Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio & Jeb Bishop

Burning Live
JACC Records 017

Lovedale

Green Sounds

ILK CD 187

Shaking things up for a new take on what had been a cohesive group sound is the point of both these CDs. And in both cases change is effected by adding a resourceful trombone voice to an already flexible band. What’s most notable is how the resulting arrangement proceeds in an individual matter. Without wanting to perpetuate North-South clichés, Burning Live, recorded with a mostly Portuguese band, is a heated slice of frenetic Free Jazz, while Green Sounds by the mostly Danish Lovedale is cooler and more restrained.

Interestingly enough both trombonists are foreigners. American Jeb Bishop, who has extensive experience with saxophonists Ken Vandermark and Peter Brötzmann among others, is the special guest of the established Andalusian trio of tenor and baritone saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, cellist Miguel Mira and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini. Meanwhile German trombonist Nils Wogram, who leads his own bands, besides guesting with the likes of pianist Simon Nabatov, joins Lovedale as a full-time member. Considering he replaces the combo’s bassist, the now reconstituted band uses his capillary tones allied to Jesper Løvdal’s tenor saxophone, flute and clarinet to produce an unexpected group sound. When extended with a rhythm section made up of Jacob Anderskov’s Würlitzer and acoustic piano plus Anders Mogensen’s drums,

During the course of three long improvisations Burning Live, Bishop and Amado, whose playing partners have included drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and bassist Ken Filiano, work in intense concentration, tossing timbres back-and-forth, sometimes as call-and-response, other times providing descriptive coloration to the other’s tonal thrust. The interaction is reminiscent of earlier sax/’bone duos such as Pepper Adams and Jimmy Knepper or Brötzmann and Albert Mangelsdorff. Bishop thrusts grace notes and triplets at Amada while using sighs and chromatic pacing for thematic outlines. Decorating the exposition with a variety of strategies from pressurized altissimo squawks and basso snorts to melodic patterning, Amado gives as good as he gets. Cellist Mira, who often plays with pianist João Lucas, mostly emphasizes the pizzicato bass-like qualities of his instrument, although he does occasionally indulge in some sul ponticello sweeps. Meanwhile with his pops, rolls and rumbles, drummer Gabriel Ferrandini, also a member of the co-op Red Trio keeps the undercurrent boiling.

“Imaginary Caverns,” the nearly 26-minute climatic track, captures this interaction at its most intense. Before Amado pushes his tenor saxophone tones from melodic to maximal with snorting reflux and timbre eviscerating, Bishop has already spent the first part of his exposition using plunger tones and lip pressure to define the piece. When Mira’s staccato walking and Ferrandini’s tough ruffs lock into place the contest is joined on all sides. Speedy and slow, sloppy and carefully focused, the front line runs through a variety of strategies with Bishop’s juddering glissandi suggesting Roswell Rudd at times, and his clean execution JJ Johnson at others. Meanwhile the saxophonist’s vibrato occasionally descends into baritone sax territory, only to upturn later on, melding with Bishop’s lines as if he was John Tchicai with Rudd in the New York Art Quart. All and all, Burning Live is a notable variation of contrapuntal, parallel, but never overbearing improv.

Similar instances of co-operative cohesion are displayed on Lovedale’s nine, much shorter tracks. Still, Wogram occasionally tootles his melodic, and Anderskov uses the Würlitzer with its less than exact pitch to punctuate the tunes with hocketing pauses and what could be signal-processed reverb.

Distinctively “Mefludica” is built on what sounds like harmonica slurs and accordion quivers, but probably comes from the melodica and Würlitzer, although the drummer’s sand dance clattering also fit those pre-modern references. With waves of reverb backing them, Løvdal on low-pitched flute burbles lyrically as Wogram’s staccato slurs echo the other’s solo. In contrast, “Beneath the Blues” finds the trombonist exacerbating his tendency to fill in every hole with pumping glissandi and plunger cries, while the pianist works his way down the scale with a Crazy Otto-like resonance that brings into play key frame and speaking length action. On the other hand, a staggering backbeat is maintained throughout by Mogensen, who has played with such Yanks as saxophonist Gary Thomas and trombonist Ray Anderson.

