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.

HurdAudio Rotation: Big Picture, Quiet Spaces

Myra Melford/Mark Dresser/Matt Wilson (Trio M): Big Picture. 2007. Cryptogramophone: CG 134.

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

The glow that still resonated in the air after hearing Trio M perform live for the first time runs through this recorded set. That feeling of needing to have this disc after hearing that show one month before its release has not dulled with time spent drinking in the sounds preserved here. A rare meeting of creative equals forming something startling above and beyond the sum of its considerable parts. The layering of individual compositional contributions within the generosity and musicianship makes for an experience that will re-arrange the actively listening mind and raise expectations for what is possible within a trio collaboration. A great disc that is truly a joy to hear.

Petra Haden/Bill Frisell: Petra Haden and Bill Frisell. 2003. Songline/Tonefield: TND 312.

Petra Haden: vocals, violin
Bill Frisell: electric guitars, acoustic guitars, loops

Chills, meet spine. Spine, meet chills. This is what happens when Petra Haden and Bill Frisell interpret Frisell's "Throughout" with plenty of layers of multi-tracked harmonies in the service of this deceptively simple piece. Beyond this concluding track this is a collection of songs that levels the same respect towards Gershwin and the Foo Fighters. Petra Haden's harmonic sensibility appears to effortlessly escape the intonation issues that plague vocalists as if they never existed. Multi-tracked layers of her voice producing something almost too sublime. Not unlike the effect of multi-tracked Frisell guitars. A truly great collaboration full of warmth and reward.

Morton Feldman: Works for Piano. 1990. Hat Hut Records: hat ART CD 6035.

Marianne Schroeder: piano

Intermission 5 (1952)
Piano Piece to Philip Guston (1963)
Vertical Thoughts 4 (1963)
Piano (1977)
Palais De Mari for Francesco Clemente (1986)

To my ears these are definitive interpretations of this delicately quiet, fragile music of exquisite beauty that unfolds like crystals against the shaping forces of silences. Morton Feldman created vast sonic landscapes using very few notes along a large canvas of time. A well placed pair of notes at contrasting registral extremes on the piano setting just the right ripples of vibration along a tranquil pond.

HurdAudio Rotation: Time Changes and Then Some

Mark Dresser/Denman Maroney: Time Changes. 2005. Cryptogramophone: CG 124.

Mark Dresser: bass
Denman Maroney: hyperpiano
Michael Sarin: drums, percussion
Alexandra Montano: voice

Massive helpings of polyrhythms as various lines of 2-against-3-against-4-against-5-etc. move in and out of phase with one another as the ensemble moves through fields of metric modulation and other systemic "time changes." Yet this music never buries the players under the formal tricks and hyper-inventive design of these charts. The hyperpiano - really an improvised form of preparing the instrument in real time and using plenty of inside the instrument techniques - is afforded plenty of room for subtle shifts without falling into a novelty of extended techniques. And the music maintains a fierce swing and fidelity to jazz traditions. Making all the uncompromising formal machinations even more impressive. This one continues to be a strong favorite in the rotation.

Andrew Drury: A Momentary Lapse. 2003. Innova: 581.

Andrew Drury: composer, drum set
Eyvind Kang: violin
Briggan Krauss: alto saxophone, clarbone
Chris Speed: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Myra Melford: piano
Mark Dresser: bass

Another long standing favorite in the rotation. It's hardly a coincidence that it features Mark Dresser on bass as well. He's never been involved in a disappointing session. Great band all around (Myra Melford on piano is a real stand out) playing some outstanding tunes with plenty of polish. As good as any jazz record of the last 25 years as far as my ears are concerned.

Bill Frisell/Dave Holland/Elvin Jones: Bill Frisell with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones. 2001. Nonesuch: 79624-2.

