OutNow Recordings

Label Spotlight
By Ken Waxman

“Search for the sound you never stop hearing” is the motto of OutNow, a label launched last summer by three young Israel-born musicians, releasing six CDs simultaneously, with more skedded for 2012. The idea is to record innovative music, whether improvised or notated, electric or acoustic, and by younger or older creators.

The trio decided to follow this DIY approach, explains Brooklyn-based saxophonist and co-founder, Yoni Kretzmer, because, despite the multiplicity of labels, “there’s still a lot of music being missed and not reaching potential audiences. We try to create the right frame and aesthetic surrounding for any specific type of musical vision.” Similar to a live performance, he notes, OutNow CDs capture the music of the moment, which once preserved allows the artist to contemplate his or her next statement. “OutNow can also be seen as a kind of encouragement to get out of preconceived notions and conventions … Now,” he adds.

Besides Overlook by Kretzmer’s quartet, the first batch of OutNow CDs include three solo and group efforts by another of the imprint’s co-founders, Tel Aviv-based guitarist Ido Bukelman; plus two where New York drummer Ehran Elisha plays with veterans, either in Israel, with clarinetist Harold Rubin and his father, pianist Haim Elisha on East of Jaffa, or on Watching Cartoons With Eddie, with local trumpeter Roy Campbell. OutNow’s third partner, acoustic guitar player Yair Yona, who lives in Tel Aviv, will release his own CD later this year.

“I visit Israel during most summers and have always been active in music there,” elaborates Elisha. “I was inspired over the past two years by a new crop of players such as Kretzmer and Bukelman, and when they approached me with the idea of releasing music through this new label, I was happy to help. They have a great outlook with an earnest desire to document and promote what they release, be it work by others or work that they’re involved in themselves. The OutNow guys lobbied me hard to put out the [2008-recorded] project with Roy [Campbell], both because they loved the music but also clearly because this duo presented them with their first international artists. I felt it was the right time to do it, and that this label would respect the project's depth and integrity.”

In fact, despite a Tel Aviv base – the label’s launch party last August took place before a full house in that city’s Levontin 7 club – Kretzmer is adamant that OutNow isn’t an Israeli jazz label, but one that will produce music to “dialogue with others around the globe”. Furthermore, while the founders are all in their early 30s, and “feel that it’s more correct to try and put out stuff that comes from people more or less our age,” elaborates the saxophonist, “it’s clear that original personality and creativity aren’t always synonymous with ‘being young’ and that’s the stuff we’re really after.” That was the impetus behind releasing the Elisha projects as well as pressing a forthcoming duo disc by American drummer Gerry Hemingway and pioneering Israeli free jazz saxophonist Albert Beger.

“It’s rare on the planet to have a label whose aim it is to record real new music free from economical decisions,” reflects Berger from Tel Aviv. “And with this label managed by three of my best colleges and friends it was important for me to participate. I hope to record more for OutNow because its ideas fit the music I’m doing these days. Another important reason for me to participate is to support anything involved with experimental music in Israel. I’d like to see a community of musicians here supporting and playing their ‘truth’ with no compromises, similar to what happened with the AACM in the ‘60s in Chicago.”

Historically, it was the Israeli capital’s burgeoning free jazz scene that over the past decade drew the founders together in different bands and eventually led to OutNow’s birth. All three have recorded for other labels, with Bukelman especially involved in several projects. “One of the reasons to create a musician-run label is to have a convenient place to release your own music,” admits Kretzmer. “Ido is always working on several project simultaneously and we thought it would be great to present this whole body of work in one go.”

Division of tasks among the founders is hardly compromised by the US-Israel separation. The three e-mail on a daily basis and have frequent meetings via Skype. As for who does what, Yona does most of the e-mailing, public relations and digital work and deals with on-line commerce; Bukelman takes care of local logistics; and Kretzmer, plus his girlfriend Avital Burg, designs CD covers, flyers and ads. “All three of us take the curating and artistic decisions equally,” explains the saxophonist “We almost always agree and of course having someone in New York is an advantage.”