Perhaps the ensemble’s most defining moment appears on the appropriately named “Suite Green”. Cross-pulsed piano lines plus paradiddles and pops from Mogensen underlie the narrative as the horns bray in tandem with metronomic pacing. Eventually the trombonist’s capillary smears and the saxophonist’s intense vibrations become more distant and regularize as they retreat from the drummer’s straight shuffle beat.

An experiment – in Amado’s case – which works, and a new configuration for Lovedale, confirms that when done properly this unforeseen brass-reed partnership can create superior music.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Burning: 1. Burning Live 2. Imaginary Caverns 3. Red Halo

Personnel: Burning: Jeb Bishop (trombone); Rodrigo Amado (tenor saxophone); Miguel Mira (cello) and Gabriel Ferrandini (drums)

Track Listing: Green: 1. Trains and Bones and Planes 2. On Track, Off Time 3. Beneath the Blues 4. Landscape 5. Suite Green 6. Mefludica 7. Play 8. Wogram Avenue 9. Green Exit

Personnel: Green: Nils Wogram (trombone and melodica); Jesper Løvdal (tenor saxophone, flute and clarinet); Jacob Anderskov (Würlitzer piano and piano) and Anders Mogensen (drums)

October 22, 2012

RED Trio + John Butcher

Empire
No Business Records NBLP 37

Although it may be fanciful to suggest that this is British saxophonist John Butcher’s Hard Rock record, his playing is certainly more voluble, raunchy and strident than on the majority of his recent sessions.

It may be because on this three-track LP the master of cerebral understatement is matched up with a trio of Portuguese Gen Xes who in this context enliven the common piano-bass-drum trio with enough rough and physical textures to frighten fans that prefer impressionistic pastels. That’s rough, but not crude however, for pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro, bassist Hernani Faustino and percussionist Gabriel Ferrandini have demonstrated a sensitive interface on other discs.

Besides touring the Iberian Peninsula with Butcher, the Lisbon-based trio members have a working knowledge of Rock; have played as a group with American avant trumpeter Nate Wooley; and individually worked with other anything-but-shy improvisers such as saxophonist John Zorn (Pinheiro), saxophonist Jon Irabagon, (Faustino) and cornetist Rob Mazurek (Ferrandini).

Whatever it is, as early as the first track, Butcher lots loose with some thickly vibrating and splintering altissimo punctuation that`s a lot closer to 1960s Free Jazz expression than what he usually plays. Meanwhile Pinheiro, for one, spurs minimalism, instead studding his solos with swift soundboard echoes, internal string strumming and high-intensity chording. Similarly as the expositions are developed, there are times when slide-whistle-like shrilling is heard. With his saxophone mastery, Butcher could be adding an intense parallel line to his improvisations. Or, on the other hand, the screech could arise from Ferrandini’s percussion mastery, which includes hand-patting drags, rim shots and flams plus measured cymbal claps and stentorian thumps. Nonetheless it’s the pianist who is most percussive in his playing. Frequently tremolo and highly syncopated, his circular keyboard chording sometimes matches the saxophonist’s circular breathing. Other times he’ll focus on repeated, high-pitched key clicking or use pressure to expose the deepest vibrations from his instrument. For his part, Butcher stresses trills that are watery and murmuring at one point, yet ascend to staccato interstellar-space exaggerations at others. In a way odd man out, Faustino keeps time and stays out of the way.

