Kris Davis

Capricorn Climber
Clean Feed CF 266 CD

Creating a cohesive program that moves from experimentation to straight-ahead swing and lush inventions – often on the same track – pianist Kris Davis outlines a series of moods on this program of her own compositions. Calgary-born Davis has made a reputation for herself as an arranger as well as a soloist and each of her compositions displays her sidefolk – some of New York’s most accomplished players – to their collective best advantage.

Take for instance Pass the Magic Hat, which starts off as a swirling and spiraling exposition for her piano plus the bass of Trevor Dunn and the drums of Tom Rainey, but soon evolves to a contrapuntal duel between her metronomic comping and Ingrid Laubrock’s pulsating tenor saxophone. A spikier secondary theme developed by violist Mat Maneri arrives, eventually to be harmonized with piano and reed slurs. On the other hand, Bottom of the Well is a cohesive recital-styled track with low-pitched piano clunks underscoring the chromatic string sets. Before a legato finale, Dunn vibrates a solo in the cello-range while the violist harshly rubs his strings. With Davis’ narrative literally more low-key and impressionistic, Pi is Irrational balances Maneri’s tremolo stridency with Rainey’s rugged ruffs and taps, until Laubrock’s gentling arpeggios presage a brief, rhythmically sophisticated bass solo.

Davis who studied at Banff and Toronto defines her program enough to give her soloists the freedom to interpolate everything from strident reed bites and fiddle scratches to extended cymbal vibrations into the nine tracks. But she reins them in enough with strategies ranging from inner piano string plucks to keyboard jabs and cohesive chording to maintain the integrity of her compositional visions.

--Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 18 #8

May 13, 2013

Living By Lanterns

New Myth/Old Science
Cuneiform Records Rune 345

Mike Reed’s People Places & Things

Clean on the Corner

482 Music 482-1081

Drummer/bandleader Mike Reed has established himself as, among things, a deft interpreter of Chicago’s progressive music history. Nothing like a neo-con however, rather than imitation or emulation he and his People Places & Things create new variations of the city’s rich 1950s and 1960s Jazz heritage. On these exceptional sessions, he, and sidekicks, alto saxophonist Greg Ward – on both discs– and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz – on New Myth/Old Science – have taken the next step: integrated their own compositions with earlier ones.

Recorded a year apart, each session is completely unique. Clean on the Corner for instance integrates six Reed lines with tunes by saxophonists John Jenkins and Roscoe Mitchell and is played by the drummer and alto saxophonist plus tenor saxophonist Tim Haldeman and bassist Jason Roebke with cornetist Josh Berman and pianist Craig Taborn sitting in on two tracks each. Commissioned by Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio, the seven tracks on the other CD were composed, arranged orchestrated the vibist and drummer from fragments extracted from a rehearsal tape marked “NY 1961” in the Sun Ra Audio Archive. Approaching the scope of Ra’s Arkestra, the co-leaders constructed pieces for a band made up of cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, guitarist Mary Halvorson, cellist Tomeka Reid, bassist Joshua Abrams, drummer Tomas Fujiwara and electronics manipulator Nick Butcher as well as themselves and Ward.

Cleverly integrating his own concepts with Bebop tropes, Reed’s compositions for People Places & Things are most clearly appreciated when examined next to Mitchell’s “Old” and Jenkins’ “Sharon”. A Bopper of the first magnitude, Jenkins (1931-1993), recorded with heavyweight like tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan and guitarist Kenny Burrell in the mid-1950s then vanished from the scene. “Sharon” is the prototypical Bebop line that echoes “Hot House” and includes gritty reed bites from the saxes, and in the same way as the two reedists suggest Jordan and Jenkins, Taborn, in the Sonny Clark role, takes solos on the Jenkins’ tune that are both chromatic and pulsing. Closer to our time, “Old” has well-harmonized horn parts, a blues sensibility and, following a Malachi Favors-flavored bass solo, a finale of smears and snarls.

Close cousin to that piece and the early Art Ensemble is “The Lady Has a Bomb”, all bent notes and drum pops that balance on shrieks and cries from Ward’s and Haldeman’s flutter-tongued obbligatos. Roebke’s pumping bass line and an unaffected bounce from Reed characterize the slow-paced “Where the Story Ends,” as the altoist’s slurps and slides curve around the theme at the same time as he maintains a linear solo. Berman’s buttery flutter-tonguing at the beginning and end of “House of Three Smiles” adds as much to the performance as the vamping horns.

Confirming the consistency between the two discs, “House of Three Smiles” is a pseudo-contrafact Reed composed based on a solo Adasiewicz once took on one of the vibesman’s own tunes. Appropriately enough it’s the vibraphonist and Bynum’s cornet styling here which help distinguish these Sun Ra reconfigurations from more derivative salutes by other bands. A fast swinger, “2000 West Erie” provides a point of comparison with the other session. Bynum’s high-pitched triplets, Reed’s rugged drum beats and the metal-bar resonation from Adasiewicz, are only slightly distant from the concepts on the Jenkins’ line – 1961 was very close to 1957 after all – however the frenzied multiphonics played by Laubrock relate to free-form conceptions that relate more fully to the advances of saxophonists like Albert Ayler and the Arkestra’s John Gilmore.

Not only do Adasiewicz’s and Reed’s arrangements manage to give the nonet the breath and power of a big band – a quality inherited from Ra – but pointed licks from Mary Halvorson’s guitar, Reid’s string sweeps and the occasional electronic processing confirm historical links to 21st century experimenters. Cascading and agitated sequences outline these connections, but so does the swing sense which Reed and company inherited from Ra. Also demonstrated is instrumental juxtaposition that calls on the older bandleader’s flirtation with exotica. “Shadow Boxer’s Delight” is one instance. Throughout, the horns’ sinewy pitch-sliding abuts sweet cello slides, while vibe, bass and guitar chord harmonies bring forth mysterious tonal implications.

From that point on subsequent tunes appear to meld into one another with the players’ expressive solos and section work exposing as many altissimo and staccato patterns as those which are simple, linear and, in a way, impressionistic. Cross-timbres abound, but very little of the sort of free-for-all tone expansion that would be Ra’s and the Arkestra’s stock-in-trade later in the 1960s and throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Stand-out work still shows up in the form of the guitarist’s colorful tremolo strumming, the cornetist’s low-key flutters, bassist Joshua Abrams’ connective and woody pacing and the cellist’s sul ponticello sweeps.

