Round-Up: Fighter Planes & Praying Mantis, Arson and Graceless

A set of new releases on OutNow showcases adventurous musicianship and diverse styles...

By Paul Acquaro

Alex Weiss - Fighter Planes & Praying Mantis (OutNow, 2013) ****

Saxophonist Alex Weiss' Fighter Planes & Praying Mantis is a peculiar mix. Layered post-rock, ambient and melodic horn arrangements, and at times hard-core vocals and pounding rhythms, all come together to create an odd and beautiful creature.

For example, the hefty '$ Mrdan' is a feedback drenched, atonal tour de force. Ches Smith's arhythmic percussion and Eyol Maoz' guitaristic mayhem is balanced by the lyrical calm of Rick Parker's trombone and the exotic sounds of Mark Hodos' birimbau. Another piece in this style, 'Glacier', as the name suggests, moves slowly but scours all in its path.

Taking a different tact, the tune 'Filler' has intense hardcore vocals. Not a genre that I'm versed in, all I can say is that the vocals and the lyrics certainly strike a defiant pose. "Get Carter Theme" is a fun number that Dmitry Ishenko holds it together on acoustic bass. It's much more hard-bop than hard-core, and is a fun reprieve before the eviscerating title track. The album wraps up with Weiss playing guitar and singing a dark spiritual tune, 'Angel of Death', which, as you may guess, is about final judgement. What a closer!


Denman Maroney & Hans Tammen - Arson (OutNow, 2013) ***½

Arson is a collections of improvisations between the hyperpiano and endangered guitar, and one that continues the long lasting musical relationship of  Denman Maroney and Hans Tammen. The instruments, as indicated by their names, extend the possibilities of the duo's sound and make for some really interesting electro-acoustic combinations. Be sure to check out the links above to find out a bit more about the instruments themselves.

The first track 'Dynamo Meat' advances along with a groove akimbo, Tammen's guitar collides with Maroney's piano in unusual Harry Partch like interactions. The follow up 'Harmony Dame' is more atmospheric, with neither instrument playing a traditional role. The sound collage and off-kilter grooves return on 'Demon Stream', a very strong track that features tinkling in the extreme registers of the piano, while the middle register acts as percussion and Tammen's modified sounds swirl about.

Arson is an intoxicating concoction of ideas and approaches, from the strong opening to the noisy closing track and textural pieces like 'Amnesty Dharma' and 'Ornamenta' in between. The recording is a challenging but rewarding journey.


Yoni Kretzmer / 66 Boxes - Graceless (OutNow, 2013) ****½

Yoni Kretzmer's sax playing covers a wide spectrum, from the traditional to the territory mapped out by Coltrane and Ayler. Capturing this range, his compositions are inventive sketches that his group fleshes out with some sublime improvisation.

The group, 66 Boxes, is a quartet comprised of cellist Daniel Levin, guitarist Eyal Maoz and drummer Andrew Drury. The instrumental range, especially between Levin's cello and Maoz's wild assortment of sounds, gives Kretschmer a wide palette to choose from, and he does so with aplomb.

Graceless is an great collection of songs that kicks off energetically with the rapidly building 'Basement Song'. The saxophonist spins elliptical lines and eventually ramps up to some gut wrenching blasts of energy. Maoz's guitar is an explosion of effects and sounds, and following the tunes climax, Levin follows up with a plaintive melody. The following track, 'New Dilemma', begins as a set of fragmented interactions between the players before coalescing around Kretzmer's free form melody. 'Leaving It To The End ' sports a solid riff that the group holds down while Maoz stretches out with his utterly unique sonic smears and textures. Atmosphere and extended techniques take over in 'One One', a 20 minute piece that delicately, and at times aggressively, exemplifies the diversity of the recording.

Check them out: http://outnowrecordings.bandcamp.com/

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Trombones ....

Paul Rutherford - Tetralogy (Emanem, 2009) ***½

Last year Emanem released new material by the late trombonist Paul Rutherford, an artist who had been instrumental in creating and shaping the European free improv scene. The album consists of four quite distinct performances. It starts with "Elesol", three tracks for solo trombone and electronics, a kind of experiment and not really successful in my opinion. This is followed by two pieces for horn quartet, with George Lewis on trombone, Martin Mayes on French horn, and Melvyn Poore on tuba. The four men make their improvisations vary between solemn lyricism and wild intensity, with the former being the dominant one.

The second CD starts with three lengthy pieces for solo trombone, and to me these are the highlight of the album, showing the trombonist's richness of voice and experimental power. The last three pieces are a trio performance with Paul Rogers on double bass and Nigel Morris on drums. An interesting album for fans of Rutherford. The non-electronic solo performance and the brass quartet alone would have made a great record. Now, it sounds more like a collection, rather than a unified listening experience.

