Dave Liebman/ Adam Rudolph/ Hamid Drake: CHI

Improvisation must be as old as music itself. After all, the first sounds we might recognize as musical arose from nothing. But of course, the tools have changed radically over the millennia, and the deeply conjoined trio of Dave Liebman, Adam Rudolph, and Hamid Drake uses anything they can to create something from nothing on their new CD, CHI. Saxophones, an array of percussion instruments from around the world, voices, electronics, and the occasional piano meet in a invigorating display of instant communication. Rudolph and Drake go back a long way together, to their time in the Mandingo Griot Society in the late Seventies. And since the late Sixties, Dave Liebman has established himself on hundreds of recordings as a free spirit and a reliably potent musical force. Their improvisations here range from under 3 minutes for the introductory Becoming to the quarter-hour of Emergence, and the titles they’ve assigned to their free-wheeling inventions are roughly descriptive of the music. Thus Flux is mostly a continuous changing flow with some intense drumming and an aggressive soprano saxophone solo. Continuum builds on Drake’s cymbal beat and Rudolph’s hand drums, with a keening saxophone emerging after two minutes and leading the way into a passionate musical conversation. The carefully sculpted Formless Form features Liebman’s slightly hesitant piano and steady but delicate percussion. Percussion dominates the first section of Emergence. Liebman enters with a sinuous soprano line, and the piece slowly builds to a exciting three-way improvisation. The sax drops out, the drummers engage one another, and the mood changes for a while into a more pastoral kind of feeling before revving up again and slowly drifting off. Whirl ends the program of nearly an hour with a piece centered on Rudolph’s sintir, a bass lute used by the Gnawa people of northern Africa. His swirling bass lines meld with Drake’s frame drum and lilting saxophone lines from Liebman to create a mellow conclusion to their encounter. Recommended.
RareNoise RNR102; Dave Liebman (ss, ts, p on *, wooden recorder) Adam Rudolph (hand drumset [kongos, djembe, tarija], p on #, sintir, multi-phonic vcl, perc, elec) Hamid Drake (d, vcl, frame drum, perc); NYC, May 8, 2018; Becoming#/ Flux/ Continuum/ Formless Form*/ Emergence / Whirl; 56:00. www.rarenoiserecords.com

Exodos: Heuristics

Exodos is a multi-national quartet, with brassman Guy Bettini, Fabio Martini on alto sax and various clarinets, and the dynamic and boldly interactive bass and drums team of Luca Sisera and Gerry Hemingway. Their Leo release is called Heuristics, defined as an approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method. There’s no guarantee that any given solution be optimal, merely sufficient for reaching an immediate goal. When the goal is a satisfying variety of improvised music, the field of possibilities is limited only by the imaginations of the players. This 59-minute disc of totally improvised sound is structured as if it were a Greek drama, with a Prologos followed by a Parados, the first song sung by the chorus after its entrance from the side wings. The main action alternates sections called epeisodias with songs called stasimons until we arrive at the conclusion, or exodos. The opening track beckons us slowly into the quartet’s edgy and restrained musical world. A conversation between Bettini and Martini is enlivened by Hemingway’s clattering drums and bright cymbals. Soon a turbo-charged four-way colloquy is under way. Parados begins with a carefully modulated opening section that features an inquisitive bass line from Sisera with Martini’s alto sax responding and fairly quiet comments from Hemingway wielding brushes. Eventually the drumming becomes more assertive, and Martini yields to the bright tone of Bettini, who takes an eminently thoughtful solo (on trumpet?). A brief collective improvisation ensues, only to slowly dissolve and return to silence. The first of 3 Epeisodias is the longest piece in the set, and unfortunately, it’s also the kind of piece that’s more interesting to play than to listen to. The band is mired in playing long tones without any tempo for the first half of the piece and the music never develops into much of interest. Stasimon A is better, though still working in a minimalist style. At least there’s more interaction among the players, and an attractively conversational aspect to the music. With Epeisodia 2, things are back on track as each musician is playing more forcefully. Their boldness and occasionally aggressive attitude results in some of the most absorbing music of the date. Stasimon B is a gas, with brassy buzzes, some sauntering alto saxophone, swooping bass, and vigorous drumming. Even with some tedious passages, Heuristics is full of particularly bright moments. These include Martini’s stuttering alto solo on Prologos, a provocative trumpet solo by Bettini in the final section of Stasimon A, Sisera’s tender bass solo at the start of Epeisodia 3, the light-hearted bass and clarinet duet later in the same piece, Bettini’s buzzing solo (cornet?) on the closer, and Hemingway just about everywhere. Definitely worth a listen.
Leo CD LR 832; Guy Bettini (cnt, tpt, flgh) Fabio Martini (clarinets, as) Luca Sisera (b) Gerry Hemingway (d, vcl); Basel, Switzerland, April 6-7, 2017; Prologos/ Parados/ Epeisodia 1/ Stasimon A/ Epeisodia 2/ Stasimon B/ Epeisodia 3/ Exodus; 59:01. www.leorecords.com

