Time Out Lisboa review by Jose Carlos Fernandes

Motif – Art Transplant (CF 225)
****
Ao quarto disco, o quarteto norueguês expandiu-se a quinteto, acolhendo o trompetista alemão Axel Dörner, e mudou-se para a editora portuguesa Clean Feed. O seu líder, o contrabaixista Ole Morten Vagan (OVG), é uma referência do jazz europeu e o público português conhecê-lo-á pelo precioso contributo que tem dado aos grupos de Júlio Resende. O quinteto passou recentemente pelo Jazz às Quintas, na Cafetaria do CCB.

Ultrapassados os três minutos de estertores de trompete solo que abrem o disco, entra-se em território menos árido: um pós-bop tingido de melodias evocativas do jazz clássicos dos anos 50-60 e impulsionado por uma secção rítmica angulosa e irrequieta. OVG mostra o seu talento com o arco na abertura de “Krakatau”, num solo bem original, que começa como zumbido inquietante e persistente e desabrocha em mil cores e inflexões. Em “Something for the Ladies”, que é impelido por um ritmo irresistível, é a vez de o pianista Havard Wiik ter um solo demolidor. “Lines for Swines” faz lembrar a excitação hipnótica do Coltrane dos anos 60 e tem no seu centro um corrosivo solo de trompete sobre uma turbulência rítmica insana.

Art Transplant mostra como se pode conciliar inovação e tradição e como o moderno jazz europeu não se conforma ao estereótipo de cerebralidade e frieza a que por vezes é associado – nos Motif, a palvra-chave é exuberância.

A lista das faixas na capa do CD está equivocada e os títulos aludidos neste texto seguem a ordem que se encontra nos sites para download de MP3.

All About Jazz Italy review by Vincenzo Roggero

BassDrumBone  – The Other Parade (CF 223)
Valutazione: 3.5 stelle
A trentatre anni dalla prima incisione (Oahspe – Auricle Records), esce il nuovo lavoro di BassDrumBone, super trio composto da tre maestri dei rispettivi strumenti che rispondono al nome di Ray Anderson (trombone), Mark Helias (contrabbasso) e Gerry Hemingway (batteria). Tre composizioni a testa, a sottolineare la natura assolutamente paritaria del combo, commissionate dalla prestigiosa Chamber Music America, The Other Parade conferma la miscela di jazz, funky, blues, free e quant’altro, che aveva fatto scalpore nel panorama jazzistico all’avvento del trio.

Si passa così dall’intricato groviglio strumentale dell’iniziale “Show Tuck” al sonnacchioso blues di “Blue Light Down the Line,” dalla gioiosa fanfara neworleansiana di “King Louisian” alla ragnatela poliritmica di “Rhythm Generation,” dallo splendido contrasto tra le linee melodiche pastorali e le sottolineature percussive di “Unforgiven” ai growl e ai colpi di lingua di “Lips and Grits”.

Inutile sottolineare come il disco sia infarcito di splendidi assoli, di come metta in risalto un telepatico interplay, di come la musica fluisca contagiosa, di come riesca ad accontentare i palati più fini come l’ascoltatore occasionale e meno smaliziato. La splendida foto di copertina ci parla di tradizioni secolari – ritrae dei giovani tamburini di Gavoi (paese nel cuore della Barbagia) durante il carnevale -, la musica contenuta in The Other Parade è intrisa di tradizione ma parla il linguaggio della contemporaneità.
http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=6706

Free Jazz review by Stef

Motif – Art Transplant (CF 225)
****
Motif is a Nowegian band with Atle Nymo on tenor, Håvard Wiik on piano,  Ole Morten Vågan on double bass, and Håkon Mjåset Johansen on drums. They are joined for the occasion by German trumpeter Axel Dörner. All five musicians form the traditional bop quintet, and that’s how they sound. With music that is composed, fully arranged and structured …. but with a twist. They are indeed the masters of deconstruction and reconstruction, abandoning their themes for wild or fun or experimental explorations, yet always falling back on the composed backbone of the piece.

This kind of explains the “Art Transplant” in the title, elements are taken out and replaced by different stuff, invented on the spot and integrated in the old structure. Critics could say that this is a nice trick to keep jazz artificially alive, yet the contrary is true : the band demonstrates how much of the jazz tradition is still of use today, and what a rich treasure trove it is for today’s language of expression. The music is also fun to listen to with lots of playful elements. The playing and the stylistic shifts are really exceptional, yet they at times seem to overshadow the emotional power needed to make this a truly great album.

In contrast to “Facienda”, the band’s triple CD of live and sturio recordings released earlier this year, “Art Transplant” is much more coherent in its approach.

A strong stylistic achievement.
http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/