“The people who started Out Now are learning by doing, so what they lack in experience they make up for in their tremendous enthusiasm, devotion and commitment to the music,” affirms Elisha. “With OutNow it’s your project 100%. These guys are dedicated to championing work that excites and inspires them.”

As with many start-up labels, distribution is a challenge, but as Kretzmer notes “we do all the distribution ourselves, go down to the mail box and send CDs the old fashion way.” Stores in the US and Europe are contacted personally, the label’s Web site is “nicely busy” and downloads are now available on Bandcamp and soon on iTunes. Eventually OutNow would like to produce LPs as well as offer exclusive downloads of its artists’ live shows.

Right now the label’s appeal rests in its decision to allow musicians complete freedom. An artist brings it completed recordings, which may or may not be mixed and mastered, and OutNow pays for logistics, design, shipping and media and may soon begin mixing as well. Any profits go directly to the artist.

In the next little while, besides Yona’s and the Beger/Hemingway CDs, a second OutNow disc by Bukelman’s EFT (Electro Free Trio) with drummer Ofer Bymel and Daniel Davidovsky on electronics is scheduled for release as is a session by Kretzmer’s two-bass quartet featuring both Sean Conly and Reuben Radding plus drummer Mike Pride.

The one thing that’s certain about OutNow’s releases”, adds the saxophonist, “is that they’ll be many more. We’re definitely going to keep them coming at a high speed, one, two or three at a time.”

--For New York City Jazz Record February 2012

February 10, 2012

Yoni Kretzmer

Overlook
OutNow Records ONR 002

By Ken Waxman

Prime examples of top-drawer free jazz, the 10 tracks on this Tel Aviv-recorded date confirm that Israeli improvisers operate at the same high level as their counterparts elsewhere. More than that though, taking this quartet as an exemplar, advanced Israeli-born jazzers are now likely to be found anywhere in the world.

Tenor saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer for instance, who wrote all the tunes here, and has worked with visiting stylist such as German drummer Günter “Baby” Sommer, now lives in Brooklyn. So does drummer Haim Peskoff, who fills the Sunny Murray role for Kretzmer, when the reedist channels Albert Ayler in some of his free-form compositions. Idiosyncrasy characterizes Overlook’s instrumentation as well. In these circumstances, sympathetic bass work provided by Tel Aviv’s Shai Ran is expected. But the saxophonist’s decision to voice his inspired playing with equally stimulating sounds from Jerusalem-based bass clarinetist Nitai Levi is as unusual as it is monumental. You’d have to go back to the mid-‘50s for a similar arrangement in the American Jazz Quintet’s pairing of Alvin Batiste’s clarinet with Harold Battiste’s tenor saxophone.

Levi, best-known internationally for his recordings with pianist Yitzhak Yedid’s trio, is a subtle colorist whose juddering counterpoint, usually expressed in the chalumeau register, is a perfect foil for the corrosive high-energy playing of Kretzmer. The most dazzling instance of this sound-blend occurs on “Trauma”. Introduced by bulky arpeggios from Ran, the tune then attains almost thermonuclear heat after the composer enters blasting split tones with intense glossolalia, like a kosher Peter Brötzmann. Effectively cast in the Elvin Jones role is Peskoff, whose cymbal clangs and bouncing ruffs impel the piece from stroll to sprint. Finally the bass clarinettist’s tongue stutters and slithering vibrations add necessary sonic balance.

Balanced sequences involving Ran bowing and Kretzmer blowing; Peskoff’s well-recorded percussion patterning; plus the saxman’s ability to switch tones from breathy Ben Websterisms to robust Aylerians depending on mood; are this date’s other attributes. “Your Morning” is an additional striking example, where keening reed tones eventually harmonize as low-pressure, snorting cadences, as Peskoff’s backbeat resounds sympathetically.

Overlook authenticates the talents of Kretzmer and company. They’re a group of younger jazz stylists who can’t be overlooked.

