HurdAudio Rotation: Restrained Noise

Carla Bley: The Lost Chords find Paolo Fresu. 2007. Watt Works/ECM: WATT794/B0010120-02.

Carla Bley: piano
Paolo Fresu: trumpet, flugelhorn
Andy Sheppard: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
Steve Swallow: bass
Billy Drummond: drums

Clearly the same mind and creative impulse behind the arrangements performed by Charlie Haden and the Liberation Music Orchestra. Carla Bley takes the beautiful - and in the case of Paolo Fresu's tone and phrasing there is no shortage of beauty - and deftly prevents it from sliding into pretty. Carla Bley is so good, the results so slippery with gentle quirks and ideas that she tends to be underrated. She is the genuine article with compositions reinforced by her remarkable arranging prowess. "The Banana Quintet" makes for an excellent showcase for her ideas along with the Fresu lines woven throughout its bluesy appeal.

The Zs: 4 Systemz: Brown 1951. 2007. Planaria: PR029.

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

The graphic scores of Earle Brown allow for enormous flexibility in instrumentation and interpretation. Like any form of notation, the sonic quality depends upon the ability of the performer. Graphic notation calling for an improvisation that reflects the visuals. The Zs find an intriguing sense of Brown's 4 Systems with a taut performance that is nearly transparent with everything operating at low dynamic levels. The sparse layers of drums against electric guitars played acoustically and soft held tones on the saxophone comes through the speakers with the gentle ferocity of a summer breeze through an open window.

Michele Rabbia/Marilyn Crispell/Vincent Courtois: Shifting Grace. 2006. Cam Jazz: CAMJ 7791-2.

Michele Rabbia: percussion
Marilyn Crispell: piano
Vincent Courtois: cello

Three musicians, six ears and a singular, lyrical sound that passes through. Sometimes as a trio, duo or solo. The tension of hearing master musicians applying so much restraint combined with the blurring between free improvisation and composed music (there are elements of each here) leaving no sign where one leaves off and the other begins. At times the ideas and lines pass seamlessly through piano, percussion and cello. The prolonged understatement standing as evidence of the profound listening ability shared between these performers.

HurdAudio Rotation: Free Improvising Trio, Duo, Solo

Michele Rabbia/Marilyn Crispell/Vincent Courtois: Shifting Grace. 2006. Cam Jazz: CAMJ 7791-2.

Michele Rabbia: percussion
Marilyn Crispell: piano
Vincent Courtois: cello

Free improvisation that "shifts" focal points between players with virtuosic ease. Rabbia's percussion takes on a light touch that matches the lyrical whisps of Crispell's piano playing and the artful phrasing of Courtois' cello. Even the foreground "shifts" with each player slipping into focus in a music built upon collective creation. The fluid encounters captured for this recording reveal a mature sense of pace and compositional form.

Derek Bailey/Cyro Baptista: Derek. 2003. Amulet Records: amt 023.

Derek Bailey: guitar
Cyro Baptista: percussion, voice

Completely "in the moment" improvisation from two figures with radically different orbits. The differences between the English guitarist and Brazilian percussionist is bridged by an open responsiveness that allows for humor and deeply individual sounds to coexist upon the same canvas. With this listening I am aware of the individualistic techniques at work in this music. Baptista's sample-and-loop approach feels at odds with Bailey's persistent (and sometimes harsh) strumming at first. The whims of Baptista's words often work against the abstract harmonies and tones of Bailey's wall of acoustic guitar textures. This tension between parts marks much of this sound and the attraction of this disc lies in how these two performers feel out a mutual space with a sense of give and take to fit these jagged pieces into an unusual sonic image.

Gunda Gottschalk: Wassermonde. 2002. Elephant: 002.

Gunda Gottschalk: violin, viola

This one accurately captures the live solo Gottschalk experience. With a wide ranging improvisatory language and a strong intuitive instinct toward long arching forms this disc feeds the lingering hunger to "hear more" of this impressive performer. The long arc holds for over an hour on this collection and even has the surprise entrance of Gottschalk's voice blending within the overall texture late in the performance - just as was the case with her live performance last year.

HurdAudio Rotation: From Lapse to Grace

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

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

A Momentary Lapse covers a lot of compositional territory that allows the massive improvisational forces of these great players plenty of room to maneuver and paint large, vibrant sonic canvases. From the unmistakable Krauss screams on the alto saxophone of "The Schwartzes" to the clear, Dresser-tones on "Keep the Fool," this is an all-star ensemble focused on some stellar compositions.