The 1961 time frame was a little early to fasten onto Ra’s latter quivering space chords or jocular space chants, but the high standard of playing and composing on New Myth/Old Science indicates that other experiments of this nature should be attempted. Not forgetting that Clean on the Corner is another high quality indication of these present-day Chicago musicians’ first-string talent.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Clean: 1. The Lady Has a Bomb 2. Old 3. December? 4. Where the Story Ends 5. Sharon& 6. House of Three Smiles* 7. The Ephemeral Words of Ruth& 8. Warming Down*

Personnel: Clean: Josh Berman (cornet)*; Greg Ward (alto saxophone); Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophone); Craig Taborn (piano)&; Jason Roebke (bass) and Mike Reed (drums)

Track Listing: New: 1. New Myth^ 2. Think Tank 3. 2000 West Erie 4. Shadow Boxer’s Delight^ 5. Forget B 6. Grow Lights 7. Old Science

Personnel: New: Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet); Greg Ward (alto saxophone); Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone); Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone); Mary Halvorson (guitar); Tomeka Reid (cello); Joshua Abrams (bass); Tomas Fujiwara (drums); Mike Reed (drums and electronics) and Nick Butcher (electronics)^

March 15, 2013

Tom Rainey Trio

Camino Cielo Echo
Intakt CD 198

Ingrid Laubrock/Javier Carmona/Olie Brice

Catatumbo

Babel BDV 12103

Well-travelled, Münster-born saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock is now a Brooklyn resident, but spends time in London, where she was based for two decades, to maintain involvement in bands on both sides of the Atlantic. Recorded six months apart with closely allied personnel, these CDs demonstrate her trans-oceanic skills.

A live date from London’s Vortex club, Catatumbo matches Laubrock with two high-class improvisers with plenty of other axes in the fire. Madrid-born percussionist Javier Carmona spent seven years in London before settling in Barcelona. Besides membership in the London Improvisers Orchestra, he was in a duo with tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip. UK-native, bassist Olie Brice’s affiliations include a duo with veteran flautist Neil Metcalfe and a band with Hanslip. Meanwhile in a Brooklyn studio, Camino Cielo Echo unites the saxophonist with her husband, drummer Tom Rainey, a Santa Barbara-native now one of New York’s busiest percussionists, who is also part of a Laubrock trio with British pianist Liam Noble. String strength comes from Boston-born guitarist Mary Halvorson, who works with everyone from drummer Weasel Walter to trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum.

Despite the names above the titles, both groups are essentially co-ops. Rainey, the most generous of percussionists, gives both his partners plenty of solo space; plus writing duties for his CD’s 13 tracks are split three ways. Each of the five tracks on the other disc is an instant composition, involving all participants.

Brice’s solid string pumping and angled spiccato work from the back or in the foreground are continuing characteristics of the tunes on Catatumbo. Stretching but never breaking the chromatic interface is a common strategy throughout, especially when the band’s more pensive dialogues come to the fore. Isolated, Brice’s double-gaited pacing, Carmona’s ringing cymbal work and Laubrock’s tongue pops plus choked-air exhalation may be distracting, combined they blend into concentrated narratives. As an individual, Carmona’s percussion on a track like “Ribbons and Beads” consists of cowbell pops, asymmetrical rim and side slapping plus resonating patterning. Climax is reached when his staccato slaps with wire-brush-handles meet up with the bassist’s sul ponticello lines and Laubrock’s jagged eviscerating reed cries. By “Vientos Alisios”, the final track, as the drummer’s bounces plus bass-string sprawls pace her, Laubrock’s sprawling Dolphyesque snarls slide from sharp, altissimo to dampened vibrations. The resulting triple timbres from all are conclusive and calming.

Calm is certainly not the first adjective one would apply to the Rainey trio. With Halvorson in full flight the number of fuzz-encrusted distortions, gnarly and ringing string tones and jagged runs proliferate. Not to be outdone, Laubrock screeches, squeals and splinters pressurized tones from her saxophone, and at times Rainey unleashes a barrage of drags, strokes and flams. His decisive taste prevents that from happening too often however. Nonetheless some of these drum explosions take place, but also in the context of an up-tempo tune such as “Leapfrog”. Simultaneously as the guitarist snaps and vibrates her strings while the saxophonist’s reed biting mutates the theme.

This doesn’t mean that every track is sonically zealous. “Arroyo Burrow” for example features low-key, flute-like glissandi from Laubrock on soprano saxophone, colored by near-folksy plinks from the guitarist and Rainey rolling his sticks on top of his drums and punctuating the exposition with bass drum bangs. Following it, “Strada senza nome’ is a simple tune where the guitarist’s repetative strums could come from a ukulele, and are met by chain-shaking and other percussion vibrations from Rainey. The atmospheric title track outlines a similar sentiment.

Meanwhile cuts such as “Mental Stencil” – as would be expected – and “Two Words” – which may be all of a Metal band’s vocabulary – highlight rougher stances. The latter which binds together pressurized drones from Laubrock, flashing flanges and bent notes from, Halvorson and constant tapping from Rainey, pumps up to further oscillated buzzing from the guitarist and swelling screams from the reedist. A little more restrained, “Mental Stencil” has an exposition divided between intermittent guitar strums and bubbling reed puffs until Rainey’s subtle jabs and cymbal pops pacify first Laubrock into displaying polished tones that are almost cello-like, then encourage single licks from Halvorson, that in context are dance-like. Harmonizing individual outputs, the trio members’ lines eventually and mutually fade to muted interaction.

Significant in trio circumstances, as these CDs confirm, Laubrock’s verve and intelligent improvising serves her in good stead no matter the band size or the improvising context.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Catatumbo: 1. Darkness Rarely Lasted Long 2. Ribbons and Beads 3.The Fabric of Air 4. Cocuyos 5. Vientos Alisios

Personnel: Catatumbo: Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone); Olie Brice (bass) and Javier Carmona (drums)

Track Listing: Camino: 1. Expectation of Exception 2. Mullet Toss 3. Mr and Mrs Mundane 4. Corporal Fusion 5. Arroyo Burrow 6. Strada senza nome 7. A third line into little Miss Strange 8. Leapfrog 9. Camino Cielo Echo 10.Fluster 11. Mental Stencil 12. Two Words 13. June

Personnel: Camino: Ingrid Laubrock (tenor and soprano saxophones); Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Tom Rainey (drums)

November 21, 2012

Ingrid Laubrock/Javier Carmona/Olie Brice

Catatumbo
Babel BDV 12103

Tom Rainey Trio

Camino Cielo Echo

Intakt CD 198

Well-travelled, Münster-born saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock is now a Brooklyn resident, but spends time in London, where she was based for two decades, to maintain involvement in bands on both sides of the Atlantic. Recorded six months apart with closely allied personnel, these CDs demonstrate her trans-oceanic skills.

A live date from London’s Vortex club, Catatumbo matches Laubrock with two high-class improvisers with plenty of other axes in the fire. Madrid-born percussionist Javier Carmona spent seven years in London before settling in Barcelona. Besides membership in the London Improvisers Orchestra, he was in a duo with tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip. UK-native, bassist Olie Brice’s affiliations include a duo with veteran flautist Neil Metcalfe and a band with Hanslip. Meanwhile in a Brooklyn studio, Camino Cielo Echo unites the saxophonist with her husband, drummer Tom Rainey, a Santa Barbara-native now one of New York’s busiest percussionists, who is also part of a Laubrock trio with British pianist Liam Noble. String strength comes from Boston-born guitarist Mary Halvorson, who works with everyone from drummer Weasel Walter to trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum.

