HurdAudio Rotation: Festliches Praludium

Torturing Nurse & Vertonen: Torturing Nurse/Vertonen. 2012. Rococo: 6784937576-8.

Torturing Nurse: "txnxtxnxt"
Junky Cao: voice, noise
Youki: turntable, guitar

Vertonen: "Allegiance Variance"
Blake Edwards: devices

Even with an aesthetic bent toward sonic extremes and a willingness to plunge into saturated textures, noise music is actually about restraint and a deliberate sense of how one manages sonic density over time.  With this split release from Shanghai's Torturing Nurse and Chicago's Vertonen the ears are presented with two different takes on restraint versus saturation as a means of shaping form.

"txnxtxnxt" is a crafted sonic canvas that systematically adds new sonic sources and ideas with a deliberate effort to avoid thick layering of materials.  Leaving an interaction between two performers that is startling in its ability to allow new materials to bubble up into the foreground.  The constant sense that the textures of "txnxtxnxt" could come unhinged at any moment and give into the waves of harsh noise constantly hinted at around the edges adds a delicious tension to the piece as a whole.

"Allegiance Variance" takes more of an installation object approach to noise.  Short movements strung together, each offering up a sound logic that is set in motion and allowed to run itself out.  It becomes a measured study of noise materials and the nature of drones and mechanical devices artfully mixed and realized.  This is mechanics with a pulse and a sense of shading and perspective.

Kronos Quartet: Nuevo. 2002. Nonesuch: 79649-2.

David Harrington: violin
John Sherba: violin
Hank Dutt: viola
Jennifer Culp: cello

with:
Luanne Warner: marimba
Alejandro Flores: vocals
Efren Vargas: vocals
Carlos Garcia: musical leaf
Tambuco Percussion Ensemble - Ricardo Gallardo, Alfredo Bringas, Claudia Oliveira, Raul Tudon
Rominko Patixtan Patixtan: harp
Pegro Lunes Tak'il Bek'et: guitar
Carmen Gomez Oso: vocals
Xun Perez Hol Cotom: vocals
Rominko Mendez Xik: vocals
Luis Conte: percussion
Anonymous: organillo
Gustavo Santaolalla: toys, percussion
Ariel Guzik: plasmaht
Cafe Tacuba -
Ritacantalgua: electric guitar
Emmanuel: programming, keyboards, jarana
Quiqui: jarana, concha, programming
Joselo: electric guitar
Alejandro Flores: violin, requinto

El Sinaloense by Severiano Briseno (arr. Osvaldo Golijov)
Se Me Hizo Facil by Agustin Lara (arr. Osvaldo Golijov)
Mini Skirt by Juan Garcia Esquivel (arr. Osvaldo Golijov)
El Llorar - traditional arranged by Osvaldo Golijov
Perfidia by Alberto Dominguez (arr. by Stephen Prutsman)
Sensemaya by Silvestre Revueltas (arr. by Stephen Prutsman)
K'in Sventa Ch'ul Me'tik Kwadulupe by Osvaldo Golijov
Tabu by Margarita Lecuona (arr. by Osvaldo Golijov)
Cuatro Milpas by Belisario Garcia de Jesus and Jose Elizondo (arr. by Stephen Prutsman)
Chavosuite by Ricardo Gallardo
Plasmaht by Ariel Guzik (arr. by Kronos Quartet)
Nacho Verduzco by Chalino Sanchez (arr. by Osvaldo Golijov)
12/12 by Cafe Tacuba (Ruben Albarran, Emmanuel del Real, Enrique Rangel, Jose Alfredo Rangel) (arr. by Osvaldo Golijov)
El Sinaloense (Dance Mix) by Plankton Man