Bill Frisell: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, loops
Dave Holland: bass
Elvin Jones: drums

Three legends of extreme musicianship and jazz chops get together and play through the Bill Fisell songbook. Knowing these tunes so well from earlier recordings adds a spark to hearing these wickedly tight interpretations. Music such as this is an indulgence.

20/20 Vision in the Left Eye

Go Left Fest @ Yoshi's, San Francisco, CA
Monday, June 22 & Tuesday, June 23, 2009

featuring:
Marshall Allen: alto saxophone, evi, flute
Matthew Shipp: piano
Joe Morris: bass
Sunny Murray: drums
Oluyemi Thomas: reeds
Roswell Rudd: trombone
Myra Melford: piano
Mark Dresser: bass
Ishmael Reed: poetry
Lafayette Harris: piano
Beth Custer: bass clarinet, voice
and several others

The first ever meeting of Marshall Allen, Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris is a solid evening's worth of creative music right there. That trio has more than enough creative muscle to carry on for multiple sets. But at the first ever Go Left Festival over two consecutive night's at San Francisco's Yoshi's they were just the headlining act over a sprawling, multi-set celebration of jazz from the "outside." The Myra Melford/Mark Dresser Duo brings a similar gravity to these music chasing ears. Roswell Rudd could go all night - and clearly wanted to (with no objection from me). And clearly no jazz aficionado's concert attending experience is complete without witnessing the jaw-dropping excellence of Sunny Murray. The air was thick with substance.

In offering the same sequence of sets on both nights, the contrast between free improvisation and set composition became pronounced in interesting ways, with the free material often having more staying power. The exception to this was the short set of quirky compositions and songs by the Beth Custer Ensemble at the onset of both nights. These maintained their charm while the setting of Ishmael Reed's poetry lost all of its charm on the second go around.

The two different manifestations of Sunny Murray's Positive Knowledge was a revelation. Performing as a trio of reeds, voice and drums on the first night the middle section of their set-long performance transformed into a stunning all-percussion experience as each performer played gongs of different sizes over Murray's restless free-form improvisation on the kit. The second night was a duo of Murray and Oluyemi Thomas that explored a different sound altogether. The outspoken and irreverent Murray could easily become my new obsession.

In any other setting, the Myra Melford/Mark Dresser duo would be the highlight of the evening and festival. Dresser's extended techniques with his uniquely amplified acoustic bass have continued to expand as the pair played through Melford's Trio M compositions, offering fresh angles on each piece.

Matthew Shipp is an unbelievable force on the piano and an inspired collaborator with Marshall Allen's aggressive energies. With Joe Morris expertly holding down the bass layer, Shipp worked some of the most thundering accents I've ever heard from the ivories while Marshall Allen launched into his hyper-space sound worlds. Beth Custer's stage banter about "legends in the dressing room" playing out on stage and into this climactic set.

The range of talent on display ran so deep that nearly every set felt short-changed. Roswell Rudd in particular could have used more hours despite the Vision Festival-esque waves of exhaustion. Should there be second, third (and more) installments of Go Left in the future I hope there will be a shift toward spreading this music over more nights with longer sets focused on fewere artists - and no repeating of sets on consecutive nights. Give the ears a chance to sink deeper into the artistry and explore more combinations of performers (the addition of Sunny Murray in the Roswell Rudd set on the second night was positively inspired (and positively knowledgeable)).

Chance Encounters with Bass, Bass, Drums and Horn

Chance Encounters @ 21 Grand, Oakland, CA
Thursday, May 14, 2009

Scott Amendola: drums
Mark Dresser: bass
Lisle Ellis: E bass and circuitry
Larry Ochs: tenor saxophone, sopranino saxophone

Free improvised music operates along an inverse bell curve. It is rarely mediocre. Frequently it is either the most sublime creative expression imaginable or an embarrassment of unchecked indulgence. Live free improvised music rarely triggers indifference. These two sets were concentrated doses of the good stuff.

