Jonathan Moritz/Mike Pride

Possibly the first set of creative music where improvisers have to share aural space with a local bubbling stream, Summertime’s three free form improvisations by tenor and soprano saxophonist, Jonathan Moritz and percussionist Mike Pride, are sometimes mixed in with watery field recordings from a New Gloucester, Maine pond. Both part of the New York scene, Iranian-born Moritz works with the likes of  Shayna Dulberger, while Pride who edited, mixed and mastered the disc and who plays drums, glockenspiel, marimba, autoharp and very briefly, tenor saxophone here, has recorded with Peter Evans and Jason Stein among others.

With occasional watery gurgles from the stream, the duo works through two shorter and one extended improvisations. The shorter ones alternate between vibrations and reverberations produced by Pride’s tick-tock drumming, marimba slaps and string strums and Moritz’s strained reed timbres, smears, and altissimo or higher-pitched reed screams. While this means ecstatic jazz suggestions color the program, expressive free improv is the fallback position. On “TD-2+” for instance, Moritz quivers hollow vibrations and aviary squawks from his horn; pivots to thickened timbres that sound as if they’re being pushed through comb and tissue paper; and climaxes with tongue slaps and key percussion.

“By the Stream”, which is lengthier than the other two tracks combined, is the primary example of the germinal concept, with the spatial interjection of flowing and bubbling water heard and sensed throughout. Reed peeps stretched to smears, snuffles and emphasized slap tones mate with irregular paradiddles and thunder sheet-like gusts from the percussionist. As the flowing stream comes in and out of aural focus, woody and rattling rim shots break up the time as squeaky reed trills ascend to dog-whistle territory. Prestissimo tempos from Pride’s brush-shuffling patterns move the exposition to an even quicker tempo as saxophone peeps, squeaks and blowing without key movement becomes an unbroken line. A terse lyrical sax interlude is briefly heard intersecting with the watery flow and thick drum beats until the track apparently ends. Following nearly 20 minutes of silence, an unexpected, brief coda of auto-harp twangs and smooth drum rumble confirms the unconventional experimentation of the set.

George Frideric Handel composed his Water Music suites without liquid additions. But it seems that it takes free improvisers to join sound and spray in a genuine mix

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Mushrooms 2. TD-2+ 3. By the Stream (for John McLellan)

Personnel: Jonathan Moritz  (tenor and soprano saxophones) and Mike Pride (drums, glockenspiel, marimba, autoharp and tenor saxophone)