Tracks: Left to Right; Broken Parts; Playsite; Game Song; Eyes Closed; Simple; Trauma; Mixing and Mixing; Your Morning

Personnel: Nitai Levi: bass clarinet; Yoni Kretzmer: tenor saxophone Shai Ran: bass;

Haim Peskoff: drums

--For New York City Jazz Record February 2012

February 10, 2012

Yoni Kretzmer Trio

Nevertheless
Hopscotch Hop 22

Nori Jacoby/Yoni Kretzmer/Haggi Fershtman

One Afternoon

Kadima Collective KCR 21

Part of the younger generation of Israeli improvisers proving who performs at the same elevated standard as his out-of-country equivalents, tenor saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer has ample opportunity to experiment on these CDs.

Jerusalem-born and now a Brooklyn resident, the reedist has played with sound explorers ranging from pianist Slava Ganelin to saxophonist Assif Tsahar. Yet these discs are particularly instructive since one was recorded in the Jewish state with fellow Israelis and the other in Brooklyn with American associates.

Neither trio has to take a back seat to the other. Nevertheless however features players better-known internationally, since drummer Mike Pride is in demand on the Alt-Rock scene and plays improvised music with the likes of saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton. Bassist Jason Ajemian has, among other ensembles, been part of cornetist Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra and guitarist Marc Ribot’s Sun Ship. Kretzmer’s Israeli partners on the other hand are violist Nori Jacoby, part of the Between the Strings improv trio, who also flits between notated orchestral music and Rock; and drummer Haggai Fershtman, who studied African, as well as Jazz drumming and plays with many of the country’s top improvisers, including saxophonists Ariel Shibolet and Albert Beger.

This empathy with saxophonists is apparent throughout the 15 tracks which make up – and were recorded in – One Afternoon. Although Fershtman is present to supply the back beat or shuffle rhythms as needed, most of his playing goes way beyond time-keeping. With multi-positioned clatters, bangs and pitch-stretching his role here is akin to a colorist not a beater. By the same token, Jacoby’s command of multiophonic runs plus a variety of spiccato and angled motions introduce his timbral contributions from many spectrums of the scale. His textures can be dissonant, sul ponticello and tapered at one point and swell to spacious multiphonics at others.

Kretzmer too isn’t limited by one narrative strategy. While principally sharp and pressurized with glottal punctuation and split tones on display, his playing can also be more legato and linear. Probably his most abstract soloing arises within the six miniatures in the CD’s centre where unattached flattement and overblowing abut the fiddler’s quivering, staccato squeaks. Divergence in performance is most apparent on “And There Is”, the melody of which recalls a pop tune. On top of Fershtman’s moderato smacks, slaps and ruffs, Kretzmer moves from a near-lyrical head to tongue gymnastics and finally exposes bugle-like cries, altissimo smears and extended reed pressure.

“Alternations” and “Bite Size” are the tracks which show off the trio’s communication at its best however. On the first, the saxophonist’s mid-range tongue fluttering moves upwards as it comes in contact with the drummer’s rattles and ruffs plus dobro-like plucks from Jacoby. After his split tones are further segmented with what could be a fanciful speech impediment, Kretzmer concludes with a satisfying deeper tone, propelled by Fershtman’s rolls and Jacoby’s pizzicato motions.

More conspicuously “Bite Size” finds the trio dividing into solo and duo sections as well as handing the contrapuntal continuum from one to another. While Kretzmer’s tremolo expression is taken moderato in real time, Jacoby’s twanged notes and the drummer’s rolls and cymbal clangs gradually accelerate in toughness and speed. When the saxophonist reaches a high-pitched summit, the violist takes on the bottom continuum; when Fershtman’s rhythm extensions begin rhythmically changing the chronology, Kretzmer cleaves to the central motif. Eventually the violist’s sul ponticello squealing and downwards sliding friction come to the fore, only to conclude in tandem with super-fast slurred tenor tones.

Performing in a more common sax-bass-drum trio on the Brooklyn-recorded CD, Kretzmer’s interaction with the others while no less thoughtful, seems more conventional. As each of the 10 sequences arrives, every one of the players seems to fall into his accepted role.