At some point, Kronos Quartet releases became concept albums.  Which follows a certain logic as the string quartet that pioneered its identity as a chamber ensemble dedicated to contemporary works it soon broke that particular "niche" wide open.  And at some point Kronos Quartet releases broke loose from the confines of "string quartet" music in the formal sense and exploded into an expressive playlist that happens to involve the members of the quartet.  Here the sonic journey is unified by an exploration of the cultural vibrations of Mexico.  At times augmented by percussionists, voice and pre-rendered electronics, this is a rich sampling of the musical contours of Mexican culture.  And much to Kronos' credit, it is a vibrant mix of traditions both established and in flux.  But more than a sampler, this is a journey and a concept album that follows its own arc.  The vocals on El Llorar are astounding.  And the true gem of this collection is the riveting Silvestre Revueltas Sensemaya in the middle of the set.  The Cafe Tacuba collaboration loses me to a certain extent as a sequence of ideas of variable quality that don't always hang together for my ears.  The exuberant Plankton Man mix at the end ties everything back together to conclude the experience.  The focus on arrangements of music from various portions of Mexico's high and low-brow cultures almost leaves me wishing for string quartet compositions by Mexican composers.  But the sonic integrity of this experience snuffs out that fleeting criticism.  If anything, it's the brevity of these fleeting experiences that leave the ears breathless from so much breadth of experience without the satisfaction of depth.  Many of these pieces could stand to go longer at the risk of puncturing the pacing of the overall concept album.  But that is perhaps the takeaway of Nuevo.  As it serves as kindling for the curious to dig deeper into this realm.

Richard Strauss: Tone Poems. 1957. Deutsche Grammophon: 463-190-2.

Staatskapelle Dresden
Berliner Philharmoniker
Karl Bohm: conductor

Eine Alpensinfonie, op. 64
Don Juan, op. 20
Der Rosenkavalier: Waltzes from Act III
Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30
Festival Prelude, op. 61
Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, op. 28
Salome: Dance of the Seven Veils
Ein Heldenleben, op. 40
Tod und Verklarung, op. 24

The music of the Romantic Era - particularly the late Romantic Era - leaves these ears cold with its excesses.  Music that emotes (and emotes, and emotes) through long-winded chromaticism and a tonal language that sounds dated feels about as remote as music can get.  Richard Strauss is often the exception, with traces of modernism creeping into his sound and helping to usher in the much more agreeable modern era.  Yet his tone poems possess very little that can be regarded as anything other than squarely Romantic.  And yet it simply blows this listener away.  This is not a sentimental attachment to this music (it was never part of my formative experience).  This is an appreciation of raw orchestration.  And an admiration of Strauss's ability to write music that was about something.  There's no abstraction here.  Eine Alpensinfonie is about the majestic Alps complete with stormy weather and breath taking altitude.  The Festliches Praludium strikes an irresistible majesty with its combination of pipe organ and orchestra.  Also sprach Zarathustra is a genuinely great orchestral work.  These Karl Bohm versions are a true indulgence and a reminder that not all Late Romantic works were over-indulgent.  Some hit the high marks that they aimed for.

HurdAudio Rotation: 500 Echoes

Terry Riley: The Book of Abbeyozzud. 1999. New Albion Records: NA 106 CD.

Terry Riley: composer
David Tanenbaum: guitar
William Winant: percussion
Tracy Silverman: violin
Gyan Riley: guitar

The amazing thing isn't that each Terry Riley record is its own, unique oddity as much as the unpredictable way each one has its own quirks.  Here we have the music of Terry Riley in the hands of extremely capable classical guitarists who play from deep inside this music.  Not to mention a resonating reason to mourn the passing of the New Albion label and its track record for documenting such incredible corridors of American composed music.  It's arrangements such as these that make the argument for re-evaluating Terry Riley's music for generations to come.  It endures.  And this disc is aging rather agreeably.

Ava Mendoza: Shadow Stories. 2010. Resipiscent: RSPT037.

Ava Mendoza: guitar

A couple of things jump out when listening to Ava Mendoza's excellent Shadow Stories.  First there is this wonderfully elastic sense of time that stretches melodic materials across ever-shifting sonic surfaces (often with the help of some creative processing) that knows when to shatter a groove or when to snap into an unerring sense of swing.  The second is the remarkably fresh set of ears being brought to bear on this wonderful re-invention of the blues.  The intimacy of the performer and her sound is ever present even as she carves out expansive territories of raw sonic material.  The range of flights through relatively contained, composed materials and free improvisation gives this music its lungs and breath.  This is clearly an opening salvo from a significant talent.

