Chicago Trio

Velvet Songs: To Baba Fred Anderson
Rogueart ROG-0030

A tribute disc without including any of the dedicatee’s music, this two-CD set was actually recorded almost two years before the death of Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson in 2010. But these uncompromising, heart-felt performances captured at the Velvet Lounge, the south-side club Anderson ran for many decades, are more meaningful tributes to the musician and his abiding influence than any lachrymose song recreation.

That’s because, before a late career re-discovery in the 1990s that saw Anderson record dozens of CDs before his death, he was best-known as a club owner – the Birdhouse was his previous venue – and a bandleader who encouraged young talent and gave experimental musicians, mostly, but not exclusively from, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a regular place to play. Each of the Chicago Trio members benefitted from Anderson’s counsel in different ways. Now in-demand for a multitude of gigs in Europe and North America, Hamid Drake was a teenage percussionist given his first professional experience in Anderson’s band. Bassist and cellist Harrison Bankhead, a confrere of the tenor saxophonist in Anderson’s later bands, also worked with other committed improvisers like flautist Nicolle Mitchell and trumpeter Malachi Thompson. Meanwhile Ernest Dawkins, who plays soprano, alto and tenor saxophones plus percussion here played his first gig at the Birdhouse and often played with his New Horizons band at the Velvet Lounge.

Almost a quarter-century younger than his mentor, Dawkins, as can be seen by his choice of instruments and allusions to Africa and the Caribbean in his compositions, is open to more influences than the straight Coleman Hawkins-to-John Coltrane improv ethos which Anderson followed. For instance on “Down n’ the Delta”, a performance that seems inspired by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, he blows both alto an tenor saxophone simultaneously and once the theme is stated goes into an R&B-tinged version of “When The Saints Go Marching In.” As Dawkins’ lines squeak through the narrative, stop-time and staccato, Drake slams a bouncing shuffle beat and Bankhead slaps his bass strings hard. “Jah Music,” which mixes Reggae-styled sways with that of a Jazz ballad, is kept steady by Drake’s duple beats, cow-bell whacks and hearty bounces. At the same time, as fluid in his part as if he was manipulating a bass guitar, Bankhead moves the chromatic line forward. Playing soprano, Dawkins’ initial narrowed split tomes moves through shrill whistles and climaxes with double and triple tonguing, matched with the drummer’s rim shots and rolls.

As masterful with a press roll as Art Blakey, Drake’s facility with it plus paradiddles and wood block accents are given prime exposure on “Sweet 22nd Street (The Velvet Lounge)”. With Dawkins expressing himself in emotional tenor saxophone slurs and repeated melody fragments, the piece builds up to a double-time climax of percussion pops and pressurized glottal punctuation. Although the reedist is also capable of wild Aylerian screams as well as more intense lyricism on his horns, he seems to reserve his most impassioned soloing for the two tracks dedicated to Anderson. “Peace and Blessing (to Fred)” and “One For Fred”.

With the former track featuring Bankhead’s expressive cello lines harmonized with Drake’s frame drum rubs, as the drummer shakes small bells and gongs, the piece is more celebration than threnody. Reaching a crescendo with supple bent notes from the saxophone, the exposition skitters more quickly, than wraps up with a gentling finale from Dawkins on soprano saxophone. The extended “One For Fred”, in contrast features as many quarter tones, reed bites, overblowing and false register excursions from Dawkins’ tenor saxophone as Anderson himself would bring to an impassioned solo. With the percussionist’s pounding driving him ever forward, the saxophonist moves through multiphonics and modular honks plus guttural snarls before climaxing with repeated tremolo phrases. Even so this bravura display is followed every step of the way by quick bounces from Drake.

Without being maudlin or sentimental the strength of the playing and (instant) composing of Dawkins, Drake and Bankhead is as fitting a memorial to Anderson as he and his club’s many customers should rightly expect.

--Ken Waxman

Track List: CD1: 1. Astral Projection 2. Sweet 22nd Street (The Velvet Lounge) 3. You Just Cross My Mind 4. The Rumble 5. Peace and Blessing (to Fred) 6. Down n’ the Delta CD2: 1. Jah Music 2. Galaxies Beyond 3. Woman of Darfur 4. Waltz of Passion 5. Moi Tre Gran Garcon 6. One For Fred

Personnel: Ernest Dawkins (soprano, alto and tenor saxophones and percussion); Harrison Bankhead (bass and cello) and Hamid Drake (drums and frame drum

July 26, 2012

Kidd Jordan

On Fire
Engine e042

Like Diogenes searching for an honest man, tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan often has to travel great distances from his New Orleans home to find suitable playing partners. Jordan, who had long-time arrangements with the late Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson and versatile Mississippi drummer Alvin Jackson, here showcases his fire music in the company of Chicago bassist-cellist Harrison Bankhead and New York’s Warren Smith, who plays drums, vibes and percussion on this Brooklyn-recorded CD.

A master of blending emotions and drama, Jordan’s go-for-broke improvising is studded with heartfelt snorts, slurs and spits that appear in unexpected places. Comfortable with the split-second tempo and time transitions which abound on the four peculiarly titled tracks here, his slides from basso to altissimo extrusions take in multiphonics and glosslalia if he so wishes or moderated lyricism. Throughout Jordan’s timbral variations are matched by the alternate string-juddering or caressing from the bassist, who has a long history of backing Chi-Town saxophonists such as Anderson, Ernest Dawkins and Roscoe Mitchell. Smith, who has worked with everyone from saxophonist Julius Hemphill to guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, uses pitter-patters, ruffs, drags and other percussion polyrhythms to assert himself while moving the pieces chromatically.

Although Chinese gong-like reverberations and auxiliary methods of percussion discussion appear on every track, the most interesting are “We Are All Indebted to Each Other” and “Harrison Carries Out the Coffin”, where Smith’s main rhythmic impetus is from the vibraphone. From beginning to end the sounds are balanced by Smith’s limpid mallet work which ranges from cushioning chords to ferocious metal bar scrapes. Unlike the arco cello sweeps he exhibits on other tracks, Bankhead emphasizes double bass prowess on these pieces, with staccato thumping or steady waking. As for Jordan, he cycles through his modes of expression, masticating melody snatches when Smith’s pops and rebound are at their most delicate; or letting loose with contrapuntal squeals, snorts and double-tonguing to contrast with the vibist’s focused mallet slaps.

Bankhead signals the second tune’s and final track’s ultimate variation as he hums a Blues line in tandem with his thick string pulls. Accompanying and commenting on this are Smith’s pin-pointed, bell-like resonations and a gradual shift in the saxophone attack. At first tentatively then conclusively, Jordan’s timbres descend from stratospheric reed bites to a mellow summary.

Truth in 100% recycled clipboard packaging, Jordan’s improvising is truly on fire here; as are the contributions from his two associates.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Officer, That Big Knife is To Cut My Sax Reeds 2. Evil Eye 3. We Are All Indebted to Each Other 4. Harrison Carries Out the Coffin

Personnel: Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophone); Harrison Bankhead (bass and cello) and Warren Smith (drums, vibes and percussion)

July 1, 2012

Nicole Mitchell

Awakening
Delmark DE-599

Indigo Trio/Michel Edelin

The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest

RogueArt ROG-0034

By Ken Waxman

Even after nearly 60 years as a double for woodwind players – and first choice for a select few – the flute can’t shake off its reputation as a secondary jazz axe. But Nicole Mitchell, who recently moved from Chicago to the West Coast, is doing her best to overcome this stigma. Avoiding the transverse tube’s frillier association, she also stays away from atonal experiments. As these CDs demonstrate, impressive improvisations are created even as the flute retains its lyrical characteristics.

Each quartet disc, with a different front-line partner, but with most compositions by Mitchell, is distinct. Recorded in Strasbourg with Paris-based Michel Edelin the other flautist, The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest is formal and delicate. Awakening, from Chicago, adds guitarist Jeff Parker, whose affiliations include rock band Tortoise, for a more aggressive session. Bassist Harrison Bankhead, a regular in saxophonist Ernest Dawkins’ bands is on both discs. Hamid Drake, one of jazz’s busiest percussionists also meets The Ethiopian Princess, while solid AACMer Avreeayl Ra is the Awakening percussionist.

By blending Edelin’s flute and alto flute with Mitchell’s flute, alto flute and piccolo, their disc is reminiscent of a Sam Most-Herbie Mann face off. Meanwhile Bankhead’s pulsing coupled with Drake’s inventive slaps and rebounds pace the eight selections, allowing Mitchell and Edelin to extemporize distinct flute sequences in turn. Legato, “Inside the Earth” finds aviary wisps and whistling peeps from the flutists giving way to mellow pitches. “Wind Current” on the other hand balances low-intensity and low-pitched glissandi atop pedal-point bass lines and rim shots. “Call Back”, one of Edelin’s two compositions, has a stealthy, elongated theme framed by a martial beat from Drake. As the flutists solo in turn, one produces pitched chirps and the other evocative lowing. Eventually as glottal slurps, tongue stops and growls are added to the mix, the piece resolves itself capaciously with arpeggios from Bankhead, rat-tat-tats from Drake and mixed tongue pressures from Edelin and Mitchell.

Awakening’s precursor could be a sessions when a polite flautists like Moe Koffman improvised with an orderly guitarist like Ed Bickert. On the other hand when the session’s momentum augments on a track like “Momentum”, Parker’s linear work suggests Herb Ellis, with bluesy asides cozying up to the flautist’s staccato flutter tonguing. Contributing to the mood swings are the guitarist’s chiming chords and the bassist’s popping thumps or measured bow slides. Meanwhile, since Mitchell’s narrative skill also encompasses fortissimo whistles and gritty blowing, varied emotions are on tap throughout, from slow romanticism to moderated funkiness. The suite-like “Journey on a Thread” is probably the finest instance of her articulated and animated story-telling, as an innocent melody alternates with the flutist articulating a more staccato line. Irregularly vibrated breaths and mouth buzzes give the piece a time-stretching pattern, intensified by Parker’s circular comping and Bankhead’s string pulsing.

Flute fanciers may prefer The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest, while those seeking pronounced swing should gravitate to Awakening. What’s obvious on both is that nowhere does Mitchell – or Edelin – have to make any allowances for the flute’s supposed deficiencies as an instrument for profound improvisations.