Exposing individual variants of note distension early on, the four-way communication reaches a climax of cumulative tension on the final and title track. With the bassist finally asserting himself with sul ponticello and col leno swipes and the percussionist’s mallet-driven chops providing the backdrop, the more-than-23-minute exposition bounds from Butcher to Pinheiro and back again. The pianist’s chromatic keyboard work takes in tremolo cadences in the instrument’s lowest register until he breaks free for friction-laden episodes of syncopated string strumming. Meantime the saxophonist blasts out juddering multiphonics, slurring, stuttering and splaying broken chords. In short order the nearly three-dimensional polyphony reaches a crescendo of drilling reed bites and nephritic honks matched with keyboard claps, clips and smacks until both are cut off and the narrative is completed by an isolated string pluck from Faustino.

Likely to be a unique entry in both Butcher’s and the Red trio’s discographies, Empire is a wild ride that should be experienced by everyone.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Sustained 2. Pachyderm 3. Empire

Personnel: John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones); Rodrigo Pinheiro (piano); Hernani Faustino (bass) and Gabriel Ferrandini (drums and percussion)

December 25, 2011

Rodrigo Amado

Motion Trio
European Echoes 004

Amado/Kessler/Nilssen-Love

The Abstract Truth

European Echoes 003

Turning a cliché on its head, it’s evident with these CDs that familiarity breeds creativity. For while Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado’s session with American bassist Kent Kessler and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love is only good, his Motion Trio disc with two fellow Lisbon musicians is exceptional.

A photographer as well as an improviser, Amado has been committed to advanced music for years, as a member of the Lisbon Improvisation Players and collaborating with American jazzers such as bassist Ken Filiano and cellist Tomas Ulrich; he even recorded an earlier trio session with Kessler and Nilssen-Love.

However it appears as if his concept of real-time composition works best with cello, considering the technical versatility local experimental polymath Miguel Mira brings to the date. American-Portuguese drummer Gabriel Ferrandini is only in his early twenties, but having played in noise as well as electro-acoustic bands and ad hoc with the likes of American corniest Rob Mazurek and German saxophonist Alfred “23” Harth, he mates rhythmically minimal texture with intensity of the Energizer Bunny when he plays.

Sticking to tenor saxophone on Motion Trio – he also plays baritone on Abstract Truth – Amado still squeals and squeaks with glossolalia and multiphonics, snakes upwards to altissimo pitches and slides downwards to mid-range just as quickly. Discursive and quirky, his lines sometimes resemble the streets twisting upwards from many port cities: squares and passages that narrowly avoid dead ends.

Throughout six long tracks Mira’s multi-string cornucopia of techniques and patterns complements the reed textures. With circular motions, the cellist often pushes his string spiccato still further, not only subdividing his output with shuffles and woody stops, also exposing partials, and ricocheting between sharp slippery slices and sul ponticello chording. He doesn’t neglect walking at points either.

A tune such as “Radical Leaves” makes it obvious when Ferrandini lays out. But this is necessary most of the time. Anti-bombastic, the drummer’s usual ratcheting beats are made up of pauses and rumbles as much as smacks, ruffs and rebounds. With a heritage that encompasses Brazil and Italy as well as Portugal and the U.S., the percussionist’s sly shakes and rattles suggest native South American as well as Iberian rhythms. Somehow also this classic trio formation brings out Sonny Rollins echoes, at least in Amado’s use of note pecking and the swift injections of melody snatches. Tonguing a hard reed, he honks, spits and splinters lines into fuzzy multiphonics.

Together the three reach a climax with the final “In All Languages”, the title of which appropriately reflects the band members’ backgrounds. Constantly chromatic and contrapuntally layered, each musician’s part cumulates in a dense and viscous crescendo, which while nearly opaque allows the colors of each instrument to shine through.

Similar cooperation is evident o the other CD – recorded almost exactly a year earlier – with Amado’s Rollins admiration also evident, but spread between two horns. Kessler, close playing partner of Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark in the reedist’s numerous groups, constantly steadies the instant compositions by walking and time keeping. One of the world’s busiest drummers, whose adaptability is such that he can back up such widely disparate saxophonist stylists as Peter Brötzmann and John Butcher without fissure, Nilssen-Love is additionally more upfront in his playing than Ferrandini is in his. Nevertheless the Norwegian is subtle as well. Here he backs up the saxophonist’s irregular altissimo jumps, repeated tone clusters and intensity vibrato with mid-range cymbal claps, rim shot snaps and snare undulations. Not only that, but while at points Nilssen-Love’s strokes can also sometimes be as thick as telephone poles and vibrate with a military-style gait, his shuffle beats are sensitive enough to mix it up with Amado’s and flat-line note substitution and coloration.

