In my own alternate universe, this was the official jam of summer 2012

A Poem by Saigyo

My dilemma:

That deep realization will

never come to

My mind, the truth of which

My Mind realizes all to well

Sort of comforting to relate to the insecurities of someone who wrote in the 12th century.

Now if I could just kick this damn injury everything would be cool.

Phosphor album review

This was one of two titles I procured taking advantage of Potlatch records sale on its entire catalogue this past summer. Phosphor is: Burkhard Beins, percussion; Alessandro Bosetti, soprano saxophone; Axel Dörner, trumpet and electronics; Robin Hayward, tuba; Annette Krebs, electro-acoustic guitar; Andrea Neumann, inside piano and mixing desk; Michael Renkel, acoustic guitar and Inaz Shick, electronics. I knew that this ensemble was at the genesis of the movement of what has variously been called “reductionism” “lower-case.” That knowledge in no way prepared me for this album. The music contains none of the extreme sparsity or stretches of silence I had imagined. Their improvisation is actually quite busy, and shifts texture frequently. The names that have been applied to this style are most accurate in describing the nature and quality of sounds used more so than the overall structure of the improvisation. The performers all use deliberately limited means of sound production, including a preponderance of non-pitched sounds. These often make the instruments difficult to differentiate from one another, especially the breath tones that are prominently used by Dörner, and Bosetti. Similarly, Andrea Neumann uses her “inside piano” which is a custom-built piano soundboard, without the casing or keyboard of the instrument, to produce sounds difficult to identify as a piano, or even as recognizable extended piano techniques. It seems as if no individual idea presented in the improvisations develops or really changes much of its own accord. Each gesture simply enters the musical space for awhile, remains largely static and eventually disappears. All of the performers have a remarkable and admirable ability to sustain a sound or texture with no overtly expressive qualities, and almost no variation. The result is a foreign landscape of sound that alternately accumulates and subsides, constantly changing without ever latching onto a “direction” or predictable outcome. This music sounds fresh, and contemporary, it suggests that there are still further challenges in improvised music to be tackled.

Milton Babbitt: Composition for Guitar (1984)

A piece I have been enjoying very much regularly. I think this flies in the face of a lot of the pre-conceptions people have about Babbitt and his music.

Tom Rainey Trio at Cornelia St. Cafe, Dec. 30th

Tom Rainey performed a set of engaging improvised music with Ingrid Laubrock on Tenor and Soprano Saxophones and Mary Halvorson on Guitar. I was unfamiliar with Rainey as drummer and came away from the concert very impressed. He plays very few things that drummers play, focusing on a timbral approach reminiscent of Tony Oxley, or Paul Lytton, but unlike those drummers, his playing is always rhythmically propulsive and time-oriented. Laubrock and Halvorson both played with conviction and nuance in a set that often dipped into extreme, noise oriented blowing but also contained a great degree of subtlety and musical surprise. Rainey also made a touching tribute to the lately departed masters Paul Motian and Sam Rivers.

Recital!

Hello Oberlin-located folks. My Junior Recital will be on Tuesday the 13th at 6:30 at the Cat in The Cream. Will feature Jules Verne and the debut of my trio with Nathan Swedlow and Ian Mccolm (also known as the rhythm section of Jules Verne) I've been hampered with very poorly timed playing injuries, however I hope it won't stand in the way of having an excellent concert. The program features music of mine from my high school days up to the present, and some other favorites of mine (Bud Powell, Arnold Schoenberg etc.) Please come out! For those of you on the east coast, there will be a show in princeton later in the month, more to come on that soon.

David S. Ware Planetary Unknown Album Review

I almost couldn’t get my head around the idea of there being a new David S. Ware Quartet. Ware has made a more than impressive return to form after having a kidney transplant a few years ago, but nevertheless, how could any group ever rival his classic quartet? This group, with Cooper-Moore on piano, Muhammad Ali on drums and holdover William Parker on bass succeeds by sounding like an entirely different band, not a replacement for the old line-up.

All the signatures of Ware’s sound are here: the rapid and blurred flurries of notes, keening altissimo cries, bleating low-notes and occasional traces of Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins hidden inside the swirling abstract lines. Cooper-Moore has a bond with Ware that goes back to their early days in Boston, and his playing avoids obvious modes of accompaniment, while still complementing the band perfectly. Parker mostly acts as the anchor of the band, something he always does wonderfully. His handful of steps into the musical foreground are highlights of the record. Ali brings echoes of the tradition into the music, with drumming that often verges towards straight swing, but also recalls the free-time of older brother Rashied and others.

The material is all freely improvised, which is expectably significant in making this different from the music Ware recorded with his previous Quartet. Whereas the other band could charge with conviction down a straight path to exalted realms of music, this band is wilier, and darts into many unexpected directions. The 20+ minute opener Passage Wudang rises and crashes like waves without ever fully settling until the somber repeated chords played by Cooper-Moore at the ending. On the saxophone-drum duet Duality is One Ware opens with soft, motivic playing before quickly moving into rushing gusts of notes against Ali’s driving swing. The balladic Divination shows the very tender side of Ware, with delicate and beautiful interplay of sopranino and piano. On Divination Unfathomable, Ware plays shrill and swirling repeated line on sopranino that blend with Parker’s aggressive and growling arco bass while Cooper-Moore and Muhammad Ali paint a splattery, pointillist accompaniment in a moment of refined group interplay.

Ware’s recovery and return to performing and recording is inspired and inspiring. Perhaps this will lead to a personal renaissance for him, bringing with it some of the recognition and respect that this master musician has earned two or three times over now. In the meantime, those in the know have a hell of an album to listen to.