Tracks: Ethiopian: Top Secret; Inside the Earth; Dérives; Wind Current; Call Back; The Ethiopian Princess Meets the Tantric Priest; Ambre Sunset; Return of the Sun

Personnel: Ethiopian: Nicole Mitchell (flute, alto flute and piccolo); Michel Edelin (flute and alto flute); Harrison Bankhead (bass and piano) and Hamid Drake( drums and frame drum)

Track Listing: Awakening: Curly Top; Journey on a Thread; Center of the Earth; Snowflakes; Momentum; More Than I Can Say; There; 8. F.O.C.; Awakening

Personnel: Awakening: Nicole Mitchell (flute); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Avreeayl Ra (drums and percussion)

--For New York City Jazz Record June 2012

June 5, 2012

Indigo Trio/Michel Edelin

The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest
RogueArt ROG-0034

Nicole Mitchell

Awakening

Delmark DE-599

By Ken Waxman

Even after nearly 60 years as a double for woodwind players – and first choice for a select few – the flute can’t shake off its reputation as a secondary jazz axe. But Nicole Mitchell, who recently moved from Chicago to the West Coast, is doing her best to overcome this stigma. Avoiding the transverse tube’s frillier association, she also stays away from atonal experiments. As these CDs demonstrate, impressive improvisations are created even as the flute retains its lyrical characteristics.

Each quartet disc, with a different front-line partner, but with most compositions by Mitchell, is distinct. Recorded in Strasbourg with Paris-based Michel Edelin the other flautist, The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest is formal and delicate. Awakening, from Chicago, adds guitarist Jeff Parker, whose affiliations include rock band Tortoise, for a more aggressive session. Bassist Harrison Bankhead, a regular in saxophonist Ernest Dawkins’ bands is on both discs. Hamid Drake, one of jazz’s busiest percussionists also meets The Ethiopian Princess, while solid AACMer Avreeayl Ra is the Awakening percussionist.

By blending Edelin’s flute and alto flute with Mitchell’s flute, alto flute and piccolo, their disc is reminiscent of a Sam Most-Herbie Mann face off. Meanwhile Bankhead’s pulsing coupled with Drake’s inventive slaps and rebounds pace the eight selections, allowing Mitchell and Edelin to extemporize distinct flute sequences in turn. Legato, “Inside the Earth” finds aviary wisps and whistling peeps from the flutists giving way to mellow pitches. “Wind Current” on the other hand balances low-intensity and low-pitched glissandi atop pedal-point bass lines and rim shots. “Call Back”, one of Edelin’s two compositions, has a stealthy, elongated theme framed by a martial beat from Drake. As the flutists solo in turn, one produces pitched chirps and the other evocative lowing. Eventually as glottal slurps, tongue stops and growls are added to the mix, the piece resolves itself capaciously with arpeggios from Bankhead, rat-tat-tats from Drake and mixed tongue pressures from Edelin and Mitchell.

Awakening’s precursor could be a sessions when a polite flautists like Moe Koffman improvised with an orderly guitarist like Ed Bickert. On the other hand when the session’s momentum augments on a track like “Momentum”, Parker’s linear work suggests Herb Ellis, with bluesy asides cozying up to the flautist’s staccato flutter tonguing. Contributing to the mood swings are the guitarist’s chiming chords and the bassist’s popping thumps or measured bow slides. Meanwhile, since Mitchell’s narrative skill also encompasses fortissimo whistles and gritty blowing, varied emotions are on tap throughout, from slow romanticism to moderated funkiness. The suite-like “Journey on a Thread” is probably the finest instance of her articulated and animated story-telling, as an innocent melody alternates with the flutist articulating a more staccato line. Irregularly vibrated breaths and mouth buzzes give the piece a time-stretching pattern, intensified by Parker’s circular comping and Bankhead’s string pulsing.

Flute fanciers may prefer The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest, while those seeking pronounced swing should gravitate to Awakening. What’s obvious on both is that nowhere does Mitchell – or Edelin – have to make any allowances for the flute’s supposed deficiencies as an instrument for profound improvisations.

Tracks: Ethiopian: Top Secret; Inside the Earth; Dérives; Wind Current; Call Back; The Ethiopian Princess Meets the Tantric Priest; Ambre Sunset; Return of the Sun

Personnel: Ethiopian: Nicole Mitchell (flute, alto flute and piccolo); Michel Edelin (flute and alto flute); Harrison Bankhead (bass and piano) and Hamid Drake( drums and frame drum)

Track Listing: Awakening: Curly Top; Journey on a Thread; Center of the Earth; Snowflakes; Momentum; More Than I Can Say; There; 8. F.O.C.; Awakening

Personnel: Awakening: Nicole Mitchell (flute); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Avreeayl Ra (drums and percussion)

--For New York City Jazz Record June 2012

June 5, 2012

Nicole Mitchell

Awakening
Delmark DE 599

Indigo Trio/Michel Edelin

The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest

RogueArt ROG-0034

Even after the nearly 60 years since it became an accepted double for many woodwind players – and instrument of choice for a select few – the flute still can’t shake off its reputation as a secondary axe for improvisation. But Nicole Mitchell, who recently moved from Chicago to the West Coast, is doing her best to overcome this stigma. Avoiding the transverse tube’s frillier association, in her writing and playing she also stays away from outright timbral experimentation. Nevertheless, as these CDs, recorded within two months of one another demonstrate, impressive improvisations can be created, even as the gold-plated stick retains its so-called lady-like characteristics.

Each quartet disc with a different front-line partner, but with most compositions by Mitchell, is tactfully different. Recorded in Strasbourg, with self-taught, Paris-based Michel Edelin the other flautist, The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest is more formal and delicate. Awakening, from Chicago, adds guitarist Jeff Parker, whose affiliations include electro experimenters like Tortoise and cornetist Rob Mazurek, for a more aggressive session. Mitchell, who has held high positions in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (ACCM) organization, is backed by fellow AACMers on the two sets. Bassist Harrison Bankhead, who has been in the bands of among others, saxophonist Fred Anderson and trumpeter Malachi Thompson, is on both CDs. Arguably the scene’s busiest Free Jazz percussionist, Hamid Drake completes the Indigo Trio, while Avreeayl Ra, who has played with saxophonists Ari Brown and Ernest Dawkins is on the other disc. For his part, Edelin’s playing partners have ranged from saxophonists Steve Lehman to pianist Sophia Domancich.

United in merit, the personnel is the demarcation line between the two discs. With Edelin, who plays flute and alto flute here, one disc is reminiscent of a Sam Most-Herbie Mann or Buddy Collette-Bob Cooper face off, especially because Mitchell varies her approach playing alto flute and piccolo as well as the standard model. Considering the line-up and the unforced swing due to Parker clean, single-note execution, Awakening’s precursor could be those sets when flautists like Moe Koffman or Paul Horn improvised with orderly guitarists such as Jim Hall or Ed Bickert.

At the same time when the sonic momentum augments on a track like “Momentum”, Parker’s clean, yet linear work suggests Herb Ellis or Barney Kessel, with bluesy asides cozying up to the flautist’s staccato flutter tonguing. Since her work here also encompasses fortissimo whistles and gritty blowing, the four Chicagoans express different emotions from slow romanticism to moderato swing, with Ra’s rebounds plus bass drum emphasis, and Bankhead’s bow slides contributing to the mood.

Throughout, it appears that the quartet members have managed to reach a confluence where tight harmonies lack harsh distortion, but still manage to express emotions whether it’s through Parker’s chiming chords, Mitchell’s narrative linearism or the bassist’s popping thump. This cool detachment even extends into “More Than I Can Say”, composed for the flutist’s fiancé. Although legato flute lines repeatedly quiver with restrained passion, the counterpoint between her angled breath intervals and the guitarist’s resilient strums reference strength not subservience,

The suite-like “Journey on a Thread” is probably the finest instance of her articulated and animated story-telling, as an innocent melody alternates with flute glissandi which speak of a more staccato theme. Irregularly vibrated breaths and mouth buzzing mixed with instrument-produces air give the piece a time-stretching pattern advanced by Parker’s circular comping and Bankhead’s pulsing.

Bankhead’s pulsing is just as noticeable on the other CD, and he even plays some meditative piano on it which gives the dual flutists’ bouncing glissandi context. Overall though his rhythm work coupled with Drake’s inventive kit use manages to pace the eight selections while Mitchell and Edelin extemporize inventive flute sequences. On a tune such as “Inside the Earth” for example their playing has elements of atonality and lyricism at the same time with aviary sweeps and whistling peeps giving way to mellow pitches, while Bankhead walks and Drake cymbal slaps. “Wind Current” on the other hand balances low-intensity and low-pitched glissandi atop pedal-point bass lines and rim shots. Moving from rococo coloration of one another’s narratives to moderato harmonies, the dual flutists make common cause with the rhythm section.

“Call Back”, one of the French flautist’s two compositions, has a stealthy theme that is elongated as Drake sounds a martial beat. With the two flautists soloing in turn, one produces pitched chirps and the other evocative lowing. Eventually as glottal slurps, tongue stops and growls are added to the mix, the capacious climax involves arpeggios from Bankhead, rat-tat-tats from Drake and mixed tongue pressures from Edelin and Mitchell.

Flute fanciers should have a field day with The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest, while those seeking more pronounced swing should gravitate to Awakening. What’s clear on both discs is that nowhere does Mitchell – not to mention Edelin – have to make any allowances for the flute’s supposed failings as an instrument for profound improvisations.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ethiopian: 1. Top Secret 2. Inside the Earth 3. Dérives 4. Wind Current 5. Call Back 6. The Ethiopian Princess Meets the Tantric Priest 7. Ambre Sunset 8. Return of the Sun

Personnel: Ethiopian: Nicole Mitchell (flute, alto flute and piccolo); Michel Edelin (flute and alto flute); Harrison Bankhead (bass and piano) and Hamid Drake (drums and frame drum)

Track Listing: Awakening: 1. Curly Top 2. Journey on a Thread 3. Center of the Earth 4. Snowflakes 5. Momentum 6. More Than I Can Say 7. There" 8. F.O.C. 9. Awakening

Personnel: Awakening: Nicole Mitchell (flute); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Avreeayl Ra (drums and percussion)

February 20, 2012

Indigo Trio/Michel Edelin

The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest
RogueArt ROG-0034

The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest

RogueArt ROG-0034

Even after the nearly 60 years since it became an accepted double for many woodwind players – and instrument of choice for a select few – the flute still can’t shake off its reputation as a secondary axe for improvisation. But Nicole Mitchell, who recently moved from Chicago to the West Coast, is doing her best to overcome this stigma. Avoiding the transverse tube’s frillier association, in her writing and playing she also stays away from outright timbral experimentation. Nevertheless, as these CDs, recorded within two months of one another demonstrate, impressive improvisations can be created, even as the gold-plated stick retains its so-called lady-like characteristics.