Christy Doran: 144 Strings For A Broken Chord

Christy Doran enlisted 19 fellow electric guitarists, 4 electric bassists, one lonely drummer, and a conductor for a 7-part composition he calls 144 Strings For A Broken Chord. Even before I started to listen to this rather beautiful music, I was captivated by a photograph of the entire band on stage with an impressive array of guitars, amps and pedals. Expecting a total onslaught of sound, I was pleasantly surprised when the opener, Cannon Street Canon, proved to be a nuanced exploration of the classical structure. The contrapuntal format is perfectly suited to this agglomeration of guitars. Doran built the band around his current trio with bassist Franco Fontanarrosa and drummer Lukas Mantel. He gives Fontanarrosa the only solo on Cannon Street Canon. Curiously, Doran doesn’t solo himself on any of the tunes. While most of the pieces make some room for solos, they tend to be quite short, and the full ensemble is really the focus. Andromeda begins with a four note melody. With licks passed around the ensemble over a perky beat from Mantel, the band proceeds to develop and elaborate on the simple theme for over 11 minutes. Bassist Wolfgang Zwiauer and guitarist Walter Beltrami are the featured soloists over richly textured guitar lines. The jittery Gunslingers is next, the occasion for a series of brief solos by guitarists Christopher Guilfoyle, Yves Reichmuth, and Philippe Emanuel Schåppi popping out of the ensemble, followed by an electric bass duet by Fontanarrosa and Andi Schnellmann. A broken chord is one in which the notes are played successively, and with so many strings available, there are plenty of possibilities for precisely how this can work. Broken Chords is a wild tune with tempo shifts and dynamic extremes amid the entrancing weave of electric guitars. Laurent Méteau’s screaming guitar solo is one of the disc’s many highlights. I am particularly taken with the funky and audacious Bad News Babe, a multi-part piece loaded with dissonant power chords and piercing licks. There’s a heavy metal feel to a number of sections, which hint both at parody and homage without ever really deciding which. Like all of Doran’s pieces in this setting, it’s got delicate sections right up against more robust passages. This is the longest track on the session, at just over 13 minutes, but the fullness of the sound and the intriguing paths that the music carves out justify the length. What follows is the shortest track, Goin’ In On the Way Out, with a lovely section of guitarists playing part of a scale, then passing the baton, as it were, to another player. The finale, Bows and Wahs, is deeply mysterious, with a dark subterranean feeling for most of its 10-minute length. Lukas Mantel’s steady and minimalist drumming holds down the center, with guitars and basses flowing around him, quietly at first but building slowly into an intense scrum of sound. Franz Hellmüller takes an energetically spunky solo to conclude the tune, and the disc. Via the thoroughly committed playing by all hands of Doran’s well-crafted compositions and the conducting of John Voirol, what could have been an undifferentiated mess is an eminently viable format and a triumph for all concerned. Definitely recommended, and the transparent sound quality and careful mix make 144 Strings a superb listen on headphones.
Between The Lines BTLCHR71245; Walter Beltrami, Manuel Büchel, Glauco Cataldo, Christy Doran, Lucia D’Errico, Dave Gisler, Christopher Guilfoyle, Franz Hellmüller, Laurent Méteau, Urs Müller, Yves Reichmuth, Florian Respondek, Simon Rupp, Philippe Emanuel Schåppi, Philipp Schaufelberger, Nicolas Stettler, Urs Vögeli, Christian Winiker, Christian Zemp, Gael Zwahlen (g) Martina Berther, Franco Fontanarrosa, Andi Schnellmann, Wolfgang Zwiauer (el b) Lukas Mantel (d) John Voirol (cond); Stalden, Switzerland, September 13-15, 2016; Cannon Street Canon/ Andromeda/ Gunslingers/ Broken Chords/ Bad News Babe/ Goin’ In On the Way Out/ Bows and Wahs; 59:47. challengerecords.com

George Cables: I’m All Smiles

George Cables, a master of modern jazz piano, has had more than his share of health problems over the last few years and was unable to play for a while. But he’s back on the scene, and his latest trio venture, I’m All Smiles, functions as the best “thank you” to his many well-wishers that they could have hoped for. Many of the selections impart definite messages, like the opening Young at Heart, the popular Love is a Many- Splendored Thing from 1955, and the title track, first heard on Broadway in The Yearling (1965). The nicely balanced program also includes Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil, Consuelo Velázquez’s immortal Bésame Mucho, Freddie Hubbard’s durable Thermo, Jaco Pastorius’ Three Views of a Secret, one Cables original (the brightly optimistic Celebration) and a pair of tunes by Thelonious Monk. A curiously upbeat and choppy version of Ugly Beauty is performed by the trio, while a spirited solo piano rendition of Monk’s Mood ends the disc with a flourish. Suffice it to say that Cables sounds strong and is swinging as hard as ever. Essiet Essiet on bass and the veteran Victor Lewis provide impeccable support throughout. This disc was recorded in a single day in the studio, and I can’t help but get the feeling that Cables was champing at the bit to get back to music-making. Welcome back, George Cables! I’m All Smiles is a real winner, and happily recommended.
HighNote HCD 7322; George Cables (p) Essiet Essiet (b, exc. on *) Victor Lewis (d, exc. on *); NYC, October 26, 2018; Young at Heart/ I’m All Smiles/ Speak No Evil/ Besame Mucho/ Ugly Beauty/ Love is a Many-Splendored Thing/ Celebration/ Three Views of a Secret/ Thermo/ Monk’s Mood*; 58:24. www.jazzdepot.com