. Biggertown 8. Effort, Patience Diligence 9. Allentown

Personnel: Moosic: Peter Evans (trumpet and piccolo trumpet) Jon Irabagon (alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones, Moppa Elliott (bass) and Kevin Shea (drums)

Track Listing: Outright: 1. Anchors (By Design) 2. Quorum Call* 3. Groovin’ High 4. That Was Then+ 5. Outright Theme# 6. Charles Barkley 7. Oddjob

Personnel: Outright: Russ Johnson (trumpet); Jon Irabagon (alto saxophone); Kris Davis (piano and organ); Eivind Opsvik (bass) and Jeff Davis (drums) plus Chris Cash (programming)*; Jesse Lewis (guitar)+; Mixed Choir+ and Original Outright! Jass Band#

February 8, 2009

Jon Irabagon

Outright!
Innova Records 699

Mostly Other People Do the Killing

This Is Our Moosic

Hot Cup 082

Alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon, who migrated from suburban Chicago to Astoria, Queens, working with different bands in clubs and studying music along the way, won the 21st annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition last October. On the evidence of these CDs, it’s easy to see why.

Possessed of an upfront style, strong chops and a thorough understanding of the tradition, Irabagon composes swinging and sometimes complex tunes and is a mainstream polymath who obviously impressed representatives of the jazz establishment who hand out awards. No show-boater, the reedist takes only slightly more solo space on his debut session as he gets on This Is Our Moosic and is surrounded on both discs by the highest grade of young New York-centred talent. Overall though, he fares better as one interlocking clog of bassist Moppa Elliott’s extravagantly named Mostly Other People Do the Killing (MOPDtK), then on his own.

Why? Evidently trying to touch all bases on Outright, the alto man and his squad – trumpeter Russ Johnson, keyboardist Kris Davis bassist Eivind Opsvik drummer Jeff Davis plus guitarist Jesse Lewis and programmer Chris Cash on different tracks – brush against nearly every modern jazz current without settling on or buttressing any one with an exclusive statement. MOPDtK’s equally eclectic session at least cleaves to its stance as a “terrorist Bebop” band and interpolates unexpected sound currents on Elliott’s version of POMO deconstruction.

With a CD cover that parodies Ornette Coleman’s “This is Our Music” LP – MOPDtK’s previous disc lampooned original Blue Note records’ distinctive colossal typography and faux-erudite liner notes – the band parades its influences upfront, but isn’t afraid to mess with expectation, something Irabagon merely touches on as leader.

Plus the MOPDtK tunes seem to better articulate the band members’ varied backgrounds. Trumpeter Peter Evans for instance, also plays microtonal solo trumpet, has worked with European avant gardists like British saxophonist Evan Parker, plus performs on piccolo trumpet in Baroque settings. Kevin Shea also drums with synthesizer player Matt Mottel in Talibam! and has a duo with guitarist Mary Halvorson; while Elliott teaches math and music. On his own, Irabagon plays in both Bop and 1980s pop cover band. MOPDtK covers Billy Joel’s “Allentown” at his insistence.

More generic to the group’s concept is Elliott’s compositional conceits. “My Delightful Muse” for instance is labeled funk, but comes across more like Dixieland call-and-response. On its axis is Evans spraying choruses of growls and tattoos, followed by piles of staccato triplets. With Irabagon alternately snorting and squeezing agitato wails and mouse squeaks, the tune reaches a climax of echoing double counterpoint while Shea rings glass armonica-like concussions and Elliott slaps his strings. With the horns and rhythm section sounding similar notes in different tempi, all eventually slide back to the Trad-Jazz replication with sul tasto bass lines serving as the finale.

Other pieces reference everything from the Batman theme to “Sidewinder”-styled funk, with Hard Bop licks and rock-styled backbeats appearing and vanishing at different junctures. “Drainlink” for example, has the saxophonist building tension while stuttering a stop-time chorus, as the bassist hits strings and wood repeatedly. “Fagundus” is another jumping Bebop tune encompassing a rasping counter line from Evans as simultaneously Irabagon extends his emotional flutter tonguing with pulsating slurs.