Each quartet disc with a different front-line partner, but with most compositions by Mitchell, is tactfully different. Recorded in Strasbourg, with self-taught, Paris-based Michel Edelin the other flautist, The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest is more formal and delicate. Awakening, from Chicago, adds guitarist Jeff Parker, whose affiliations include electro experimenters like Tortoise and cornetist Rob Mazurek, for a more aggressive session. Mitchell, who has held high positions in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (ACCM) organization, is backed by fellow AACMers on the two sets. Bassist Harrison Bankhead, who has been in the bands of among others, saxophonist Fred Anderson and trumpeter Malachi Thompson, is on both CDs. Arguably the scene’s busiest Free Jazz percussionist, Hamid Drake completes the Indigo Trio, while Avreeayl Ra, who has played with saxophonists Ari Brown and Ernest Dawkins is on the other disc. For his part, Edelin’s playing partners have ranged from saxophonists Steve Lehman to pianist Sophia Domancich.

United in merit, the personnel is the demarcation line between the two discs. With Edelin, who plays flute and alto flute here, one disc is reminiscent of a Sam Most-Herbie Mann or Buddy Collette-Bob Cooper face off, especially because Mitchell varies her approach playing alto flute and piccolo as well as the standard model. Considering the line-up and the unforced swing due to Parker clean, single-note execution, Awakening’s precursor could be those sets when flautists like Moe Koffman or Paul Horn improvised with orderly guitarists such as Jim Hall or Ed Bickert.

At the same time when the sonic momentum augments on a track like “Momentum”, Parker’s clean, yet linear work suggests Herb Ellis or Barney Kessel, with bluesy asides cozying up to the flautist’s staccato flutter tonguing. Since her work here also encompasses fortissimo whistles and gritty blowing, the four Chicagoans express different emotions from slow romanticism to moderato swing, with Ra’s rebounds plus bass drum emphasis, and Bankhead’s bow slides contributing to the mood.

Throughout, it appears that the quartet members have managed to reach a confluence where tight harmonies lack harsh distortion, but still manage to express emotions whether it’s through Parker’s chiming chords, Mitchell’s narrative linearism or the bassist’s popping thump. This cool detachment even extends into “More Than I Can Say”, composed for the flutist’s fiancé. Although legato flute lines repeatedly quiver with restrained passion, the counterpoint between her angled breath intervals and the guitarist’s resilient strums reference strength not subservience,

The suite-like “Journey on a Thread” is probably the finest instance of her articulated and animated story-telling, as an innocent melody alternates with flute glissandi which speak of a more staccato theme. Irregularly vibrated breaths and mouth buzzing mixed with instrument-produces air give the piece a time-stretching pattern advanced by Parker’s circular comping and Bankhead’s pulsing.

Bankhead’s pulsing is just as noticeable on the other CD, and he even plays some meditative piano on it which gives the dual flutists’ bouncing glissandi context. Overall though his rhythm work coupled with Drake’s inventive kit use manages to pace the eight selections while Mitchell and Edelin extemporize inventive flute sequences. On a tune such as “Inside the Earth” for example their playing has elements of atonality and lyricism at the same time with aviary sweeps and whistling peeps giving way to mellow pitches, while Bankhead walks and Drake cymbal slaps. “Wind Current” on the other hand balances low-intensity and low-pitched glissandi atop pedal-point bass lines and rim shots. Moving from rococo coloration of one another’s narratives to moderato harmonies, the dual flutists make common cause with the rhythm section.

“Call Back”, one of the French flautist’s two compositions, has a stealthy theme that is elongated as Drake sounds a martial beat. With the two flautists soloing in turn, one produces pitched chirps and the other evocative lowing. Eventually as glottal slurps, tongue stops and growls are added to the mix, the capacious climax involves arpeggios from Bankhead, rat-tat-tats from Drake and mixed tongue pressures from Edelin and Mitchell.

Flute fanciers should have a field day with The Ethiopian Princess meets the Tantric Priest, while those seeking more pronounced swing should gravitate to Awakening. What’s clear on both discs is that nowhere does Mitchell – not to mention Edelin – have to make any allowances for the flute’s supposed failings as an instrument for profound improvisations.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ethiopian: 1. Top Secret 2. Inside the Earth 3. Dérives 4. Wind Current 5. Call Back 6. The Ethiopian Princess Meets the Tantric Priest 7. Ambre Sunset 8. Return of the Sun

Personnel: Ethiopian: Nicole Mitchell (flute, alto flute and piccolo); Michel Edelin (flute and alto flute); Harrison Bankhead (bass and piano) and Hamid Drake (drums and frame drum)

Track Listing: Awakening: 1. Curly Top 2. Journey on a Thread 3. Center of the Earth 4. Snowflakes 5. Momentum 6. More Than I Can Say 7. There" 8. F.O.C. 9. Awakening

Personnel: Awakening: Nicole Mitchell (flute); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Avreeayl Ra (drums and percussion)

February 20, 2012

Fred Anderson Trio

Birthday Live 2000
Asian Improv AIR “Official Bootleg”

Fred Anderson Quartet

Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III

Asian Improv AIR 0074

Fred Anderson

Staying in the Game

Engine e029

Fred Anderson

21st Century Chase

Delmark DE 589

Consistency of expression is what has characterized the playing of Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson over the years. Furthermore, unlike many other musicians, there hasn’t been a subsequent lessening of his powers as he ages. As a matter of fact, now that he’s reached the venerable age of 80, his improvisational skills are at an exalted peak. Listen to these CDs for proof. They were recorded not only at Anderson’s 80th Birthday Bash, but when he was a comparative youngster of 79, 78 and even 71.

A founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, who recorded sparingly between the late 1960s and mid-1990s, Anderson has nurtured some of Chicago’s younger talents both by gigging with them, as well as giving them a place to play in his now legendary Velvet Lounge. Those years out of the limelight also created an idiosyncratic soloist, who – like Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy before him – now possesses an unmistaken reed texture whose sharp split tones carve a unique niche in every tune. Not only does the sax man put a lie to the cliché that “jazz is a young man’s art”, but he also proves that when they age jazzman don’t have to be cuddly and comfortable like Doc Cheatham or Eubie Blake. Additionally, as he demonstrates in four contexts here, stamina, innovation and sonic color aren’t the preserve of any generation. His playing can be threatening to saxophonists of any age.

Over the years Anderson has developed a tight coterie of associates, with many turning up on these discs. The oldest session, Birthday Live 2000, is a trio CD with bassist Tatsu Aoki and drummer Chad Taylor. Seven years later, with Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, Taylor and Aoki are still on board and tenor saxophonist Francis Wong joins the trio. Staying in the Game – an understatement if there ever was one when Anderson is concerned – from 2008, features him with bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Tim Daisy. Finally 21st Century Chase from 2009, retains Bankhead, brings back Taylor and adds guitarist Jeff Parker and tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan – the later five years Anderson’s junior – whose tenure on the New Orleans scene is roughly analogous to Anderson’s in Chicago.

Anderson’s mature style is much in evidence as early as the first track on Birthday Live 2000. Both incendiary and knife-sharp, his carved-up timbres partition still further as he churns out double-and-triple tongued trills plus jagged Woody Woodpecker-like bites. Rappelling from just below the ligature down through the bow to the bell of his horn and back up again, the saxophonist’s glissandi radiate every which way. His explorations are backed by slapping bass strings plus opposite sticking and cross pulsing from Taylor.

Indefatigable and seemingly never at a lack for ideas – or breath, Anderson brings the same toughness to the third tune, which for all intents and purposes resembles a blues-flecked ballad. After an a capella intro from the tenorist, Aoki’s vibrating and quavering bass line moulds itself around Anderson’s rasping notes as the narrative is lengthened with emphasized phraseology and half-recognizable quotes from other tunes.

Flash forward eight years, and while Anderson has maintained his form, his playing is mellower. Bankhead’s supple walking now explores additional peaks and valleys in his accompaniment, while Daisy’s rolls, pops and bass drum kicks are as sturdy as Anderson’s solos. With the sidemen proficient players on other instruments as well as their own, intimations of other textures – if not the instruments themselves – show up on several tracks.

You could swear for instance that kalimba plucks are pressed into service on “Wandering”, or that Bankhead – who plays the six-string – has added guitar licks to his backing as well. Still the saxophone lines are moderato and unstrained, languid enough to indulge in an interlude of parlando, seconded by Bankhead’s unforced bass strokes. Similarly Daisy’s mallet-driven pulses on “Changes and Bodies and Tones” border on marimba textures as the bassist’s sul ponticello squeaks are moderated mid-range. Summing up the situation, Anderson builds his solo with pointillism, elongating and expanding note dabs and smears into a cohesive whole.

Mellow, yet still tough in his outings, the saxophonist manages to stretch tones almost to the breaking point, without ever severing the thematic thread. If he overblows while vibrating his horn’s metal, as he does on “60 Degrees in November”, the supplementary intervals and vibrations are perfectly balanced as they’re masticated with bites and tongue slaps. Chromatic improvisations from all hold everything together.

This relaxed, yet bellicose command is maintained when facing off against another tenor man, as Anderson does on the last two discs. No one plays for almost 70 years without devising strategies for different situations. Recorded at 2007’s Chicago Asian Jazz Festival, Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, for instance, allows the veteran tenor saxophonist to maintain his parameters throughout.

Case in point is a tune such as “Beyond the Bridge”. The head is sounded by Anderson’s harsh, irregular vibrato, then echoed with similar – but more accommodating – tones from Wong’s sax. Gritty, with reed bites and tongue stops, the two aurally march in unison with Taylor’s sticks flying into ruffs and rebounds and Aoki stop-start bass thumps. At times Wong, whose timbre is thinner than Anderson’s, could be playing “Hickory, Dickory Dock” as he operates in double counterpoint to the older saxophonist. That is until the drummer’s double-timed ratamacues and the bassist’s vibrating strings push Anderson to unleash his idiosyncratic stabbing pitches which are then answered by jagged, staccato octaves from the younger saxophonist.

An equivalent tart interface occurs on “Positive Changes”. However the impetus for Anderson and Wong combining for a series of tongue flutters and split tones which modulate up the scale with rubato intonation is some impressive bass work from Aoki. Moving beyond sul ponticello to a strained, near-vocalized pitch, the bassist descends the scale while sounding every string simultaneously.

