Kevin Reilly of the Relative Pitch record label did the free jazz community a great service by setting up a gig pairing two fine musicians in Kelsey Mines on bass and Erin Rogers on sax. (Video of the show below. It’s Part 1 of 3.) That meeting led to the present recording, a beautiful example of two like-minded musicians improvising together to make something wholly novel and exciting.
Both Kelsey and Erin have solo albums and I decided to give those a listen before writing this review. Kelsey’s solo album, also on Relative Pitch, is called Look Like. It’s a fine example of a solo bass album. (I say that as someone who owns a preposterous number of solo bass albums.)
There’s a nice mix of technical proficiency, both bowing and plucking, with melody and emotion. And Kelsey’s vocalizing adds yet another level of melody.
Erin Rogers has a solo album called 2000 Miles, again on Relative Pitch, and it’s a stunner, well-deserving of the **** ½ review it received on this website. It’s full of wonderful technique, Erin uses the keys of the saxophone to add a percussive element to her playing and her breathwork and vocalizations give an appealingly human feel to her music.
So it’s not surprising these two put out such a great album in Scratching At The Surface. The first track, Breath,uses the low-end sound of their instruments, Kelsey’s bowing especially gives the track a yearning almost dirge-like sound. This leads into the title track, in which Kelsey switches to plucking. Erin begins by playing Parkerish serpentine lines, but then switches things up in response to Kelsey’s bass. This track is an excellent example of the musicians communicating in their joint improvisation and working together to create something beautiful. My favorite track is Syrefattiga, Erin is using some of the techniques from her solo album. Again there’s lots of breathwork giving a vocal quality in her responses to Kelsey’s bowing. On the final track, Electric Blue, the musicians cut loose, both musicians playing at maximum intensity, with Erin on soprano sax.
The whole album is a great example of how profound music can be made with minimum instrumentation when it’s being made by musicians such as Kelsey Mines and Erin Rogers. Kelsey told me in an email:
“I just relocated to Brooklyn about a month ago from Seattle so I'm looking forward to playing with her more now that I live in the city.”
I’m sure everyone who hears this album will be looking forward to it as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzhTumodwXo&list=RDbzhTumodwXo&start_radio=1
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