Charity Chan: Somewhere the Sea and Salt. 2009. Actuelle: AM 188.

Charity Chan: extended piano, objects

Though transformed, the timbre of piano is never obscured in these explorations of the physical qualities of coiled strings, felt hammers and keyboard.  The acoustic presence of the instrument's body takes on a luminous role as the timbre field expands to reveal the sonic expanse of its interior explorations.  The "objects" skillfully draw out further resonant qualities of the instrument they are applied to.  Also contributing to the longer expression contained within Somewhere the sea and salt is the balance of improvisation informed by the history of innovation in solo, composed piano music.  The strummed strings of "J'ai manque son depart" reminding these ears of Henry Cowell's "Aeolian Harp" as a whisper of inspiration.  Yet this is music that breathes.  The vibrations of strings through striking and frictions is never far from the pulse and heartbeat of this music's energetic performer and composer.  Each gesture is carved out and carefully exposed without a hint of indulgence.  Indulgence is left to the listener.

HurdAudio Rotation: Lean, Loud and Lovely

Ursel Schlicht / Reuben Radding: Einstein's Dreams. 2005. Konnex: KCD 5165.

Ursel Schlicht: piano
Reuben Radding: double bass

Einstein's Dreams manages to paint a blurring line that dissolves the supposed divide between non-idiomatic free improvisation and jazz.  Providing an artful argument for the common roles that listening plays in improvised music of all persuasions.  Here it is the intimate dialog between piano and double bass shared between improvisers who instinctively know how to develop the tension and overlapping timbres of their respective instruments.  The sonic worlds explored within the piano pulling the sound of piano strings closer to the territory of extended techniques that Reuben Radding employs on the bass.  This duo then also takes flights that allow their independent sounds to flourish, feeding upon the energy of their conversant musicality.  The reverberations of jazz and European music that informs this dialog is readily felt as an animating force behind this music as Ursel Schlicht provides glimpses of harmonic changes that Reuben Radding seamlessly adapts to.  Giving this music a strong sense of hearing the spontaneity through these particular sets of ears.

Briggan Krauss: Descending to End. 1999. Knitting Factory Records: KFW-251.

Briggan Krauss: reeds, guitar, electronics

Descending to End plunges into a corner of temporal reality completely its own.  A place that balances the desolate with the wonder of having so many elements in constant flux.  The humanity of this sound stemming from the creative restlessness of Briggan Krauss's sensibilities.  This is a relentlessly challenging and musical experience that brings a much needed improviser's take on musique concrete.  The poetry of the pieces title offering an unusually descriptive insight into the forces at play in the sonic soup; "Last Gasp Extraction Of The World," "Lean Loud & Lovely," "Encumbrance Essence" and so on.  The timbral essence of saxophones and guitars blurred and processed into a blurred version of its sonic content.  These are stark landscapes done in sound and there aren't nearly enough of them on this collection.

Elliott Sharp & The Soldier String Quartet: Cryptid Fragments. 1993. Extreme: XCD: 020.

Elliott Sharp: computer processing, Thunder, sampler
Margaret Parkins: cello
Sara Parkins: violin
Michelle Kinney: cello
The Soldier String Quartet -
Laura Seaton: violin
David Soldier: violin
Ron Lawrence: viola
Mary Wooten: cello

Cryptid Fragments is a long-standing staple of HurdAudio aural consumption.  So many of the contours of this recording have entered into a rare familiarity as the initial shock of the jagged timbral edges have aged to reveal a solid collection of string-based chamber works featuring electronic manipulation or electronic accompaniment.  The four movement "Cryptid Fragments" is a study of digitally processed violin and cello samples.  The finite set of polished gestures providing a sense of unified structure that provides a compositional framework for the sequence of moments that pass by.  Following the delicately abrasive textures of this computer manipulated experience are three works for string quartet plus electronics: "Shapeshifters," "Twistmap" and "Umbra."  Each fashioned within the ir/rational aesthetic developed by Elliott Sharp.  A sound that is identifiable through its consistency and a sound that has become a point of fixation for a long time with these ears.  The contrast of relatively "unstable" textures set against a clearly structured form gives this music something worth coming back for.