Not that there’s any let down in playing however. Pride’s contributions range from frenzied clip-clopping to cymbal concussions plus strokes and drags. Ajemian’s solo intermezzos include clanking and thumping lines, carefully positioned slaps and expected walking up and down the scale. Yet it’s Kretzmer who appears to be most committed to experimentation. His sax lines are often strained and stuttering, glissandi are sharpened and snorted and there’s more glossolalia than moderato note examination in his solos.

His storytelling on “Something with Tango” for instance, inflates from prickly tonguing to altissimo screams, as it meets the bassist’s four-square accompaniment and Pride’s delicately accented drumming. Finally as the backing becomes sparser, his repeated textures turn to eviscerating, tongue twisting jabs. It’s a similar story on “Sort of Despair”, where abrasive stopping from Ajemian and top-of-cymbal scratches from Pride stay in the background as Kretzmer’s quivering slurs move deeper into his horn’s body tube. After a series of rubato slurs and wind-tunnel-like bell muting, his vibrations turn guttural and conclusively dribble away.

A good deal of exceptional playing is highlighted on these discs, either of which can serve as a defining introduction to Kretzmer. Nonetheless with One Afternoon recorded in 2007 and Nevertheless in 2009, one wonders how the saxman sounds today. Hopefully the ferocious experimentation so aptly expressed on the Israeli CD is still being rerfined.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Nevertheless: 1. Looks Like Not 2. A New Start 3. Improv Two 4. Nevertheless 5. Something with Tango 6. Four Notes 7. What a Pity 8. Sort of Despair 9. Till We Got There 10. Four Notes Ending

Personnel: Nevertheless: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Jason Ajemian (bass) and Mike Pride (drums)

Track Listing: One: 1. Arrival 2. Story In Two 3. Alternations 4. Cupboard Song 5. Lonely Markets 6.-11. Six Miniatures 12. Bite Site 13. In Jerusalem 14. And There Is 15. Passacaglia

Personnel: One: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Nori Jacoby (viola) and Haggai Fershtman (drums)

Part of the younger generation of Israeli improvisers proving who performs at the same elevated standard as his out-of-country equivalents, tenor saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer has ample opportunity to experiment on these CDs.

Jerusalem-born and now a Brooklyn resident, the reedist has played with sound explorers ranging from pianist Slava Ganelin to saxophonist Assif Tsahar. Yet these discs are particularly instructive since one was recorded in the Jewish state with fellow Israelis and the other in Brooklyn with American associates.

Neither trio has to take a back seat to the other. Nevertheless however features players better-known internationally, since drummer Mike Pride is in demand on the Alt-Rock scene and plays improvised music with the likes of saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton. Bassist Jason Ajemian has, among other ensembles, been part of cornetist Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra and guitarist Marc Ribot’s Sun Ship. Kretzmer’s Israeli partners on the other hand are violist Nori Jacoby, part of the Between the Strings improv trio, who also flits between notated orchestral music and Rock; and drummer Haggai Fershtman, who studied African, as well as Jazz drumming and plays with many of the country’s top improvisers, including saxophonists Ariel Shibolet and Albert Beger.

This empathy with saxophonists is apparent throughout the 15 tracks which make up – and were recorded in – One Afternoon. Although Fershtman is present to supply the back beat or shuffle rhythms as needed, most of his playing goes way beyond time-keeping. With multi-positioned clatters, bangs and pitch-stretching his role here is akin to a colorist not a beater. By the same token, Jacoby’s command of multiophonic runs plus a variety of spiccato and angled motions introduce his timbral contributions from many spectrums of the scale. His textures can be dissonant, sul ponticello and tapered at one point and swell to spacious multiphonics at others.

Kretzmer too isn’t limited by one narrative strategy. While principally sharp and pressurized with glottal punctuation and split tones on display, his playing can also be more legato and linear. Probably his most abstract soloing arises within the six miniatures in the CD’s centre where unattached flattement and overblowing abut the fiddler’s quivering, staccato squeaks. Divergence in performance is most apparent on “And There Is”, the melody of which recalls a pop tune. On top of Fershtman’s moderato smacks, slaps and ruffs, Kretzmer moves from a near-lyrical head to tongue gymnastics and finally exposes bugle-like cries, altissimo smears and extended reed pressure.

