Carlo Muscat

Move
Free Baile – live at Shenzhen
Clean Feed CF 679 CD

Two international takes on the long stablished saxophone-double bass-drums Jazz trio come with back stories as noteworthy as the music played itself. Free Baile – live at Shenzhen is a brief – slightly more than a half hour – souvenir of a 2023 concert Portuguese-Brazilian Power-Punk- Jazz trio Move gave in front of a rapturous audience in Shenzhen, China. Meanwhile The Body is Only Light is a  moderated and systematic 2024 studio session interpreting 10 of Maltese saxophonist Carlo Muscat’s originals recorded in Kyiv, Ukraine where Muscat has lived since early 2022. His associates from this city under siege are local players.

Initially greeted with rumbles and wide cheers, the Move trio consists of Brazilian-born tenor/soprano saxophonist Yedo Gibson, who has played with Luis Lopes and Susana Santos Silva among many others; while electric bassist Felipe Zenicola is a Carioca, who has been in group like New Brazilian Funk. Drummer João Valinho is actually Lusitanian and has worked with Rodrigo Amado.

Working their way through six instant compositions, the three move forward at a pace and with pressure that would give pause to Metal or Punk ensembles, as well as bands featuring Free Jazz avatars like Peter Brötzmann. Gibson’s reed projections vibrate from the lowest of nephritic snorts to the most elevated screaming altissimo runs. Zenicola’s throbbing, ingot solid string pops and pumps create a nearly opaque secondary contour, while Valinho, who varies his pulse with cymbal clatters and rim shots, also preserver momentum with robust backbeats.

Although the saxophonist’s explosive slurs and honking challenges may have reminded the audience of Metal as did the bassist’s buzzing and rhythmic pulse, the program was more sensitive. On soprano Gibson varies his skyscraper-high squalls with Woody Woodpecker-like taps; and among his tenor sax honks and slurs, often uses simpler quasi-rounds with repetitive meters to lighten his tone load. A piece like “Intercardinal Pathways” for instance  emphasizes stop-start timing as Gibson adds circular breathing to renal growls sourced from the bottom of his range and ends with gurgling and almost vocalized timbres. Furthermore the performance of other tunes such as  “Shenzhen Free Baile” owe as much to Ecstatic Jazz as Electric Rock. While extended and scoured jagged tone shards from the electric bass may have kept the head bangers happy, cow bell interjections and buzzes mixed with the saxophonist’s shredded multiphonics and top of range cries are as common as during any Free Jazz program.

If some of the other CD’s program seemed over the top, then much of The Body is Only Light appears conventional and almost leaden. It may have something to do with the fact that those attending the Move concert were able to experience some sort of liberating recess from the totalitarian regime that aims to control, their every action. Meanwhile musicians in Ukraine are trying to bring a type of musical normalcy to a city and country that is valiantly flighting off the imperialist aims of another foreign, equally totalitarian country.

While bassist Ionenko’s straight-ahead pulse and drummer Lytvynenko’s emphasized rhythms provide the appropriate backup and comping for Muscat, the disc is very much his session. Someone who has written a book on creative saxophone practices and even collaborated with the Ukrainian concert pianist Olena Poguliaieva, he has staked out his place in the Jazz firmament.

With a tenor saxophone style very much out of Sonny Rollins and always logical, horizontal movement supersedes any turns towards reed experimentation. Lyricism is also emphasized throughout, with convinced story telling and interludes that suggest fragments of other standards as his themes unroll. Besides the relaxed semi-ballads with emphasized melodies, there are a few instance when Muscat moves past expected contemporary Jazz motifs, But even in those instances a decided linear focus remains.

There’s repressed jollity in some motifs as well as sequences in which a relaxed lope manages to encompass tongue stops and reed trills. These are sometimes coupled with press rolls and drum top pops to raise the excitement level when the saxophonist trades fours with the drummer. Still only “Lisovyk” and “Lyra’s Sonnet” appear unfettered enough to metaphorically color outside the lines. On the second a winnowing reed dissolve confirms the sonic loosening before it expands with undulating saxophone honks and slurs as the exposition, joined by vibrating string strums, slithers past straight-ahead. “Lisovyk” moves up and down the scale as the ingrained narrative is expressed with reed shakes doubled first by bass string thumps then drum paradiddles. While the finale neatly wraps up timbral estrangements, each player at least stretched a bit out of his comfort zone.

There’s no argument that The Body is Only Light is highly profession and pleasantly rhythmic. But one wonder if the title of another piece “Everyone Looks Happy” may reflect the Kyiv disc and explain why the session isn’t as unfettered as Free Baile – live at Shenzhen, which in retrospect provides a more exciting statement.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Free: 1. The Wondrous Coalescence of Human Possibilities 2. Mescla Vento 3.  Intercardinal Pathways 4. Mass Diaspora 5. Brutal Kindness 6. Shenzhen Free Baile

Personnel: Free: Yedo Gibson (tenor and soprano saxophones); Felipe Zenicola (electric bass) and João Valinho (drums)

Track Listing: Body: 1. Totoro 2. Monochrome Tales 3. Cleopatra 4.  Holler 5. The Body is Only Light 6. Conspiracy 7. Arrietty 8. Lisovyk 9. Everyone Looks Happy 10. Lyra’s Sonnet

Personnel: Body: Carlo Muscat (tenor and soprano saxophones); Kostiantyn Ionenko (bass) and Dmytro Lytvynenko (drums)