The interaction between the two bassists was rich and wildly varied in texture, range and timbre. Lisle Ellis brings a light - but noticeable - touch with his electronics while Mark Dresser weaves in a subtle counterpoint with the unique combination of pick-ups behind the fingerboard of his acoustic controlled by volume pedals. Together, these bassists provided material that could stand alone - or as in this performance - invite creative improvisers to jump into the pool of sound.

Scott Amendola works a ragged edge between control and uncontrol. A piano wire woven through parts of the drum kit, an over sized necklace of rope and cymbals draped against a gong or a brush protruding within the clenched halves of a hi hat - each struck at controlled moments to set in motion a complicated rhythmic pattern of uncontrolled quality. Each side working along a tension of playing within and outside of time. As a drummer, Amendola is capable of doing both convincingly. At one point Lisle Ellis' electronics emitted a pulsating, repeated pattern that Amendola instinctively locked into and played around its ragged edges.

Coexisting with this intense rhythm section was Larry Ochs on reeds. Ochs alternated between laying out, laying low within the texture and asserting his way into the sonic foreground with tasteful intervals. He featured a taut sound that reinforced the collaborative quality of this music and reflected the mature restraint at work within this quartet.

HurdAudio Rotation: Hunter, Hill and Mmmmmmmm

Charlie Hunter: Charlie Hunter. 2000. Blue Note Records: 7243 5 25450 2 5.

Charlie Hunter: 8-string guitar
Peter Apfelbaum: tenor saxophone
Josh Roseman: trombone
Leon Parker: drums, percussion
Stephen Chopek: percussion
Robert Perkins: percussion

An overdue spin of this completely Blue Note-worthy guitarist. For his self-titled release Hunter mixes and matches a percussion driven set of originals (and a Monk tune) as a showcase of his great tone, chops and sense of time. "Two for Bleu" is a standout track with the horn section of Apfelbaum and Roseman sitting in. Josh Roseman's trombone solo on that track is well worth coming back for on this one. A solid effort from a mesmerizing talent.

Andrew Hill: Point of Departure. 1964 (Rudy Van Gelder edition released in 1999). Blue Note Records: 7243 4 99007 2 1.

Andrew Hill: piano
Kenny Dorham: trumpet
Eric Dolphy: alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet
Joe Henderson: tenor saxophone
Richard Davis: bass
Tony Williams: drums

If you've developed a proper love of jazz and the creative talents that have manifested through the music over the decades then the list of players found on Point of Departure should trigger a mix of awe that so much fierce creativity was concentrated in one place at one time along with a pang that such inspired talent continues to recede into the past. With this artifact - this recording - these speakers spill out with so much evidence of a place and time where lightning struck. And for Eric Dolphy, this Point of Departure nearly coincided with his own as he departed this dimension just three months after this recording.

From the first sounds of "Refuge" through a set of outstanding Hill compositions (especially "New Monastery" and "Dedication") the mixture of profound awe and near disbelief that nearly half a century has done little to dull the vitality or thorny challenge that this music presents. The ears are tempted to go back in time and live within the Blue Note back catalogue with material such as this.

Trio M - Myra Melford/Mark Dresser/Matt Wilson: Big Picture. 2007. Cryptogramophone: CG 134.

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

My appreciation of all projects involving Myra Melford on piano is well documented in this space by now. Trio M takes that "Melford effect" to the next level as this trio of equals takes the traditional piano trio instrumentation to a new evolutionary plateau. The simpatico of creative forces that fuses Melford's blend of blues and free jazz with the sonic world of Mark Dresser on bass and the endless percussive joys of Matt Wilson on drums is one of the greatest live ensembles I've ever had the pleasure of witnessing. With Big Picture we have the tangible documentation of this trio one craves after experiencing them first hand. The democratic contributions of compositions and grounded improvisations growing organically from the unique vocabulary developed by each of these individuals is a transcendent sound. And yet Big Picture yields just a glimpse of their outstanding potential as this trio has gelled even further since this recording date. Seek out and savor this disc. Seek out the live experience of this group and let the mind reel as it contemplates what the Big Picture could not contain.

