Jim Black & the Schrimps

Julius Gawlik
It’s All in Your Head
Unit Records 5368

American drummer Jim Black and German tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Julius Gawlik are both featured on these quartet discs recorded in the same Berlin studio within nine months of one another. But in a Jazz version of Changing Places each is the leader of one session and a sideman on the other.
Black of course has been on numberless sessions with players ranging from Uri Caine to Peter Evans as well as leading his own bands, most recently the Schrimps. Younger, Halle-born Gawlik is part of bands like Dream Big Fish and multiple sideman gigs. With It’s All in Your Head and Better you Don’t consisting of each leader’s compositions, the finer points show disparity involved in group toughness and instrumentation.

Together for a few years, the Schrimps work off a classic two saxophone front line with Danish alto saxophonist Asger Nissen, who has played with Uli Kempendorff, the second horn. German bassist Felix Henkelhausen, who has worked with Alfred Vogel, rounds out the band. Meanwhile UK bassist Phil Donkin, who has worked with Ronny Graupe and Nissen in other bands is on the Gawlik CD, while the light and shimmering tones from the vibraphone of Greek-born Evi Filippou, who has also played with Kempendorff, help individualize the Gawlik compositions.

Resonation from those metal bars gives It’s All in Your Head a lighter and speedier interface, especially when Filippou’s bouncing tones are mated with the saxophonist’s double tongued sax projections. Black guides the pieces with thick ruffs leavened with bell shakes and tambourine shuffles. Playing clarinet on tracks such as “Glow”, Gawlik’s tone is alternately strained and buoyant. However at that point the thin theme is resolved as vibe and reed timbres echo upwards as double bass thumps and drum smacks descend. Other instances of walking bass emphasis along with Black’s steadying press rolls, Filippou’s widening carpet of resonating notes that pop percussively or broadly round expositions are also featured.

However the best instance of group cooperation as well as the saxophonist and drummer portraying opposite persona is the extended final “TSCH”. Quick changing from gentle reed projections to fragmented squeezes and stopped split tones are featured, with Gawlik doing so without upsetting the piece’s broken octave flow. During the same episode Black’s comping turns from subtle hi-hat chips to undulating bombastic patterns. As well positioned vibraphone note cushioning unites all sound particles.

Black is even more commanding on his leadership session and bassist Donkin more upfront than Henkelhausen on the other disc, even featuring some affiliating arco sweeps. This bass and drum combination adds to an energetic connection between the two saxes, whose unison vamps are sometime  harmonized, but just as likely to fragment into shattered split tones, altissimo trills and unfettered smears. Instances of this as well as elevated reed cries that almost reach bedlam dissonance enliven tracks like “Stone Placid” and “Actually Probably Matters” as the saxophone tones spray up the scale in all key positions, Black responds with backbeat emphasis and vibrating double-timed ruffs.

Push-pull theme emphasis and varied sax interludes add to group exhilaration, especially when reed intertwining is further animated with thick string plucks and almost two-beat wood block pressure from the drummer as happens on “It Waits For You”.  Black’s turnaround emphasis on the following “Cane Di Male” also introduces a rare lyrical bent to the compositions as drum paradiddles direct harsh reed yelps into more moderated affiliations.

Demonstrating their skills on both discs, Gawlik and Black plus their associated players have created two respectful instances of contemporary improv. If Better you Don’t has a slight edge, it’s probably because the Schrimps have been together longer as a group. That’s something Gawlik and crew can probably overcome next time out.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: It’s: 1. There Are No Ugly Dogs 2. You Wish 3. Fuchs 4. Glow 5. Chicago 6. TSCH

Personnel: It’s: Julius Gawlik (tenor saxophone and clarinet); Evi Filippou (vibraphone and percussion); Phil Donkin (bass) and Jim Black (drums)

Track Listing: Better: 1. The Sheila 2.  Better You Don’t 3. Backtracks 4. Ok Yrself 5. It Waits For You 6. Cane Di Male 7. Only Sleep 8. Stone Placid 9. Actually Probably Matters 10. Extra Acid

Personnel: Better: Asger Nissen (alto saxophone); Julius Gawlik (tenor saxophone); Felix Henkelhausen (bass) Jim Black (drums)