Exotic Hypnotic 2008: Michael Formanek Ensemble

Michael Formanek Ensemble @ University of Baltimore Student Center Performing Arts Theater, Baltimore, MD
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Part of the Exotic Hypnotic series - in conjunction with Artscape.

Michael Formanek: bass

John Dierker: reeds

Dave Ballou: trumpet

Marc Redman: drums

Marc Miller: guitar

Billed as "post-jazz improvised music," Michael Formanek merged the always excellent Microkingdom and 3081 groups for an expanded ensemble free improvisation tinged interpretation of a one page score.  The unifying conceptual underpinnings leaving plenty of interpretive space for fluid duos and trios to form between these creative players.  I have yet to encounter a Michael Formanek experience - live or recorded - that disappoints.  Often, his efforts are at the opposite extreme.  This performance was no exception.  Fluid, fluctuating and mature improvisation in the service of a larger sonic canvas that comes off as more than the mere sum of these impressive performers.  It's a brave post-jazz world unfolding before these ears and they are left thirsty for more.

3081 Reasons to Dig Free Improvised Music in Baltimore

3081 @ The Red Room, Baltimore, MD
Saturday, May 17, 2008

Dave Ballou: trumpet, cornet
John Dierker: bass clarinet, tenor saxophone
Michael Formanek: 5-string electric bass
Will Redman: drums

Reason # 3079 - Michael Formanek's irresistible double-bass technique translates well to the electric. He strums, plucks, taps and coaxes an amazing sound with all that amplification. The tight confines of the Red Room added an element of danger as the neck of the instrument swayed within range of Dave Ballou's head.

3081 played two short sets at the Red Room with a focus on deep listening and intensity. This quartet of Baltimore-based musicians with deep jazz roots bring an aggressive, edgy approach to free improvisation that succeeds on the responsiveness between players and a confidence that allows for collaborative, well-formed pieces of variable texture and relatively short durations. These are musicians with serious chops making music without flashy displays of empty showmanship.

Reason #3080 - The percussive brilliance (and whimsy behind the graphic scores of Book) of Will Redman. Dynamic range, extended technique and even an electric toothbrush in the service of spontaneous ideas.

Reason #3081 - These are four of the most consistent voices of Baltimore's growing improvised music scene. Individuals worth seeking out in Micro Kingdom, Quartet Offensive, New Volcanoes, Open Music Ensemble, Science Friction and any number of other projects that have enormous pull for these ears. Knitting these compelling individuals into a single quartet is an enriched human mathematics of sound.

Dierker Dispenses Therapy

John Dierker (bass clarinet, alto saxophone), Michael Formanek (bass), Devin Gray (drums) @ Koffee Therapy, Baltimore, MD - August 18, 2007

Free jazz at a coffee house? And the coffee is excellent too? It seems too good to be true. I hope that Koffee Therapy continues down this path as this experience appeals to multiple senses.

Devin Gray began this set with some rolling, kinetic work on the cymbals as Dierker calmly listened and found a tasteful moment to enter on the bass clarinet. And as the full trio sound began to emerge with a tasteful bed of free improvisation textures the remarkable musicianship and ear-focused responsive playing became more apparent.

There was a brief moment when Dierker's circular breathing on the bass clarinet began to take on a strong timbral resemblance to the didgeridoo. But that moment was fleeting and I began to crave hearing that kind of sound territory more fully explored in this trio setting. There were several deeply satisfying passages where the sound of Formanek's arco bass seemed to melt with the sound of the bass clarinet.

I was particularly impressed with Devin Gray as he coaxed a world of sound from his small drum kit. The trio also featured one of his original compositions - a groove heavy meter bender with some wide open sections for individual solos to shine.

Ripped and Berned at the Clef Club

Philadelphia Clef Club - Saturday, May 19, 2007
David Torn/Prezens
David Torn: guitar, live sampling, electronics, gobs of effects, processing
Tim Berne: alto saxophone, baritone saxophone
Michael Formanek: acoustic bass
Craig Taborn: Rhodes electric piano, synth, gobs of effects, bent circuits
Tom Rainey: drums

Michael Formanek/Tim Berne Duo
Michael Formanek: acoustic bass
Tim Berne: baritone saxophone

HurdAudio took a special field trip up to the city of brotherly love to check out the Tim Berne/David Torn scene at the Philadelphia Clef Club - a venue that seemingly sits just beyond the reach of the gentrifying forces of the 4-star hotels, national steak house chains and theaters just a few blocks north on the Avenue of the Arts. Music from the fringe never seemed more literal.

The Michael Formanek/Tim Berne Duo opened the evening with a set-long performance of "The Offbeat Manifesto." This is an epic, through-composed work for acoustic bass and baritone saxophone that explores extended linear lines for each instrument. There's a lot going on in this composition and I was completely engaged throughout. The middle section had some nice interplay between the bowed bass of Formanek against a texture of multiphonics from Berne.

The second set featured the big sound of David Torn/Prezens. Lurking in the center of the stage - in the center of Prezens - was an acoustic trio of saxophone, bass and drums flanked on either side by the electronics emanating from Torn and Taborn. And the compositional and improvisational leadership was coming from David Torn at stage left as he sculpted large soundscapes from his effects, live sampling, and occasionally his electric guitar. The quintet was often working with multiple layers of sound of varying thickness as they navigated a healthy range of drone-based sonic textures.

Improvising with live electronics - and especially live sampling - can be a mixed bag. And Prezens would hit moments of great sonic beauty sandwiched between stretches of meandering awkwardness. The high points would come when the players would either lock into a resonance with the electronic sounds as the players would build upon the sound as a collaborative whole or they would give in to a steady groove and ride a wave of pulse and tempo. At other times, the acoustic trio seemed to be caught in the middle and swimming upstream against the amplified tides. The difficulty with improvising with live sampling is that it often comes across as a one-way conversation between a player and something they played just moments earlier. It can be useful for constructing some intense sonic textures. But it can also be relentlessly non-responsive - leaving the "live human" performer with a larger burden in improvised contexts. It can also lead to a predictable pattern of sample-then-improvise - a pattern that Prezens deftly avoided most of the time.

I was particularly impressed with the drumming of Tom Rainey throughout the second set. He changed the sound he was getting from the drum kit over the course of these long pieces by focusing on a narrow range at any given time. At times just playing the snare, or just the cymbals, or just the rims of the toms, or just the high-hat. Yet he would always cut through the overall sound with what he was doing and he often seemed to be the instigator for some of the most satisfying waves of sound from the evening.