Despite the names above the titles, both groups are essentially co-ops. Rainey, the most generous of percussionists, gives both his partners plenty of solo space; plus writing duties for his CD’s 13 tracks are split three ways. Each of the five tracks on the other disc is an instant composition, involving all participants.

Brice’s solid string pumping and angled spiccato work from the back or in the foreground are continuing characteristics of the tunes on Catatumbo. Stretching but never breaking the chromatic interface is a common strategy throughout, especially when the band’s more pensive dialogues come to the fore. Isolated, Brice’s double-gaited pacing, Carmona’s ringing cymbal work and Laubrock’s tongue pops plus choked-air exhalation may be distracting, combined they blend into concentrated narratives. As an individual, Carmona’s percussion on a track like “Ribbons and Beads” consists of cowbell pops, asymmetrical rim and side slapping plus resonating patterning. Climax is reached when his staccato slaps with wire-brush-handles meet up with the bassist’s sul ponticello lines and Laubrock’s jagged eviscerating reed cries. By “Vientos Alisios”, the final track, as the drummer’s bounces plus bass-string sprawls pace her, Laubrock’s sprawling Dolphyesque snarls slide from sharp, altissimo to dampened vibrations. The resulting triple timbres from all are conclusive and calming.

Calm is certainly not the first adjective one would apply to the Rainey trio. With Halvorson in full flight the number of fuzz-encrusted distortions, gnarly and ringing string tones and jagged runs proliferate. Not to be outdone, Laubrock screeches, squeals and splinters pressurized tones from her saxophone, and at times Rainey unleashes a barrage of drags, strokes and flams. His decisive taste prevents that from happening too often however. Nonetheless some of these drum explosions take place, but also in the context of an up-tempo tune such as “Leapfrog”. Simultaneously as the guitarist snaps and vibrates her strings while the saxophonist’s reed biting mutates the theme.

This doesn’t mean that every track is sonically zealous. “Arroyo Burrow” for example features low-key, flute-like glissandi from Laubrock on soprano saxophone, colored by near-folksy plinks from the guitarist and Rainey rolling his sticks on top of his drums and punctuating the exposition with bass drum bangs. Following it, “Strada senza nome’ is a simple tune where the guitarist’s repetative strums could come from a ukulele, and are met by chain-shaking and other percussion vibrations from Rainey. The atmospheric title track outlines a similar sentiment.

Meanwhile cuts such as “Mental Stencil” – as would be expected – and “Two Words” – which may be all of a Metal band’s vocabulary – highlight rougher stances. The latter which binds together pressurized drones from Laubrock, flashing flanges and bent notes from, Halvorson and constant tapping from Rainey, pumps up to further oscillated buzzing from the guitarist and swelling screams from the reedist. A little more restrained, “Mental Stencil” has an exposition divided between intermittent guitar strums and bubbling reed puffs until Rainey’s subtle jabs and cymbal pops pacify first Laubrock into displaying polished tones that are almost cello-like, then encourage single licks from Halvorson, that in context are dance-like. Harmonizing individual outputs, the trio members’ lines eventually and mutually fade to muted interaction.

Significant in trio circumstances, as these CDs confirm, Laubrock’s verve and intelligent improvising serves her in good stead no matter the band size or the improvising context.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Catatumbo: 1. Darkness Rarely Lasted Long 2. Ribbons and Beads 3.The Fabric of Air 4. Cocuyos 5. Vientos Alisios

Personnel: Catatumbo: Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone); Olie Brice (bass) and Javier Carmona (drums)

Track Listing: Camino: 1. Expectation of Exception 2. Mullet Toss 3. Mr and Mrs Mundane 4. Corporal Fusion 5. Arroyo Burrow 6. Strada senza nome 7. A third line into little Miss Strange 8. Leapfrog 9. Camino Cielo Echo 10.Fluster 11. Mental Stencil 12. Two Words 13. June

Personnel: Camino: Ingrid Laubrock (tenor and soprano saxophones); Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Tom Rainey (drums)

November 21, 2012

Veryan Weston/Ingrid Laubrock/Hannah Marshall

Haste
Emanem 5025

Wild Chamber Trio

10,000 Leaves

NotTwo MW 880-2

Taking the chamber music instrumentation of piano, cello and woodwind as a base, but creating instant compositions with extended instrumental techniques in performance, these CDs literally delineate European Free Music. Nonetheless each is as different from the other as Austria is from England, proving that innovation arises in several forms. Despite its title, the three tracks on Haste, recorded at a festival in Barcelona, are dependent on understated patterning, unexpected vibrations and unfold at a mostly arthropodic pace – creations that are unfettered without being unruly. On the other hand, the aptly named Wild Chamber Trio invests 10,000 Leaves with many strident, staccato and strained sequences, creating an end product which studded with sharp angles and festering with sonic points.

Part of the reason for the variations may be geographic. Two of the three players on Haste are British, while the third, German soprano and tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, lived long enough in London, before relocating to New York, to internalize the small-gesture, so-called insect music that predominates in those circles. The others – veteran pianist Veryan Weston and cellist Hannah Marshall – are in the Trio of Uncertainty with classically trained violinist Satoko Fukuda, plus Marshall is part of The Shoreditch Trio, with other string players. However considering that the two also regularly work with such extroverts as vocalist Phil Minton and bassist Luc Ex, and sometimes lustily sing, British reserve may be as much a cliché as Teutonic toughness and noisiness.

Then again two members of the Wild Chamber Trio are Austrian. Graz-born pianist Elisabeth Harnik is a composer and teacher who has also improvised with saxophonist John Butcher and percussionist Michael Zerang. Meanwhile Swiss-born, Vienna-based cellist Clementine Gasser is also a composer, but she too has performed with Zerang, guitarist Peter Lössl and reedist Mikołaj Trzaska. Furthermore Pavia-born soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo, seems to be involved in both camps. Academically interested in the interconnection among music, visual arts, spoken and written words, he has in the past worked with British guitarist John Russell as well as Belgian soundsinger Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg.

Multi-shaded interaction with controlled pacing that stretch techniques without rupturing them are the hallmarks of Haste. Although there is a bit of rococo patterning at the beginning of “Leaning Up”, by the time the exposition is established, modernist spatialism predominates. Laubrock’s flute-like peeping from soprano saxophone is replaced by curved air currents and nasal trills. As the piece develop however, time variants threaten to become overly horizontal, melodiousness and moderato, until kinetic key clipping and staccato jumps from Weston and flying spiccato plus sul ponticello runs from Marshall appear. Reversing common roles, by this time the connective ostinato is provided by the tenor saxophonist, with the others given full rein to improvise. Resolution is in the form of an auxiliary theme appearing from the piano, and that low-frequency syncopation is intensified by straight-ahead pitches from the saxophonist plus sweeps and stops from the cellist.

