Swarmius Return with New EP

We took a look at Swarmius's first CD a few days ago (see listing below). Today it's time for their EP follow-up, Also Normal (Aleppo), and it's another good one. Jozefius and company create orchestrally conceived music that does not fit easily into the ready-made categories. There's a modern classical component but the drive of rock and the electronic wizardry of the best of hip-hop. They conflate genres the way Zappa and Zorn do, but in ways that distinguish them as original.

The thirty-some-odd minute EP ranges over wide and relatively uncharted territory. "Cali' Karsilama" is a wild romp through the mid-east-near Asian-Semitic zone and it has a joyous quality."Orpheus is a Tiptoed Steamhorse" has lively contrapuntal passages that punch through all obstacles and communicate with widely varied textures and timbres in ways that will not leave you somnolent. "Moonlight Beach Chaconne" adds voices to the mix and some really captivating solo violin for a choral opus that plays out its musical cards in a poker game where Swarmius's hand takes all the chips.

In short, this is another intriguing offering and well-worth your listening time. What's next for them? I look forward to whatever it is, and I suspect there are more surprises in store for all of us.

Clarinetist Michael Thieke with Christian Weber & Michael Griener

If there is a flow to the sequence of these blogposts, it is sometimes serendipitous. German clarinetist Michael Thieke, for example, has been a member of Gebhart Ullmann's Clarinet Trio; Ullmann was a featured artist on yesterday's posting. That just happens to be the case; I did not plan it.

However the segue is logical and sensible. The Ayler Download Series recording The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse pits Michael Thieke's clarinet, alto clarinet and alto sax with Christian Weber's bass and Michael Griener's drums for a most fruitful trio session.

Thieke's three-pronged attack on the reed instruments he favors on this recording is limber and freely creative. In the seven relatively brief tracks on this release, Thieke lets loose with compelling, snakingly writhing lines of very good free invention while Weber and Griener put forth appropriate and interesting counterlines.

The moods are freely but contrastingly constructed; they show good variety with timeless, punctuating or pulsating attacks, energetic forays or more quietly meditative ruminations, exotic timbres or musical line-weaving of good provenance.

Here are three more European players well worth hearing, captured in a good point in time where all are relaxed and inspired. Listen and like.

It's a download only release, so click away at the Ayler link on this page if you want to find out how that works.

Steve Swell, Gebhart Ullmann, Desert Songs, 2004

The thing about most, if not all of the music covered in this blog is that it does not expire. The CD package does not provide a "good until [x date]" notice on it. If the music is worthwhile, it will fill your ears for far longer than a single season, and not as an oldie either. So if I am only now reviewing a CD from 2004, it is with the idea that the music contained within it is timeless.

We are talking about the Gebhard Ullmann-Steve Swell Quartet and their Desert Songs and Other Landscapes (CIMP). I'll tell you why I think this recording is important. First off, it has a really dynamic and exciting series of interactions between Ullmann on tenor or bass clarinet and Swell on the trombone. Gebhard may not be all that familiar to many listeners, but listen to his command and fluidity on this one and you'll wonder why. Steve Swell is the modern trombonist personified. He has great tonal range, power and very inventive and eloquent improvisational vocabulary, all in great evidence here.

Second, this recording features drummer Barry Altschul in fine form. He has a busy style that pushes the band mercilessly and inspires the front line to ever greater heights of energy and inspiration. Since his halcyon days as a key member of Circle, then the Braxton and Rivers groups and finally in a series of recordings with his own bands, he established himself as one of the premier drummers of the new music. In the period that followed, at least in the States, he wasn't quite as visible (or I should say, audible). This recording surely helps re-establish Mr. Altschul at the forefront and you can hear how his playing has developed considerably as well. Bassist Hilliard Greene fits right in with everything and meshes with Barry in classic free-form fashion.

Third and finally, the compositional frameworks, improvising routines and overall ambiance of this record make for a superior session. Things are just right for a meaningful gathering, and that's just what takes place. See the CIMP link on this page for more info.

John Vanore & Abstract Truth: Vivid Big Band Jazz

Jazz composer, big-band leader and trumpeter John Vanore shows he is a force with which to be reckoned on his new release Curiosity (Acoustical Concepts). Vanore studied with the somewhat legendary Philly pedagogue Dennis Sandole, played with Woody Herman and has perfected his writing-arranging craft in various dues-paying situations.

