Oh Canada ... A Roundup

By Philip Coombs

To fly from St. John's International airport to the Vancouver International airport would involve approximately 6 1/2 hours of flying time (depending on the head wind) and would cover about 3132 miles or 5041 kilometers in Canada speak. A similar distance would be from London, England to Bahrain. You can well imagine how diverse our tastes and opinions about the arts can be solely based on our geographical upbringing. The east is ripe with Celtic music and an underground that hates it. The prairies are coming into their own with country music and an underground that hates it. This roundup looks at some jazz interpretations from the capital, Ottawa, and from the once financial epicenters, Toronto and Montreal, before oil transferred the money away to the west.

Craig Pedersen Quartet - Days Like Today (Bandcamp, 2012) ****

From Ottawa comes the Craig Pedersen Quartet which is comprised of Pedersen on trumpet and composition, Linsey Wellman on alto sax, Joel Kerr on bass and Mike Essoudry behind the drum kit. Days Like Today, Pedersen' debut full length recording, is a wonderful mix of clever composition and free jazz. There are no throw away numbers here. Opening track, "The Baron", is borderline kitschy in a film noir kind of way (sounds like it would be a jazz club favourite) but luckily it didn't follow through and there is no sign of it anywhere else on the album, which is full of well played and fully realized ideas. The sound itself is an ambitious choice as there is little to no reverb present which allows for a very crisp trumpet. An astringent tea for the ears. The title track, "Days Like Today", is a real winner in a pool of very competitive swimmers.

See Through Trio - Near Northern Static (Woods and Waters, 2012)***½

Based out of Toronto, this is the trio's third release. In a similar approach as Pedersen, the band jumps back and forth between sweet intros, which are so familiar that you would think they are covering jazz standards, and free jazz moments. This is a very pleasant listening experience but there always seems that there are more rules that need to be broken. The recording does kick up a notch on "I Got a Little Sidetracked", when the bass gets bowed for different feel and mood which goes a long way in a piano, sax, and bass trio. As well as they play together, their personalities get to shine as they each get a solo track to stretch their visions. Listen for Tania Gill's piano solo on "On My Sleeve", Mark Laver's sax solo on "Stars and Satellites" and Pete Johnston's bass solo on "On the Square".

Michel Lambert - Journal Des Épisodes (Rant, 2012) ****

92 tracks. Yes, you read that correctly. 92 tracks. Structurally, this trio is the furthest reaching of the three reviewed and consists of Lambert, (drums and composition) as well as Guillaume Bouchard on bass and Alexandre Grogg on piano. The recording is a selection of Lambert's musical journal entries, a project he has been working on for quite some time now. This Montreal group take these distilled compositions to their very essence and perform them with intensity. When you only have 8 or so seconds to relay your message, you need to be in the pocket at all times, and these guys are.

Beware of tracks like track 61, "Mystère", as they will catch you off guard with their emotion. Lambert has a big sounding kit that is recorded well. When he hits a downbeat, sometimes only once a track, it fills the gap between the ear lobe and the brain. He crafts these tracks to become a jazzsaw puzzle that takes some imagination to put together but the final picture is worth the effort. You may even find you mind wandering and wondering what your own musical journal would sound like.

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Guitar Week: In the Band

Today's post, the last in our guitar week series, is not a focus on the guitar as much as it is the celebration of two guitarists who are at ease participating in the shaping a group's sound as much as they are blazing their own unique trails. Today we feature bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten's quartet with guitarist Joe Morris and drummer Ches Smith's These Arches with Mary Halvorson.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten NY Quartet - Now Is (Clean Feed, 2012)****

By Paolo Casertano

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten has already led under his own name an interesting quintet composed of renowned and young musicians (Dave Rempis, Frank Rosaly, the young and gifted guitarist Anders Hana to name a few) releasing two albums on Jazzland Recordings with the solid and eminent production of Bob Weston.

