John Yao’s Triceratops

September 5, 2022

Off-Kilter
See Tao Records 004

Jacob Garchik
Assembly
Yestereve Records 07

Paul Dunmall Quintet
Yes Tomorrow
DISCUS 134 CD
 

Storytelling through distinctive creative music featuring a trombonist connects these three quintets. The factor that makes each original however is that while parts are consociate, there are alterations in each one’s make-ups. Veteran New York-based John Yao on Off-Kilter for instance augments the core of his trombone, bass (Robert Sabin) and drums (Mark Ferber) with two off-kiter saxophone explorers: Billy Drewes playing alto and soprano and Jon Irabagon’s tenor and soprillo saxophones. Another New Yorker, Jacob Garchik on Assembly assembles soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome and pianist Jacob Sacks to interpret nine of  his compositions along with his trombone, Thomas Morgan’s bass and Dan Weiss’ drums. Meanwhile UK alto and tenor saxophonist Paul Dunmall may be the composer and leader on Yes Tomorrow, but identifiable qualities of his pieces are projected through the perceptive playing of trombonist Richard Foote and guitarist Steven Saunders, along with James Owston’s bass and Jim Bashford’s drums.

Most straight-ahead of the discs, Garchik’s builds on classic Jazz tropes of Blues, ballads and rhythm, with, of course, modern and futuristic fill-ups. Many of these come from Newsome, whose specialty is solo improvisation. “Bricolage” for example uses isolated loops of Morgan’s most percussive strokes upon which the saxophonist places crying and irregular reed vibrations finally joined by floating puffs from the trombonist. Then on the extended “Fantasia” a plastic hose attached to the sax neck allow Newsome to invent a buzzy basso introduction, which is picked up by double bass pops and extended with muted brass, piano chords and drum rattles, culminating in a series of portamento trombone smears and hockets. Besides these anomalies the quintet demonstrates its fealty to traditional forms, but in a somewhat idiosyncratic manner. The concluding “Reverie” begins with a collection of stretched trombone draughts that turn into tailgate slides and a plunger growls after double-bas thumps confirm the tune’s Blues base. “Homage” with its McCoy Tyner composition references, has an exposition that judders between processional and multiphonics as each player’s output in overdubbed several times. Smears and half-valve breaths from multiple trombones and many saxophonists’ twisting peeps and squeaks cross pollinate and fragment as the piece evolves. Otherwise excursions into FreeBop and stop-time grooves include detours to Pre-Bop. At points slick comping and horn quotes are heard that never become contrafacts, but with melodic segues that suggest “I Got Rhythm” and “Prelude to a Kiss” on different tracks.

Trading the piano for another saxophone, the tension-release involved in many of Off-Kilter’s tunes is the contrast or amalgamation between Yao’s guttural or slap-tongue slurred variations and the harmonic obbligatos produced by the two reed players when not expressing their own technical variations. Concurrently the performances include detours into stop-time sequences, rubato time stretches and expositions which sometimes pivot to cop-show themes as well as one which appears to be variation son “Close Yor Eyes”. Living up to its title of “Quietly”, that piece introduces variations on the contrafact and when the narrative isn’t characterized by triple-horn counterpoint, it makes space for Yao’s connective flutters up and down the scale. The eight other tacks are more energetic. The introductory “Below the High Rise” for instance sets up arrangement strategies. Following drum paradiddles and three-horn linear motion, the trombonist spiky upsurge fragments the harmonies and joins the saxophonists to balance brassy shakes with reed flutters. Meantime the concluding and title track moves from a straight-line exposition to a horn showcase with individual stints from the tenor saxophonist’s sheets of sound, the alto saxophonist’s riffs and flutter tonguing, and the trombonist’s hide-and-seek blustery scoops backed by double bass thwacks. In between there are many sequences during which each player is featured. Sabin is the most unassuming, sticking mostly to waking bass lines, pops or vibrations, all of which serve the keep the tunes flowing and the balance horizontal. Ferber projects deep paradiddles, ruffs and expressive double pumps, but all in the context of  cooperative sound augmentation. Besides stop-time expositions and unison honks and vamps, both Drewes and Irabagon demonstrate their prowess on two reeds. Alternating with the other horns in challenges or unity, Drewes’ altissimo saxophone honks on “The Morphing Line” break down the theme so that it can be re-imagined via soprano saxophone flutters and the trombonist’s sniggering drones. On the other hand self-possessed and balanced slurs and peeps from Irabagon’ high-pitched reed on “Crosstalk” personifies the title as the layered saxophone riffs move the exposition horizontally and skyward. Yet despite the andante pace doubling at the end, the horn choir replicates the original head as a coda.

