Day & Taxi

Vinny Golia/Max Johnson/Weasel Walter
No Refunds
UnbroKen Sounds UO3

One is a long-standing band, the other an ad hoc meeting, but these differences don’t prevent both being exemplars of interactive trio music. No Refunds is a souvenir of a 2014 Brooklyn visit by Los Angles multi-reedist Vinny Golia to improvise alongside locals, bassist Max Johnson and drummer/Weasel Walter. Flash forward seven years to the Swiss town of Baden where with the established Day & Taxi band. Despite the dual moniker, the band consists of Swiss multi-reedist Christoph Gallio, who has been leading the group for 35 years, fellow Swiss, bassist Silvan Jeger now with D&T for a decade, and American drummer Gerry Hemingway a recruit of five years. The members of both trios have extensive experience playing creative music.

Reaching both ends of the sound spectrum – and most tones in-between – in his playing, Golia advance his ideas from Bb clarinet, saxello, sopranino and baritone saxophones, but wields each with scalpel-like precision. Guttural scoops can be transformed into altissimo scrams or vice versa within the same track. His concepts encompass finding the proper phonic to meld with or moderate the drummer’s rattles nod echoing paradiddles or to meet the bassist’s turns from col legno strokes to thick, connective drones.

Instances of this are on display during “The Clarinet” and “IBAN”, which follow one another. A mid-set break from the extended split tone squeals, vibrating tongue flutters and jagged tonal spills which characterize the trio’s beginnings, “The Clarinet” introduces a thin, closely breathed, almost static reed line. Taken at ballad tempo, the notes only contour into reflective squeals at the tune’s conclusion. Before that the exposition is sympathetically strengthened with drum top clatters and measured string pumps. A complete reversal on the subsequent track, Golia shudders low-pitched honks and renal slurs from the baritone sax, with the theme punctuated with drum accents and backed by taut double bass strums. Becoming more intense reed output soon fragments into broken-chord multiphonics as Johnson contributes sul ponticello rubs and Walter cymbal clashes. Eventually dissecting his arco drones with viola-like subtlety the bassist pushes the others into a connective straight line. This isn’t all Golia’s show by any means though. Johnson has spots in which to demonstrate his canny theme advances from the pressure of string twangs of fleet fingering while Walter’s accompaniment can be as overbearing as jackhammer thuds or as delicate as rubber balls bouncing on drum tops.

Unlike No Refunds’ instant compositions, all nine tracks on Live in Baden were composed by Gallio. But like the other trio session that doesn’t prevent the others from settling on their share of musical real estate. Hemingway, whose recorded history goes back a decade before Day & Tax was formed, creates a subtle solo of nerve beats and rim shots on “Faces”. It soon dovetails into Jeger’s bass string shuffles and Gallio’s split tone bites and tongue stops. Surrounding it are other tracks where his expression ricochets from rifle-shot-like cracks, drum top hammering, hi-hat slaps and steel-pan-like clanks. Besides integrated bass-reed harmonies and a brief recitation of a poem in German, the buzzing of Jeger’s sequencer manipulation distinguishes “Too Much Nothing” from the other tracks. It also demonstrates the saxophonist’s dexterity in breaking away from straight-line melodicism back by drum clips and a walking bass line, to doits, smears, growls and other irregular tones, but never allowing the multiphonics to get out of control. Among the extensions, emotions and established timbral patterns evoked throughout with R&B-like honks, squeaky intensity and bridging honks, Gallio’s playing is commanding on all his reeds. Nasal squalls from the antique C-melody sax distinguish “Jimmy”, for instance, which otherwise is taken up by terse high-pitched tonal examination, paced by a euphonious bass solo and suddenly termination after bass drum pops.

Three may be a crowd in certain circumstances. But as these disc prove three players can provide all the textures needed for free-wheeling sound projects.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: No: 1. No Refunds 2. Cellular Angst 3. The Clarinet 4. IBAN 5. Work Continues

Personnel: No: Vinny Golia (Bb clarinet, saxello, sopranino and baritone saxophones); Max Johnson (bass) and Weasel Walter (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Tall Guy Blues 2. Infinite Sadness 3. Mare 4. Dieses Gedicht Erinnert Sich 5. Kopfnuss 6. Faces 7. Too Much Nothing 8. Jimmy 9. Marina And The Lucky Pop Song Transformation.

Personnel: Live: Christoph Gallio (soprano, alto and c-melody saxophones); Silvan Jeger (bass, voice and sequencer) and Gerry Hemingway (drums and percussion)