By Paul Acquaro
If the ringing sound of the Fender Rhodes-like keyboard doesn't tickle your
jazz bones, then you should really question the integrity of your whole skeleton. From the
opening moments of Ken Vandermark's Edition Redux's
Better a Rook than a Pawn, just about all of you should be tingling.
The nearly 10 minute opening-track 'Time is the Tune / Wols / Uncommon Object'
begins with the unique vibrating chunky keyboard tones from
Erez Dessel. Along with drummer Lily Finnegan, the ground work is being
laid for the kinetic entry of Vandermarks' saxophone and the light
underscoring of Beth McDonald's tuba. The energy is palpable and the melodic theme digs in deep, turning the light knismesistic feel into full on garalesistic. Soon, the mood
changes, the synthesizer is replaced by piano and Vandermark has
switched to clarinet. The group has entered a searching phase, sound
textures overtaking melodic impulses. The quartet of musical adventurers
reemerge though into a new musical soundscape, renewed.
The group, like Marker from several years ago, is composed
of younger musicians from Chicago. Dessel studied piano at the New England
Conservatory and moved to Chicago in 2022, falling in quickly with
Vandermark. McDonald is self described as a 'classically trained tubist gone
awry,' while Finnegan is a Chicago native, a Berkley College of Music
graduate and seems to have already built-up quite a CV of collaborators. As
Edition Redux, the group is fresh, exciting and providing the restless
Vandermark another great vehicle for his musical ideas.
While the music seems to unfold in new ways for a Vandermark project, is also
comfortingly familiar. In the liner notes, the composer
writes:
"This music utilizes a 'cinematic' approach to organizing the pieces, a system which allows me to reconfigure the material for every performance, leading to new paths for the music during the compositions and in open sections as well as self-determined free improvisation between them."
Well, if that
does not describe the music of the first track, then nothing will. On the next
track, 'Summer Sweater/Matching Shocks/Coherence/Swan Zig,' that same slinky,
bone tickling synthesizer tones sets the groove and Vandermark comes in on
clarinet with a slinky melody. With the tuba and drums helping with the feel,
the group gets into something nearly fusion-like (in the best way possible),
however after four glorious moments, it breaks down into an effusive and
abstract section. The transition was sudden, but then again so is the next one
where the disconnected lines suddenly come together and eventually settle into
another heart-pumping groove.
There is plenty more experience on the album, like the fantastic oozing cool
introduction of 'No Back to Your Jacket/Reel to Reel/Flatlands' and the great
tuba solo over free comping that soon follows. All of the pieces intersect at
some point, but providing that I understand the musical process correctly, are
also modular components that can be rearranged on the go. Regardless of
where you enter the recording, Editions Redux sound great on record, and it
seems safe to assume that live, they would as well!
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