By the way I imagine that the responsibility of being the leader of such a stellar quartet as the one we have here featuring Joe McPhee on tenor saxophone, Joe Morris on guitar and Nate Wooley on trumpet is some kind of different. Especially if you consider that, according to the liner notes, there is only one written composition in the album and the rest of the music comes totally improvised. Who is going to tell for example to McPhee that the approach he may be following in a passage is even just slightly diverse from what you have in mind? Clearly, not me. It goes also without saying that being “the leader” in a more or less extended ensemble doesn’t mean to be the one dictating rules to impose his own instrument on the others.

This is a no piano and no drums quartet and many of the eight tracks of the album are largely built as bass/guitar duets that, working in a compact interplay, give to the brass section the chance to focus on lyricism. At the same time, even when trumpet and sax are phrasing synchronically with vigour, they rarely result as preponderant on the strings section. I like the versatility of Flaten’s style moving nimbly through a clean pizzicato and squawking notes as you may hear in the opening “Port” or in the dramatic bowing passages that gracefully link the two muted trumpets in the background of the acoustic guitar-driven “Times” (one of my favourites). “Pent” is the longest episode of the work and there is enough room for a bass solo setting a bluesy atmosphere that McPhee clearly enjoys (and that’s probably why Wooley answers him with bebop and Morris then thinks that some manouche can’t be wrong either). But the chemistry works well also when the musicians go for extended techniques moments as in “Knicks” or in frenzied interplays as in “Giants” (together with the title of another track -  “Rangers” - there’s an obvious reference to the three famous NY teams of basket, football and hockey).

I like the modular structure of “As if” where the bass/trumpet dialogue is at first hindered by the growing and wearing synchronic “singsonging” of the guitar and the saxophone. But roles in life as in music are bound to change and so, after a brief guitar/bass alliance, it comes the time of Morris’s guitar to be faced by the very same hammering chant of bass during his solo. Flaten seems to win because in the last minute Morris is again seduced by the hypnotic two notes phrase and re-joins him. But you know, life goes on and the bass player has already gone ahead for a new, just a bit evolved but always lullabying (a scale), litany together with the sax…

I can’t avoid thinking how it could have sounded this album with Paal Nilssen-Love behind all the other musicians sharing one time more the traditional rhythmic session with his long time pal on double bass.

Buy it at Instantjazz

Ches Smith and These Arches – Hammered (Clean Feed, 2013) ****

By Monique Avakian

Two saxes: one alto and one tenor, and on the recording -- one in each ear.  Ches Smith just made my brain the keystone of his group, These Arches! This album, then, perhaps, is as neurologically enriching as it is musically enticing.

The move from quartet to quintet is solidifying for this band. Tim Berne on alto joins Tony Malaby on tenor, and the two carry us into various parallel and perpendicular worlds with dexterity and ease. Fresh and lean, these guys are panthers on the prowl. “Dead Battery,” in particular highlights their inventive contextualization.

Actually, These Arches as a group have several interesting contextualizing habits, many derived, of course, from the members’ high-level jazz improv expertise. Additionally, these five players prove to be confident in their well-chosen moments of rocking out. Last, but not least, These Arches seem especially facile with adventurous choices made in regard to the infusion of multi-cultural folk styles. For example (again on “Dead Battery”), Mary Halvorson (guitar and bass lines) quotes from The Everly Brothers’ “Let It Be Me,” (itself a re-worked French tune). Almost immediately, she injects a subtle Middle Eastern flavor into the lick. The band responds with layering that texturizes the hell out of the familiar riff, which is quite satisfying. The title track, “Hammered,” is also a good reflection of the band’s strength at melding various rock, folk/ethnic and jazz styles into something not only greater than the sum of parts, but something parting into a summary of something greater.

Andrea Parkins on accordion and electronics takes an interesting position in the band, providing a level of intense, yet restrained, subtlety. And Mr. Smith, on drums and percussion, takes care not to dominate, driving with an egalitarian ease and a lot of sound play.

Beware, though. This band also takes the stance of a big tease, brazenly daring you to come back for more. For example, round about 5:40 on “This Might Fade Out,” Ches Smith lays into a phat, funky rock groove that evaporates almost instantaneously within 20 seconds. Ooooh! Why’d you do that to me? How did I end up in this worm hole? Oh, well, it doesn’t matter because already I am somewhere else, feeling like a campy TV detective driving a 70’s-era Camaro, screeching to sudden stops, spinning into smoky half circles, soaring through the air off rising bridge plates….and, well, yeah!

