Jazz improvisation is a curious artform. On the one hand, a musician is expected to have a recognizable and individual voice, yet the same musician is usually part of a band, contributing to the overall group sound. That tension lies at the heart of much improvised music, which brings us directly to Dirigo Rataplan II. This quartet, led by drummer Devin Gray, unites him with three highly skilled improvisers in trumpeter Dave Ballou, tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, and bassist Michael Formanek. Each of them composes and leads at least one ensemble, but when they come together to perform Gray’s striking compositions, their commitment is palpable. Gray’s tunes tend to leave a lot of room for them to move in sometimes surprising directions. There’s plenty of delicious collective improvisation on this disc, with Ballou and Eskelin entangled right at the start of Congruently. They keep it up through the session, tending to come together for brief theme statements before quickly veering off into bouts of good-natured sparring, no doubt enhanced by their previous encounters in bands led by Satoko Fujii and Rabih Abou-Khalil. At the center of the quartet’s sound, the rock-solid Formanek almost sounds like he’s soloing for the whole date, while Gray’s drums dance and frolic while continuously commenting on the proceedings. With fascinating compositions designed as springboards to improvisation, and a quartet of imaginative players to take full advantage of the setting, Dirigo Rataplan II conjures a thoroughly engrossing world of sound. Highly recommended.
Rataplan RR001; Dave Ballou (tp) Ellery Eskelin (ts) Michael Formanek (b) Devin Gray (d); Brooklyn, NY, June 2016; Congruently/ Rollin’ thru town/ Trends of trending/ Texicate/ The Wire/ Quantum Cryptology/ What we learn from cities/ The Feeling of Healing/ Intrepid Travelers/ Micro Dosage; 53:57. devingraymusic.com
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