His band, recorded here in 1991, is tight and hard hitting. There's a very impressive brass section of eight strong players, but the entire band has ensemble presence that brings out the best in Vanore's charts. There are seven interesting band originals (four from Vanore) plus a Frank Foster gem.

If you like a powerfully modern big band sound, you certainly should be pleased with this one. I hope Mr. Vanore gets the attention he deserves and follows up with more releases like this.

Thomas-Parker Wells-Blanco Trio Extends the Music of Albert Ayler

You are at the Glenn Miller Cafe in Stockholm, Sweden, March 2007. The trio of Luther Thomas, alto sax, Jair-Rohm Parker Wells, bass, and Tony Bianco, drums, has gotten together to pay tribute to Albert Ayler in a supercharged set of freewheeling improvisations.

That's the setting for the Ayler download release Meditations on Albert Ayler. Familiar Albert themes and an old hymn are the launching pads for two extended cuts, but what matters is the group dynamic that bounds off the bandstand and engulfs the listener.

This is no clone of an Ayler session. It's in the tradition that comes out of Ayler, yes, but it is not some remapping of the licks and timbres of an old Ayler trio recording. Everyone in this ensemble contributes with their own take on the free improvisational genre. Drummer Bianco is busy, energetic without overwhelming the group context; Parker Wells brings the bottom up and lays down a spectral fullness; and, perhaps most of all, Luther Thomas plays an alto that has real projection and a virtual arsenal of sounds. He plays strongly rhetorical lines that power over the free wash, gets a wide range of sound colors and can play overarching cries and rapid figurations without sounding at all like an Ayler clone. He's a strong player and makes a strong statement and a cogent musical argument for why he is a player definitely worth hearing.

The sound is decent, the price is right and the music is very recommended. Go to ayler.com to download.

Jim Cooper Reissue for Those of the Vibraphonic Persuasion

The vibes are a difficult instrument and perhaps playing them is a relatively unsung art. You get a sound with a particular hardness of mallets, you get a sound with the rotary motor on or off, you get a sound that is harder to vary than, say, a tenor sax. Establishing your own sound depends on many subtle factors--all those factors plus how you use the sustain bar, the manner of attack, multi-mallet techniques versus two-fisted percussiveness, and so on.

Jim Cooper, not necessarily a household name, has his own way. He absorbs the tradition from Bags to Hutcherson and then puts his own spin on it.

You can hear that to very good advantage on his 1991 album Nutville (Delmark) just re-released on CD. It brings together a crack team of hard boppers, the great Ira Sullivan on trumpet, soprano and tenor, the hiply swinging piano of Bob Dogan, and a very good rhythm section.

The art of evolved hard bop is well-advanced and Sullivan and Dogan sound really on top of it. Bob Cooper, though, is the man at the center. He plays with great rhythmic vitality, executing lines flawlessly with truly swinging, nuanced phrasing. And he often favors a more percussive, harder, less sustained sound than what you get with the Bag's bag.

Nutville fills a solid CD's worth of time with nicely turned blowing originals, plus tunes by Monk, Horace Silver and Dizzy. Whether in a Latin mode or just charging hard in a swinging enclave, Cooper and Company give you solid delight. Great to have this one available again!

Swarmius Defies Categorization

Swarmius is a four-man unit. Their music combines industrial, modern classical, world influenced music and a bunch of other things for a mix that has its own trajectory.

Heading up the band is Jozefius (Joseph Waters) who composes the music and uses a laptop to stretch, alter and augment the sounds created. Todd Rewoldt plays reeds, Felix Olschofka is on violin (quite adeptly so), and Joel Bluestone is the percussionist.

Their first, self-titled album (on Aleppo) has some rather startling musical content. Think of Zappa in his most ambitious vein. But don't think of his music; Swarmius does something different. There are driving pulses, exotic timbres, somewhat traditional sounding violin concerto pyrotechnics juxtiposed with rather untraditional accompaniment, and on from there.

The results are rather marvelous. Swarmius respects no rules about what goes with what. And that is most refreshing. Highly recommended.

Go to www.swarmius.com for more info.