“Alternations” and “Bite Size” are the tracks which show off the trio’s communication at its best however. On the first, the saxophonist’s mid-range tongue fluttering moves upwards as it comes in contact with the drummer’s rattles and ruffs plus dobro-like plucks from Jacoby. After his split tones are further segmented with what could be a fanciful speech impediment, Kretzmer concludes with a satisfying deeper tone, propelled by Fershtman’s rolls and Jacoby’s pizzicato motions.

More conspicuously “Bite Size” finds the trio dividing into solo and duo sections as well as handing the contrapuntal continuum from one to another. While Kretzmer’s tremolo expression is taken moderato in real time, Jacoby’s twanged notes and the drummer’s rolls and cymbal clangs gradually accelerate in toughness and speed. When the saxophonist reaches a high-pitched summit, the violist takes on the bottom continuum; when Fershtman’s rhythm extensions begin rhythmically changing the chronology, Kretzmer cleaves to the central motif. Eventually the violist’s sul ponticello squealing and downwards sliding friction come to the fore, only to conclude in tandem with super-fast slurred tenor tones.

Performing in a more common sax-bass-drum trio on the Brooklyn-recorded CD, Kretzmer’s interaction with the others while no less thoughtful, seems more conventional. As each of the 10 sequences arrives, every one of the players seems to fall into his accepted role.

Not that there’s any let down in playing however. Pride’s contributions range from frenzied clip-clopping to cymbal concussions plus strokes and drags. Ajemian’s solo intermezzos include clanking and thumping lines, carefully positioned slaps and expected walking up and down the scale. Yet it’s Kretzmer who appears to be most committed to experimentation. His sax lines are often strained and stuttering, glissandi are sharpened and snorted and there’s more glossolalia than moderato note examination in his solos.

His storytelling on “Something with Tango” for instance, inflates from prickly tonguing to altissimo screams, as it meets the bassist’s four-square accompaniment and Pride’s delicately accented drumming. Finally as the backing becomes sparser, his repeated textures turn to eviscerating, tongue twisting jabs. It’s a similar story on “Sort of Despair”, where abrasive stopping from Ajemian and top-of-cymbal scratches from Pride stay in the background as Kretzmer’s quivering slurs move deeper into his horn’s body tube. After a series of rubato slurs and wind-tunnel-like bell muting, his vibrations turn guttural and conclusively dribble away.

A good deal of exceptional playing is highlighted on these discs, either of which can serve as a defining introduction to Kretzmer. Nonetheless with One Afternoon recorded in 2007 and Nevertheless in 2009, one wonders how the saxman sounds today. Hopefully the ferocious experimentation so aptly expressed on the Israeli CD is still being rerfined.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Nevertheless: 1. Looks Like Not 2. A New Start 3. Improv Two 4. Nevertheless 5. Something with Tango 6. Four Notes 7. What a Pity 8. Sort of Despair 9. Till We Got There 10. Four Notes Ending

Personnel: Nevertheless: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Jason Ajemian (bass) and Mike Pride (drums)

Track Listing: One: 1. Arrival 2. Story In Two 3. Alternations 4. Cupboard Song 5. Lonely Markets 6.-11. Six Miniatures 12. Bite Site 13. In Jerusalem 14. And There Is 15. Passacaglia

Personnel: One: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Nori Jacoby (viola) and Haggai Fershtman (drums)

September 15, 2011

Nori Jacoby/Yoni Kretzmer/Haggi Fershtman

One Afternoon
Kadima Collective KCR 21

Yoni Kretzmer Trio

Nevertheless

Hopscotch Hop 22

Part of the younger generation of Israeli improvisers proving who performs at the same elevated standard as his out-of-country equivalents, tenor saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer has ample opportunity to experiment on these CDs.

Jerusalem-born and now a Brooklyn resident, the reedist has played with sound explorers ranging from pianist Slava Ganelin to saxophonist Assif Tsahar. Yet these discs are particularly instructive since one was recorded in the Jewish state with fellow Israelis and the other in Brooklyn with American associates.

