Whit Dickey Quartet

Marek Pospieszalski Quartet
Dürer’s Mother
Clean Feed CF 599 CD

With a storied history going back to at least the 1950s, the saxophone/piano/bass/drums configuration is somewhat akin to the versatile ways in which one can prepared eggs. Able to cook in multiple manners, these ensembles have been part of the most mainstream programs and the most exploratory ones. Both of these discs are prepared closer to the later, but one takes a maximalist approach, the other a minimalist one.

Polish tenor saxophonist Marek Pospieszalski’s Dürer’s Mother is an example of the later. Someone who has recorded with the likes of Dennis González, the disc, like his recent nonet session, was inspired by 19th and 20th Century notated composers. However neither he nor the members of his quartet – pianist Elias Stemeseder, bassist Max Mucha and drummer Max Andrzejewski – ever quote from previous works. Instead Pospieszalski’s original compositions include drama and color that could be traced back to so-called classical roots.

As a prominent second voice, Stemeseder sometimes adds careful formalism to his work, especially in bass clef forays. But at the same time that doesn’t stop him from splattering notes, pounding cross handed across the keyboard, emphasizing pedal point, or on “Baron of Aldeburgh” building his part from jerky, detuned plucks and a subsequent strummed keyboard exposition. Pospieszalski’s bitten off vibrations and reed slurs are replicated on other tune s like “Parallel Universes”. There his hocketing discursions up the scale are backed by Andrzejewski paradiddles and ruffs, a walking bass line from Mucha and the pianist’s freeform comping and tonal juddering.

With the bassist and drummer dedicated to keeping the pieces horizontal and steady, most of the tonal elaboration results from the tandem work of the saxophonist and pianist. Thin reed flutters bring out reflective keyboard strokes, or alternately descending pulses form the piano lead to tiny bird-like smears culminating in the projection of colored air from the saxophonist and a response of immediate dissected clips from Stemeseder. Expanded interludes like “The Last Romantic” are more dramatic than dreamy with Pospieszalski’s resounding tongue slaps, meeting powerful piano key pumping. The introductory “The Last Days of Franz Schubert” is a harbinger of what will happen on the rest of the disc. Slow moving reed puffs and studied piano chording quickly give way to reed doits and breathy flattement that are held for many bars then met by single key plinks, linear string plucks and a floating ambient rap from Andrzejewski .

Influenced by another important composer of the 20th Century – John Coltrane – drummer Whit Dickey’s Root Perspectives are given shape by tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby, pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist Brandon Lopez, all of whom have extensive experience in multiple Free Jazz ensembles. Although Shipp and Dickey have collaborated for many decades, this was the first time the saxophonist and drummer have recorded together. Crucially Malaby’s output is studded with Trane-influenced stutters, honks and multiphonic echoes all the way up to screeching altissimo runs. Also capable of propelling repeated choked split tones in a Sonny Rollins manner, the saxophonist follows both mentors by working into his solos quotes from “A Love Supreme”, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and even “Jingle Bells”.

At the same time like the Pospieszalski-Stemeseder formula, the tunes are frequently driven by Malaby-Shipp interaction, either with tandem improvisation, developing timbres on top of one another, or by one reflecting what the other plays. This takes place from the first selection, “Supernova”, onwards as Shipp’s up and down comping and almost unstoppable pedal point variations unroll underneath Malaby’s split tone scoops, honks, vibrations and doits. Still the ferocious exposition is moderated by Lopez’s walking bass line and halted with a distinctive cymbal crash. Meanwhile the bassist’s responsive versatility is highlighted on the concluding “Starship Lotus”. While the introduction thrusts forward in Ecstatic Jazz fashion encompassing the saxophonist’s soaring and screeching, Shipp’s key pumps that seem to leave no space between strokes and Dickey’s cymbal clapping, the bassist creates a twanging variation that is straight-ahead enough to preserve the tune’s linear flow, even as keyboard clips and prestissimo reed screams persist until the finale. As for Dickey, he’s canny enough to refrain from any percussion showiness. He leaves the heavy narrative work to Malaby’s strained split tones and overblowing reflux and Shipp’s ability to both fragment into sharped shards to propel the tune forward. Instead Dickey sticks to rhythmic emphasis, with the occasional cymbal clap, wood block echo or dedicated ruff.

Both quartet approaches are equally valid and equally compelling. Plus these are two more reasons why the saxophone/piano/bass/drums configuration remains appealing to so many innovative players.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Dürer’s: 1. The Last Days of Franz Schubert 2. Primitive Memory Structures 3. Dürer’s Mother 4. Parallel Universes 5. The Last Romantic 6. Baron of Aldeburgh 7. I Am All That Remains

Personnel: Dürer’s: Marek Pospieszalski (tenor saxophone); Elias Stemeseder (piano); Max Mucha (bass) and Max Andrzejewski (drums)

Track Listing: Root: 1. Supernova 2. Doomsday Equation 3. Swamp Petals 4. Starship Lotus

Personnel: Root: Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone); Matthew Shipp (piano); Brandon Lopez (bass) and Whit Dickey (drums)