Stein/Smith/Shead

Perhaps Five Nights in the Midwest should be likened to an extended director’s cut of a film, or maybe even more correctly the dailies or raw, unedited footage viewed as the film is being made, That’s because this massive three volume set of seven extended tracks is presented exactly as recorded during the Stein/Smith/Shead trio’s five-day tour of that same number of Midwestern cities.

Veterans of this sort of anything-goes free form improvisation, the trio members have played in this tripartite configuration for the past few years as well as establishing themselves elsewhere. Windy City percussionist Adam Shead has recorded with Marilyn Crispell as well as the Microplatique quartet. Fellow Chicagoan bass clarinetist Jason Stein is also part of the Hearts & Minds trio and has played with everyone from Joshua Abrams to Didier Petit. As for St. Louis-bassist Damon Smith, his international associates range from Sandy Ewen and Joe McPhee to Magda Mayas and Birgit Ulher.

With extemporization paramount and no track titles except for city names, it’s impossible to ascertain whether themes or motifs are carried from one performance to the next. Nonetheless true appreciation of the tracks comes from basking in the reflected glow of committed musicians giving their all without compromise or limits.

Of particular note are Shead’s drum patterns. Eschewing for the most part a steady beat and emphasis on a conventional drum kit are his accompaniment and interpolations. A constant motif is horse’s hoof like gallops which he interjects as contrasts or cooperation at judicious moments during the seven tracks. Also prominent are idiophone pivots which encompass bell-pealing, woody clips, abrasive scrapes on unyielding metal, conga-like hand pressure, maracas-like  gravel-and-sand shakes and ping-poinging reverberations. There’s a point on “Dissonant Works” in fact where what could be the droning monotone of a plastic vuvuzela is likely created by Shead rather than Stein’s horn. Occasionally as well there’s the use of cymbal color, rim shots and hard backbeats, with dedicated and positioned ruffs sound in counterpoint to Smith’s resonating pizzicato strums.

The bassist also makes good use of arco sweeps creating thick, multiple stops and the drones from stentorian pressure or unexpected sul ponticello squeaks. Pizzicato turns can sometimes be as subtle as guitar picking as on “State Street Pub” or as unexpected as thrusts that suggest wood-rending. But most of the time Smith uses his emphasized strums and plucks to create a throbbing continuum that slows down or preserves the broken octave narratives.

Seemingly unstoppable Stein explores every pitch, tone and timbre from his clarinet. Making use of flutters, smears, tongue stops, overblowing and sudden leaps from chalumeau register to altissimo squeals, he touches on what used to be called Ecstatic Jazz, but has too much taste and technique to let excess control his playing. As it is he easily and often moves from triple tonguing and ragged squeaks to sudden downwards slurs.

Reed snarls and extended split tone also mark his actions especially as he dips in and out of reed registers and varies the tempo in coordination with the others’ textures. Although the overriding expositions are linked to hard blowing, powerful string thumps and emphasized percussion strategies, note-bending and relentless tongue flutters aren’t always the endgame. Occasional brief wedges of lyricism are heard, though subsequently abandoned for piles of inner horn exploration and defining scoops that preserve horizontal momentum.

Despite its length, Five Nights in the Midwest isn’t a suite or through composed motif of any shape or form. However if you’d like to follow the development of creative music in its freest form projected by three experts in the field, this session is for you.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Sugar Maple – Milwaukee, WI 2. State Street Pub – Indianapolis, IN 3. Spot Tavern – Lafayette, IN (set 1) 4. Spot Tavern – Lafayette, IN (set 2a) 5.  Spot Tavern – Lafayette, IN (set 2b) 6. Dissonant Works – St. Louis, MO 7. Reverberation Records – Bloomington, IL.

Personnel: Jason Stein (bass clarinet); Damon Smith (bass) and Adam Shead (drums and percussion)