The scene had been set with “Andersonville”, where each player stakes out his individual musical turf. Aoki’s thumps and pumps, Taylor’s whapping snares and cymbal vibrations plus the lockstep reed-biting and sonic curves from the saxophonists kick in almost as soon as Anderson sounds his signature ferocious cry. From then on Anderson appears to pushing and prodding every musical tone he can find in as many varied angles as he can – and Wong does the same. Steaming ahead, the two build up a polyphonic head of steam, double and triple-tonguing, appending connective arpeggios and sluicing vamps. Crumbling the lines to fine musical powder, the simultaneous staccato spewing never completely obliterates the piece’s musical shape.

Two years later Anderson’s 80th birthday bash at the new Velvet Lounge, not far from the old location, and featuring 75-year-old Jordan as well, was no exercise in nostalgia. The only bow to the past is that the two-part title tune reflects comparable tough tenor battles of the 1940s and 1950s. Adherents of the style were Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons and most pointedly Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray “The Chase”. However sharp ears will notice that by the end of the almost hour long improv here, both John Colrane and Johnny Griffin have been nodded to as well.

No exercise in neo-con nostalgia, this “Chase” announces its modernity from the top: a capella squeaks and squeals in altissimo variants played by Jordan with vocal exhortations and hard air expelling. Anderson counters with a “Pop Goes the Weasel” theme, Taylor and Bankhead hit, Parker twangs – and the chase is on. Jordan, a horse-raising aficionado, uses smears, clipped notes and effective glossolalia to take the lead as Anderson canters besides him with lower-pitched contrapuntal runs. Neck and neck, Jordan’s tone is more splintered and almost in the alto range while Anderson’s growls are practically moderato in comparison. Taylor’s ruffs and flams plus Bankhead’s walking stay back on the track, while Parker’s knob-twisting licks and abrasive twanging provide the equivalent of a spur to a horse’s flanks.

Eventually as diaphragm-vibrated timbres, elastic tonal interpolations and ragged split tones rend the air, both tenor men reach an extended rapprochement. Agitato and staccatissimo, neither can best the other – if that ever was the intention – and each maintains his distinctive identity. Getting to the point where each finishes each other’s phrases, a coda includes Jordan’s nod to Griffin via a quote from “Wade in the Water” and Anderson to Coltrane with a snatch of “A Love Supreme”. The finale showcases perfect parlando double counterpoint.

Bankhead’s sul ponticello introduction of the second part spectacularly exposes both the root notes and their fundamentals, but this pacific interlude soon gives way to more reed flaunting, taken chromatically or in broken octaves. Here and throughout the rest of the CD, the heavily vibrated multiphonic reed runs shares space with the guitarist’s curvaceous strums plus an occasional clank and click from the drummer. With Trane’s “Cousin Mary” and “Giant Steps” alluded to, the two wrap up the exciting essay in impov by honoring their direct influence as well as their tenor forefathers.

An equivalent chase in the future from others would undoubtedly have to touch on the saxophone advances of Anderson himself. From the originator, however, most of are exhibited in multi-faceted examples on these four discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 21st: 1. 21st Century Chase Part I 2. 21st Century Chase Part II 3. Ode to Alvin Fielder

Personnel: 21st: Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophones); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Birthday: 1. 22:40 2. 13:14 3. 14:24

Personnel: Birthday: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Staying: 1. Sunday Afternoon 2. The Elephant and the Bee 3. 60 Degrees in November 4. Wandering 5. Springing Winter 6. Changes and Bodies and Tones

Personnel: Staying: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Tin Daisy (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Andersonville 2. Acceleration 3. Beyond the Bridge 4. Positive Changes 5. Best Time of Life 6. Discreet Identifier

Personnel: Live: Fred Anderson and Francis Wong (tenor saxophones); Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

December 17, 2009

Fred Anderson Quartet

Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III
Asian Improv AIR 0074

Fred Anderson

Staying in the Game

Engine e029

Fred Anderson Trio

Birthday Live 2000

Asian Improv AIR “Official Bootleg”

Fred Anderson

21st Century Chase

Delmark DE 589

Consistency of expression is what has characterized the playing of Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson over the years. Furthermore, unlike many other musicians, there hasn’t been a subsequent lessening of his powers as he ages. As a matter of fact, now that he’s reached the venerable age of 80, his improvisational skills are at an exalted peak. Listen to these CDs for proof. They were recorded not only at Anderson’s 80th Birthday Bash, but when he was a comparative youngster of 79, 78 and even 71.

A founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, who recorded sparingly between the late 1960s and mid-1990s, Anderson has nurtured some of Chicago’s younger talents both by gigging with them, as well as giving them a place to play in his now legendary Velvet Lounge. Those years out of the limelight also created an idiosyncratic soloist, who – like Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy before him – now possesses an unmistaken reed texture whose sharp split tones carve a unique niche in every tune. Not only does the sax man put a lie to the cliché that “jazz is a young man’s art”, but he also proves that when they age jazzman don’t have to be cuddly and comfortable like Doc Cheatham or Eubie Blake. Additionally, as he demonstrates in four contexts here, stamina, innovation and sonic color aren’t the preserve of any generation. His playing can be threatening to saxophonists of any age.

Over the years Anderson has developed a tight coterie of associates, with many turning up on these discs. The oldest session, Birthday Live 2000, is a trio CD with bassist Tatsu Aoki and drummer Chad Taylor. Seven years later, with Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, Taylor and Aoki are still on board and tenor saxophonist Francis Wong joins the trio. Staying in the Game – an understatement if there ever was one when Anderson is concerned – from 2008, features him with bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Tim Daisy. Finally 21st Century Chase from 2009, retains Bankhead, brings back Taylor and adds guitarist Jeff Parker and tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan – the later five years Anderson’s junior – whose tenure on the New Orleans scene is roughly analogous to Anderson’s in Chicago.

Anderson’s mature style is much in evidence as early as the first track on Birthday Live 2000. Both incendiary and knife-sharp, his carved-up timbres partition still further as he churns out double-and-triple tongued trills plus jagged Woody Woodpecker-like bites. Rappelling from just below the ligature down through the bow to the bell of his horn and back up again, the saxophonist’s glissandi radiate every which way. His explorations are backed by slapping bass strings plus opposite sticking and cross pulsing from Taylor.

Indefatigable and seemingly never at a lack for ideas – or breath, Anderson brings the same toughness to the third tune, which for all intents and purposes resembles a blues-flecked ballad. After an a capella intro from the tenorist, Aoki’s vibrating and quavering bass line moulds itself around Anderson’s rasping notes as the narrative is lengthened with emphasized phraseology and half-recognizable quotes from other tunes.

Flash forward eight years, and while Anderson has maintained his form, his playing is mellower. Bankhead’s supple walking now explores additional peaks and valleys in his accompaniment, while Daisy’s rolls, pops and bass drum kicks are as sturdy as Anderson’s solos. With the sidemen proficient players on other instruments as well as their own, intimations of other textures – if not the instruments themselves – show up on several tracks.

You could swear for instance that kalimba plucks are pressed into service on “Wandering”, or that Bankhead – who plays the six-string – has added guitar licks to his backing as well. Still the saxophone lines are moderato and unstrained, languid enough to indulge in an interlude of parlando, seconded by Bankhead’s unforced bass strokes. Similarly Daisy’s mallet-driven pulses on “Changes and Bodies and Tones” border on marimba textures as the bassist’s sul ponticello squeaks are moderated mid-range. Summing up the situation, Anderson builds his solo with pointillism, elongating and expanding note dabs and smears into a cohesive whole.

Mellow, yet still tough in his outings, the saxophonist manages to stretch tones almost to the breaking point, without ever severing the thematic thread. If he overblows while vibrating his horn’s metal, as he does on “60 Degrees in November”, the supplementary intervals and vibrations are perfectly balanced as they’re masticated with bites and tongue slaps. Chromatic improvisations from all hold everything together.

This relaxed, yet bellicose command is maintained when facing off against another tenor man, as Anderson does on the last two discs. No one plays for almost 70 years without devising strategies for different situations. Recorded at 2007’s Chicago Asian Jazz Festival, Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, for instance, allows the veteran tenor saxophonist to maintain his parameters throughout.

Case in point is a tune such as “Beyond the Bridge”. The head is sounded by Anderson’s harsh, irregular vibrato, then echoed with similar – but more accommodating – tones from Wong’s sax. Gritty, with reed bites and tongue stops, the two aurally march in unison with Taylor’s sticks flying into ruffs and rebounds and Aoki stop-start bass thumps. At times Wong, whose timbre is thinner than Anderson’s, could be playing “Hickory, Dickory Dock” as he operates in double counterpoint to the older saxophonist. That is until the drummer’s double-timed ratamacues and the bassist’s vibrating strings push Anderson to unleash his idiosyncratic stabbing pitches which are then answered by jagged, staccato octaves from the younger saxophonist.

An equivalent tart interface occurs on “Positive Changes”. However the impetus for Anderson and Wong combining for a series of tongue flutters and split tones which modulate up the scale with rubato intonation is some impressive bass work from Aoki. Moving beyond sul ponticello to a strained, near-vocalized pitch, the bassist descends the scale while sounding every string simultaneously.

The scene had been set with “Andersonville”, where each player stakes out his individual musical turf. Aoki’s thumps and pumps, Taylor’s whapping snares and cymbal vibrations plus the lockstep reed-biting and sonic curves from the saxophonists kick in almost as soon as Anderson sounds his signature ferocious cry. From then on Anderson appears to pushing and prodding every musical tone he can find in as many varied angles as he can – and Wong does the same. Steaming ahead, the two build up a polyphonic head of steam, double and triple-tonguing, appending connective arpeggios and sluicing vamps. Crumbling the lines to fine musical powder, the simultaneous staccato spewing never completely obliterates the piece’s musical shape.

Two years later Anderson’s 80th birthday bash at the new Velvet Lounge, not far from the old location, and featuring 75-year-old Jordan as well, was no exercise in nostalgia. The only bow to the past is that the two-part title tune reflects comparable tough tenor battles of the 1940s and 1950s. Adherents of the style were Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons and most pointedly Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray “The Chase”. However sharp ears will notice that by the end of the almost hour long improv here, both John Colrane and Johnny Griffin have been nodded to as well.