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

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

This is one of those Bill Frisell records that the ear keeps reaching for out of fascination with how this rhythm section plays these familiar Frisell compositions. The sound is squarely in the Americana realm and Holland and Jones turn in a laid back, supportive performance. There's so much detail lurking around the edges of this sound in how this trio brings out the melodic phrasing and the relaxed sense of time. These make for definitive interpretations of Frisell's "Twenty Years," "Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa" and "Convict 13." At least these are the arrangements that come to mind when I reflect upon them. The interpretations of the non-Frisell "Moon River" and "Hard Times" are also particularly engaging and a hint of the depth of music lurking within all three of these players.

Michele Rabbia/Marilyn Crispell/Vincent Courtois: Shifting Grace. 2006. Camjazz: CAMJ 7791-2.

Michele Rabbia: percussion
Marilyn Crispell: piano
Vincent Courtois: cello

Opening with Crispell's incredible piano playing bathed in warm reverb - perhaps a bit more reverb than I care for - this trio of outstanding improvisers "shift" between duos, solos and the full trio over a span of a dozen brief pieces of incredible restraint and detail. The brevity lends to an aching, wispy quality that pulls away before any trace of indulgence can form. Rabbia's bowed cymbals and silence-framed percussion is a perfect layer for this intense and quiet music. Courtois runs a wider gamut of dynamic range as he pulls sustained crescendos on sustained tones into sharp focus.

Chamber Music/Extended Technique/Creative Improvisation Synthesis @ An Die Musik

Vincent Courtois/Sylvie Courvoisier/Ellery Eskelin Trio @ An Die Musik, Baltimore, MD
September 14, 2007

Vincent Courtois: cello
Sylvie Courvoisier: piano
Ellery Eskelin: tenor saxophone


From the first deliberate sound of the opening set - a natural harmonic from a piano string with one hand muting the node and the other bringing the hammer solidly against the string from the keyboard - Sylvie Courvoisier
possessed an aggressive and uncontainable creative edge that had her springing from the piano bench. Even the idiosyncratic creaks and squeaks from that very bench were seized upon as a coherent answer - and brilliant accompaniment - to Courtois's amplified micro-sound explorations on the cello.

The convergence upon the similarities of bow scrapes, tenor keypads and a piano bench is just one example of the reactive approach toward improvisation that marks the textural territory mined by this fantastic trio. These master improvisers fill the sonic canvas by matching one another and making transitions through subtraction and addition as they tastefully withdraw their own contributions to expose duos and solos before finding a new texture to match. Vincent Courtios made his own "perfect pitch" abundantly clear several times as he answered several gestures with an exact match of his own.

Ellery Eskelin has made a career out of crafting and creating situations that allow these kinds of textures to emerge and transform. Much of this is well documented (and quietly emerging as a point of fixation at HurdAudio) as he has developed an approach toward weaving his own sound and impulse into an astonishing range of situations. Here, his linear contributions and deft pointillistic exchange made for a nice counterbalance to the elastic timbral explorations of the piano and cello. The moments of piano and tenor saxophone duos that emerged from time to time within these free improvisations took on beautiful, Messiaen-like hues.

The use of amplification brought out an interesting dimension to Vincent Courtois's cello sound. As the only amplified instrument on stage, it wasn't used to "compete" with the piano and saxophone volumes. It did bring out the micro-sounding world of cello string and body sounds as scrapes and percussive taps were brought into sharp focus. The dynamic use of the volume pedal had me wondering how such technique might be employed for the extended piano sounds. And in a moment of improvisative generosity, Courtois angled his cello so that the contact microphone would pick up Eskelin or Courvoisier's playing, adding the resonance of the body of the cello and the emanation from the amplifier to the overall sonic image. This worked particularly well.

Sylvie Courvoisier has impressively integrated extended techniques into her overall approach. Each movement toward the inner guts of the piano was a natural part of her sound. With mallets, gaffer tape, metal balls and picks within easy reach she shaped the piano sounds with an even consistency no matter what method was employed to vibrate the piano wire. There was a period of strummed chords across the strings with the harmonic tones silently depressed from the keyboard - a technique reminiscent of Henry Cowell's Aeolean Harp - that unfolded with fantastic spontaneity and textural logic. The restlessness of constantly folding new material and timbres into her playing combined with an unfaltering deliberateness that made the live Courvoisier experience a revelation.