Malaby/Dumoulin/Ber

Motion is more prevalent that leaves and wood during the 13 compositions that make up Trees on Wheels. This Belgian-American trio project offers insight into the playing and compositions of Belgian drummer Samuel Ber, matched with the contributions from fellow countryman keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin and American tenor/soprano saxophonist Tony Malaby, both of whom have logged many miles with multiple ensembles.

Younger, Ber has played with the likes of Michaël Attias and Todd Neufeld. While the session highlights the drummer’s ascending skills it also captures his growing pains. One drawback is deciding to have 13 tracks, some of which are mere squibs, though the space could have better been allocated to more extended sounds. Also Ber is described as being responsible for editing as well as drums. That may have been crucial in dealing with tracks recorded at different times and places and syncing Dumoulin’s many instrumental textures to the acoustic ones of the other players. However some of tracks fade abruptly, leaving one to wonder was has been removed.

On the positive side, each participant gets to express himself in appropriate fashion, blending textures that fit the others’ output. A sympathetic percussionist, Ber moves among pops, slaps, ruffs and ratamacues. His only real solo is on a track literally titled “A Drum Solo”. While he maneuvers among alternating echoing rim shots, bass drum tolling, cymbal aggression, tight rebounds and drum top chafing, it sounds comfortable alongside reed snarls and stutters and  keyboard swells.

Malaby works his repertoire of timbres that emphasize different variations from each horn. On soprano his peeps, pinched textures and cries can be tough, as on “Winter Sleep”, meeting soaring keyboard patterns with a Jazz groove; or tender, as on “Paritions”, where he puffs out a medley of trebly textures before squealing split tones next to Ber’s hard pumps and trembling keyboard pumps.

His tenor playing is more consistent. Moving beside or soaring over the others, his usual strategy as on “Good Old Memories” involves variation that ascend to unexpected whinnies and descend to growls or reflux. Here that’s allied with expert keyboard judders with stop-time variables, Malaby’s most emotional playing is on “Mont Kemmel’ where fluid reed story telling is outlined in straight-ahead fashion and matched with drum stick nerve beats and Dumoulin’s sweeping glissandi.

As for Dumoulin, his keyboard adaptability is unmatched. Forward and backwards comping or coercing, his piano skills are such that he can perfectly replicate contemporary Jazz riffs; his organ breaks resonate so extensively that he can  replicate the stops and ranks of a mammoth pipe organ; while his keyboard movement vamps, sputters, works up to soaring crescendos and spins out long lines to connect with moderated or mercurial split tones, deep sighs or soaring vibrations from Malaby.

Overall there’s much to like and appreciate on this CD. But some of the tracks still sound as if they’re attached to their training wheels, a shortcoming that should feasibly be overcome next time out.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Trees 2. Rémi 3. Winter Sleep 4. Trees On Wheels 5. Mont Kemmel 6. The Jazzdor Loop 7. Good Old Memories 8. Objectoires 9. A Drum Solo 10. Paritions 11. Treason Wills 12. W 13. As If We Were Mountains

Personnel: Tony Malaby (tenor and soprano saxophones); Jozef Dumoulin (Fender Rhodes, piano and keyboards) and Samuel Ber (drums and editing)