Examples of how the trio operates at top form appear on “Universe Unmasked” and “A Dream Transformed”. The former features snoring baritone buzzes from Amado as he expels broken-octave quacks and hiccupping runs – matched by burbling ruffs and rim shots from the drummer and muscular pumps from the bassist. The later features the saxophonist taking a mid-range and moderato tune and using it as a Trane-like depiction of every tone, color and pattern he can muster from the tenor, masticating and tonguing higher-and-lower theme variants. Adding the occasional altissimo bark, Amado’s microscopic investigation is aided by the drummer’s rim shots and Kessler’s string creaks.

The abstract truth about the Amado/Kessler/Nilssen-Love meeting is that it faithfully captures another meeting among first-class improvisers from different countries. But the interaction among Lisbon hommies makes The Motion Trio an even more memorable CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Abstract: 1. Intro/The Red Tower 2. Clouds and Shadows 3. Human Condition 4. The Kiss 5. Universe Unmasked 6. A Dream Transformed 7. The Enchanted Room 8. Enigma of the Arrival

Personnel: Abstract: Rodrigo Amado (tenor and baritone saxophones); Kent Kessler (bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums)

Track Listing: Motion: 1. Language Call 2. Testify! 3. Radical Leaves 4. As we move … 5. Ballad 6. In All Languages

Personnel: Motion: Rodrigo Amado (tenor saxophone); Miguel Mira (cello) and Gabriel Ferrandini (drums)

March 18, 2010

Akira Sakata & Chikamorachi

Friendly Pants
Family Vineyard FV66

Nobuyasu Furuya Trio

Bendowa

Clean Feed CF159 CD

While this linkage of two CDs featuring Japanese-born saxophonists playing in a trio with a non-Japanese rhythm section, may appear somewhat louche, there are similarities reflected on these appealing discs of which even the two protagonists may not be aware. This is despite the reality that alto saxophonist Akira Sakata is a Nipponese Free Jazz legend, while tenor saxophonist Nobuyasu Furuya is much lesser known.

For a start each musician was initially trained in a different field: Sakata as a marine biologist and Furuya as a cook in a Zen Buddhist temple. Furuya, who lives in Lisbon, was initially attracted to baroque music, studied Turkish traditional music and played in noise, ska-core and Free Jazz groups. Today he composes for film, theatre and dance including multi-media presentations for Berlin-based Mayumi Fukzaki’s theatre company. Hiroshima-born Sakata, began playing Free Jazz 40 years ago and since then has not only worked with committed improvisers as diverse as pianist Yamashita Yosuke and bassist Bill Laswell but recorded pop-leaning records and sung Japanese folk songs. Following gigs with guitarist Jim O’Rourke, he has made three Free Jazz CDs with noise-improvisers drummer Chris Corsano and bassist Darin Gray. This is the third, plus his first North American release in two decades.

Again with a lower profile, the rhythm section which backs Furuya on Bendowa –named for the 13th century book by the founder of Soto Zen – are bassist Hernâni Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini. Instructively both sessions are anchored by the self-effacing, sometimes inaudible bass players. Solidly present at all times, Faustino and Gray are the foundation upon which the saxophonists can stretch and splinter sound principles, as well as giving the drummers freedom to decorate tunes with shuffles, rebounds and precision strokes.

Faustino is conspicuously felt but barely heard throughout all of Bendowa’s five tracks, with the most profound application of this formula on tracks “Track 3” and “Track 4”.