So, you gotta get “Hammered.” If for no other reason than to wave the CD case in front of your best friend’s face and make that irresistible joke.

Release street date: March 5, 2013

Live:
Shapeshifter Labs, February 26, 8pm, Brooklyn, CD Release
Rotunda, March 1, 8pm, Philadelphia
The Wind-Up Space, March 2, 8pm, Baltimore

Video with interview splice:

© stef

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Mere - Mere (Gizeh, 2012) ****

Guitar Week

By stef

.. post-jazz post-rock psychedelic cinematic hypnotic repetitive post-jazz post-rock psychedelic cinematic hypnotic repetitive post-jazz post-rock psychedelic cinematic hypnotic repetitive full of trance-like yearning and sadness. Thomas Cruijsen fingerpicks chords on electric guitar with emphasis and repetition, supported with some free rock drums forward moving beat and accents by Leo Fabriek, over which Gareth Davis keeps repeating the same the same the same phrases full of longing and sadness on his bass clarinet and nothing changes except the power, the insistence, the drive, the emphasis and the volume with the guitar really hitting hard, keeping the forefront of the sound from beginning to end with drums and bass clarinet somewhere in the background and as a listener it just keeps coming closer to you occupying space in your mind your body your room until the thing fades and only the screeches remain like tails of a bad dream only to pick up again in the third piece which is basically the same thing repeated, relentlessly, mesmerising but slowly evolving to some quiet full of distress and built-up tension and as you can expect the madness picks up again full of repetition and trance-inducing rhythms and volume and terrifying howls and shrieks and ...

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Markus Pesonen & Hakon Berre - Hautullin! (Barefoot, 2013) ****

Guitar Week

By stef

If Genghis Khan had played electric guitar, he may have sounded like Markus Pesonen on "Klein Bleus", the opening track of this album. Put it on full blast and entire populations will flee in anguish for his burn and destroy approach, adequately supported by Hakon Berre on drums.

Yet before you know it, the duo illustrates the subtlety of contrasting sounds with "Joutoma", brought by sensitive slide guitar, and thanks to the great percussion and electronics an overall sentiment of sadness and doom is maintained.

"Night At The Toy Factory" is more bizarre, with electronics and distorted sounds creating an odd soundscape full of unexpected events.

In essence, every track shows how the limited line-up of guitar and drums can bring completely different approaches, but thanks to the great artistry of both musicians it remains a coherent story, with a unique atmosphere and sound that maintains its focus despite the variation. You can hear fluid Indian sounds on "Mjölne", crispy electronics on "Monkey Rat Attack", , rage on "Quantum Foam" and "Short Circuit", space-age signals on "Tarantula Nebula", a more rockish style on "Discothèque", tintillating freshness on "Brahmanda", and slow undistorted beauty on "Nuts", which ends the album in an atmosphere of peace.

Even if this is in essence a guitar-percussion duo, both musicians use every kind of tool but the kitchen sink - although coming close to the latter by not only using ringing bells and chains but also tin pans, pot lids, tea towels, forks and chop sticks.

The great thing on this album is the music, no matter how it is brought, yet the unconventional approach adds new textures and offers at times fascinating listening moments.

Rage and gentleness - all on one dish : enjoy!


Watch on Youtube or listen on Bandcamp.

© stef

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Guitar Week: Experimental and Noise

Music and sound to challenge your mind, body and soul. Yes, the guitar can be so many things ...

Peter Kolovos - Black Colors (Thin Wrist, 2012) ****

By Paolo Casertano

After the 2009 New Bodies LP always on his Thin Wrist Recordings, Peter Kolovos is here with his second full-length solo guitar effort and, if possible, he delivers an even more challenging work. If you know him already, you could say that listening to the sharp and strident sonic pilgrimages on guitar of Kolovos is a tough job but somebody’s got to do it, because the experience is strong and always rewarding.