Neither trio has to take a back seat to the other. Nevertheless however features players better-known internationally, since drummer Mike Pride is in demand on the Alt-Rock scene and plays improvised music with the likes of saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton. Bassist Jason Ajemian has, among other ensembles, been part of cornetist Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra and guitarist Marc Ribot’s Sun Ship. Kretzmer’s Israeli partners on the other hand are violist Nori Jacoby, part of the Between the Strings improv trio, who also flits between notated orchestral music and Rock; and drummer Haggai Fershtman, who studied African, as well as Jazz drumming and plays with many of the country’s top improvisers, including saxophonists Ariel Shibolet and Albert Beger.

This empathy with saxophonists is apparent throughout the 15 tracks which make up – and were recorded in – One Afternoon. Although Fershtman is present to supply the back beat or shuffle rhythms as needed, most of his playing goes way beyond time-keeping. With multi-positioned clatters, bangs and pitch-stretching his role here is akin to a colorist not a beater. By the same token, Jacoby’s command of multiophonic runs plus a variety of spiccato and angled motions introduce his timbral contributions from many spectrums of the scale. His textures can be dissonant, sul ponticello and tapered at one point and swell to spacious multiphonics at others.

Kretzmer too isn’t limited by one narrative strategy. While principally sharp and pressurized with glottal punctuation and split tones on display, his playing can also be more legato and linear. Probably his most abstract soloing arises within the six miniatures in the CD’s centre where unattached flattement and overblowing abut the fiddler’s quivering, staccato squeaks. Divergence in performance is most apparent on “And There Is”, the melody of which recalls a pop tune. On top of Fershtman’s moderato smacks, slaps and ruffs, Kretzmer moves from a near-lyrical head to tongue gymnastics and finally exposes bugle-like cries, altissimo smears and extended reed pressure.

“Alternations” and “Bite Size” are the tracks which show off the trio’s communication at its best however. On the first, the saxophonist’s mid-range tongue fluttering moves upwards as it comes in contact with the drummer’s rattles and ruffs plus dobro-like plucks from Jacoby. After his split tones are further segmented with what could be a fanciful speech impediment, Kretzmer concludes with a satisfying deeper tone, propelled by Fershtman’s rolls and Jacoby’s pizzicato motions.

More conspicuously “Bite Size” finds the trio dividing into solo and duo sections as well as handing the contrapuntal continuum from one to another. While Kretzmer’s tremolo expression is taken moderato in real time, Jacoby’s twanged notes and the drummer’s rolls and cymbal clangs gradually accelerate in toughness and speed. When the saxophonist reaches a high-pitched summit, the violist takes on the bottom continuum; when Fershtman’s rhythm extensions begin rhythmically changing the chronology, Kretzmer cleaves to the central motif. Eventually the violist’s sul ponticello squealing and downwards sliding friction come to the fore, only to conclude in tandem with super-fast slurred tenor tones.

Performing in a more common sax-bass-drum trio on the Brooklyn-recorded CD, Kretzmer’s interaction with the others while no less thoughtful, seems more conventional. As each of the 10 sequences arrives, every one of the players seems to fall into his accepted role.

Not that there’s any let down in playing however. Pride’s contributions range from frenzied clip-clopping to cymbal concussions plus strokes and drags. Ajemian’s solo intermezzos include clanking and thumping lines, carefully positioned slaps and expected walking up and down the scale. Yet it’s Kretzmer who appears to be most committed to experimentation. His sax lines are often strained and stuttering, glissandi are sharpened and snorted and there’s more glossolalia than moderato note examination in his solos.

His storytelling on “Something with Tango” for instance, inflates from prickly tonguing to altissimo screams, as it meets the bassist’s four-square accompaniment and Pride’s delicately accented drumming. Finally as the backing becomes sparser, his repeated textures turn to eviscerating, tongue twisting jabs. It’s a similar story on “Sort of Despair”, where abrasive stopping from Ajemian and top-of-cymbal scratches from Pride stay in the background as Kretzmer’s quivering slurs move deeper into his horn’s body tube. After a series of rubato slurs and wind-tunnel-like bell muting, his vibrations turn guttural and conclusively dribble away.