Lead off “Sleeping Down Hill” runs the same textural gamut, with the trio members swapping metronomic for staccato impulses or moving from delineated bounces to arrhythmic characterizations as quickly as can be imagined – or accomplished. Overridingly group music, here and elsewhere on the disc, there are opportunities for each player to express him or herself. For instance, at points Weston trades note clusters for wide-ranging plucks or mood-setting patterning, speeding up and slowing down the exposition at will. Marshall sharply angles her attack atonally string shudders or heartily creates rhythmic coherence. In the final section, the reedist mutes her explosive harshness, exposed in counterpoint to the cellist’s col legno pacing, and instead joins the pianist’s exhilarating movement. In near tandem the three produce a finale which trades agitated expression for calming motion from all concerned.

Those agitated and staccato impulse are in evidence on 10,000 Leaves recorded three months previously. Slapped spiccato vibrations from Gasser’s 5-string cello, rolling keyboard swells, sharply voiced and arpeggiated from Harnik and squeaks, narrowed trills and percussive tongue slaps from Mimmo’s soprano saxophone predominate. With “Remaining Words” downsized, gentle and near melodious by its final bars, the CD’s most distinctive and characteristic pieces are the title track plus “Kitty Hawk”. So harsh and unyielding that it could have been put together by Italian Futurists, the latter combines key clipping and metronomic soundboard echoes with percussive slaps from the cello and a barnyard of extended techniques from the saxophonist, encompassing bitten-off notes, a harsh vibrato, lip growls and a point where the reed cries could be an infant’s demand for attention. Stretched multiphonic strings and pressurized reed tones serve as the climax.

As for “10,000 Leaves” the buzzy cello strokes, quivering piano runs and nearly vocalized peeping from the saxist unroll in close proximity, but never in tandem. Whether the reference is to leaves of a book or tree leaves is unclear. However part way through, a lyrical attempt does come from Mimmo, with string slides from Gasser and percussive and pan-tonal comping from Harnik creating an accompanying ostinato. Eventually as the cellist presses harder and harder against her strings and the saxophonist creates nasal multiphonics, the pianist’s percussive linkage draws all three into a final festive, near fantasia.

Just as its impossible to confuse one of these fine CDs for the other, so is it obvious from their collective work that there’s plenty of room left for many chamber-improv trio sessions in improvised music.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Haste: 1. Sleeping Down Hill 2. Leaning Up 3. Courtesy of None

Personnel: Haste: Ingrid Laubrock (soprano and tenor saxophones); Veryan Weston (piano) and Hannah Marshall (cello)

Track Listing: Leaves: 1. Atomic Heart 2. Shade Multiplication 3. Fire Code 4. Radiance 5. 10.000 Leaves 6. Kitty Hawk 7. Remaining Words

Personnel: Leaves: Gianni Mimmo (soprano saxophone); Elisabeth Harnik (piano) and Clementine Gasser (5-string cello)

October 17, 2012

Interview:

Veryan Weston
By Ken Waxman

London-based pianist Veryan Weston is a well-travelled musician who regularly turns up in a variety of free music situations in the United Kingdom and aboard. Best-known for his long associations with iconoclastic saxophonist Lol Coxhill and distinctive vocalist Phil Minton, Weston has also spent time in various ensembles with, among others, drummer Eddie Prévost, saxophonist John Butcher and is sometimes a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra. Weston and British alto saxophonist Trevor Watts are playing at the Stone this month as part of a duo tour of the US.

The New York City Jazz Record: Your New York performance is a duo with Trevor Watts. How long has it been that you two have been collaborating?

Veryan Weston: I first met Trevor at the Little Theatre Club in the late ‘70s. I used to go and listen to the Spontaneous Music Ensemble which sometimes was just Trevor and drummer John Stevens doing stuff like Face to Face [a 1973 Emanem CD with Stevens playing percussion and cornet and Watts, soprano saxophone]. And then I would also hear him at the Plough pub in Stockwell where John was part of a house rhythm section consisting of Lindsay Cooper, the bass player not the bassoonist, and pianist Stan Tracy. I started to get to know Trevor and talk about music with him just before he left London to go and live in Hastings in the early ‘80s. He started Moiré Music soon after that and so I was in right at the beginning of this project that initially included four saxophonists, two violinists, piano, bass guitar, drums and percussion. Working with Trevor is now a very important strand in my activity as a musician. His very open interests in a lot of different kinds of music enables our musical relationship to have a lot of dynamic, i.e. the music can go anywhere, and so there is still an enormous amount of potential music to explore on gigs.

TNYCJR: Once you moved to London from Cornwall in 1972, you became a regular at the legendary Little Theatre Club which your older sister Armorel helped start in the ‘60s. Who did you play with at first? And had you already been interested in so-called free music in your youth?

VW: There were other younger players at the Club who wanted to play together so I played with some of them. Before this though, I was only a teenager in Cornwall so was mainly just trying to listen to as much music as possible more generally. This consisted of not only jazz recordings on Impulse, Atlantic and Blue Note, but also the sounds from [world music labels] Ocora and Nonesuch. I remember hearing John Cage on BBC Radio3 in 1967 and being knocked out by the way he responded to questions with more questions. His questions often had lovely humor in them but could not be answered. I also had favorite pianists earlier in my mid- teens; they were Otis Spann and Mose Allison. I discovered Thelonious Monk a bit later.

TNYCJR: What kind of music had you played before going to London? Did you have classical training?

VW: I played a smattering of jazz, blues, pop and show tunes. I played these in hotels and the occasional Armed Forces base in the West Country. My first music teacher when I was 10 years old was Alfred Deller’s son Mark, who was also a counter-tenor, and who took over from his dad in the Deller Consort. I didn’t like the process of classical training. By then I used my eyes to connect the patterns of the black and white notes of the keyboard by memory. So when you are then told to look up at a piece of paper with squiggles on it and somehow translate those symbols to sound, this seemed much less fun to just discovering sounds using rhythm, harmony and melody with my own two eyes and ears.

TNYCJR: In the late ‘70s you were involved with a jazz-rock band called the Stinky Winkles, which also won awards in the UK, France, Spain and Poland. The name makes it sound like a pretty pop-oriented outfit. Was that the idea? If so what happened? When did the band break up?

VW: I was then living in the Digswell House in Welwyn Garden City Hertfordshire, a residential community for artists with an ethos instigated by Cambridge educationalist Henry Morris. The objective was to enable artists to live in, work in and be part of the local community. So part of my remit was to get out there and play music with people rather than live in an ivory tower and disappear up my own poop-shoot. The members of Stinky Winkles were lads living in the area who played their instruments well. One of the only ways we could get work at first was to take part in shitty competitions. Capitalism likes to have winners. The judges made their decisions for whatever reason, and we got to play outside the UK which was great. We gradually broke up after guitarist Gary Peters left the band. Now he’s a professor at York St John University and he’s just written an interesting book called The Philosophy of Improvisation (University of Chicago Press). The Stinky Winkles, name was as a result of Lol Coxhill eating some seafood that had been around for some time. Lol would occasionally just come up and be an invited guest with the band.

TNYCJR: That brings up your longest lasting musical lasting relationship, which has been with Coxhill. How did you and he get together?