No exercise in neo-con nostalgia, this “Chase” announces its modernity from the top: a capella squeaks and squeals in altissimo variants played by Jordan with vocal exhortations and hard air expelling. Anderson counters with a “Pop Goes the Weasel” theme, Taylor and Bankhead hit, Parker twangs – and the chase is on. Jordan, a horse-raising aficionado, uses smears, clipped notes and effective glossolalia to take the lead as Anderson canters besides him with lower-pitched contrapuntal runs. Neck and neck, Jordan’s tone is more splintered and almost in the alto range while Anderson’s growls are practically moderato in comparison. Taylor’s ruffs and flams plus Bankhead’s walking stay back on the track, while Parker’s knob-twisting licks and abrasive twanging provide the equivalent of a spur to a horse’s flanks.

Eventually as diaphragm-vibrated timbres, elastic tonal interpolations and ragged split tones rend the air, both tenor men reach an extended rapprochement. Agitato and staccatissimo, neither can best the other – if that ever was the intention – and each maintains his distinctive identity. Getting to the point where each finishes each other’s phrases, a coda includes Jordan’s nod to Griffin via a quote from “Wade in the Water” and Anderson to Coltrane with a snatch of “A Love Supreme”. The finale showcases perfect parlando double counterpoint.

Bankhead’s sul ponticello introduction of the second part spectacularly exposes both the root notes and their fundamentals, but this pacific interlude soon gives way to more reed flaunting, taken chromatically or in broken octaves. Here and throughout the rest of the CD, the heavily vibrated multiphonic reed runs shares space with the guitarist’s curvaceous strums plus an occasional clank and click from the drummer. With Trane’s “Cousin Mary” and “Giant Steps” alluded to, the two wrap up the exciting essay in impov by honoring their direct influence as well as their tenor forefathers.

An equivalent chase in the future from others would undoubtedly have to touch on the saxophone advances of Anderson himself. From the originator, however, most of are exhibited in multi-faceted examples on these four discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 21st: 1. 21st Century Chase Part I 2. 21st Century Chase Part II 3. Ode to Alvin Fielder

Personnel: 21st: Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophones); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Birthday: 1. 22:40 2. 13:14 3. 14:24

Personnel: Birthday: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Staying: 1. Sunday Afternoon 2. The Elephant and the Bee 3. 60 Degrees in November 4. Wandering 5. Springing Winter 6. Changes and Bodies and Tones

Personnel: Staying: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Tin Daisy (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Andersonville 2. Acceleration 3. Beyond the Bridge 4. Positive Changes 5. Best Time of Life 6. Discreet Identifier

Personnel: Live: Fred Anderson and Francis Wong (tenor saxophones); Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

December 17, 2009

Fred Anderson

Staying in the Game
Engine e029

Fred Anderson Quartet

Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III

Asian Improv AIR 0074

Fred Anderson Trio

Birthday Live 2000

Asian Improv AIR “Official Bootleg”

Fred Anderson

21st Century Chase

Delmark DE 589

Consistency of expression is what has characterized the playing of Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson over the years. Furthermore, unlike many other musicians, there hasn’t been a subsequent lessening of his powers as he ages. As a matter of fact, now that he’s reached the venerable age of 80, his improvisational skills are at an exalted peak. Listen to these CDs for proof. They were recorded not only at Anderson’s 80th Birthday Bash, but when he was a comparative youngster of 79, 78 and even 71.

A founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, who recorded sparingly between the late 1960s and mid-1990s, Anderson has nurtured some of Chicago’s younger talents both by gigging with them, as well as giving them a place to play in his now legendary Velvet Lounge. Those years out of the limelight also created an idiosyncratic soloist, who – like Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy before him – now possesses an unmistaken reed texture whose sharp split tones carve a unique niche in every tune. Not only does the sax man put a lie to the cliché that “jazz is a young man’s art”, but he also proves that when they age jazzman don’t have to be cuddly and comfortable like Doc Cheatham or Eubie Blake. Additionally, as he demonstrates in four contexts here, stamina, innovation and sonic color aren’t the preserve of any generation. His playing can be threatening to saxophonists of any age.

Over the years Anderson has developed a tight coterie of associates, with many turning up on these discs. The oldest session, Birthday Live 2000, is a trio CD with bassist Tatsu Aoki and drummer Chad Taylor. Seven years later, with Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, Taylor and Aoki are still on board and tenor saxophonist Francis Wong joins the trio. Staying in the Game – an understatement if there ever was one when Anderson is concerned – from 2008, features him with bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Tim Daisy. Finally 21st Century Chase from 2009, retains Bankhead, brings back Taylor and adds guitarist Jeff Parker and tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan – the later five years Anderson’s junior – whose tenure on the New Orleans scene is roughly analogous to Anderson’s in Chicago.

Anderson’s mature style is much in evidence as early as the first track on Birthday Live 2000. Both incendiary and knife-sharp, his carved-up timbres partition still further as he churns out double-and-triple tongued trills plus jagged Woody Woodpecker-like bites. Rappelling from just below the ligature down through the bow to the bell of his horn and back up again, the saxophonist’s glissandi radiate every which way. His explorations are backed by slapping bass strings plus opposite sticking and cross pulsing from Taylor.

Indefatigable and seemingly never at a lack for ideas – or breath, Anderson brings the same toughness to the third tune, which for all intents and purposes resembles a blues-flecked ballad. After an a capella intro from the tenorist, Aoki’s vibrating and quavering bass line moulds itself around Anderson’s rasping notes as the narrative is lengthened with emphasized phraseology and half-recognizable quotes from other tunes.

Flash forward eight years, and while Anderson has maintained his form, his playing is mellower. Bankhead’s supple walking now explores additional peaks and valleys in his accompaniment, while Daisy’s rolls, pops and bass drum kicks are as sturdy as Anderson’s solos. With the sidemen proficient players on other instruments as well as their own, intimations of other textures – if not the instruments themselves – show up on several tracks.

You could swear for instance that kalimba plucks are pressed into service on “Wandering”, or that Bankhead – who plays the six-string – has added guitar licks to his backing as well. Still the saxophone lines are moderato and unstrained, languid enough to indulge in an interlude of parlando, seconded by Bankhead’s unforced bass strokes. Similarly Daisy’s mallet-driven pulses on “Changes and Bodies and Tones” border on marimba textures as the bassist’s sul ponticello squeaks are moderated mid-range. Summing up the situation, Anderson builds his solo with pointillism, elongating and expanding note dabs and smears into a cohesive whole.

Mellow, yet still tough in his outings, the saxophonist manages to stretch tones almost to the breaking point, without ever severing the thematic thread. If he overblows while vibrating his horn’s metal, as he does on “60 Degrees in November”, the supplementary intervals and vibrations are perfectly balanced as they’re masticated with bites and tongue slaps. Chromatic improvisations from all hold everything together.

This relaxed, yet bellicose command is maintained when facing off against another tenor man, as Anderson does on the last two discs. No one plays for almost 70 years without devising strategies for different situations. Recorded at 2007’s Chicago Asian Jazz Festival, Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, for instance, allows the veteran tenor saxophonist to maintain his parameters throughout.

Case in point is a tune such as “Beyond the Bridge”. The head is sounded by Anderson’s harsh, irregular vibrato, then echoed with similar – but more accommodating – tones from Wong’s sax. Gritty, with reed bites and tongue stops, the two aurally march in unison with Taylor’s sticks flying into ruffs and rebounds and Aoki stop-start bass thumps. At times Wong, whose timbre is thinner than Anderson’s, could be playing “Hickory, Dickory Dock” as he operates in double counterpoint to the older saxophonist. That is until the drummer’s double-timed ratamacues and the bassist’s vibrating strings push Anderson to unleash his idiosyncratic stabbing pitches which are then answered by jagged, staccato octaves from the younger saxophonist.

An equivalent tart interface occurs on “Positive Changes”. However the impetus for Anderson and Wong combining for a series of tongue flutters and split tones which modulate up the scale with rubato intonation is some impressive bass work from Aoki. Moving beyond sul ponticello to a strained, near-vocalized pitch, the bassist descends the scale while sounding every string simultaneously.

The scene had been set with “Andersonville”, where each player stakes out his individual musical turf. Aoki’s thumps and pumps, Taylor’s whapping snares and cymbal vibrations plus the lockstep reed-biting and sonic curves from the saxophonists kick in almost as soon as Anderson sounds his signature ferocious cry. From then on Anderson appears to pushing and prodding every musical tone he can find in as many varied angles as he can – and Wong does the same. Steaming ahead, the two build up a polyphonic head of steam, double and triple-tonguing, appending connective arpeggios and sluicing vamps. Crumbling the lines to fine musical powder, the simultaneous staccato spewing never completely obliterates the piece’s musical shape.

Two years later Anderson’s 80th birthday bash at the new Velvet Lounge, not far from the old location, and featuring 75-year-old Jordan as well, was no exercise in nostalgia. The only bow to the past is that the two-part title tune reflects comparable tough tenor battles of the 1940s and 1950s. Adherents of the style were Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons and most pointedly Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray “The Chase”. However sharp ears will notice that by the end of the almost hour long improv here, both John Colrane and Johnny Griffin have been nodded to as well.

No exercise in neo-con nostalgia, this “Chase” announces its modernity from the top: a capella squeaks and squeals in altissimo variants played by Jordan with vocal exhortations and hard air expelling. Anderson counters with a “Pop Goes the Weasel” theme, Taylor and Bankhead hit, Parker twangs – and the chase is on. Jordan, a horse-raising aficionado, uses smears, clipped notes and effective glossolalia to take the lead as Anderson canters besides him with lower-pitched contrapuntal runs. Neck and neck, Jordan’s tone is more splintered and almost in the alto range while Anderson’s growls are practically moderato in comparison. Taylor’s ruffs and flams plus Bankhead’s walking stay back on the track, while Parker’s knob-twisting licks and abrasive twanging provide the equivalent of a spur to a horse’s flanks.

Eventually as diaphragm-vibrated timbres, elastic tonal interpolations and ragged split tones rend the air, both tenor men reach an extended rapprochement. Agitato and staccatissimo, neither can best the other – if that ever was the intention – and each maintains his distinctive identity. Getting to the point where each finishes each other’s phrases, a coda includes Jordan’s nod to Griffin via a quote from “Wade in the Water” and Anderson to Coltrane with a snatch of “A Love Supreme”. The finale showcases perfect parlando double counterpoint.