HurdAudio Rotation: Slanting Time with Open Arms

The Zs: Arms. 2007. Planaria: PR029.

Sam Hillmer: tenor saxophone, vocals
Matthew Hough: electric guitar, vocals
Charlie Looker: electric guitar, baritone guitar, vocals
Ian Antonion: drumset, percussion, vocals
Brad Wentworth: drumset, percussion

Precision with a progressive edge in the service of a relentless creativity. The Zs open up a wide territory with Arms reaching between the chanting vocal unisons of "Nobody Wants To Be Had" over a texture of razor sharp abrasion to the soft lull of "Z Is For Zone." This is a rare band capable of mining both the meditative trance-inducing state and the brutal, high-decibel jump cut without sacrificing their aggressive, almost manic, attention to detail and extreme precision. Ugly beautiful.

Birgit Ulher/Ernst Thoma: Slants. 2003. Unit Records: UTR 4142.

Birgit Ulher: trumpet
Ernst Thoma: live electronics (and the blue wheel instant composing machine)

Birgit Ulher is a sound artist with a background in the visual arts. And the sensibilities come through in the stark lines and track titles named after colors. With "Skyblue" taking up the lion's share of the total duration in this pack of sonic crayons, it's the scarcity of layering that brings out the detail of this trumpet and electronics collaboration. Each element of sound is given generous space as these pieces spell out a desolate, lonely environment of windswept hues.

Mark Dresser/Denman Maroney: Time Changes. 2005. Cryptogramophone: CG124.

Mark Dresser: bass
Denman Maroney: hyperpiano
Michael Sarin: drums, percussion
Alexandra Montano: voice

These Cryptogramophone releases over the past few years have been so impressive and consistent that it's hard not to keep coming back into the sonic worlds so beautifully recorded on these discs. Time Changes is just one of those releases that gives an aural insight into the collaboration between Mark Dresser and Denman Maroney with a set of pieces focused on creative ways to warp the dimension of time. "Apertivio" takes a C minor blues and subjects it to a modulating tempo while Maroney's charts - notably "MC" and "Kilter" - explore an independence between parts and players with its wicked polyrhythms dangling from a steady pulse. The addition of Michael Sarin's percussive wares and Alexandra Montano's wordless vocals fill out the timbral soundscape with arrangements that give equal attention to color and melodic phrasing to match the relaxed intensity of undulating time.

The M is for Magnificique

Trio M @ An Die Musik, Baltimore, MD
Saturday, February 2, 2008

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

This is not the first time I've had the pleasure of taking in one of the greatest piano trios of all time. Many qualities of this trio sound have developed and the playful interaction between stellar improvisers have only improved since their jaw-dropping performance at the Guelph Jazz Festival. The spell they cast upon a room full of ears is consistent as the smaller venue of An Die Musik allowed the energy to crackle with a little more spark. And from my angle I managed to get a good look at how Mark Dresser pulls off that beastly sound with his unique amplification system.

Wedged well beneath the fingerboard is a device that powers two pick-up microphones. With two cables running down to the floor and into a pair of volume pedals Dresser uses to dynamically shape his tone by balancing between two very different microphone positions on the same instrument. The right pedal is the standard, amplified acoustic bass sound. The pedal on the left is used to unleash the inner-throat singing imp lurking somewhere high up the fingerboard. Throwing that second pedal all the way up opens up a whole world of sonority found along the neck of that instrument. The range of sound that Mark Dresser is mining is fiendishly cool.

With Myra Melford and Matt Wilson this trio is filled out by improvisers with a developed vocabulary and similarly expansive range of sound. Myra Melford's technique inside the piano is a natural extension of the sound she gets from the keyboard. And Matt Wilson works with an exponential combination of sticks/brushes/bare hands on surfaces (not to mention his joy filled laughter and utterances) to keep the percussive texture varied.