VW: I first met Lol at the Little Theatre Club. He came in with a hat full of coins and managed to change this at the bar for some more easily carry-able notes. Much later on Lol took part in a Digswell event which also included drummer Roger Turner. At the end of the night we ended up playing standards, and Lol joined in and also played with the Johnny Rondo trio which was a lovely band with the pianist, not the bassist, Dave Holland and cellist Colin Wood. Shortly after this Lol applied to come to Digswell and had no problem getting in. One of my first gigs with Lol was in Brighton at the Polytechnic, as it was then called, and the band also had bassist Harry Miller, Marc Charig on French horn, and Alan Jackson on drums. It was good to learn to play jazz standards, show tunes and be-bop tunes in order to then work on the occasional standards gig with Lol. He has a vast repertoire of tunes he can just pull out of his memory. But my first public recordings were straight improvisations with him – The Joy of Paranoia [1977] and Digswell Duets [1978].

TNYCJR: At the same time you seemed to have begun working with visual artists plus composing and performing music for films. How did you reconcile Stinky Winkles, jazz and free music work with all this, especially when you had to deal with major projects like Derek Jarman's Carravaggio which involved that eccentric film director and actors such as Tilda Swinton?

VW: Yes, Lol and I were involved in a part of the music for Carravagio. It wasn’t a major project; it lasted one afternoon. I don’t know what I offered Lol, but he gave me an enormous amount by being just him, a friend and musician. We did a lot of improvisation plus occasional gigs playing standards and stuff like the Carravagio film. Stinky Winkles were local to Digswell House area and resident artists were all requested to be artists in the community so I got involved with those guys. It was reconciliation by default. I like doing different things which are often a challenge. I also worked with a potter called Elizabeth Fritsch, who is a great artist, and her work exudes music.

TNYCJR: Looking at your educational background which includes a fellowship with the Digswell Arts Trust in Hertfordshire, a degree course in Performance Art at Middlesex Polytechnic and a Masters degree in Music Composition from Goldsmith's College were you also planning to become an academic?

VW: No. Basically I didn’t have enough work as a performing musician, and the dole people were getting bored with seeing me every week. I enrolled for a course because I could get a mature student grant which also considered the fact that I have two children. Those were the days. The M Mus was just an extension of this. I thought that at least I would then be paid to study music which I liked doing anyway and still do. Also it introduced me to a whole load of other people including students and teachers, so it enlarged my horizons, I suppose. But I don’t really like these kinds of institutions to be honest. I was invited back to teach for a while and found it quite painful.

TNYCJR: You were also revising your book on piano improvisation in the ‘70s. What was the reason for your writing it? Did it reach a final form? If so is it now used as an instruction book by musicians?

VW: No, it was a way of developing methods and correlating observations and research in a daily journal. It was never published. The book contained various aspects of theory, fingerings, hand-independence exercises, and structures that facilitates a more even and two-handed approach to contemporary piano improvisation. At Digswell I got some financial support to revise the material by re-structuring it using musical syntax rather than it being just chronological. This enabled me to not only reassess the material in the original book, but also helped me to edit and revise all the day-to-day jottings.

TNYCJR: Shortly after that you began as association with Eddie Prévost. How did that happen and compared to AMM were those projects more “jazz” oriented?

VW: Yes Eddie likes playing in more of a “free-jazz” way sometimes when the occasion seems right – like with certain instrumental combinations and with certain instrumentalists who have specific experience.

TNYCJR: In the mid-‘90s you started working with vocalist Phil Minton. How and why did this arrangement begin and is it still on-going? It included bands like the one with saxophonist John Butcher and drummer Roger Turner and another with bass guitarist Luc Ex and drummer Michael Vatcher. Was the first more “free music” and the other more “political” for instance?

VW: I met Phil in a real substantial way when we were both playing in Trevor’s Moiré Music large band project for the [Austrian] Saalfelden Festival in 1985. We hung out together and got on and decided to work on the Ways project [recorded on ITM in 1987], singing and playing different kinds of songs that we liked a lot and really wanted to record. The quartet with John and Roger used text by James Joyce and was constructed to accomodate the experiences of Roger and John as well as us. The band called 4 Walls was as a result of poor [cellist] Tom Cora dying so tragically young. He was part of a band with Luc and Michael called Roof. Luc and Michael wanted to carry on with Phil and so Phil suggested I get involved. You see 4 Walls were part of a house of musicians that had no Roof anymore. As for politics: that’s in everything we do.

TNYCJR: Did Phil’s contribution change your musical outlook? You have also been known to sing on occasion as well. Is this an outgrowth of the work with Phil?

VW: I started singing when I was about 11 in the choir at Salisbury Cathedral School which has a choral tradition that goes back 900 years. Being stuck away in this boarding school with all its nasty creepy class values and religious beliefs filled me for most of these early years with a real feeling of melancholia, but the singing was a release. I used to love listening to the choir in that enormous thick stone space. It was like my kind of blues. I certainly got more from Phil than Mark Deller that’s for sure. Occasionally in London I get to be involved in one of Phil’s Feral Choir projects and it’s beautiful. Also in Sol6 I get to sing a couple of Satie songs, and I have a little solo project which includes singing a few other songs as well.

In fact, the last time I played New York was in 1999 was with Phil at Merkin Hall. It was the quartet with Roger Turner and John Butcher as part of a small US tour of A Mouthful of Ecstasy.

TNYCJR: There are also a couple of CDs on which you play pipe or chamber organ, and one using harpsichord. Were these just spur-of-the-moment decisions with one/off bands or related to other long-term concepts?

VW: [Australia-based violinist/composer] Jon Rose also shares the Cathedral School experience – as did [the late radical British composer] Cornelius Cardew. Jon and I like to explore different tunings related to a time that predates equal temperament. Also we like to use keyboards that have more unusual colors than the modern evolved grand piano. So these are harpsichords, fortepianos, spinets, clavichords, harmoniums and tracker-action organs. That is anything that is essentially still acoustic.

TNYCJR: Recently you’ve recorded CDs dealing with “Tessellations”. Can you define this?

VW: Tessellations is completely different from other stuff I do, which may be why I do it. This is a personal project based on research done on specific kinds of pentatonic scales that are all related to one another. Tessellations are kinds of visual structures and so I have borrowed a term to somehow try and describe some of the almost geometric ideas in the Tessellations pieces that I have written. Trevor gave me a lot of inspiration back in the past when I was working in Moiré Music, since Moiré is another visually-related word. Elizabeth Fritsch is also hot on geometry and rhythm too, while dance is a good medium point from which both aspects are connected.

TNYCJR: Your other recent CD on Emanem is Haste with soprano and tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and cellist Hannah Marshall. Is this another on-going group? Is the association with Marshall, who is in Sol6 and other bands with you another long-time commitment as well?

TNYCJR: Yes, it is an ongoing group – I feel we have only just started. Hannah and I also play in the Trio of Uncertainty which includes a wonderful classically trained violinist called Satoko Fukuda and yes, Hannah is in Sol6 where we sing songs by Satie, Ives, Bacharach and Eisler as well as include instrumental compositions by George Russell and Steve Lacy. There are other regular affiliations for me as well, a trio with [bassist] John Edwards and [drummer] Mark Sanders, which is in the process of being expanded out to a quartet which will include Trevor. Also I play in a duo which I like a lot with [saxophonist] Caroline Kraabel, and perform at the very occasional Skip Film event with [guitarist/violinist] Hugh Metcalfe where he and I improvise along with his Super8 films. But in essence I’m a freelance musician open to any gig – providing it interests me.