HurdAudio Rotation: Even Birds Have Homes (To Return To)

Dave Douglas Quintet: Live at the Bimhuis: October 24, 2002. 2003. Greenleaf Music: GRE-P-011/012

Dave Douglas: trumpet
Rick Margitza: tenor saxophone
Uri Caine: fender rhodes
James Genus: bass
Clarence Penn: drums

It is just a few days past the ten year anniversary of this live recording and it still sounds like lightning captured in a bottle.  This particular vintage of the Dave Douglas Quintet (which has evolved into other amazing things since) is a body of music that inspires enormous enthusiasm with each listening.  And these "paperback series" collections offer incredible insight into the live manifestation of this fusing together of absurdly intelligent musicians.  Only on these live sets can one hear the sprawling, 20+ minute versions of "Penelope" and "Deluge."  It also gives the ears a chance to hear the brilliant segues between "Unison" by Bjork, "Ramshackle" by Beck and "Deluge."  The slide into each piece, often with elements of the previous and next overlapping, is fantastic.  The quotations of other great jazz tunes and sudden appearance of other forms within forms makes for rewarding listening for the alert ears.  I especially enjoyed the emergence of "Giant Steps" for a brief moment in the middle of "Deluge."  And the quick, thoughtfully realized interpretation of Douglas' thorny "Caterwaul" was a particularly engaging moment.  This is one of the great quintets operating at the top of their game and these Dave Douglas compositions are pieces to be savored and reckoned with.

Trio M: The Guest House. 2011. Enja: yeb-7721-2.

Myra Melford: piano
Mark Dresser: bass
Matt Wilson: drums

One of the unique things about Trio M is the role and stature of collaboration in realizing this music.  Each individual in this trio brings such a strong personality and presence that the sense of "shared leadership" takes on a tangible quality rarely found in piano trio projects.  One could easily regard this as a piano/bass/drums trio given the pedigree behind the collaborators involved.  Which is not to say that this music takes on a static quality.  Leaders emerge as the individual composers behind each piece and part of the fun of listening to The Guest House is hearing the clear personality that emerges as the composer for a given piece.  Even so, these players climb deep inside the music regardless of the penmanship behind the sounds.

In the linear notes, Myra Melford describes the composition of this music as a collaboration with chef Paul Canales.  Alluding to the creative impulse that is shared between concocting music and food.  Which is a fair analogy given the spice and flavor that wafts through so much of this set.  The biggest treat of all turns out to be the dessert course of Mark Dresser's "Ekoneni" realized by this ensemble.  With plenty of clarity in the unique amplification of Dresser's bass and the spirited performance that explodes as the full ensemble joins together into an infectious groove.

The Guest House is a solid jazz album first and foremost and the presence of such distinct players in rare form is hardly subtle.  Each brings a deep, mature voice and a strong sense of their own musical identity into this mix and the combination that forms is astonishing.  The mix of serious thematic materials and levity makes for a recording of rare scope that combines immediacy with lasting appeal.  Highly recommended.

The Peter Brötzmann Trio: For Adolphe Sax. 1967. FMP: UMS/ALP230CD.

Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
Peter Kowald: drums
Sven-ake Johansson: drums
plus:
Fred van Hove: piano

When confronted with the music of Peter Brötzmann for the first time (and "confrontation" is certainly a word that travels well with his sound) I was immediately in the thrall of its visceral, uncompromising quality and needed to know where this sound came from.  For Adolphe Sax is Brötzmann's first record.  And it appears that this sound arrived fully formed.  This is a trio of improvisers leaving angry splashes of color along a grand canvas.  And it's the spontaneity of their brash strokes of color that allows for unexpected details to emerge between the layers of dense materials.  Brötzmann's music comes with a surprising range of contrast and it's often the canyons just between his blistering sheets of sound that are the most attractive moments of his performance.  On For Adolphe Sax it's the quiet moments where Peter Kowald's bass comes through that are incredible.  Kowald and Johansson were a rhythm section capable of holding their own within this music and bringing plenty of creative energy to match.  This one is a forceful argument for why the European improvisation scene became a phenomenon that continues to influence players internationally.