The Astronomical Unit - Relativity (Jazzwerkstatt, 2010) ****

Without a doubt a great fan of Rutherford, German trombonist Matthias Müller, in a cohesive trio format with Clayton Thomas on bass and Christian Marien on drums, takes the learnings of the great Brit into outer space. In four fully improvised pieces, the trio leads us on our interstellar journey, and it is quite an interesting one: it is one in which surprise and wonder reign. The notes are sparse and intense, the interaction telepathic and warm, moving quite well together, forward all the time.The sounds they create are minute, precise, full of new textures and shades of colors, unhurried, calm yet resolute. It does not have the raw energy of the duo albums of Müller and Marien, but the end result is even stronger. You will need open ears for this one, but you will not be disappointed. A truly powerful album.


Gail Brand & Mark Sanders - Instinct & The Body (Regardless, 2009) ***½

Equally adventurous, although much more direct and immediate in its expressivity is this CD by Gail Brand on trombone and Mark Sanders on drums. Both Brand and Sanders are well-known artists of the British free improv scene. Together they create this very intense, raw, violent, sensitive and subtle interplay of bouncing notes and crashing percussion, shifting between velvety and abrasive sounds. As the liner notes say : "ten years or more of laughing, crying, shouting, listening, uprooting, settling, coming and going, and improvising      it's all in the music". And that's an adequate description.

Watch Brand and Sanders on Youtube.




© stef

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Trombone, trombone, trombone ....

The trombone is a tough instrument to put in a leading role, and the small ensembles that feature a trombone are hence limited, but thanks to the relentless creativity of modern music, anything is possible, in any combination, with any kind of intent. Here is a list of interesting new albums in random order.

Daniel Blacksberg Trio - Bit Heads (NoBusiness, 2009)

This adventurous new Lithuanian label presents us with what I think is the debut album of trombonist Daniel Blacksberg as a leader, accompanied by Jon Barrios on bass and Mike Szekely on drums. His approach is cautious, free and precise, in the sense that he does go beyond the beaten path, offering new possibilities for the instrument but without going into the wilder areas that George Lewis is known for. The end result is highly listenable avant jazz, with slow and bluesy inflections, using the instrument's inherent capabilities for sadness. Promising!

David Taylor - Red Sea (Tzadik, 2009) 

Bass trombonist David Taylor has this incredible resumé which includes amongst others the New York Philharmonic, playing with Ellington, the Rolling Stones, Blood, Sweat & Tears and even appearing on the Muppett Show with Gil Evans, but also releasing albums under his own name in more modern settings. With that background, you may expect anything, and whether it's a good thing that Tzadik offered him the chance to release this album will remain a question of debate.

Taylor himself plays tenor trombone, and a wide variety of regular or custom-made trombones. Franz Hackl plas trumpets, Adam Holzman surdo, bass drum, piano; Scott Robinson a wild variety of reeds, such as contrabass clarinet, tenor rothopone and many more, and Warren Smith has this gigantic list of rhythm instruments to have fun with : giant Chinese barrel drum, bass marimba, and many more. From the list and the label, you already get the gist that this music is to be played in the lower registers, full of klezmer scales in the best Radical Jewish Series tradition, and indeed, you are right. The album is inspired by "the music of the legendary Cantor Pierre Pinchik, ... evoking the ecstasy of cantorial fervor".

If the music did not open such interesting new musical visions at moments, I would not even mention it. Taylor creates great, reverent and intense soundscapes at times, with the solemnity and Weltschmerz you may expect, although often too pompous and heavy-footed. He throws in every style he has ever played in, from the New York Philharmonic over Blood, Sweat & Tears to the Muppetts, and luckily some creative modern music moments. Great instrumental skills do not necessarily make great composers.



Superimpose - Talk Talk (Leo Records, 2009) 

This is German trombonist Matthias Müller's seventh release, and his second with Christian Marien on drums. Together they bring you deep into free improv territory, full of short and very intense interactions, exploring sounds, timbres, shades and colors, perspectives and musical depth, bouncing of notes and rhythms, extracted from context, abstracted from meaning. No doubt the least accessible album on this list, but not necessarily the less rewarding. Müller squeezes more sounds out of his trombone than most trombonists even conceive is possible, but to his credit he uses this skill not as an objective but as a means to create music. New music, taking risks, and in Marien he clearly found a great sparring partner.



Noah Rosen, Yves Robert, Didier Levallet - Silhouette (Sans Bruit, 2009)

 French trombonist Yves Robert is without a doubt one of the masters of the instrument, confident, rich, and incredibly versatile. His album "On Touch" on ECM is easy to recommend. Here he teams up with Noah Rosen on piano and Didier Levallet on bass, for a very intense musical dialogue and confrontation, recorded at the wonderful Château Vilain XIIII (sic!) in Belgium. The three musicians explore, respond, push forward, change courses, open new vistas, and often all within one piece, changing from powerful intensity to slow and prudent testing of new common grounds. Rosen's piano sets the tone, the rhythm and the music's overall fluidity, adding complexities to abstractions, and it is without a doubt the most lyrical album of the list, yet also one of the richest, most mature and most playful. A real trio achievement.

© stef

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