I’d define his approach as maximalist being just the opposite of the minimalist style of other emerging and noteworthy guitarists as Manuel Mota or Filipe Felizardo. He seems not interested in any concession to harmony or intelligible structures; he hits the listener as he hits the guitar, never caressing a string, never sketching something that is less than a total, in some way aggressive, act of sound with no compromises. You may say there are no real tracks to analyse in this work, but there is for sure an approach to understand.

According to the liner notes “he draws form from open sequences of sound events merged and propelled by a distinct internal logic. In his music Kolovos attempts to erase the line between intent and impulse and to create sounds that are immediate and unrepeatable”.

He in fact progresses through hiccupping and fragmented stabs on the strings up to discordant walls of massive distortion where whistles and feedbacks fuel the creation of brief bursting drones and tides of feedbacks. He works unconventionally with reverb and delay, some of the notes pouring out of this stream sound more as early electronics samples than traditional fingering, remembering the tones of some vintage sci-fi movie. The fragments living in this work sound initially as schizoid dialogues between two voices. The first is prolific of dense shades of distortion, it is fractured by waves of delay, it is noisy but rational; it is the canvas waiting for the brush. The other one is stinging, shifty and unpredictable, it answers with howling high-pitched peaks plunging in the vortex where the first tries to swallow it. But you can’t really understand which one is chasing the other, which is attacking or how the other will defend its nature. They merge suddenly as they break up. You can’t relax, you can’t grow fond of a sound. Kolovos operates in the constant deconstruction of any musical meaning and coherent context. When you understand, he’s already gone ahead.

Black Colors is released as a triple vinyl housed in gorgeous heavy cardboard slipcase, each vinyl is then inserted in another slipcase with some interesting pictures based on the subjects of lights and darkness, specifically realized and coupling with the music. The vinyl is mastered at 45 RPM, and this means that if you have a decent record player and you’re so brave to close your eyes, maybe you will believe that Kolovos is there just behind you torturing his guitar. But I admit that if you’re not in the right mood, this image can be pretty scary.

Listen some excerpts (http://www.myspace.com/peterkolovos)
Buy from the label (http://www.thinwrist.com/TWI.htm)

Satanic Abandoned Rock’n’Roll Society: Bloody Imagination (Mikroton Recordings, 2012) ***

By Martin Schray

If Stanley Kubrick had known “Bloody Imagination” in 1968 he might have used it as a leitmotif for the appearances of the monolith in “2001 – A Space Odyssey”.  And if we follow one of Margaret Stackhouse’s interpretations according to its meaning it could stand for the “incomprehensible, -- man, with his limited senses, cannot comprehend the absence (perfect black) of color or light”.

“Bloody imagination” tries to transform this idea into music with this 52-minute sonic sculpture in which the four musicians (resonator guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama already produced this album in 2004, with Naoaki Miyamoto on mid-high frequency electric guitar, Utah Kawasaki on mid-low frequency analog synth, and Atsuhiro Ito on low frequency optron) put up layer after layer of extended frequencies with crass overtones and gloomy, penetrating sounds. It is an unsettling piece of work, pitch-black and mesmerizing, especially towards the end it is even hard to bear. The track starts with a deep buzzing which reminds you of a sputtering motor before high pitched whining, buzzing or hissing noise is added. There is something absolutely brutal in this strange beauty, in its bareness, in its naked sounds, like listening to a constant uproar in your guts and a tinnitus simultaneously. What makes it even more mysterious is the fact that there is no rhythm although there is a certain structure discernable.

But is this even a guitar album? Of course, since the day Keith Rowe has laid his guitar flat, decided to abandon traditional guitar techniques and prepared his instrument manipulating strings, pick-ups, toggle switches and volume/tone knobs turning it into a huge sound processor (according to the liner notes Akiyama uses a samurai sword with his guitar and I don’t want to know what he does with it). Or since SunnO))) have concentrated on pure atmosphere building up huge doom drones instead of using conventional forms.

This is definitely not for the faint of heart. But maybe for you, Paolo.