Bankhead’s sul ponticello introduction of the second part spectacularly exposes both the root notes and their fundamentals, but this pacific interlude soon gives way to more reed flaunting, taken chromatically or in broken octaves. Here and throughout the rest of the CD, the heavily vibrated multiphonic reed runs shares space with the guitarist’s curvaceous strums plus an occasional clank and click from the drummer. With Trane’s “Cousin Mary” and “Giant Steps” alluded to, the two wrap up the exciting essay in impov by honoring their direct influence as well as their tenor forefathers.

An equivalent chase in the future from others would undoubtedly have to touch on the saxophone advances of Anderson himself. From the originator, however, most of are exhibited in multi-faceted examples on these four discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 21st: 1. 21st Century Chase Part I 2. 21st Century Chase Part II 3. Ode to Alvin Fielder

Personnel: 21st: Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophones); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Birthday: 1. 22:40 2. 13:14 3. 14:24

Personnel: Birthday: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Staying: 1. Sunday Afternoon 2. The Elephant and the Bee 3. 60 Degrees in November 4. Wandering 5. Springing Winter 6. Changes and Bodies and Tones

Personnel: Staying: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Tin Daisy (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Andersonville 2. Acceleration 3. Beyond the Bridge 4. Positive Changes 5. Best Time of Life 6. Discreet Identifier

Personnel: Live: Fred Anderson and Francis Wong (tenor saxophones); Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

December 17, 2009

Fred Anderson

21st Century Chase
Delmark DE 589

Fred Anderson Quartet

Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III

Asian Improv AIR 0074

Fred Anderson

Staying in the Game

Engine e029

Fred Anderson Trio

Birthday Live 2000

Asian Improv AIR “Official Bootleg”

Consistency of expression is what has characterized the playing of Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson over the years. Furthermore, unlike many other musicians, there hasn’t been a subsequent lessening of his powers as he ages. As a matter of fact, now that he’s reached the venerable age of 80, his improvisational skills are at an exalted peak. Listen to these CDs for proof. They were recorded not only at Anderson’s 80th Birthday Bash, but when he was a comparative youngster of 79, 78 and even 71.

A founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, who recorded sparingly between the late 1960s and mid-1990s, Anderson has nurtured some of Chicago’s younger talents both by gigging with them, as well as giving them a place to play in his now legendary Velvet Lounge. Those years out of the limelight also created an idiosyncratic soloist, who – like Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy before him – now possesses an unmistaken reed texture whose sharp split tones carve a unique niche in every tune. Not only does the sax man put a lie to the cliché that “jazz is a young man’s art”, but he also proves that when they age jazzman don’t have to be cuddly and comfortable like Doc Cheatham or Eubie Blake. Additionally, as he demonstrates in four contexts here, stamina, innovation and sonic color aren’t the preserve of any generation. His playing can be threatening to saxophonists of any age.

Over the years Anderson has developed a tight coterie of associates, with many turning up on these discs. The oldest session, Birthday Live 2000, is a trio CD with bassist Tatsu Aoki and drummer Chad Taylor. Seven years later, with Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, Taylor and Aoki are still on board and tenor saxophonist Francis Wong joins the trio. Staying in the Game – an understatement if there ever was one when Anderson is concerned – from 2008, features him with bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Tim Daisy. Finally 21st Century Chase from 2009, retains Bankhead, brings back Taylor and adds guitarist Jeff Parker and tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan – the later five years Anderson’s junior – whose tenure on the New Orleans scene is roughly analogous to Anderson’s in Chicago.

Anderson’s mature style is much in evidence as early as the first track on Birthday Live 2000. Both incendiary and knife-sharp, his carved-up timbres partition still further as he churns out double-and-triple tongued trills plus jagged Woody Woodpecker-like bites. Rappelling from just below the ligature down through the bow to the bell of his horn and back up again, the saxophonist’s glissandi radiate every which way. His explorations are backed by slapping bass strings plus opposite sticking and cross pulsing from Taylor.

Indefatigable and seemingly never at a lack for ideas – or breath, Anderson brings the same toughness to the third tune, which for all intents and purposes resembles a blues-flecked ballad. After an a capella intro from the tenorist, Aoki’s vibrating and quavering bass line moulds itself around Anderson’s rasping notes as the narrative is lengthened with emphasized phraseology and half-recognizable quotes from other tunes.

Flash forward eight years, and while Anderson has maintained his form, his playing is mellower. Bankhead’s supple walking now explores additional peaks and valleys in his accompaniment, while Daisy’s rolls, pops and bass drum kicks are as sturdy as Anderson’s solos. With the sidemen proficient players on other instruments as well as their own, intimations of other textures – if not the instruments themselves – show up on several tracks.

You could swear for instance that kalimba plucks are pressed into service on “Wandering”, or that Bankhead – who plays the six-string – has added guitar licks to his backing as well. Still the saxophone lines are moderato and unstrained, languid enough to indulge in an interlude of parlando, seconded by Bankhead’s unforced bass strokes. Similarly Daisy’s mallet-driven pulses on “Changes and Bodies and Tones” border on marimba textures as the bassist’s sul ponticello squeaks are moderated mid-range. Summing up the situation, Anderson builds his solo with pointillism, elongating and expanding note dabs and smears into a cohesive whole.

Mellow, yet still tough in his outings, the saxophonist manages to stretch tones almost to the breaking point, without ever severing the thematic thread. If he overblows while vibrating his horn’s metal, as he does on “60 Degrees in November”, the supplementary intervals and vibrations are perfectly balanced as they’re masticated with bites and tongue slaps. Chromatic improvisations from all hold everything together.

This relaxed, yet bellicose command is maintained when facing off against another tenor man, as Anderson does on the last two discs. No one plays for almost 70 years without devising strategies for different situations. Recorded at 2007’s Chicago Asian Jazz Festival, Live at the Velvet Lounge Volume III, for instance, allows the veteran tenor saxophonist to maintain his parameters throughout.

Case in point is a tune such as “Beyond the Bridge”. The head is sounded by Anderson’s harsh, irregular vibrato, then echoed with similar – but more accommodating – tones from Wong’s sax. Gritty, with reed bites and tongue stops, the two aurally march in unison with Taylor’s sticks flying into ruffs and rebounds and Aoki stop-start bass thumps. At times Wong, whose timbre is thinner than Anderson’s, could be playing “Hickory, Dickory Dock” as he operates in double counterpoint to the older saxophonist. That is until the drummer’s double-timed ratamacues and the bassist’s vibrating strings push Anderson to unleash his idiosyncratic stabbing pitches which are then answered by jagged, staccato octaves from the younger saxophonist.

An equivalent tart interface occurs on “Positive Changes”. However the impetus for Anderson and Wong combining for a series of tongue flutters and split tones which modulate up the scale with rubato intonation is some impressive bass work from Aoki. Moving beyond sul ponticello to a strained, near-vocalized pitch, the bassist descends the scale while sounding every string simultaneously.

The scene had been set with “Andersonville”, where each player stakes out his individual musical turf. Aoki’s thumps and pumps, Taylor’s whapping snares and cymbal vibrations plus the lockstep reed-biting and sonic curves from the saxophonists kick in almost as soon as Anderson sounds his signature ferocious cry. From then on Anderson appears to pushing and prodding every musical tone he can find in as many varied angles as he can – and Wong does the same. Steaming ahead, the two build up a polyphonic head of steam, double and triple-tonguing, appending connective arpeggios and sluicing vamps. Crumbling the lines to fine musical powder, the simultaneous staccato spewing never completely obliterates the piece’s musical shape.

Two years later Anderson’s 80th birthday bash at the new Velvet Lounge, not far from the old location, and featuring 75-year-old Jordan as well, was no exercise in nostalgia. The only bow to the past is that the two-part title tune reflects comparable tough tenor battles of the 1940s and 1950s. Adherents of the style were Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons and most pointedly Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray “The Chase”. However sharp ears will notice that by the end of the almost hour long improv here, both John Colrane and Johnny Griffin have been nodded to as well.

No exercise in neo-con nostalgia, this “Chase” announces its modernity from the top: a capella squeaks and squeals in altissimo variants played by Jordan with vocal exhortations and hard air expelling. Anderson counters with a “Pop Goes the Weasel” theme, Taylor and Bankhead hit, Parker twangs – and the chase is on. Jordan, a horse-raising aficionado, uses smears, clipped notes and effective glossolalia to take the lead as Anderson canters besides him with lower-pitched contrapuntal runs. Neck and neck, Jordan’s tone is more splintered and almost in the alto range while Anderson’s growls are practically moderato in comparison. Taylor’s ruffs and flams plus Bankhead’s walking stay back on the track, while Parker’s knob-twisting licks and abrasive twanging provide the equivalent of a spur to a horse’s flanks.

Eventually as diaphragm-vibrated timbres, elastic tonal interpolations and ragged split tones rend the air, both tenor men reach an extended rapprochement. Agitato and staccatissimo, neither can best the other – if that ever was the intention – and each maintains his distinctive identity. Getting to the point where each finishes each other’s phrases, a coda includes Jordan’s nod to Griffin via a quote from “Wade in the Water” and Anderson to Coltrane with a snatch of “A Love Supreme”. The finale showcases perfect parlando double counterpoint.

Bankhead’s sul ponticello introduction of the second part spectacularly exposes both the root notes and their fundamentals, but this pacific interlude soon gives way to more reed flaunting, taken chromatically or in broken octaves. Here and throughout the rest of the CD, the heavily vibrated multiphonic reed runs shares space with the guitarist’s curvaceous strums plus an occasional clank and click from the drummer. With Trane’s “Cousin Mary” and “Giant Steps” alluded to, the two wrap up the exciting essay in impov by honoring their direct influence as well as their tenor forefathers.

An equivalent chase in the future from others would undoubtedly have to touch on the saxophone advances of Anderson himself. From the originator, however, most of are exhibited in multi-faceted examples on these four discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 21st: 1. 21st Century Chase Part I 2. 21st Century Chase Part II 3. Ode to Alvin Fielder

Personnel: 21st: Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophones); Jeff Parker (guitar); Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Birthday: 1. 22:40 2. 13:14 3. 14:24

Personnel: Birthday: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

Track Listing: Staying: 1. Sunday Afternoon 2. The Elephant and the Bee 3. 60 Degrees in November 4. Wandering 5. Springing Winter 6. Changes and Bodies and Tones

Personnel: Staying: Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone; Harrison Bankhead (bass) and Tin Daisy (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Andersonville 2. Acceleration 3. Beyond the Bridge 4. Positive Changes 5. Best Time of Life 6. Discreet Identifier

Personnel: Live: Fred Anderson and Francis Wong (tenor saxophones); Tatsu Aoki (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums)

December 17, 2009

Indigo Trio

Anaya
Rogueart Rog-0018

Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Strings

Renegades

Delmark DE 587

Having established herself as one of the primary flute voices in today’s improvised music, Chicago’s Nicole Mitchell has reached the point when she can record within six months of one another such dissimilar – yet equally engrossing – CDs. At the same time however, the sessions also pinpoint yet another evolution in the music as well as the challenge for the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) of which Mitchell is co-chair.