Hearing Voices

Continuum: Finding Voice
October 12, 2012
The Music Gallery
Toronto, Ontario

Christopher Butterfield: Music for Klein and Beuys (1987)
Anne Thompson: bass recorder
Carol Lynn Fujino: violin
Paul Rogers: bass
Laurent Philippe: melodica
Rob MacDonald: banjitar
Sanya Eng: harp
Ryan Scott: percussion

Nikolai Korndorf: Cazone Triste (1999)
Sanya Eng: harp

Linda C. Smith: Brush Line (2004)
Anne Thompson: flute
Max Christie: clarinet
Carol Lynn Fujino: violin
Paul Widner: cello
Laurent Philippe: piano
Ryan Scott: percussion
Marion Newman: mezzo-soprano
Brian Current: conductor

Martijn Voorvelt: Frederick's Doctor (2012)
Christopher Mayell: tenor
Anne Thompson: flute
Max Christie: clarinet
Carol Lynn Fujino: violin
Paul Widner: cello
Rob MacDonald: guitar
Sanya Eng: synthesizer

Martijn Voorvelt: Petit Air II / Fredrich's Tagebuch (1998)
Marion Newman: mezzo-soprano
Anne Thompson: flute
Rob MacDonald: guitar
Adrian Gross: mandolin
Sanya Eng: harp

The Continuum Contemporary Music ensemble started off their 2012 season with a strong voice.  Or at least a collection of strong voices that balanced out a program of music carving out a wide path of expressive territory.  Each piece was exquisitely well rehearsed and presented in a manner that allowed the ears to hear all the way inside the music.  Even as the subject material would switch from haunting beauty to complete madness.

The second half of the concert consisted of the Martijn Voorvelt pieces, presented as a continuous work of musical theater.  Continuum had spent the last week working directly with the composer to realize the drama Frederick's Doctor and their dedication to the macabre absurdity made for a flawless production of material that was often challenging and brittle.  The setting of Doctor Morell Mackenzie's often graphic accounts of the botched diagnosis and surgery upon German emperor Frederick III's laryngeal cancer were occasionally a bit hard to take. Especially given Christopher Mayell's incredible dead-pan delivery.  The sense of madness in his text could nearly be tasted in the back of my throat.  As this gave way to Marion Newman's performance of a voice robbed of its ability to communicate, the balance of humor and despair was simply delicious.  Having the flute player and mezzo-soprano delivering text in rhythmic unison was a particularly striking sonic effect.  Especially as the performance transitioned to the vocalist lip-syncing to Anne Thompson whispering through her instrument.  It was a brilliant set of pieces that won over my normal aversion to theatrics.

To my ears, the most stunning work on the program was Linda C. Smith's Brush Line.  An achingly beautiful work built out of luminous, horizontal strokes of warm sounds along a cold landscape of silence.  The constant reference to colors in the text added to the sense of sound painting with their vibrato-less delivery.

Cazone Triste is a virtuosic solo harp piece that gently gives way to song.  Sanya Eng's voice eventually shifting into the foreground as she plays to reveal a beautiful sound.  The simplicity of her voice balanced well against the confidence of her playing.

The opening work, Music for Klein and Beuys by Christopher Butterfield, set the whimsical-yet-serious tone that anticipated the Martijn Voorvelt experience of the second half.  The combination of bass recorder, melodica and banjitar with a percussion part the often consisted of tearing and wadding up newsprint never took on a sense of gimmick as the musical textures proved to be substantive.  Written as a memorial to Yves Klein and Josef Beuys, it is a wonderfully unpretentious and warm piece of art music.

Overall, there aren't enough superlatives to lavish upon an evening such as this.  An inspired sequence of great pieces of music performed well.  Continuum has set high expectations for the season that follows this concert.

HurdAudio Rotation: The Long View

Annie Gosfield: Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery. 2001. Tzadik: TZ 7069.