--For New York City Jazz Record July 2012

July 6, 2012

Sol6

Sol6
Red Note 15

Another one of those only-in-Europe ensembles which ingeniously intermingles strands of chamber music, pop and punk currents within an overlay of improvisation, Sol6 calls on talents from four countries and varied ages for this buoyant session.

Chief instigators of this CD, recorded live at Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, are Luc Ex from the Netherlands and British pianist/vocalist Veryan Weston. A founding member of punk group The Ex, since leaving that band, Ex has devoted his time to quirky improv groups such as 4Walls with Weston and British vocalist Phil Minton. Weston of course, is a veteran of the London improv scene, where he works in various configurations, including one with cellist Hannah Marshall, who is also in Sol6. Marshall, who usually plays in improv setting with people like drummer Steve Noble, was also on an album by pop band Polar Bear. So was violist Mandy Drummond, another Sol6er, who usually divides her time between accompanying pop bands and classical music. German-born saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock now lives in New York where she performs with people like drummer Tom Rainey; while Australian drummer Tony Buck, a long-time Berlin resident, is best-known for his membership in The Necks.

A curious sort of parallelism is evident as the band moves through the CD’s 17-song program. Nearly every track is doubled by another, whether it’s an extension of developed tonal ideas continued in variations on the subsequent track; or whether the title and/or ideas expressed by the initial tune are mirrored by another song. An obvious example of this is “Uncaged” and “The Cage”, which follow one another. The former features a sophisticated musical version of you-can’t-catch-me, mixing arco smears and doubled pizzicato plucks from the cellist with plinking note-clusters and andante chording from the pianist, and climaxing with a vocal rendition of Charles Ives’ “The Cage” from Marshall. More affecting on its own is Weston’s saucy rendition – in French – of Erik Satie’s “Chanson Hollandaise”, which creates a hitherto unknown link between Jacques Brel-like chansonnier messages and discordant tone-row impulses from the string players and the saxophonist.

More notable still are the purely instrumental tracks, where the sextet melds suggestions of seemingly antithetical sounds. “Brain Boiling Obvious 3” for instance, mixes Buck’s calm, wire-brush propelled shuffle beat with rapid arpeggios from Weston, country & western-like twangs from Ex and sul tasto runs from Marshall. Following some moderato breaths from Laubrock, the formerly disconnected textures and irregular strokes meld without surrendering individual sonic identities.

Elsewhere, “Autistic African Samba”, a joint Weston-Ex composition, balances the legato and the discordant. As chord and melody fragments from the pianist flash by, a pseudo rock blues from the bassist and flutter-tongued melisma from the saxophonist unite on top of a melodic viola-cello interface, with the final scrubbed vibrations connecting by the finale. “Leg Room in the 1st Class” on the other hand could be a hitherto undiscovered duet between Cecil Taylor and Günter “Baby” Sommer. With Buck using a range of spectacular effects including extended press rolls, intermittent flams and multi-tempo ruffs and drags, Weston utilizes his playing skills to the fullest in this broken octave face off. Continuously involved with contrasting dynamics, he moves from player-piano styled staccato to sliding portamento, to high frequency single note slaps, until all are gathered into connective patterns.

Despite these achievements some of the egregious example of pop music – such as Drummond warbling Burt Bacharach’s “Close to You” – could nonetheless be excised without much harm to the program. Overall though, Sol6 has created a CD which should appeal to advanced popsters as well as hard-core improvisers.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Some Tings Must Stay 2. And the World Might Bb After All 3. Uncaged 4. The Cage 5. Miniature 1 6. Brain Boiling Obvious 1 7. Chanson Hollandaise 8. Leg Room in the 1st Class 9. Amputation in Economy 10. Nood 11. Close to You 12. Brain Boiling Obvious 2 13. Sick Eagle 14. Autistic African Samba 15. Brain Boiling Obvious 3 16. Insecurity 17. Miniature 2

Personnel: Ingrid Laubrock (soprano and tenor saxophones and voice); Mandy Drummond (viola and voice); Hannah Marshall (cello and voice); Veryan Weston (piano and voice); Luc Ex (bass) and Tony Buck (drums)

October 22, 2010

Tom Rainey Trio

Pool School
Clean Feed CF 185 CD

Owen Howard

Drum Lore

BJU Records BJUR 017

Harris Eisenstadt

Woodblock Prints

No Business NBLP 18

Heinrich Köbberling

Sonnenschirm

Jazz Werkstatt JW 093

Extended Play: Drummers as leaders and composers

By Ken Waxman

Constantly the brunt of other musicians’ jokes for their supposed fixation on rhythm, over the years drummers have actually proven themselves as organized band leaders and sophisticated tunesmiths. Edmonton-born, Brooklyn-based percussionist Owen Howard strikes a blow for his stick-wielding brethren with Drum Lore BJU Records BJUR 017 as he leads a sextet through compositions by 11 different drummers. including himself. His notable CD, along with others by drummer/leaders, demonstrates these players’ overall improvisational and compositional smarts.

Howard proves his percussion adaptability with strategies ranging from understated paradiddles and pops backing muted trombone and slurry bass clarinet on Shelly Manne’s “Flip”, to cross pounded bounces and clattering opposite sticking that adds an undercurrent of gravitas to Alan Ferber’s trombone ostinato and call-and-response patterns from the three saxophonists on Ed Blackwell’s “Togo”. He’s even more impressive guiding the slinky polyrhythms of Jack DeJohnette’s “Zoot Suite”, as clattering cymbals and popping bass drum subtly shifts tempos from andante to moderato as the layered horn riffs expand in scrappy, cascading counterpoint. The drummer’s own Roundabout vibrates with shifting pulses as alto saxophonist John O’Gallagher’s refracting flutter-tonguing alters the melody already trilled by soprano saxophonist Adam Kolker. Howard’s blunt rebounds and splashing cymbals keep things moving until pianist Frank Carlberg’s wide-spaced comping signals the finale.

Howard’s CD shows jazz percussionist’s compositional versatility, while the six compositions on Woodblock Prints No Business NBLP 18 presents a singular vision by another drummer, Toronto native-turned Brooklynite Harris Eisenstadt. Program music based on celebrating the art of Japanese wood bock prints, this chamber-improv is played by a brass-heavy nonet. What isn’t expected is that Mark Taylor’s French horn and Jay Rozen’s tuba are frequently lead voices, with the burbling timbre crepuscule of Sara Schoenbeck’s bassoon often used for its unique tincture. Most demonstrative of Eisenstadt’s skills as a colorist is “Hokusai”, energized by his bell-tree shaking and tambourine smacks. Meanwhile hoarse, stuttering, bassoon patterns deconstruct the slow-gliding theme alongside Jonathan Goldberger’s guitar licks. Following Michael McGinnis’ squealing clarinet trills backed by the drummer’s ruffs and drags, Rozen’s extended tremolo line shepherds the variants towards Eisenstadt’s conclusive cymbal shimmies. Similarly on “The Floating World”, the narrative is defined as much by waddling tuba slurps plus diffuse French horn brays as liquid clarinet runs and pumping unison horns. The tubaist’s penultimate snort dissolve into pitch-sliding polytones as the drummer outlays shuffles, ruffs and bell-pings.