This short clips says more than my review:

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Guitar Week: Composed and Otherwise

The reviews today are, in a sense, opposites. Tusk by Sean Moran is a set of compositions of some forward thinking songs for a quintet. Birmingham, 02-15-11 by Han-Park-Earl is avant jazz trio with two European free jazz luminaries. These two New York based guitarists have different approaches to expressing their creative energy and their efforts are well with your listen.

By Paul Acquaro

Sean Moran Small Elephant Band -Tusk (NCM, 2013) ****

The sound of the nylon guitar is an important element on Tusk, guitarist and composer Sean Moran's upcoming release with his group, the Small Elephant Band. It's something in the roundness of tone of the guitars attack that lends a special subdued bite that contrasts colorfully with the other instruments.

'Elliptical', the albums first track, begins with the guitar solo but soon all of the melodic intsruments are bobbing, weaving, and chasing each other. The finely piercing sound of Michael McGinnis' clarinet and the percussive chime of Chris Dingman's vibraphone, makes for a pleasant pallete of sound supported by acoustic bassist Reuben Redding and drummer Harris Eisenstadt.

Things really take off on the next track, 'Circle One, Two', of which I imagine a Venn diagram of overlapping ovals of composition and free playing, and their intersection portion burns brightly. Other songs like 'Moon Reflected' uses McGinnis' clarinet to set an meditative atmosphere, over which Dingman and Moran lend exotic overtones and 'Ten Mirrors' builds intensely with Eisenstadt's drums a key element. Throughout the album, tight interplay and angular twists make the songs quite attractive.

This is a really nice collections of songs, featuring both compositions and playing of which their layers will continue to reveal surprise over repeated listenings.

The album's official release is April 1.

Paul Dunmall, Han-Earl Park, Mark Sanders - Birmingham, 02–15–11 (Bandcamp, 2013) ****

Birmingham, 02-15-11 begins with indistinct rumblings, scrapings and the chirps. Soon, Park's guitar is sliding and sputtering, delivering accents and tonal clusters neatly between Mark Sanders pulsating percussion and Paul Dunmall's intense and melodic saxophone work. The three musicians are nicely balanced, each instrument an integral voice in the improvisation. Dunmall is the main voice as the first track picks up, and when Park's guitar emerges as the driving force, he relies on creating biting textures and rhythmic figures intersecting with percussion.

Sanders and Dunmall are veterans of free jazz and have worked together many times in the past. Here, as usual, Sander's percussion work is invigorating, pushing the musicians and directing the energy. There are moments where he drops out, or holds back, that reveal how powerful of a presence he is. Dunmall seems to always have the most appropriately unexpected lines, whether the solo voice or providing comping. Park is a newer voice, and he holds his own with this virtuosic crowd. His approach on the electric guitar veers between clean and slightly overdriven tones, and has unique melodic approach, favoring fragments and tonal clusters, often filling in the spaces and painting with contrasting colors.

The three together deliver an expert lesson on group interplay and spontaneous compositions. Check it out/download this re-release from Park's website.



© stef

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Guitar Week: The Power Trio

Our guitar week enters it second day, this time checking out some recent 'power trio' efforts. There is something wonderfully elemental with the combination of the guitar, bass and drums delivering a pared back but typically power packed jazz/rock.

By Paul Acquaro

Nilsson/Fonda/Nilsson - Powers (Konnex, 2013) ****

Scandinavian guitarist, and current Brooklyn resident, Anders Nilsson has been creating some very interesting recording lately. Last year saw Kalabalik with fellow guitarist Raoul Bjorkenheim and drummer Gerald Cleaver, as well as the dark and brooding solo album, Night Guitar.

This latest, Powers, features a power trio, with Peter Nilsson on drums and Joe Fonda on the upright bass is an exciting exploration of tightly wound jazz rock. Throughout, Nilsson's guitar unravels in dark snaky lines and tight total clusters. Fonda's bass and Nilsson's drums sound excellent as well, dry and crisp and to the point.