Over the course of both these tracks Furuya gets to play all three of his instruments. Beginning with a snorting and wavering tenor saxophone exposition, his tone becomes dissonant and wide enough to suggest tug boat horn snarls. Meanwhile Ferrandini pats and paddles his cymbals and the bassist bounces his bow sul tasto. Moving from andante to largo following an unaccompanied exposition of split tones, Furuya pitch-sliding bass clarinet runs that initially resembled wild bird calls turn strident and stressed. On “Track 4” however, his stubby, bottom-toned flute sticks to the melody line until he begins peeping and crying semi tones through the flute’s body, rather like a restrained Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Ferrandini’s polyrhythms and subtle percussion thumps plus Faustino’s scrubbing and chafing allow Furuya to return with glottal-stopped and note-swallowing tenor saxophone runs that lead to clamorous braying and a final flat line exit.

Sakata’s improvisations often also end abruptly as he evidently runs out of steam on certain tracks. But the strength of Gray and Corsano accompaniment ensure that this doesn’t sound like a falling off, but a pause to foreshadow new creativity. Having developed a distinctive tone over the years, that is part-Jackie McLean and part-Hichiriki, the saxophonist’s sound is immediately identifiable, whether he’s spiraling and swelling split tones into molten frenzy or sliding and stuttering spidery timbres in his version of a ballad.

For instance on “Yo! Yo! Dime” – all the tracks are evidently titled in distinctive Japanlish – Sakata extrudes extended reed bites that expose various thematic materials then just as abruptly cut them off before they develop further. Eventually he reaches his desired strategy – shoving so much tonal variation into his solo so that not only is every note’s root sound exposed, but also all its extensions and partials. Meantime Gray thumps unhurriedly and Corsano burns, backbeats and thwacks snares, toms and cymbals in a circular pattern. Becoming more intense with squeaking staccatissimo, Sakata’s bugle-like tattoo hardens into a discordant sonic mass then abruptly ends.

It’s the same game plan for pseudo-ballads like “That Day of Rain”. Linear and pinched, Sakata’s low-keyed trilling eventually transform into strings of pressurized notes and split-tone cries as Corsano’s casual rumbles and thumps plus sensed walking from Gray maintains the mood. It’s the saxophonist who shatters it, weighing in with glossolalia and splayed note patterns. The fortissimo climax reached is then abruptly cut off.

Obviously what can be defined as Free Jazz with a Japanese tinge still exists and thrives in that country and abroad. These CDs confirm this.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Friendly:1. Friendly Pants 1. Un 3. In Case, Let’s Go to the Galaxy 4. That Day of Rain 5. With Saigyo Path 6. Yo! Yo! Dime

Personnel: Friendly: Akira Sakata (alto saxophone) Darin Gray (bass) and Chris Corsano (drums)

Track Listing: Bendowa 1. 2. Track 2 3. Track 3 4. Track 4 5. Track 5

Personnel: Bendowa: Nobuyasu Furuya (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet and flute); Hernâni Faustino (bass) and Gabriel Ferrandini (drums)

January 16, 2010

Nobuyasu Furuya Trio

Bendowa
Clean Feed CF159 CD

Akira Sakata & Chikamorachi

Friendly Pants

Family Vineyard FV66

While this linkage of two CDs featuring Japanese-born saxophonists playing in a trio with a non-Japanese rhythm section, may appear somewhat louche, there are similarities reflected on these appealing discs of which even the two protagonists may not be aware. This is despite the reality that alto saxophonist Akira Sakata is a Nipponese Free Jazz legend, while tenor saxophonist Nobuyasu Furuya is much lesser known.

For a start each musician was initially trained in a different field: Sakata as a marine biologist and Furuya as a cook in a Zen Buddhist temple. Furuya, who lives in Lisbon, was initially attracted to baroque music, studied Turkish traditional music and played in noise, ska-core and Free Jazz groups. Today he composes for film, theatre and dance including multi-media presentations for Berlin-based Mayumi Fukzaki’s theatre company. Hiroshima-born Sakata, began playing Free Jazz 40 years ago and since then has not only worked with committed improvisers as diverse as pianist Yamashita Yosuke and bassist Bill Laswell but recorded pop-leaning records and sung Japanese folk songs. Following gigs with guitarist Jim O’Rourke, he has made three Free Jazz CDs with noise-improvisers drummer Chris Corsano and bassist Darin Gray. This is the third, plus his first North American release in two decades.