Less upfront as a performer, but responsible for all compositions on Sonnenschirm Jazz Werkstatt JW 093 is Heinrich Köbberling, a professor of percussion at Germany’s Leipzig University. He’s content using his cross strokes, opposite sticking, drags and rebounds to keep the session moderato, but with infectious, flowing rhythms. Rather than taking solos, Köbberling’s compositions and accompaniment give full reign to bassist Paul Imm, piano/accordionist Tino Derado and especially bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall. An unflappable tone explorer, Mahall adds sonic vitality to the often-jaunty tunes. “Zahlen Bitte” is a particular example of the reedman’s skills. Here his coloratura slides and tongue-stuttering face chiming piano lines. Circling around one another, all the textures then join to complete the melody. Meanwhile the drummer rolls and pumps in the background. Built on light-fingered piano harmonies, “Konbanwa” is another standout as the repeated theme variants are expressed sequentially by lyrical reed voicing and cascading piano chords.

Completely antithetical to the preceding discs is Pool School Clean Feed CF 185 CD is the first disc under the leadership of busy New York percussionist Tom Rainey. Consisting of 12 instant compositions, the CD depends as much on the inventiveness of guitarist Mary Halvorson and tenor and soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock as Rainey’s drum dexterity. Yet as low-key and unforced as Rainey’s rhythms are, it’s their unruffled surge which keeps the dozen tracks moving. “More Mesa” for instance is taken agitato and moderato, with Laubrock’s pressurized vibrations as intense as the angled crunching runs from Halvorson. Yet the piece’s atmospheric identity is maintained through Rainey’s rim shot accents, hi-hat strokes and cymbal slaps. The drummer’s swirling cauldron of broken-octave rebounds and solid ruffs also create a subversive swing rhythm by the finale of “Semi Bozo”. Earlier, his ratcheting clicks and drum-top pops, the guitarist’s disconnected chording and slurred fingering plus the saxophonist’s rasping, low-pitched warbles appear to evolve in parallel rather than connective lines, until Rainey’s inverted sticking pushes them into harmonic concordance.

As these sessions prove, giving a sophisticated drummer freedom to innovate, results in much more than a rhythmic free-for-all.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 16 #2

October 12, 2010

Trio Werchowska/Pontévia/Boubaker

Décalage vers le rouge
Petit Label pl son 002

Ingrid Laubrock with Liam Noble & Tom Rainey

Sleepthief

Intakt CD 146

Two takes on the piano-drums-and saxophone trio end up with widely divergent emphasis on the colors accessible from the instruments’ timbres. Free form as possible, the unbridled Décalage vers le rouge extends an identity that was initially advanced by pianist Cecil Taylor’s pioneering units. More neutral and technique-oriented, Sleepthief’s orientation leans towards the sometime free, sometime formalist trio of pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. Each strategy is equally valid.

German-born, but a London resident since 1989, soprano and tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock studied with some of jazz education’s top names and won music prize. But despite this, she is still also part of F-IRE, an arts collective. An Oxford University music grad, pianist Liam Noble has worked with jazz men as traditional as flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler and saxophonist Stan Sulzmann – coincidentally one of Laubrock’s teachers – as well as composer Moondog, and also explored outer-directed programming playing keyboards and samplers. Finally American Tom Rainey has established himself as the go-to percussionist for many advanced improvisers including saxophonist Tim Berne, bassist Mark Helias and trumpeter Herb Robertson.

Awards and schooling is a little more opaque for the other trio. However Bordeaux-based Mathias Pontévia, who plays a horizontal drum kit, is part of the Trio de batterie with Didier Lasserre and Edward Perraud and has worked with pianist Frédéric Blondy. Paris-based Nusch Werchowska is a band called Two Spoiled Strings with violinist Mathieu Werchowski, and has worked with electronics manipulator Uli Böttcher and American saxophonist Jack Wright among others. Toulouse-based Heddy Boubaker operates his own performance space, and works with dance companies as well as with fellow sound experimenters such as trumpeter Birgit Ulher

On Décalage vers le rouge, the interface is midway between dissonance and imperfection, with distended and stretched tones evolving in layered and clashing multi tones. The pianist scratches, bows and plucks her instrument’s internal strings with the same intensity that she brings to keyboard pumps and pedal expansions. The drummer screeches a stick along cymbal tops and spanks, clanks and whacks other parts of his kit. Meanwhile the saxophonist expends blurry pressurized pitches from his horn.

At points Pontévia splinters his strokes as if an entire cymbal factory is exploding around him; other times it appears as if he’s smacking his sole snare with a thick stick. Yet in a sometime reversal, the result brings out what could be the sounds of someone exploring a playroom full of percussion toys – including glass armonicas, rattles, squeaky plastic animals and chains. On his side, Boubaker tongue slaps and exposes miasmatic peeps and metallic scrapes as he pitch-slides from staccato vibrations to intense buzzing. When bursts of key percussion don’t mark his presence, he rams air through his horn’s hollow body tube.

Trio Werchowska/Pontévia/Boubaker’s characteristic track is “Plus près”. Here intermittent reed chirps and basso echoes from the saxophonist quickly overcome Werchowska’s inchoate drones and Pontévia’s drum pops and gong smacks, until the pianist asserts herself. Splayed cadenzas reverberate against the piano sound board producing knife-edge supplementary tones, as piano keys are depressed for hollowed-out reverb. Meanwhile Boubaker growls irregularly and the percussionist batters and slaps his cymbals and snares. As fractured tones progress in an adagio fashion, the track fades to a microtones – then disappears altogether.

Laubrock, Noble and Rainey also collectively produce their share of drum set clinks and clanks, as well as peeping reed trills and rolling keyboard note clusters. But over the course of nine tracks their influence(s) are a bit more exaggerated and obvious.

“Zugunruhe” for instance, comes into focus with the saxophonist expending Evan Parker-like distanced puffs, as Noble distributes Thelonious Monk-like note displacement throughout. Only Rainey’s light strokes appear unaffected, and by the finale it’s his kettle drum-like rumbles that resolve an unbalanced piece which earlier on threatened to capsize. Harmonic convergence is more obvious on compositions such as the title tune, summed up with rubato low pitches alternating with almost Woody Woodpecker-like chirps from Laubrock positioned with irregular octave jumps. Initially the saxophonist advances the theme with lip-bubbling slurs interconnecting with tremolo arpeggios from Noble and near-Native Indian tom-tom beats from Rainey.