A good deal of exceptional playing is highlighted on these discs, either of which can serve as a defining introduction to Kretzmer. Nonetheless with One Afternoon recorded in 2007 and Nevertheless in 2009, one wonders how the saxman sounds today. Hopefully the ferocious experimentation so aptly expressed on the Israeli CD is still being rerfined.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Nevertheless: 1. Looks Like Not 2. A New Start 3. Improv Two 4. Nevertheless 5. Something with Tango 6. Four Notes 7. What a Pity 8. Sort of Despair 9. Till We Got There 10. Four Notes Ending

Personnel: Nevertheless: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Jason Ajemian (bass) and Mike Pride (drums)

Track Listing: One: 1. Arrival 2. Story In Two 3. Alternations 4. Cupboard Song 5. Lonely Markets 6.-11. Six Miniatures 12. Bite Site 13. In Jerusalem 14. And There Is 15. Passacaglia

Personnel: One: Yoni Kretzmer (tenor saxophone); Nori Jacoby (viola) and Haggai Fershtman (drums)

September 15, 2011

Günter Baby Sommer

Live in Jerusalem
Kadima Collective KCR 19

Ulher/Shibolet/Snir/Brenner/Mayer/Smith/Bymel

Yclept

Balance Point Acoustics BPA 014

Fraught with extra-musical baggage, the idea of a co-operative session between German and Israeli improvisers seems bizarre. Yet, as these first-rate CDs demonstrate, commitment to free-form experimentation and open-minded sound extension overcomes any number of polemics. The only people who likely will be surprised, shocked or offended by such cross-cultural understanding are those whose ignorance of Middle Eastern realpolitik is likewise endemic.

One of the most notable revelations of these discs is how well Israeli improvisers stack up when playing with the best from other countries: German drummer Günter Baby Sommer on Live in Jerusalem and German trumpeter Birgit Ulher and American bassist Damon Smith on Yclept. Despite ferocious anti-Israeli sentiments in some circles – encompassing in many cases another more pernicious “anti” – these players, based in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, are as idiosyncratic in their playing and open to new experience as committed improvisers anywhere. Condemning and boycotting them and other artists because of some of their government’s policies is nonsensical. In terms of sound, the Sommer session is more attuned to Free Jazz, while Free Music in its most basic form enlivens Yclept.

Acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of German Free Music, extroverted drummer Sommer has plied his trade with such local and international improvisers as pianists Ulrich Gumpert and Cecil Taylor, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. He’s thus perfectly comfortable rolling, ruffing, smacking and stroking his drums no matter the situation. With the CD broken up into duos, trios and quartets – plus one solo drum feature – Sommer pulls out the heavy artillery when playing with soprano and baritone saxophonist Steve Horenstein – a transplanted American who has worked with trumpeter Bill Dixon – and tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist Assif Tsachar – whose diasporic sojourn took place in New York in the company of heavy-hitters such as pianist Cooper-Moore and bassist William Parker.

Mixing shrill tangents, altissimo cries and subterranean slurs, each reedist takes full advantage of his instrument’s versatility. Hornenstein’s wriggling full-bore improvising abets a fantastic display of rim shots, ricochets and ratamacues from the drummer, while Tsachar shakes out diaphragm-pushed irregular notes half-speed. Other places quivering reed bites and screams face percussion rebounds, rattles and ruffs.

Cross-sticking a martial beat elsewhere, the percussionist’s whaps and resonating verbal cries provide the perfect left-right response to horn players’ creations in double counterpoint. Horenstein’s externally directed slurps and rattling blasts are also a contrapuntal challenge to Tsachar, who exhibits glossolalia-like runs on saxophone, plus sluicing stops on bass clarinet. Mediating on a couple of trio or quartet tracks and keeping the underlined beat steady is bassist JC Jones, who manages to work sul tasto colors in among his walking rhythms.