Anaya finds Mitchell as one-third of the co-op Indigo Trio. Her associates, cellist and bassist Harrison Bankhead, best-known for his work with AACM stalwart saxophonist Fred Anderson; and percussionist Hamid Drake – who seems to have played with more improvisers world-wide than just about any other drummer – are, like the flautist, second generation AACMers. The parameters of Anaya thus very much relate to the on-going jazz tradition.

Renegades on the other hand, featuring Mitchell’s Black Earth Strings, matches her with musicians who are either another generation younger than her, or like violist/violinist Renee Baker have an affiliation with non-improvised chamber music. Consequently this disc encompasses African, Native American, so-called classical and even folk-ballad influences – along with jazz and improvised music inflections – factoring in the collective experience of bassist and gimbre-player Josh Abrams, cellist Tomeka Reid and percussionist Shirazette Tinnin. Mitchell – who composed all 16 tracks on the CD – faces the challenge with Renegades of preventing this additional sonic input from overpowering the music’s jazz-based core. That, in the main she succeeds, is the result of allotting those other musical currents appropriate space alongside backbeat blues and jazz soloing.

For instance “Wade”, which takes its core melody from the spiritual “Wade in the Water”, is transformed during the performance. Spacious cello slices and marimba-styled resonation which introduce the initial melodious theme are soon superseded by walking bass lines, ruffs and flams from Tinnin, contrapuntal string extensions and wide-bore flute flutter-tonguing. Similarly, “Ice” extends from Abrams’ steady time-keeping, rasgueado cello accompaniment and the percussionist’s brush strokes and palm slaps to an interlude where Baker offers enough triple-stopping and floating spiccato to suggest Billy Bang. However the ethereal flute trills, and guitar-like picking from the cello are fulfilled by swelling string movements that could easy come from a chamber ensemble.

Three “Symbology” tunes explore atonality with broken-octave node exposure and jagged runs from the strings plus flute lipping and spitting. Yet other piece show just how delicate the multiple music interface is. Shrill contrapuntal flute bites push the instrument towards dizi tones; agitato string bowing take on erhu qualities; while the drummer could be playing a djembe. In contrast, the harmonized string voicing is definitely Europeanized, although a bit spikier.

“By My Own Grace” compounds the melody’s folk-song feel with string strumming and an uncomplicated double bass pattern. Darbuka-like percussion thumps, scrubbed string accompaniment and contrapuntal flute glissandi are what prevent the song from disappearing into wispiness, especially when Mitchell vocalizes a verse of female self-empowerment.

A cooperative vision in contrast, the Indigo Trio’s three powerful musical personalities equally divide the composing and playing chores on Anaya’s eight tracks. Still, the flautist’s “Wheatgrass” gives an idea of how they operate. As Bankhead’s bull fiddle walks with a steadying pace, Mitchell vamps piccolo-like intonation that hockets vibrating timbres and strident cheeps into animated buzzes. Meanwhile Drake uses bounces, rim shots and shuffle rhythms to speed the jazzy syncopation to staccatissimo, prodding Mitchell into andante, agitato timbres. After a recap of the theme, the final section features unison piccolo riffs in counterpoint with Bankhead’s and Drake’s rhythms.

A Bankhead piece such as “A Child’s Curiosity” is even more in the jazz tradition, with his quivering sul tasto thumps and Drake’s rebounds making it seems as if the kid is most inquisitive about the funk vamps that made the reputations of pianist Les McCann and saxophonist Eddie Harris – another Chicagoan – in the 1970s. Countering the drummer’s paradiddles and bounces as well as the bassist’s strong strokes is Mitchell, initially with the only child-like syncopation of the three. Eventually she introduces heavy-breathing staccato timbres and cascading lines which sluice from near inaudibility to concordance with Drake’s thick reverberations.

As for the drummer’s affiliated “Anaya” tunes – named for his granddaughter – the polyrhythms and subverted modes at points reach the World Music-jazz fusion that is also expressed on Renegades. Drags, flams and rolls from his toms and snares plus cymbal slaps and strokes take their place alongside sizzling flute tessitura mixed with glottal extensions. Meanwhile on “Anaya with the Sunlight”, Bankhead finger picks a cross tone so astonishing that he could be playing an oud or a resonator guitar rather than a bass or cello. Functional as well as flighty, this composition plus most of the others, holds to the concept of theme recapitulation for jazz-like reinforcement.

Staying true to jazz’s roots while exploring new admixtures, Mitchell’s work always merits attention whether in trio or quartet form.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Anaya: 1.Sho Ya Right 2. A Child’s Curiosity 3. Anaya with the Sunlight 4. Song for Ma’at (Ma-ah-t) 5. Beloved’s Reflection 6. Wheatgrass 7. Anaya with the Moon 8. Affirmation of the One

Personnel: Anaya: Nicole Mitchell (flute, alto flute and piccolo); Harrison Bankhead (bass and cello) and Hamid Drake (drums and frame drum)

Track Listing: Renegades: 1. Crossroads 2. No Matter What 3. Ice 4. Windance 5. Renegades 6. By My Own Grace 7. What If 8. Symbology #2A 9. Wade 10. Waterdance 11. Symbology #1 12. Mama Found Out 13. If I Could Have You The Way That I Want You 14. Symbology #2 15. Waris Dirie 16. Anaya’s Rainbow

Personnel: Renegades: Nicole Mitchell (flute, alto flute and piccolo); Renee Baker (violin and viola); Tomeka Reid (cello); Josh Abrams (bass and gimbre) and Shirazette Tinnin (drums and percussion)

October 16, 2009

Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Strings

Renegades
Delmark DE 587

Indigo Trio

Anaya

Rogueart Rog-0018

Having established herself as one of the primary flute voices in today’s improvised music, Chicago’s Nicole Mitchell has reached the point when she can record within six months of one another such dissimilar – yet equally engrossing – CDs. At the same time however, the sessions also pinpoint yet another evolution in the music as well as the challenge for the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) of which Mitchell is co-chair.

Anaya finds Mitchell as one-third of the co-op Indigo Trio. Her associates, cellist and bassist Harrison Bankhead, best-known for his work with AACM stalwart saxophonist Fred Anderson; and percussionist Hamid Drake – who seems to have played with more improvisers world-wide than just about any other drummer – are, like the flautist, second generation AACMers. The parameters of Anaya thus very much relate to the on-going jazz tradition.

Renegades on the other hand, featuring Mitchell’s Black Earth Strings, matches her with musicians who are either another generation younger than her, or like violist/violinist Renee Baker have an affiliation with non-improvised chamber music. Consequently this disc encompasses African, Native American, so-called classical and even folk-ballad influences – along with jazz and improvised music inflections – factoring in the collective experience of bassist and gimbre-player Josh Abrams, cellist Tomeka Reid and percussionist Shirazette Tinnin. Mitchell – who composed all 16 tracks on the CD – faces the challenge with Renegades of preventing this additional sonic input from overpowering the music’s jazz-based core. That, in the main she succeeds, is the result of allotting those other musical currents appropriate space alongside backbeat blues and jazz soloing.

For instance “Wade”, which takes its core melody from the spiritual “Wade in the Water”, is transformed during the performance. Spacious cello slices and marimba-styled resonation which introduce the initial melodious theme are soon superseded by walking bass lines, ruffs and flams from Tinnin, contrapuntal string extensions and wide-bore flute flutter-tonguing. Similarly, “Ice” extends from Abrams’ steady time-keeping, rasgueado cello accompaniment and the percussionist’s brush strokes and palm slaps to an interlude where Baker offers enough triple-stopping and floating spiccato to suggest Billy Bang. However the ethereal flute trills, and guitar-like picking from the cello are fulfilled by swelling string movements that could easy come from a chamber ensemble.

Three “Symbology” tunes explore atonality with broken-octave node exposure and jagged runs from the strings plus flute lipping and spitting. Yet other piece show just how delicate the multiple music interface is. Shrill contrapuntal flute bites push the instrument towards dizi tones; agitato string bowing take on erhu qualities; while the drummer could be playing a djembe. In contrast, the harmonized string voicing is definitely Europeanized, although a bit spikier.

“By My Own Grace” compounds the melody’s folk-song feel with string strumming and an uncomplicated double bass pattern. Darbuka-like percussion thumps, scrubbed string accompaniment and contrapuntal flute glissandi are what prevent the song from disappearing into wispiness, especially when Mitchell vocalizes a verse of female self-empowerment.

A cooperative vision in contrast, the Indigo Trio’s three powerful musical personalities equally divide the composing and playing chores on Anaya’s eight tracks. Still, the flautist’s “Wheatgrass” gives an idea of how they operate. As Bankhead’s bull fiddle walks with a steadying pace, Mitchell vamps piccolo-like intonation that hockets vibrating timbres and strident cheeps into animated buzzes. Meanwhile Drake uses bounces, rim shots and shuffle rhythms to speed the jazzy syncopation to staccatissimo, prodding Mitchell into andante, agitato timbres. After a recap of the theme, the final section features unison piccolo riffs in counterpoint with Bankhead’s and Drake’s rhythms.

A Bankhead piece such as “A Child’s Curiosity” is even more in the jazz tradition, with his quivering sul tasto thumps and Drake’s rebounds making it seems as if the kid is most inquisitive about the funk vamps that made the reputations of pianist Les McCann and saxophonist Eddie Harris – another Chicagoan – in the 1970s. Countering the drummer’s paradiddles and bounces as well as the bassist’s strong strokes is Mitchell, initially with the only child-like syncopation of the three. Eventually she introduces heavy-breathing staccato timbres and cascading lines which sluice from near inaudibility to concordance with Drake’s thick reverberations.

As for the drummer’s affiliated “Anaya” tunes – named for his granddaughter – the polyrhythms and subverted modes at points reach the World Music-jazz fusion that is also expressed on Renegades. Drags, flams and rolls from his toms and snares plus cymbal slaps and strokes take their place alongside sizzling flute tessitura mixed with glottal extensions. Meanwhile on “Anaya with the Sunlight”, Bankhead finger picks a cross tone so astonishing that he could be playing an oud or a resonator guitar rather than a bass or cello. Functional as well as flighty, this composition plus most of the others, holds to the concept of theme recapitulation for jazz-like reinforcement.