EWA7 (1999)

Annie Gosfield: sampling keyboard
Roger Kleier: electric guitar
Ikue Mori: electronics
Jim Pugliese: drums, percussion
Sim Cain: drums, percussion
Hans-Gunter Brodmann: metal factory percussion
Matthias Rosenbauer: metal factory percussion

Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery (2000)

Flux Quartet
Tom Chiu: violin
Cornelius Dufallo: violin
Kenji Bunch: viola
Darrett: Adkins: cello

Talujon Percussion Quartet
Michael Lipsey: percussion
Dominic Donato: percussion
Tom Kolor: percussion
Jim Pugliese: percussion

Annie Gosfield has a stylistic sensibility that cannot be described without sounding like less than the stunning results she achieves through her music.  As a composer who collects samples to build a big part of her sonic pallet (performing many of these samples herself as part of the ensemble) she is hardly treading into revolutionary territory.  Yet the musicality of her pieces is astonishing and way ahead of so many who have worked with similar materials.  Her craft is the kind of music that these ears have craved.  Realizing the potential rarely found by so many armed with samplers and an idea for integrating real world sounds into music.  Her pieces are music first, never outstripped by their concept, execution and intention.

Both of the pieces on this disc focus on the sonic matter of factory sounds.  Steering clear of the theme of "dehumanization" of factory work and machinery, it instead brings a wide open ear to the beauty inherent in the sonic materials of industrial scale mechanics.  Sounds that reveal a deeper humanity within sonic materials revealed by percussionists and recordists alike.  EWA 7 builds upon a shifting symbiotic relationship between sampled materials and live players with an all-encompassing sense of groove and texture.  All of which makes excellent use of the materials and the players at hand in its realization.  Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery then takes this same textural and inspirational content and applies it to composed music.  Peeling away a layer of abstraction just below the sampled textures found in EWA 7.  Taken together, these two pieces form two halves a singular sonic vision and a startling sense of what is possible when wide open ears and blistering intelligence are brought to bear upon the tools of sampling technology and compositional prowess.  Highly recommended.

Fantastic Merlins: Look Around. 2007. Innova: 670.

Nathan Hanson: tenor saxophone, electronics
Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan: cello, electronics
Brian Roessler: bass
Federico Ughi: drums

The music of the Fantastic Merlins is informed by many influences and sources.  My ears can hear the gentle tug of fellow Minnesota resident George Cartwright's angular compositions and early Curlew sounds.  Much of this is reinforced by the cello and saxophone arrangements.  But there are also passing references to a full body of jazz history and grounded feeling for a world of musics.  The slower tempo tracks finding expressive force through long phrases that exhale through harmonic terrain.  Faster tempos touching briefly upon ostinato patterns and groove before dissolving into a sophisticated sense of texture.  One can even hear the bitter cold winters of Minneapolis and the undercurrents found in the music of The Bad Plus.  Not every shifting passage leaves a lasting impression, but it does leave an itch to hear Look Around again.  

Marty Ehrlich: The Long View. 2002. Enja: 9452-2.

Marty Ehrlich: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, bass clarinet
Sam Furnace: alto saxophone, flute
Ned Rothenberg: alto saxophone, bass clarinet
Robert Debellis: tenor saxophone, clarinet
JD Parran: tenor saxophone, contrabass clarinet
Andy Laster: baritone saxophone, clarinet
Eddie Allen: trumpet
James Zollar: trumpet
John Clark: french horn
Clark Gayton: trombone
Marcus Rojas: tuba
Mark Dresser: bass
Michael Sarin: drums
Mark Helias: conductor, bass
Mark Feldman: violin
Ralph Farris: viola
Erik Friedlander: cello
Eddie Bobe: bongos, cowbell
Bobby Previte: drums, bass drum, tambourine
Wayne Horvitz: piano
Ray Anderson: trombone
Pheeroan AkLaff: drums

This disc was a "must have" just on the strength of the personnel included in these sessions.  The fact that this is a multi-movement work for shifting ensembles composed by Marty Ehrlich and realized by this all-star ensemble makes this one a long-running favorite in the rotation.  The fourth movement in particular is pure bliss with its Wayne Horvitz introduction leading into a brilliant quartet performance from Ehrlich, Horvitz, Dresser and Previte.  The rockin' Marcus Rojas tuba introduction for the fifth movement is another highlight. As is the Eddie Allen trumpet solo in the first and the soprano saxophone plus strings, drums and percussion second movement.  It's a "must hear."  Long form jazz compositions rarely get such aggressively solid realizations as this and the musical material gives these players plenty to dig into.