The crunchy beginning to the first song 'Powers' sets the tone for the album. In the background you can hear vocalizations for one of the musicians, spelling out the syncopations and rhythms undergirding the tunes, revealing that this must be a live in the studio recording. The energy is palpable. When we get to Nilsson's guitar solo (or rather perhaps it's still the main melody?) the tone is biting, the lines are clean, and the energy is high.

The second song, 'Tri-Cep', is a more open affair musicians exploring pushing different directions, indicating that this is not a one trick trio.

Dylan Ryan's Sand - Sky Bleached (Cuneiform, 2013) ****

The bassist on drummer Dylan Ryan's album is no stranger to the power trio. Devin Hoff, upright bassist for Nels Cline Singers is a powerful player whose driving lines support this fantastic organism. Indeed, the whole group group works together quite naturally. For example, the second tune, 'Barocco' begins with a bright and strong polyrythym from drummer and band leader Dylan Ryan. Hoff slips in between the accents and beats, filling spaces between the complex and buoyant grooves.

If drummer Ryan is this cell's nucleus, the cytoplasm is Timothy Young, who's guitar contributes to the overall harmonic gel of the group. His playing is not the flashy kind, but more in the style of say Nels Cline or Ben Monder (I'm thinking of Monder's album Dust right now).  His work on a song like 'Psychic Jouney' is a study in texture and tension. Giving way from simple melody to a crushing chordal crescendo, it's a powerful song that eschews flash for substance. The follow up track 'Mayan Sun' is a brief sonic improv that is tough but accessible. 'Time Stalkers' has a sound and feel reminiscent of Bill Frisell's work with the Ginger Baker Trio.

The rather dark monstrous metal riffs that kick off 'White Magic' morph quickly into shards of dangling melodic lines. The rhythm section pounds out the surf beat until the opening bass lines of the closing 'White Nights' change the mood drastically.

Overall, a really exciting album and an introduction to a new group from which I hope to hear more.

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Guitar Week: Solo Guitar

Over the course of the week, the Free Jazz Blog is taking stock of some recent recordings featuring the guitar. We begin today with a focus on solo guitar; Tuesday, the delicious fire of the power trio; Wednesday some other configurations; Thursday it is experimental and noise; and Friday, a couple of guitarists who are pushing the boundaries of the instrument's role in free music.

By Paul Acquaro

Eric Hofbauer - American Grace (Creative Nation Music, 2013) ****

What is it about a solo guitar that is so alluring? So rife with possibilities? So able to convey ...  a lot of information, a lot of emotion, a lot of music with just six strings (Or 42 if you've got one of these things). Is it the direct contact with the string? The flesh of fingers plucking, struming, stroking the strings and plumbing the depths? The natural reverb of an acoustic? The electronic wizardry of the electric? For me, I can just a strike a string or two, listen to it vibrate and it sounds like a song. 

The solo guitar is its own puzzle. Whether you approach it like Julian Bream from a classical angle, Leo Kottke from a folk angle, Joe Pass simulating a jazz ensemble or Larry Coryell unravelling Ravel, the delicate balance of what is played and what is implied is fascinating. 

Guitarist Eric Hofbauer has created a masterful showcase with American Grace, a mix of folk, jazz, blues and rock styles. Or, perhaps best described as a deep exploration of American music. Unadorned and uninhibited, the acoustic guitar is recorded clearly, every hit or miss preserved in sonic crystal. Over the course of 19 tracks, he covers the early blues like 'West End Blues', rhythmic tone poems like 'Beat the Drum' and even lends a quasi-classical feel to a pop pieces 'True Colors'. 

The thoughtfulness he puts into songs, like the aforementioned arrangement of the Cindy Lauper piece is present throughout. Listen to the intervallic leaps on 'Mileage', it's pretty fascinating. Overall, a great listen, and for me, a new guitarist to check out. 

To be released on March 13th. 

Various - I Never Meta Guitar Too (solo guitars for the XXI Century) (Clean Feed, 2012) ****

If you're looking for a great starting place for understanding what a guitar is, then I've got just the album for you. Actually two. Clean Feed's 'I Never Meta Guitar' and now  'I Never Meta Guitar Too'  is an aptly titled clever play on words.