Staying true to jazz’s roots while exploring new admixtures, Mitchell’s work always merits attention whether in trio or quartet form.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Anaya: 1.Sho Ya Right 2. A Child’s Curiosity 3. Anaya with the Sunlight 4. Song for Ma’at (Ma-ah-t) 5. Beloved’s Reflection 6. Wheatgrass 7. Anaya with the Moon 8. Affirmation of the One

Personnel: Anaya: Nicole Mitchell (flute, alto flute and piccolo); Harrison Bankhead (bass and cello) and Hamid Drake (drums and frame drum)

Track Listing: Renegades: 1. Crossroads 2. No Matter What 3. Ice 4. Windance 5. Renegades 6. By My Own Grace 7. What If 8. Symbology #2A 9. Wade 10. Waterdance 11. Symbology #1 12. Mama Found Out 13. If I Could Have You The Way That I Want You 14. Symbology #2 15. Waris Dirie 16. Anaya’s Rainbow

Personnel: Renegades: Nicole Mitchell (flute, alto flute and piccolo); Renee Baker (violin and viola); Tomeka Reid (cello); Josh Abrams (bass and gimbre) and Shirazette Tinnin (drums and percussion)

October 16, 2009

Roscoe Mitchell’s Chicago Trio

Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo
CODA Issue 335

Vastly dissimilar in attire, the members of Roscoe Mitchell’s Chicago Trio aptly demonstrated to the audience at an almost full auditorium at Buffalo, N.Y.’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery in late April that cohesive improvisation doesn’t demand sartorial consistency.

Suitably dapper in well-cut shirt and trousers, the veteran Art Ensemble of Chicago reedist convoluted harsh split tones, extended circular breathing and touches of foot-tapping melodies into a singular statement on alto and soprano saxophone during two set-long pieces. Alternately whacking or stroking precise tones from his double bass or cello was Harrison Bankhead, resplendent in casual sports shirt and straw boater, who took a position to Mitchell’s right on the well-lit, bare stage. In the middle, using sideswipes and back beats with equal finesse was drummer Vincent Davis, in rustic black turtleneck and jeans.

Mitchell, whose usually dour expression masks the elation he brings to creation, played swiftly and speedily on alto saxophone. On the curved horn his output varied from close-packed, circular-breathed elongated phrases; to classic Free Jazz that used harsh squawks and multiphonics to scrape all prettiness from errant note patterns; to a set-closing blues line that apparently channeled jump-band altoist Tab Smith.

Diaphragm-expelled overblowing at one point made his cumulative notes resemble those of a bagpipe. Distinctively see-sawing his torso as he played, plus constantly repositioning his mouthpiece during solos, Mitchell’s soprano saxophone pitch varied from snake-charmer nasality to bursts of legato arpeggios. Still, his constant molten flow of notes while sharp and staccato, never sounded overly abstract.

Bankhead, who also plays in the Indigo Trio and the 8 Bold Souls, is no slouch in the technique department himself. At one point following a series of grinding arco runs from his bass, he displayed two bows which he then manipulated cross-wise on the strings to produce extra cadences and color. Able to triple-stop and strum with guitar-like facility when he unveiled his pizzicato talents, he set up a formula that made it seems as if he was playing call-and-response on a single instrument. He actually does double however. Spiccato slaps and sweeps from his cello were showcased at one point to temper the dissonance of Mitchell’s abrasive alto saxophone peeps and squeaks.

Content to stay slightly in the background – and not just because of the instrumental set-up on the stage – Davis’ only overt display came in the penultimate minutes of the final tune, when his suddenly vociferous cymbal splashes and bass drum rumbles momentarily masked the other two’s sounds. Throughout, however, his rhythmic reactions unrolled in sympathetic – if contrapuntal – pulses. Reining in any errant time meandering with ruffs, rolls and ratamacues, his tendency was to slap, not pummel parts of his kit, with felt-tipped mallets and wire brushes literally at hand, as frequently as drum sticks were brought into play.

Satisfying and memorable, it could be that the only negative parts of the Buffalo performance – besides lack of an encore – was that Mitchell’s unique tough-romance flute procedure never appeared, despite the instrument itself being prominently displayed on stage.

-- Ken Waxman

October 3, 2007

Frequency

Frequency
Thrill Jockey thrill 164

Encompassing distinctive compositions, and high quality improvisational flights plus World and Native American sonic echoes, this debut CD confirms both the talents of the band Frequency and the continued adaptability of Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (ACCM) members.

Besides the ACCM-link, each participant in this Chicago-based quartet brings different sensibilities to the session. Reedist Ed Wilkerson is best-known as the leader of the Eight Bold Souls, the band in which bassist Harrison Bankhead also plays. Flautist Nicole Mitchell leads her own groups as well as working as an educator, while veteran percussionist Avreeayl Ra’s AACM involvement goes back almost to the cooperative’s founding.

That said, except for a reliance on percussive colors, not much on Frequency, resembles the work of older AACM members like Fred Anderson or Roscoe Mitchell. Although walking bass and percussion punctuation come to the fore on numbers such as “Pitiful James”, the jazz and blues base of the four is taken for granted and often de-emphasized.

Instead the compositions centre in on certain mystical properties and are, more often than not, driven by unique, complementary colors. There are the creations centered on the sonorous timbres of Mitchell’s bass flute; with the polyphony available in harmonizing Mitchell’s flutes and Wilkerson’s clarinet or tenor saxophone; and the primordial memories that arise from some of the compositions. This strain of mysticism exhibited goes back as far as some of Joseph Jarman’s Africanized pieces for the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Additionally, this mixture of the spiritual and the aboriginal is also present in some of the saxophonist’s solo passages, which consciously or not reference Jim Pepper. A Native American saxophonist, Pepper heritage often figured into jazz improvisations.

Tellingly, the CD’s most involved showpiece – at nearly 19 minutes – is Ra’s composition, “Satya” with pacific, sub-continental overtones in both the title and the playing. Built initially around the percussionist’s cymbal smacks and patterning, plus rolls and double sticking on snares, as it evolves rattles and friction from bells, so-called “little instruments” and kalimba give it more then appear from one player’s vertical flute – all four play the instrument – Mitchell’s shimmering legato lines, mellow interjections from Wilkerson’s tenor and Ra’s wordless vocalese. With thumb piano tick-tocking and slow burning horn advances, only the steady ostinato of Bankhead’s bass keeps the piece from losing its rhythmic moorings.

“From The Other Side”, a group composition, continues in this vein. On top of the gamelan-like clapping and resonating from the bell-wielders, wooden flute chirps and taunt cello lines vie for foreground space Meanwhile Mitchell demonstrates what can be done by vocalizing and blowing simultaneously through the bass flute.

Other titles are just as spiritually inclined, yet most are more rhythmically upfront. The group-composed “Fertility Dance” for instance, contrasts piping piccolo riffs with sul ponticello string asides, thumps and bounces from Ra and pedal-point from the bassist. Mitchell’s slinky “The Tortoise” features pitch-sliding, double-tongued runs from the composer, cascading rebounds and flams from Ra and restrained honking from the tenor saxophonist.

A total package, Frequency, the band, proves with this CD that as individual member’s visions evolve, a new, just as memorable and as legitimate variation of AACM sounds appear with impressive results.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Pitiful James 2. Take Refuge 3. Satya 4. Portrait of Light 5. Fertility Dance 6. From the Other Side 7. The Tortoise 8. Optimystic 9. Serenity

Personnel: Nicole Mitchell (C, alto and bass flutes, piccolo, melodica, Egyptian harp, plastic bag and vocals); Ed Wilkerson (tenor saxophone, clarinet, wood flute and bells); Harrison Bankhead (bass, cello, wood flute and bells) and Avreeayl Ra (percussion, kalmiba, Native American flute and vocals)

October 26, 2006

8 BOLD SOULS

Last Option
Thrill Jockey Records Thrill 071

When people say that a certain musician could write for the movies, they usually mean he'd be good at creating background music. 8 Bold Souls' leader Edward Wilkerson could write for film all right, but for a completely different reason. His arrangements and compositions, which make up this disc, are so cinematic that there are times you can almost "see" the movie unrolling as the music plays.

"Brown Town" for instance, with its double duos of Wilkerson's soulful tenor accompanied by a boogaloo drum beat and Jackson's tailgate trombone fronting a brass bass tuba, could be a stroll down an urban street, moving from a 1940s swing dance club to a 1960s R&B hangout.

Elsewhere "The Last Option" with its semi-"legit" and semi-Klezmer clarinets passages shows off his classical side, while "Pachinko" named for a Japanese game of chance imported to that country from Chicago, has a loose circus rhythm driven on JBs-style funk horns.

Having the other Bold Souls as his crew allows Wilkerson's filmic vision to reach fruition, of course. A Chicago institution, the band has stayed together for the past 15 years with only a couple of personnel changes. The eight now have the sort of joined history that produces group music where the solos arise generically from the composition, rather than relying on the sort of selfishness, which exhibits itself with macho frontmen literally leading subservient backing musicians. Here the bass part or the drum section is as important as what comes from the reeds or brass.

Size helps as well. With two brass, two reeds, two strings and -- counting tuba -- two rhythm instruments, Wilkerson has enough colors to produce a full orchestral sound. Especially prominent is Bowden -- who forsakes his usual baritone saxophone most of the time to reach for those high notes on clarinet -- and Bankhead, whose arco execution on tunes like "The Art of Tea" is so quick and clean that you figure it's the smaller, more flexible cello playing rather than the bass.

Recorded on a label best known for post-rock, electronica and garage punk, LAST OPTION is an experiment for the Bold Souls. Yet throughout the music hasn't been altered in any way to meet the expectations of non-jazz people. In fact, with a session as strong as this one, the disc should be seen as a new opportunity rather than a last option

--Ken Waxman

Track listing: 1. Odyssey 2. Third One Smiles 3. Last Option 4. The Art of Tea 5. Pachinko 6. Gang of Four 7. Brown Town

Personnel: Robert Griffin (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet); Isaiah Jackson (trombone, percussion); Gerald Powell (tuba); Mwata Bowden (clarinet, baritone saxophone); Ed Wilkerson Jr. (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, alto clarinet, clarinet); Naomi Millender (cello); Harrison Bankhead (bass); Dushun Mosley (drums, percussion)

June 2, 2000