Roscoe Mitchell, Sandy Ewen, Damon Smith, Weasel Walter, A Railroad Spike Forms the Voice

 

Jimmie Lunceford and his band long ago hipped us to the idea that "it ain't what you do it's the way that you do it." This is no more true than in the realm of Free Improvisation / Free Jazz. Nearly everything centers around how freedom transpires, how anything goes does go. I've been happily reminded of this on a new free quartet date entitled A Railroad Spike Forms the Voice (uG EXPLODE uG82 Balance Point AcousticsBPALTD13013). It is a particularly striking four-way venture-adventure.

The quartet grouping on this one turns out to be especially good for creative chemistry. On soprano sax is the always bracing, ever inventive Rosco Mitchell, central initial member of the AACM and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, jazz conceptualist, composer, free improviser of great stature, doing for us his stylistic abstraction thing that he has consistently developed over the years, with a special turning marked especially after mastering circular breathing.

On electric guitar is Sandy Ewen, a very much rising star of free and experimental guitar improvisations, here turning in some especially excellent noise-centered sound-colored expressions.

On acoustic bass is a master of outside bass freedom, magician of extended technique and sound sensibility, as head of Balance Point Acoustics the creator of interesting and challenging free ensemble possibilities and a great player in any right. 

Finally on drums is the very personal stylist of free drumming, a keen eared creator of free-drum outpourings that are often enough neither quite in an abstraction of timekeeping nor in a sort of drum solo mode, but in a kind of third place that greatly helps this quartet defy gravity and go deeply into a cosmic space.

What is remarkable about this music is how specially together and consistently forward moving is this quartet over the continuous 72 minute uninterrupted performance. There are arcs of pointed staccato eruptions rather thrilling to hear coupled with long-toned washes mostly inside the staccato envelopes. Than there are climactic swoops of energy that command your attention in winning ways. It is a stunning example of the art of Free-Modern improvisations by four exceptional exponents in a togetherness that is most rare to hear on this high a level.

Taken altogether this is an exhilarating and exemplary example of open improvisations at this point some sixty-odd years into the history of avant freedom. This has all the markings of a milestone recording of the very contemporary. By all means check it out.

Robbe Gloaguen Quartet, International Free Dance Music Orchestra, Gardez Votre Sang Froid, Compositions de Francois Tusques

There are albums in the review cycle that take a while to digest, that I at first do not quite know what I have in front of me. That has been true of the volume at hand today. It is a two-CD set, the first disk recently recorded by the Robbe Gloaguen Quartet playing the compositions of French Avant Jazz pianist-composer Francois Tusques. The second volume is by Tusques himself in a live 1984 recording with the International Free Dance Music Orchestra (Mazeto Square 3770005705244 2-CD).

What we come to appreciate (at least I do) is an emphasis on the compositional collectivity of Tusques in various moods and modes, more emphasis on this than merely a constant focus on improvisational continuity, which is secondary though important of course in keeping with a "Jazz" actuality.

The first disk, Gardez Votre Sang Froid  ("Keep Your Cool") fields a very together quartet of Eric Leroux on saxophone, Fabien Robbe on piano, Tanguy le Dore on bass and Jerome Gloaguen on drums. Ten compositions get vibrant and free-going treatment in a very convincing loose-free ensemble setting. As you listen repeatedly you begin to lock into the frame of mind of each piece and in the process also get locked into the "testificatory" soulfulness of the totality. It is music to in time appreciate increasingly. The melodic element is strong and not exactly predictable either. Perhaps it might qualify as one of the best albums made by people you probably never heard of? Seriously this CD alone grows on you more and more. But then so does the second. If you are reading this you no doubt already know of Tusques? If not all the more reason to check it out.

The Theatre de Jazet 1984 live disk gives us a kind of Avant Free dance suite played by an eleven member big band with some eccentrically "ethnic" vocals and a forward moving dance continuity that is infectious as well as being offered with a sense of humor. It's as if we experience some music from an unknown local folk world. The audio sounds good in part thanks to Julien Palomo's restoration of the original sound of the set. The improvisations at hand here are consistent with a folkish openness and a loose conjoining that brings a smile. The composed tutti parts have a kind of Modern-Avant quality that belie in interesting ways the sort of ethnicity that hangs together as a premise. 

I come away from this set very glad to have it, to hear it. I will doubtless be listening again many times. Highly recommended.

Denny Zeitlin, George Marsh, Telepathy, Duo Electro-Acoustic Improvisations

 

Music can heal. It can be a personal thing, depending on your musical profile sometimes. 

Pianist-electroacoustician Denny Zeitlin and drummer George Marsh have made some incredible music together for many years, so much so and so productively so that they have developed a Telepathy together. It is fittingly the title of their latest collaboration (Sunnyside CD). This as the third Electroacoustic duo outing for the two since 2015. I've covered the others and many of his additional projects as well on these pages. Look him up in the search box above for the other reviews.

It is music so improvisationally limber that it gives off a kind of healing vibe, at least to me. There is a joy of duo closeness and a making the electroacoustics sound spontaneously in performance space. And the continual open-form brilliance of Denny's adroit key realizations and George's swinging and inventive drumming, it just emits a kind of soul healing vividness.

Sometimes Denny's keyboard programming choices sound nearly orchestral, other times it has that club duo reaching-out thing happening, but always it works and George is right there responding with lots of great drumming. And needless to say it is also a matter of the free improv prowess of Maestro Zeitlin, his vivid harmonic-melodic-rhythmic inventiveness that makes this music exceptional.

This one is no afterthought. It is essential. Nobody mixes up the synth and piano like Denny. And George is the perfect foil, a master drummer at the top of his game, totally attuned to what Denny is doing. Very recommended.

Joel Futterman, Intervals, Solo Piano Improvisations

 

Joel Futterman has over the years proven himself to be one of the most consistently interesting and innovative post-Cecil-Taylorian Free pianists, yet he seems to get less recognition than he deserves. There is a nice album of solo piano from him that has been out for a little while and it has attracted my ears to it just lately. It is entitled Intervals (Fundacia SLUCHAJ FSR 15/2020).

On the CD jacket it is noted that the three-part improvisation was recorded all in one take in the order presented, and needless to say the spontaneity is at the forefront. There is a theme that recurs from time to time, setting up the mostly free passages as a contrast. Joel sounds especially convincing in his scatter velocities but also the pedal chord tremolo patternings. No need to attempt a blow-by-blow description of the musical happenings. What matters is that Futterman makes it all count. Not a note is wasted. It has all the expressive impact of "Jazz" freedom with an inner connectivity the spurs everything forward and creates excitement.

There is a nice asymmetry and polyrhythmic fluidity at times between left and right hands. Each improvisational avenue flows out of the last so that all has a kind of narrative sense to it.

If you know Joel Futterman's music well or if you know it not at all, either way this is a good one to experience. It is Avant Progress, so to speak, a worthwhile step ahead and you should hear it, have it.