Piano wizard Denman Maroney has been following his own dense path for the past three decades, including continued collaborations with such talents as bassist Mark Dresser and trumpeter Dave Douglas. His latest effort, Martingale, is a digital-only affair, featuring what might be a working quintet if these was anything like “performing for an audience” during the pandemic. This is Maroney’s third release with bassist Ratzo Harris and drummer Bob Meyer aboard. Reedist Steven Frieder, a new name for me, has a relaxed presence and compelling voice bringing the swirling melodies of Maroney’s compositions to life. Utilizing a strategy he calls temporal harmony, Maroney’s writing employs loops of sound, and loops within loops, stacked one on top of the other, a strategy that builds rhythmic complexity as it unfolds in time. Blind Love is a real favorite, with an abundance of melodic flair and an exciting round of instrumental trades, adapting a time-honored small band gesture into Maroney’s forward-thinking compositions. The sole non-original, Off Centerpiece, is Maroney’s re-imagining of “Sweets” Edison and Jon Hendricks’ Centerpiece, first heard on Edison’s Sweetenings LP for Roulette in 1958. The tune is well-suited to Maroney’s proclivity for intertwined and repetitive structures, and the quartet essentially tears the song to pieces and puts it back together in an almost Cubist fashion, with Frieder prominently testifying on tenor. Maroney moves to hyperpiano for the stop-start rhythms of Time’s Out. His version of “prepared piano” involves making sounds “by stopping, sliding, bowing, plucking, strumming and striking the strings directly with a variety of tools including bars, bowls, knives, bells and mashers of metal, boxes and bottles of plastic, mallets of various kinds, and blocks of rubber,” as Maroney describes it in an essay on his website. Primal Sympathy starts out as a ballad with prominent bowed bass, then shifts to more deliberate playing when the drums enter around the 3-minute mark. On this 10-minute opus, the repetitive aspects of Maroney’s music, coupled with a slow tempo, make for some tedious listening, even with some fine improvising by Frieder in the second half. Things are back on track for the jaunty Sea Set Wheat, with the second appearance of the hyperpiano and an opportunity for Meyer to take an impressive and minimalist drum solo. The friendly Set Sea Sank ends the set with flair and a cheerfully bright mien. While Maroney’s music is not always easy to listen to, it’s always quite rewarding to stick with it, and this latest venture is well worth a listen.
Self-produced digital only release; Steven Frieder (rds) Denman Maroney (p, hyperpiano*) Ratzo Harris (b) Bob Meyer (drums & cymbals); Mt. Vernon, NY, February 6-7, 2020; Martingale/ Curl/ Blind Love/ Off Centerpiece/ All in the Loop/ New One Two/ Time's Out*/ Peer to Peer/ Primal Sympathy/ Sea Set Wheat*/ Set Sea Sank; 69:47. www.denmanmaroney.com
What a great review! Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually listens to what they're writing about in its entirety, and I get the feeling that you might have listened twice! THANK YOU! By the by, I agree with you about "Blind Love;" I only wish I could record it again for improvements, but there was only so much time. However, I have to correct you on something, the title of the rather long piece (and I have to admit that it IS rather long!) is "Primal Sympathy," not Primal Symphony. It's a small point, I know, but I think Denman would never take the classicist's approach in titling his output ("Symphony #1," "Hyper-Concerto," etc.)
ReplyDeletePrimal Sympathy is a phrase from Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood: "Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower, We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind, In the primal sympathy, which, having been, must ever be" etc
ReplyDeleteI particularly appreciate, "While Maroney’s music is not always easy to listen to, it’s always quite rewarding to stick with it, and this latest venture is well worth a listen." Thank you.
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