Evolving in a contrary fashion to the other trio, however, this mixed British-German-American combo produces statements that are as lucid as they are hectic. Some tunes such as “The Ears Have It” even flirt with romanticism. Worked out with gentling dynamic overtones from the pianist and emphasized pauses, those melody snatches are knit together with distinct, but distanced blowing from Laubrock, zigzagging from low-pitched to mid-range. While Rainey clip-clops and cymbal smacks, Noble pats his keys and the saxophonist arcs her tone to sound identical note clusters in tandem with the piano.

Proof that there’s still plenty of life left in this sort of trio interface, the music on these CDs impresses without ever becoming indispensable. Still, depending on the listener’s proclivities, each can be appreciated.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Décalage: 1. Parsec 2. Plus près 3. Un renvoi vers l’onière 4. Etabli/Diminutif/Rien 5. Sursaut X 6. Optique du crabe 7. Radioscource 8. Sursaut mu

Personnel: Décalage: Heddy Boubaker (alto saxophone); Nusch Werchowska (piano) and Mathias Pontévia (drums)

Track Listing: Sleepthief: 1. Zugunruhe 2. Sleepthief 3. Oofy Twerp 4. Never Were Not 5. Environmental Stud 6. The Ears Have It 7. Batchelor's Know-How 8. Social Cheats 9. Amelie

Personnel: Sleepthief: Ingrid Laubrock (soprano and tenor saxophone); Liam Noble (piano) and Tom Rainey (drums)

June 8, 2009

Ingrid Laubrock with Liam Noble & Tom Rainey

Sleepthief
Intakt CD 146

Trio Werchowska/Pontévia/Boubaker

Décalage vers le rouge

Petit Label pl son 002

Two takes on the piano-drums-and saxophone trio end up with widely divergent emphasis on the colors accessible from the instruments’ timbres. Free form as possible, the unbridled Décalage vers le rouge extends an identity that was initially advanced by pianist Cecil Taylor’s pioneering units. More neutral and technique-oriented, Sleepthief’s orientation leans towards the sometime free, sometime formalist trio of pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. Each strategy is equally valid.

German-born, but a London resident since 1989, soprano and tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock studied with some of jazz education’s top names and won music prize. But despite this, she is still also part of F-IRE, an arts collective. An Oxford University music grad, pianist Liam Noble has worked with jazz men as traditional as flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler and saxophonist Stan Sulzmann – coincidentally one of Laubrock’s teachers – as well as composer Moondog, and also explored outer-directed programming playing keyboards and samplers. Finally American Tom Rainey has established himself as the go-to percussionist for many advanced improvisers including saxophonist Tim Berne, bassist Mark Helias and trumpeter Herb Robertson.

Awards and schooling is a little more opaque for the other trio. However Bordeaux-based Mathias Pontévia, who plays a horizontal drum kit, is part of the Trio de batterie with Didier Lasserre and Edward Perraud and has worked with pianist Frédéric Blondy. Paris-based Nusch Werchowska is a band called Two Spoiled Strings with violinist Mathieu Werchowski, and has worked with electronics manipulator Uli Böttcher and American saxophonist Jack Wright among others. Toulouse-based Heddy Boubaker operates his own performance space, and works with dance companies as well as with fellow sound experimenters such as trumpeter Birgit Ulher

On Décalage vers le rouge, the interface is midway between dissonance and imperfection, with distended and stretched tones evolving in layered and clashing multi tones. The pianist scratches, bows and plucks her instrument’s internal strings with the same intensity that she brings to keyboard pumps and pedal expansions. The drummer screeches a stick along cymbal tops and spanks, clanks and whacks other parts of his kit. Meanwhile the saxophonist expends blurry pressurized pitches from his horn.

At points Pontévia splinters his strokes as if an entire cymbal factory is exploding around him; other times it appears as if he’s smacking his sole snare with a thick stick. Yet in a sometime reversal, the result brings out what could be the sounds of someone exploring a playroom full of percussion toys – including glass armonicas, rattles, squeaky plastic animals and chains. On his side, Boubaker tongue slaps and exposes miasmatic peeps and metallic scrapes as he pitch-slides from staccato vibrations to intense buzzing. When bursts of key percussion don’t mark his presence, he rams air through his horn’s hollow body tube.

Trio Werchowska/Pontévia/Boubaker’s characteristic track is “Plus près”. Here intermittent reed chirps and basso echoes from the saxophonist quickly overcome Werchowska’s inchoate drones and Pontévia’s drum pops and gong smacks, until the pianist asserts herself. Splayed cadenzas reverberate against the piano sound board producing knife-edge supplementary tones, as piano keys are depressed for hollowed-out reverb. Meanwhile Boubaker growls irregularly and the percussionist batters and slaps his cymbals and snares. As fractured tones progress in an adagio fashion, the track fades to a microtones – then disappears altogether.

Laubrock, Noble and Rainey also collectively produce their share of drum set clinks and clanks, as well as peeping reed trills and rolling keyboard note clusters. But over the course of nine tracks their influence(s) are a bit more exaggerated and obvious.

“Zugunruhe” for instance, comes into focus with the saxophonist expending Evan Parker-like distanced puffs, as Noble distributes Thelonious Monk-like note displacement throughout. Only Rainey’s light strokes appear unaffected, and by the finale it’s his kettle drum-like rumbles that resolve an unbalanced piece which earlier on threatened to capsize. Harmonic convergence is more obvious on compositions such as the title tune, summed up with rubato low pitches alternating with almost Woody Woodpecker-like chirps from Laubrock positioned with irregular octave jumps. Initially the saxophonist advances the theme with lip-bubbling slurs interconnecting with tremolo arpeggios from Noble and near-Native Indian tom-tom beats from Rainey.

Evolving in a contrary fashion to the other trio, however, this mixed British-German-American combo produces statements that are as lucid as they are hectic. Some tunes such as “The Ears Have It” even flirt with romanticism. Worked out with gentling dynamic overtones from the pianist and emphasized pauses, those melody snatches are knit together with distinct, but distanced blowing from Laubrock, zigzagging from low-pitched to mid-range. While Rainey clip-clops and cymbal smacks, Noble pats his keys and the saxophonist arcs her tone to sound identical note clusters in tandem with the piano.

Proof that there’s still plenty of life left in this sort of trio interface, the music on these CDs impresses without ever becoming indispensable. Still, depending on the listener’s proclivities, each can be appreciated.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Décalage: 1. Parsec 2. Plus près 3. Un renvoi vers l’onière 4. Etabli/Diminutif/Rien 5. Sursaut X 6. Optique du crabe 7. Radioscource 8. Sursaut mu

Personnel: Décalage: Heddy Boubaker (alto saxophone); Nusch Werchowska (piano) and Mathias Pontévia (drums)

Track Listing: Sleepthief: 1. Zugunruhe 2. Sleepthief 3. Oofy Twerp 4. Never Were Not 5. Environmental Stud 6. The Ears Have It 7. Batchelor's Know-How 8. Social Cheats 9. Amelie

Personnel: Sleepthief: Ingrid Laubrock (soprano and tenor saxophone); Liam Noble (piano) and Tom Rainey (drums)

June 8, 2009