HurdAudio Rotation: To Say Your Name

Ornette Coleman: Beauty is a Rare Thing [disc 2]. 1993. Atlantic Recording Corp: 1-56826-275-2.

Ornette Coleman: alto saxophone
Don Cherry: pocket trumpet
Charlie Haden: bass
Billy Higgins: drums
Ed Blackwell: drums

One of the main things this box set gets right is the music.  The electricity between these players still leaps out from the speakers through the decades providing more than enough substance to inspire the free improviser.  Beyond the obvious chemistry is the incredible balance between individuals of remarkably equal force.  Disc 2 opens with "The Face of the Bass" with its intoxicating exposure of Charlie Haden's brilliant bass work.  Followed up by moments of awe for Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman.  Billy Higgins remains a harmolodic obsession, hearing how he carves through the same loose grooves traveled by his musical conspirators.

As an additional dimension to this music (that continues to be "The Shape of Jazz to Come") are these Ornette Coleman heads.  Compositions that have grown into familiar entities that have inspired other versions performed by various players in my personal collection.  "Ramblin'" has taken on a life of its own and the reason for that is abundantly clear on this take.  "I Heard It Over The Radio," a track previously unreleased before this complete Atlantic Recordings collection, has been given an inspired interpretation by Paul Plimley.  And so many other tunes that have become companions in my head (I often hear "Kaleidoscope" or "The Tribes of New York" in my head while commuting to the day job).  Beauty is no rare thing on any disc from this set, and today's disc is a jolt from a deeply creative period from one of Jazz's greats.

Thomas Chapin: Alive [disc 1] - Third Force. 1999. Knitting Factory Records: 35828 02482 2.

Thomas Chapin: saxophones
Mario Pavone: bass
Steve Johns: drums

The spark that catches and sets a sound aflame through Thomas Chapin's preferred medium of the trio is clearly audible on this set.  The kinetic energy realized by a saxophonist with a deep grasp of jazz roots applying his trade to a deft balance of groove, jam and melodic inventiveness.  The explosive quality of these live takes of pieces that would come to define the fleeting Knitting Factory scene of the 1990s.  And not lost on these ears is the forceful quality of his flute playing.  This cat could jam hard, rock out and still navigate his way through linear, melodic development.  Being a multi-instrumentalist with this much talent is almost showing off.

Sadly, Chapin falls on the unfortunate list of jazzmen lost far too soon, leaving behind the agonizing questions about how much the course of improvised music would have been altered had his career followed along the trajectory left behind on recording such as these.  There is also the real celebration of the vibrations captured for posterity.  This is a music that retains so much of its edge and pieces like "Ahab's Leg" or "Iddly" are hard to forget when they've been experienced like this.  Alive is a significant documentation of something significant that the ears seek to hold on to.

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet: One Dance Alone. 2008. Songlines: SA1571-2.

Wayne Horvitz: piano
Peggy Lee: cello
Ron Miles: cornet
Sara Schoenbeck: bassoon

This one is the second of two releases featuring the understated, detail-rich chamber jazz compositions of Wayne Horvitz.  The brush strokes of these restrained gems colored both by the instrumentation and the improvisation-friendly personalities brought into this project.  Making Gravitas Quartet one of the rare blends of jazz and classical traditions that soars without giving short shift to either side of the equation.  One Dance Alone is held together by interspersing the three movements of "July" (in reverse order) between contrasting compositions.  "July" being a deliciously abstract study in sparse textures that reveal the layer of Horvtiz pathos that exists at the core of his compositional output.  The remaining tracks feature a waltz, a focus on melodic material and brilliant textures (particularly for Ron Miles to play over) that make a strong case for Wayne Horvitz's ability to realize compact, song-like forms by getting all the individual elements of his ideas polished to a pristine shine.