Again with a lower profile, the rhythm section which backs Furuya on Bendowa –named for the 13th century book by the founder of Soto Zen – are bassist Hernâni Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini. Instructively both sessions are anchored by the self-effacing, sometimes inaudible bass players. Solidly present at all times, Faustino and Gray are the foundation upon which the saxophonists can stretch and splinter sound principles, as well as giving the drummers freedom to decorate tunes with shuffles, rebounds and precision strokes.

Faustino is conspicuously felt but barely heard throughout all of Bendowa’s five tracks, with the most profound application of this formula on tracks “Track 3” and “Track 4”.

Over the course of both these tracks Furuya gets to play all three of his instruments. Beginning with a snorting and wavering tenor saxophone exposition, his tone becomes dissonant and wide enough to suggest tug boat horn snarls. Meanwhile Ferrandini pats and paddles his cymbals and the bassist bounces his bow sul tasto. Moving from andante to largo following an unaccompanied exposition of split tones, Furuya pitch-sliding bass clarinet runs that initially resembled wild bird calls turn strident and stressed. On “Track 4” however, his stubby, bottom-toned flute sticks to the melody line until he begins peeping and crying semi tones through the flute’s body, rather like a restrained Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Ferrandini’s polyrhythms and subtle percussion thumps plus Faustino’s scrubbing and chafing allow Furuya to return with glottal-stopped and note-swallowing tenor saxophone runs that lead to clamorous braying and a final flat line exit.

Sakata’s improvisations often also end abruptly as he evidently runs out of steam on certain tracks. But the strength of Gray and Corsano accompaniment ensure that this doesn’t sound like a falling off, but a pause to foreshadow new creativity. Having developed a distinctive tone over the years, that is part-Jackie McLean and part-Hichiriki, the saxophonist’s sound is immediately identifiable, whether he’s spiraling and swelling split tones into molten frenzy or sliding and stuttering spidery timbres in his version of a ballad.

For instance on “Yo! Yo! Dime” – all the tracks are evidently titled in distinctive Japanlish – Sakata extrudes extended reed bites that expose various thematic materials then just as abruptly cut them off before they develop further. Eventually he reaches his desired strategy – shoving so much tonal variation into his solo so that not only is every note’s root sound exposed, but also all its extensions and partials. Meantime Gray thumps unhurriedly and Corsano burns, backbeats and thwacks snares, toms and cymbals in a circular pattern. Becoming more intense with squeaking staccatissimo, Sakata’s bugle-like tattoo hardens into a discordant sonic mass then abruptly ends.

It’s the same game plan for pseudo-ballads like “That Day of Rain”. Linear and pinched, Sakata’s low-keyed trilling eventually transform into strings of pressurized notes and split-tone cries as Corsano’s casual rumbles and thumps plus sensed walking from Gray maintains the mood. It’s the saxophonist who shatters it, weighing in with glossolalia and splayed note patterns. The fortissimo climax reached is then abruptly cut off.

Obviously what can be defined as Free Jazz with a Japanese tinge still exists and thrives in that country and abroad. These CDs confirm this.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Friendly:1. Friendly Pants 1. Un 3. In Case, Let’s Go to the Galaxy 4. That Day of Rain 5. With Saigyo Path 6. Yo! Yo! Dime

Personnel: Friendly: Akira Sakata (alto saxophone) Darin Gray (bass) and Chris Corsano (drums)

Track Listing: Bendowa 1. 2. Track 2 3. Track 3 4. Track 4 5. Track 5

Personnel: Bendowa: Nobuyasu Furuya (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet and flute); Hernâni Faustino (bass) and Gabriel Ferrandini (drums)

January 16, 2010