It's not an instructional CD/DVD, nor is it a text book, but it kind of is actually both those things. Imagine hearing everything a guitar is, in the hands of musicians who really have dedicated their careers to redefining where the instrument begins and ends...

... like Ava Mendoza whose fuzzed out shards of sound pile up over a solid little bass line loop on 'Mandible Moonwalk'. Or Ben Tyree who sonorous acoustic guitar moves sumptuously in an accessibly beautiful arc on 'The Gatekeeper'. And then there is Yasuhiro Usui gives us a head scratcher on 'Headland', moving between forays into noise, chaotic fretting, spacey textures and melodic snippets. 

Each piece is different, exploring and pushing the boundaries of the instrument. Joel Harrison creates a whole world of sound and acoustic textures on 'Loon,' while Zach Layton lays down an evocative and slowly expanding soundscape with his electric guitar and looping tools on 'Thus Gone,' creating a sonic temple of reverb. 

I Never Meta Guitar Too is a continuation of curator Elliot Sharp's work to bring both known and emerging artists work together. The pieces are all created by the artists and reflect a huge swath of what is possible with a single guitar (though not necessarily a single voice). 

© stef

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Weekend Roundup: Fractures, Fragments, Moments and More

By Paul Acquaro

As 2013 barrels along, the Free Jazz Blog is still hoping to sneak in some mentions of albums that came out over the past year that somehow slipped past. However, I will actually begin with a new release that is at once fresh, frightening and fascinating.

Matt Turner/Hal Rammel - Fractures and Phantoms (Penumbra Music, 2013) ***½

Matt Turner and Hal Rammel are on quite a unique path here. You've (probably) never heard a cello sound like Turner's, and Rammel is credited on the album with the intriguingly vague, but ultimately specific,  'amplified pallete'. Throughout, tones and notes the rise out of the sound but generally it's a frightening soundscape that is utterly compelling to get lost in.  Over the course of six tracks, alternatively titled Phantoms and Fractures, the duo creates a world of phantasmagorical sounds and situations. I had a hard time giving a star rating to this one, as there is little to compare it to, but it's utterly fascinating.

Oles Brothers - Fragments & Moments (Self released, 2012) ****½

How could we let this brilliant piece of go without mention earlier? The Oles brothers, bassist Marcin and drummer Bartłomiej Brat, have worked with some well known American improvisors such as Rob Brown and Ken Vandermark, and they also have cultivated an extensive discography with bass clarinetist Theo Jörgensmann. On this release they are also joined by vibraphonist Christopher Dell. Drum, bass, bass clarinet and vibes ... what is there not to love about that instrumentation?

The songs feature the strong melodic playing of Jörgensmann, the expert touch of the Oles' rhythms and the shimmering palette that Dell brings. From the upbeat opening compostion, "Ornettation" to the more spacious exploring "Deep Down" and the freely improvised series of "Moment I, II and III", the interplay is excellent and the energy contagious.

David Liebman & Ellery Eskelin: Non Sequiturs (Hatology, 2012) ****

Saxophonist Dave Liebman seems to be on a bit of Albert Ayler kick lately. On his excellent recent release Surreality, he recorded a version of "Omega is the Alpha" and "Ghosts" and on this release with saxophonist Eskelin, bassist Tony Marino and drummer Jm Black, Liebman re-covers "Ghosts". Pretty much a free jazz classic at this point, the version with Eskelin, Black and Marino starts fascinatingly with the drums and bass in a free form rumble, soon to be joined by the raucous double tandem of saxophones. There is a joy to the raw sound of the two woodwinds. Several of the tunes on the album are also credited to Eskelin, who has developed a rhythmic compositional style that leaves, as Liebman writes, "the pitch choice up to the improviser in the moment…a formula that ensures the music will be different every time." Overall, another a great album. (Check out Surreality too for some of Marc Ribot's guitar in the mix)

Trio M- The Guest House (Cryptogramophone, 2012) ****

The Guest House is this piano trio second outing, The first one received a short but rave review here. I have not yet gone back yet to listen to the older release, but Trio M's latest is my kind of piano trio - rhythmically strong, angularly melodic and generally feisty. The first song begins with a quick sort of elliptical melody over a loping rhythm. Soon, the piano drops out for a bass solo, then the group works slowly back into their three way conversation. The group locks together tightly, you get the sense that they really listen to each other and never play more than what is needed. Trio M is Myra Melford on piano, Mark Dresser on bass and Matt Wilson on percussion. They really work well together and I find the economy, punch, and melodicism quite attractive.

