Michael Bisio / Adam Siegel / Tani Tabbal

Keys & Screws

Some More Jazz

NoBusiness Records NBLP 133

Using the venerable – at least since the early 1960s – combo setting of saxophone, bass and drums, four mature improvisers and two younger ones add another chapter to the music books in the Free Jazz library. More singular and significant is Now Then, one of the few discs under the leadership of New York-based drummer Tani Tabbal and featuring bassist Michael Bisio, another veteran in his sixties. Equally meaningful on its part is Some More, with two of the Keys & Screws, experienced Jazzers in their sixties – multi-reedist Thomas and percussionist Willi Kellers.

Tabbal is known for his work with the Roscoe Mitchell and James Carter and Bisio who often partners Matthew Shipp, have hooked up with the young alto saxophonist Adam Siegel, whose associates range from Dick Oatts to Matt Mitchell,. Berlin-based Borgmann and Kellers have both, among many others, worked with Peter Brötzmann, while Keys & Screws third member is bassist Jan Roder, who has played with everyone from Silke Eberhard to Alexander von Schlippenbach.

Tabbal’s name may be in the title, but there’s enough space on the CD’s 10 selections for inspirational solos from all. Furthermore six of the tracks are the drummer’s compositions, the others were written by Bisio. Never bombastic most of the drummer’s contributions take the form of subtle colorations, usually involving accentuating cymbal slaps and bass drum pumps. Invariably the expositions are moved along by Bisio’s plump bass notes. As the ostensible front person though, it’s up to Siegel to advance the narratives, while at the same time asserting his own persona. Contributing to the tunes’ swing feel, his technical extensions are dissonant rather than atonal, adding stuttering squeaks, exotic peeps and desiccated tones. Depending on the context, these dovetail appropriately with Tabbal’s measured clanks and Bisio’s plucks and patterning. Most of the album is a low-key affair without preventing the tracks from being rhythmically fluid based on Bisio’s frequent creation of ostinati and Tabbal’s cymbal slaps. The bassist’s “Oh See OC” is an instance of this with the unhurried line developed through well-modulated string plucks and Siegel packing as many note variations as he can in his solos. Hard slaps on the bass strings make Tabbal’s transformative “Khusenaton” another standout. The bassist’s pressurized undulations even prod the saxophonist to trade in his smoother impulses for ragged ones, all the while maintaining the groove. A similar opening up into stridency with thin factory-whistler-like grittiness appears during Siegel’s solo on “Scrunch”. Overall though, the session’s unhurried pace serves as a bellwether instance of how advanced modern music can be creative without showboating or shouting.

Bluster is at a premium during the extended improvisations that make up Some More Jazz. While the trio connection is as tight as the other band’s, dips into elevated reed bites, screechy sul tasto bass lines, Borgmann’s switching among tenor and soprano saxophones and toy-melodica and Kellers scattering shots among drums, steel drum and percussion are more upfront The miscellaneous percussion is most audible on the first track, with tam-tam-like shakes and vibraharp-like clips. Yet no fissure is created as echoing saxophone trills and bites, staccato double bass string stabs and a hand drumming beat are heard. The concluding “Catham Bellbird” showcases Borgmann’s dip into glossolalia and staccato bites via pinched soprano saxophone trills. But the two part “Broadway Birdy” best defines the trio’s talents. Not only are the parts knit together by a stentorian bass solo linked and drum clip-clops, but Borgmann’s transformative saxophone technique are also in full display, Nestled among the shading, slurps and shatters that suggest John Coltrane’s modal work are playful cadences that could come fr0m the Stan Getz songbook. In terms of melody there are also sequences throughout when the saxophonist’s asides suggest he’s hearing a half-forgotten songbook air, which works as an earworm, but is never really defined.

Truth in packaging Some More Jazz offers instances of just that, with the sounds propelled by three accomplished players. Meanwhile with melodies that encompass bounce and balance, the other CD confirms that the skills of Tabbal and his trio members lie in the now as well as extrapolating earlier ideas from the then,

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Now: 1. Arrested Confusion 2. Just Woke Up 3. Khusenaton 4. Sun History Ra Mystery 5. Now Then 6. Midway Open 7. Oh See OC Revisited 8. Scrunch 9. r. henri 10. Inky Bud

Personnel: Now: Adam Siegel (alto saxophone) Michael Bisio (bass) and Tani Tabbal: drums

Track Listing: Some: 1. The Other Morning In The Park 2. Broadway Birdy. Part I 3. Broadway Birdy. Part Ii 4. Catham Bellbird

Personnel: Some: Thomas Borgmann (tenor and soprano saxophones, toy-melodica); Jan Roder (bass) and Willi Kellers (drums, steel drum and percussion)