Harris Eisenstdat

Guewel
Clean Feed CF 123 CD

RIDD Quartet

Fiction Avalanche

Clean Feed CF 121 CD

Andy Milne-Benoît Delbecq

Where is Pannonica?

Songlines SGL SA-1579-2

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Live in New York

Greenleaf Paperback Series Vol 4

EXTENDED PLAY: Canadians at Home and Aboard

By Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #3

November 2, 2009

RIDD Quartet

Fiction Avalanche
Clean Feed CF 121 CD

Harris Eisenstdat

Guewel

Clean Feed CF 123 CD

Andy Milne-Benoît Delbecq

Where is Pannonica?

Songlines SGL SA-1579-2

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Live in New York

Greenleaf Paperback Series Vol 4

EXTENDED PLAY: Canadians at Home and Aboard

By Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #3

November 2, 2009

Andy Milne-Benoît Delbecq

Where is Pannonica?
Songlines SGL SA-1579-2

Harris Eisenstdat

Guewel

Clean Feed CF 123 CD

RIDD Quartet

Fiction Avalanche

Clean Feed CF 121 CD

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Live in New York

Greenleaf Paperback Series Vol 4

EXTENDED PLAY: Canadians at Home and Aboard

By Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #3

November 2, 2009

Michael Bates’ Outside Sources

Live in New York
Greenleaf Paperback Series Vol 4

Andy Milne-Benoît Delbecq

Where is Pannonica?

Songlines SGL SA-1579-2

Harris Eisenstdat

Guewel

Clean Feed CF 123 CD

RIDD Quartet

Fiction Avalanche

Clean Feed CF 121 CD

EXTENDED PLAY: Canadians at Home and Aboard

By Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #3

November 2, 2009

Mostly Other People Do the Killing

This Is Our Moosic
Hot Cup 082

Jon Irabagon

Outright!

Innova Records 699

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

February 8, 2009

Jon Irabagon

Outright!
Innova Records 699

Mostly Other People Do the Killing

This Is Our Moosic

Hot Cup 082

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- Ken Waxman

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

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

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

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

February 8, 2009