HurdAudio Rotation: The Gradual Instant

Arrington de Dionyso & Gust Burns: Ataque Holotropical. 2006. Limited edition CD-R.

Arrington de Dionyso: reeds
Gust Burns: piano

Arrington de Dionyso and Gust Burns launch themselves into a free improvisation based primitivism that allows frenetic eddies to form around singular gestures before bolting off toward other sonic currents. Arrington allows his heart and gut to pour through his bass clarinet without impediment from intellect. Though intellectual currents do run strong through this physically demanding set. Gust Burns allows for rhythmic, often predominantly percussive playing for extended periods of time as he explores textures that both compliment and act as a foil for de Dionyso's excesses. Though he is often at his best with blurs of sound that form a rich harmonic canvas.

Kenny Dorham: Quiet Kenny. 1959 (re-released in 1992). Prestige/New Jazz: OJCCD-250-2.

Kenny Dorham: trumpet
Tommy Flanagan: piano
Paul Chambers: bass
Arthur Taylor: drums

Quiet Kenny for the gentle soul who was never brash with his hard bop trumpet skills. A style of music and an instrument known for drawing out the over-the-top showman, Kenny Dorham delivers devastating performances through restraint, calm focus and an unbelievable tone. This is one of the greats from the jazz tradition that simply deserves more awe. And certainly deserves more focused listening to discover the unerring logic behind each of his improvisations. His is clearly the mind of a great arranger. It doesn't hurt that Quiet Kenny includes a quartet of legends. The feel of Tommy Flanagan's piano playing combined with the luminaries of Paul Chambers and Arthur Taylor is evidence of Dorham's taste in bringing equals to the recording session.

Reuben Radding: Fugitive Pieces. 2006. Pine Ear Music: 002.

Reuben Radding: double bass
Matt Bauder: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Andrew Drury: percussion
Nate Wooley: trumpet

Listening is an exercise in memory and the ability to focus on the present moment in the face of memory. Fugitive Pieces has been an exercise in long term memory. In my mind, I had remembered this disc as a textural exercise with frictions and extended techniques that completely obscured the instruments contributing to these stark textures. This time through Fugitive Pieces that obfuscation was completely gone. The individual instruments appear in the soundscape with remarkable clarity. My increased familiarity with the individual players contributing to an ease at recognizing the improvised contributions to these austere sonic landscapes. An otherworldly sound that embodies the overwhelming beauty and grandeur of a windswept desert or slowly melting glacier. A sound imbued with humanity even as it operates on an almost geologic scale. In the end, the memory comes out stronger from focusing on this sound as I look forward to how my next encounter with this music will strike me.

HurdAudio Rotation: Improvising with Thick Slabs of Paint and Grit

Wolf Eyes & Anthony Braxton: Black Vomit. 2006. Victo: cd 099.

Nathan Young: electronics, metal, harmonica, voice
John Olson: electronics, metal, saxophones, gong
Mike Connely: electronics, metal, guitar, voice
Anthony Braxton: alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, sopranino saxophone

Let's face it. No music collection is even remotely complete without something called Black Vomit. And the obvious thing to do is make a big deal about the collaboration between the forces of noise driven, industrial sound of Wolf Eyes and the Avant free jazz powerhouse of Anthony Braxton. But as the waves of sound pealing off this disc demonstrate, these two entities of creatively driven musicians are not that far apart to begin with and they are more than capable of putting together a sound built upon intensity and brains. Visceral, appealing and demanding. This collaboration builds up their texture slowly, feeling out the volcanic terrain at hand before piecing together dense slabs of material.

William Parker Double Quartet: Alphaville Suite: Music Inspired by the Jean Luc Godard Film. 2007. Rogue Art: ROG 0010.

William Parker: bass
Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Lewis Barnes: trumpet
Hamid Drake: drums
Mazz Swift: violin
Jessica Pavone: viola
Julia Kent: cello
Shiau-Shu Yu: cello
Leena Conquest: vocalist

A decisive documentation of living, vibrant jazz carving an irresistible expressive space along Godard's cinematic contours. Conceptually excellent. Outstanding performances. Superb production standards. This one simply deserves many more ears. Lewis Barnes is a standout presence on trumpet in this set while the rhythm section of Hamid Drake and William Parker is perhaps one of the best ever assembled. The cello-heavy string quartet arranging takes this material well beyond the "horn with strings" sound in favor of working a twist upon film-inspired textures.

Arrington de Dionyso/Gust Burns: Ataque Holotropical. 2006. CD-R produced by Arrington de Dionyso.

Arrington de Dionyso: bass clarinet
Gust Burns: piano

Arrington de Dionyso is a driven improviser. Once the mouthpiece hits breath he's determined to make something happen. With Gust Burns as his partner in crime, this document reveals an aggressive set of creative, fire breathing free improvisation that blisters its way through time. Each player prodding the other toward aggressive swaths of musical territory. The sonic equivalent of a dripping canvas once two artists come at it with buckets of paint.