Dunmall’s dual saxophones add the necessary variety to Yes Tomorrow. But its distinctiveness is also expressed since a guitar takes the place of a piano or a second saxophone in this quintet. In fact its Saunders who frequently sets the pace for the selections. This begins right from “Micromys Minutus” where his spiky frails move on top, below and around the other players output with splayed chords and Rock-like stings. These splatter effects remain until the end, with Dunmall’s cries and vibrations and Foote’s flutters and bites dominating the centre section. The saxophonist whose admitted main influence is the spiritual Jazz of John Coltrane, still finds a way to work guitar effects into “Medgar Evers” and “Golden Age”, the compositions most clearly indebted to that style. Balancing ecstatic impulses and swing interludes in the polyphonic exposition of the first, guitar twangs and slashes underline the face-off between snarling reed doits and downward plunger tones. These trombone textures are emphasized as Foote’s portamento process preserves the linear flow even as the tempo doubles. The intensity of that track is replicated on “Golden Age”, as guitar plinks and pops accompany the horns’ split tones as the narrative slides up the scale driven by saxophone smears and double tonguing. Each player also gets descriptive interludes elsewhere. Saunders brief flamenco-style intro brings in a contrapuntal horn exposition on “Cosmic Communion”. Horn snarls bleed into one another in broken counterpoint, later joined  by finger cymbal pings and repetitive drum strokes. Elsewhere Owston shows that at his quietist he can clip and click an accompaniment for the guitarist or provide a power string thump to mute the drummer’s press rolls and ruffs at their most bellicose. Dunmall’s reed smears and bites are muted on the concluding “Every Soul”, where his passionate unaccompanied head glides into a colorful Blues holler before a clarion upsurge leads to a Swing style ending. As for Foote , not only can his slurred glissandi go mano-o-mano with Dunmall when the later works up to speaking-in-tongues like intensity, but he can harmonize with Saunders and Dumall at their gentlest to produce a brief folksy coda to what otherwise is an exercise in freeform noise ejaculations.

Each of these trombone-, saxophone and  rhythm section has created an exclusive variant on quintet music, distinguished from the others by each changing only one instrument in the mix.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Assembly: 1. Collage 2. Pastiche 3. Bricolage 4. Homage 5. Fanfare 6. Idée Fixe 7. Fantasia 8. Impromptu 9. Reverie

Personnel: Assembly: Jacob Garchik (trombone); Sam Newsome (soprano saxophone); Jacob Sacks (piano); Thomas Morgan (bass) and Dan Weiss (drums)

Track Listing: Off-Kilter: 1. Below the High Rise 2. Labrynith 3. Interlude No. 1 4. Quietly 5. Crosstalk 6. Unfiltered 7. The Morphing Line 8. Interlude No. 2 9. Off-Kilter

Personnel: Off-Kilter: John Yao (trombone); Billy Drewes (alto and soprano saxophones); Jon Irabagon (tenor and soprillo saxophones); Robert Sabin (bass) and Mark Ferber (drums)

Track Listing: Yes: 1. Micromys Minutus 2. Medgar Evers 3. Cosmic Communion 4. Drum 5. Parrots 6. Golden Age 7. Yes Tomorrow 8. Every Soul

Personnel: Yes: Richard Foote (trombone); Paul Dunmall (alto and tenor saxophones); Steven Saunders (guitar); James Owston (bass) and Jim Bashford (drums)