Defining and definitive “Effort, Patience Diligence” is a bravura 12/8 head, which packs nearly every blues cliché into fewer than six minutes. With Elliott walking, Shea shaking bells and tambourines plus Evans squeezing notes until they bray, it’s an undulating, chromatic melody that could have sneaked over from a Preservation Hall Jazz Band session, until, of course, the saxophonist breaks things up with tongue stops and reed bites.

Perhaps Irabagon’s debut disc should have demonstrated the same faith in eclecticism. Never less than professional, it resounds with a Back to the Future vibe much of the time. Included are a POMO run through of “Groovin’ High”; unaccompanied downward slurs and burbles from the horns on another tune that seems to replicate the “Lonely Woman” head; and a skewed neo-Dixieland party-time take on the band’s theme complete with fluid clarinet licks and lurching, almost inchoate rhythmic overflow.

More notable are “Charles Barkley” and “That Was Then”. The former is built on stops from bassist Opsvik, a Norwegian living in New York, who also works with tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby, and the strumming arpeggios and block chords of Canadian expatriate pianist Davis. As drummer Davis rolls and pumps and Johnson blasts a near freylach line, Irabagon turns the piece around with stop-time and rubato meandering, halving the tempo with a cut-and-thrust solo that’s half Hard Bop and half Free Time. With the husband-and-wife piano/drums team playing at double tempo, hip-hopping back to the original swinging theme, the alto man eventually reveals his inner Hank Crawford, while Johnston exposes his inner Marcus Belgrave.

As for the later tune, a sweeping panoramic trumpet exposition over woody bass thumps eventually gives way to Davis eschewing low-frequency chords at the top end for lurching organ note clusters mated with the drummer’s shuffle beat. Following a mid-section taken up by guest guitarist Lewis spewing sprays of pop-rock licks and crunching, distorted chords, vocal backing from the so-called “mixed choir” of musicians doesn’t quite get the piece back on track.

In fact, the most out-of-character composition – for Irabagon at least – is “Quorum Call”, which posits a move away from the expected. Pianist Davis introduces the later tune with some inside-piano string clipping and soundboard rumbles that soon mix it up with muffled grace notes from Johnson and cascading vibrations from the saxophonist. Defining itself as an antiphonal freeform interlude, the composition rests on busy paradiddles and military-style press rolls from drummer Davis. Also present are oscillated knob-twisting from Cash that practically redefines the composition until a Hard Bop-like head kicks in, redirecting the piece to exit with rolling, kinetic cadences from the pianist and pops and drags from the drummer.

Obviously someone with a burgeoning reputation, Irabagon has promise – definitely as a sideman in a close-knit, organized band as MOPDtK’s CD demonstrates –but thus far has yet to make a major recorded statement. Nevertheless, judging from these discs, it’s hoped that in future he will develop into a notable stylist – and not just another poll winner.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Moosic: 1. Drainlick 2. Two Boot Jacks 3. Fagundus 4. The Bats in Belfry 5. East Orwell 6. My Delightful Muse 7. Biggertown 8. Effort, Patience Diligence 9. Allentown

Personnel: Moosic: Peter Evans (trumpet and piccolo trumpet) Jon Irabagon (alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones, Moppa Elliott (bass) and Kevin Shea (drums)

Track Listing: Outright: 1. Anchors (By Design) 2. Quorum Call* 3. Groovin’ High 4. That Was Then+ 5. Outright Theme# 6. Charles Barkley 7. Oddjob

Personnel: Outright: Russ Johnson (trumpet); Jon Irabagon (alto saxophone); Kris Davis (piano and organ); Eivind Opsvik (bass) and Jeff Davis (drums) plus Chris Cash (programming)*; Jesse Lewis (guitar)+; Mixed Choir+ and Original Outright! Jass Band#

February 8, 2009