Beyond the timbral and textural range is the broad compositional and improvisative territory covered by the music itself. With contributions from the considerable oeuvres of these individual players the music took turns at focused melodism, free improvisation, blues and various conventional forms stretched with odd meters and creative explorations. Even Mark Dresser's on stage (and mid-piece) replacement of a broken bass string (the E-string no less, I've never seen anyone break one of those before) took on the same performative spirit as a fearless forward push filled with confidence in the face of uncertainty.

HurdAudio Rotation: Dissonance Destroys Capitolism (if only), Lyons Growls, Time Changes

Louis Andriessen: De Staat. 1991. Elektra Nonesuch: 9 79251-2.

The Schoenberg Ensemble

Reinbert de Leeuw: conductor
Maarten Karres, Ernest Rombout: oboe
Maarten Dekkers, Justine Gerretsen: oboe/english horn
Willem van der Vliet, Hendrik Jan Lindout, Huug Steketee, Jos Verspagen: trumpet
Iman Soeteman, Christiaan Boers, Peter Hoekmeijer, Theo Hoekstra: horn
Toon van Ulsen, Pete Saunders, Albert Zuyderduyn: trombone
Peter van Klink: bass trombone
Hans Kunneman, Patricio Wang: electric guitar
Rob Zeelenberg: electric bass guitar
Mapje Keereweer, Ernestine Stoop: harp
Henk Guittart, Aimee Versloot, Rena Scholtens, Jouke van der Leest: viola
Claron McFadden, Barbara Bordeon: soprano
Yvonne Benschop, Ananda Goud: mezzosoprano

This one is a heady concoction, feeling like a cross-breed between Steve Reich's Desert Music and Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. The political dimension of this piece is also interesting as a setting of Plato's naive and misguided notions about music's role and potential in an ideal state. If the mixolydian mode was even remotely as dangerous as Plato believed the power to affect change would be far less remote than it is. If "changing to a new kind of music" was indeed "followed by alteration in the most fundamental laws of the state" then we could at least strive toward the utopian anarchy of John Cage's idealism as pragmatic practice. If anything, the current powers that be are deaf, and all the dissonance in the world - cognitive or otherwise - is lost in an ocean of cronyism and incompetence. In the meantime, it's been far too long since I last spun De Staat. I enjoy its brash loudness and pulsing persistence.

Cecil Taylor: The Great Paris Concert. November 30, 1966 (re-issued in 1994). Black Lion: BLCD760201.

Cecil Taylor: piano
Jimmy Lyons: alto saxophone
Alan Silva: bass
Andrew Cyrille: drums

After last weekend's brush with the great Andrew Cyrille the ears were hungry for more. "Great" is the word for this live outing from 1966. The texture is unmistakably Cecil Taylor with his intense and focused improvisation filling out the full range of the piano. It's the filling out of that texture from Lyons, Silva and Cyrille that makes the overall sound shimmer. From the initial, forceful blasts from Lyons' alto at the onset of "Student Studies part 1" to the pianistic blurs across "Niggle Feuigle" this one is a steady jolt of the avant "old" garde.

Mark Dresser/Denman Maroney with Michael Sarin and Alexandra Montano: Time Changes. 2005. Cryptogramophone: CG124.

Mark Dresser: bass
Denman Maroney: hyperpiano
Michael Sarin: drums, percussion
Alexandra Montano: voice

This disc is too good to stay out of the rotation for long. There's an unbelievable balance of creative playing - both inside and outside the jazz tradition - and enormous chemistry between Dresser and Maroney. The extended techniques on bass and "hyperpiano" have considerable emphasis on both the "extended" and the "technique" as the resulting compositions and overall sound make for an outstanding listening experience. The undulating tempos add a wonderful dimension while Alexandra Montano's intonation and sense of balance makes her voice a welcome layer within this music. I enthusiastically recommend putting an ear to this one.