Sam Rivers - Reunion: Live in New York (Pi Recordings, 2012) *****

The historical circumstance of this album is worth reading up on - a rich connection to the fabled NYC loft free jazz scene of the 1970s, three free jazz giants, Rivers' passing last year - just so much context to this fantastic concert recording from 2007 at Columbia Universities Miller Theater. Take a moment to read up on it here.

Now, about how utterly captivating this two disc recording is. The sound is good and the is energy high, Rivers' sax just jumps out of the stereo (or ear buds) at you. His tone is gritty, strong and full, and he is prone to some well done overblowing, while always remaining grounded in solid rhythm and melodic ideas. Dave Holland's bass is incendiary at points, like his solo at the start of the track 'part 3' on Disc 1. Drummer Barry Altschul delivers an outstanding performance. He propels, colors and also brings a great deal of tension to the mix, check out 'part 3, disc 2' for a great solo free intro.

The spirit of the recording is infectious. Rivers, switching between sax, piano and flute plays with an undeniable amount of energy. Pulling from all genres and styles, the recording is ever changing, an endless variety of musical ideas growing organically and freely. Melody and freedom abound, and the whole damn thing grooves. Reunion In New York is a lovingly captured performance that can never happen again. It should be required listening.


© stef

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Spill - Fluoresce (Monotype Records, 2012) ****

By Philip Coombs

I was fortunate enough to see Spill a little while ago which allowed me a chance to see how this duo would create in front of an audience. These are the musical decisions that you can either live well by or die by, all in real time.

In this case, Magda Mayas (piano) had her back completely turned to drummer Tony Buck. He was facing the audience and she looked like she was performing to a dark corner of the tiny club. Armed with wires, bells, children's toys, back massagers and a whole host of other multi purposed everyday items and prepared piano materials, Spill amazed the small crowd with their percussive lyricism and intuitive conversation.

On the way out, with album in hand, I has a brief conversation with Mr. Buck about the overdubbing approach on their latest recording Fluoresce as the record credits piano, Tiger Organ, clavinet, objects, and preparations to Mayas and drums, cymbals, gong bells, tabla, and percussion to Buck. The question that was begging to be answered was just how different these two approaches would be.

"Steel Tide" opens the recording, the first of four lengthy extended improvisations. Mayas sets out to be just as percussive as Buck as she taps the wood of the piano. Buck begins with bells in what is the first rain drops of the eventual waterfall of percussive effects that just keep building as the track progresses. Mayas soon gets to what she does best, coaxing unexpected sounds from her prepared piano. She explores her sound utopia as well as even playing the occasional untampered key, which does sound odd after awhile.

There is something very addictive to what they are doing. They create a need for more and   skillfully, they deliver. This is what makes the recording so appealing and so different from the live experience. With the introduction of overdubs, the limitations of the musicians limbs are no longer there, and the soundscape becomes endless. It is an excavation of sound where Buck digs deep into his bag of tricks to be every bit as polyphonic as Mayas who in turn is walking through her own sound forest carrying a very large hatchet.

The longest piece on Fluoresce is 'Coalesce', and even thought it is 24 minutes long, it feels much shorter than that. It ranges everywhere between someone breathing down your neck and fighting woodpeckers combined with an ever present grinding that is a warning that if you get too close, you could lose your fingers. Compelling indeed.

If anything, Fluoresce is a wonderful exploration in molding an improvisation in a studio setting. Once the first coat of paint is on the canvas, you can either paint over it or keep adding to it. The trick is sometimes knowing when to stop, as this duo is clearly aware.

Can be purchased from the label.

From the afternoon set in Singapore in a different venue:



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