Just as fascinating is “Yo Yo Yo” with Sommer – who teaches music at the university level in his hometown of Dresden – trading licks with a trio of younger players: tenor saxophonist Yonatan Kretzmer, bassist clarinetist Yoni Silver and guitarist Yonatan Albalak. With an undertow of rumbles and rebounds, the drummer makes common cause with both horns in harmonic unity or when separately Silver puffs out chalumeau yawns and vibrations and Kretzmer sounds hocketing cries and reflux. Distinctively Albalak inflates the soundfield with sprays of slurred tremolo tones plus knob-twisted and wah-wah pedal processed distortions that introduce fortissimo alien wave forms to the interaction.

Sommer’s single run-in with a guitarist is multiplied by two as Ulher and Smith improvise on seven tracks recorded in Tel Aviv with a completely different set of Israeli players. Only soprano saxophonist Ariel Shibolet is a young veteran whose career includes playing with French bassist Joëlle Léandre when she was in Israel and California gigs with Smith, pianist Scott R. Loney and others. Similarly, Oakland-based Smith and Ulher from Hamburg have concertized in Europe and North America, with many older and younger free musicians. Meanwhile Tel Aviv-based guitarists Roni Brenner and Michel Mayer, drummer Ofer Bymel and tenor and soprano saxophonist Adi Snir are so far known, if at all, in Israel.

Proper showcase for all concerned is the 13½-minute fifth improvisation which initially alternates wood-vibrating smacks and sul ponticello sweeps from Smith, rattling smacks from Bymel, yelps and bites from the saxophonists and rubato tongue stretches from Ulher. As her growls and flutters transform into mulched tones and then to gusting grace notes, the saxophonists respond with thin whistling, Smith splatters and rips new textures from his bass –probably helped by laptop wizardry – and the guitarists thump and scratch downwards from strings to pick guards.

Elsewhere electronic wheezes make common cause with plinks plunks and rattles from the guitars as agitato, striated bass motions meet mute or foreshortened breaths, lip burbles or mouthpiece oscillations from the trumpeter. Featuring an equivalent trumpet-saxophone mix that matches moist tongue slaps and mouth percussion with quivering, squeaky reed bites, “Yclept 7” is an even more expressive group improv.

Here the electronic attachments to Ulher’s trumpet project wave forms skywards in counterpoint to agitato and inchoate string rubs from the guitars and dislocated vibrations from Snir and Shibolet. The tenor man swallows bird-like chirping so that it reemerges as thick, guttural blasts, as the soprano saxophonist mixes shrilling reed yelps with timbres that could come from a bagpipe chanter. Smith’s sul tasto rubs then spiccato jabs offset flat-line colored air movement from the saxophonists and Ulher’s tremolo triplets while Bymels’s steadying rat-tat-tats hold the beat and complete the sonic contact.

While it’s true that music may involve socio-political undertones – no matter how pure and questing it may seem – it’s equally true that uniting sophisticated musicians from different milieus can create notable discs like these. Anyone who would boycott artists from any country because of their government’s action is not only guilty of short-sighted malice, but doesn’t have enough faith in art’s transformation power. The 13 musicians represented on these CDs easily make the case for co-operation.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Live: 1. Bojoh#+ 2. Jassek#+& 3. Sommertime 4. Bast#& 5. Yo Yo Yo* 6. Sababa&

Personnel: Live: Yoni Silver (bass clarinet)*; Assif Tsachar (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet)&; Yonatan Kretzmer (tenor saxophone)*; Steve Horenstein (soprano or baritone saxophones)#; Yonatan Albalak (guitar)*; JC Jones (bass)+ and Günter “Baby” Sommer (drums) [all tracks]

Track Listing: Yclept: 1. Yclept 1 2. Yclept 2 3. Yclept 3 4. Yclept 4 5. Yclept 5 6. Yclept 6 7. Yclept 7

Personnel: Yclept: Birgit Ulher (trumpet, radio, mutes and speaker); Ariel Shibolet (soprano saxophone); Adi Snir (tenor and soprano saxophone); Roni Brenner and Michel Mayer (guitar); Damon Smith (bass and laptop) and Ofer Bymel (drums)

February 21, 2010