The Mellophonium review by Adriano Ghirardo

Gerry Hemingway Quintet – Riptide (CF 227)
Il cinquantaseienne batterista e percussionista statunitense Gerry Hemingway è da tre decenni una delle figure chiave della scena radicale jazz: le sue collaborazioni più importanti sono quelle prolungate con Anthony Braxton, Oliver Lake e, più recentemente, con Don Byron tra gli altri. Dagli anni ’90 in poi, però, ha maggiormente curato il lato compositivo e progettuale guidando quartetti e quintetti come nel disco in oggetto in cui si avvale della collaborazione di Ellery Eskelin ed Oscar Noriega alle ance, Terrence Mc Manus alla chitarra e Kermit Driscoll al basso acustico ed elettrico. Le atmosfere presenti nel disco, pur basandosi su una modernità timbrica ed armonica, sfociano raramente negli episodi di arduo ascolto, presenti nelle incisioni con Derek Bailey ed altri esponenti dell’avanguardia, a testimonianza che la raggiunta maturità interpretativa permette ad Hemingway di fondere ricerca e fruibilità d’ascolto. Le sinuose linee di Eskelin e Noriega si inseguono ed intersecano sulla sicura ritmica, lasciando al timbro acido di Mc Manus il ruolo di bussola. Il chitarrista newyorkese, però, sembra prediligere una certa vaghezza armonica utilizzando lo strumento con riffs e divagazioni distorte in cui ricorda il Frisell non ancora addomesticato dalle nostalgiche descrizioni dell’America che fu. In definitiva questo disco che segna l’esordio del quintetto su etichetta Clean Feed lascia presagire positivi sviluppi per la carriera dei musicisti in esso coinvolti.
http://www.mellophonium.it/online/

So Jazz review by Nicolas Dourlhès

Downbeat review by Bill Meyer

Michael Dessen trio – Forget the Pixel (CF 222)
Trombonists were jazz’s original electronicists. While they’ve shared the responsibility for creating sound effects with trumpeters—the Duke Ellington Orchestra had Bubber Miley as well as Tricky Sam Nanton—what acoustic instrument better provides volume, brightness, malleability and purely sensual sound? George Lewis has played slide trombone and electronics with equal facility, and his former student Michael Dessen makes the two instruments work as one on Forget The Pixel. Dessen switches between voluptuous lyricism and digitally distorted splatter, and his shifts between those poles never feel forced or arbitrary. This is the trio’s second album, and it sounds like the work of a gigging band. How much of this work took place with all three men in the same room is open to conjecture. Dessen lives and teaches in Irvine, Calif., a continent away from his New York-based confederates, but he is a pioneer in telematics, the practice of long-distance, real-time collaboration. But whether their chemistry was forged with the assistance of bandwidth or frequent flyer miles, it’s real. You can hear it in the way Christopher Tordini’s figures sway and give under the influence of Dan Weiss’s martial snare beats on “Licensed Unoperators (For Lisle).” It’s also evident on “Herdiphany,” where they supply stop-start responses to the pitch-shifted squiggles that Dessen pokes their way like some cartoon rabbit sticking out his impossibly elongated tongue at hunters who are both his dogged nemeses and closest associates. These guys don’t just play together—they’re playing. This playfulness, as much as their fluid negotiations of Dessen’s jagged rhythms and elaborate melodies, is the spoonful of sugar that make these rigorous improvisations go down easy.

All About Jazz Italy review by Vincenzo Roggero

Michael Dessen Trio – Forget the Pixel (CF 222)
Valutazione: 3.5 stelle
I brani sono sette ma l’ora di musica contenuta in Forget the Pixel (bel titolo preso dalla prima riga del poema di Phillis Levin “Open Field”) può essere vista come un’unica suite, concepita già all’origine per una esibizione senza interruzioni del trio. Il trio, per l’appunto, ma dovremmo parlare di quartetto perché l’elettronica utilizzata dal leader, il trombonista Michael Dessen, è a tutti gli effetti il quarto strumento utilizzato per la registrazione.
Già da diversi anni studioso degli sviluppi nell’uso di computer, live processing e sampling come pratica improvvisativa e soprattutto di sue possibili formalizzazioni in modelli, Dessen utilizza l’elettronica non in senso coloristico ma come paritario interlocutore delle libere improvvisazioni. Così che, anche la sua assenza o i momenti di minimo utilizzo, incidono profondamente sulla registrazione che è una sorta di manuale non scritto sull’interazione tra scrittura e improvvisazione.

Vi è inoltre un lavoro sulle scomposizioni ritmiche, sullo sviluppo di cellule melodiche e su di una concezione avventurosa della fluidità espressiva che risulta notevole anche grazie all’apporto di due grandi musicisti come il percussionista Dan Weiss (assai noto anche dalle nostre parti) e il contrabbassista Chris Tordini (meno noto ma altrettanto rimarchevole). L’approccio strumentale e improvvisativo di Dessen è molto personale, ricorda alcune cose sperimentali di George Lewis con una maggior propensione ad inglobare elementi di musica colta europea e contemporanea.

Complessivamente Forget the Pixel, nonostante qualche momento un po’ dispersivo, è un ottimo esempio di musica avventurosa e pienamente accessibile.
http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=6876

JazzWrap review by Vern

Michael Dessen
Michael Dessen has an uncanny ability to craft pieces that are delicately structured but also uncharacteristic of his contemporaries.

Similar in vein to Ray Anderson, Dessen also has the ability to move between genres with ease. While he has recorded in many different settings, it has been his recent trio work that has really caught my ear.

Formed only a few years ago, Dessen uses the trio format to explore a number conceptual rhythmic structures. This makes for intensive listening but also a high degree of discovery.

On their first album, Between Shadow And Space (Clean Feed; 2008) along with Christopher Tordini (bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) create a dense, evocative and fluid mixture of acoustic and subtle electronic instrumentation that is really mind-blowing on first and repeated spins.

The title track deploys a rich counterpoint and improvisation. Tordini and Sorey are the perfect counter for Dessen’s compositions. This trio challenges and explores each other’s strengths. Patterns are structures are slowly built up and quietly torn down over the course seven minutes on the opener and the listener gets a full understanding of what Between Shadow And Space will be for them–A journey through space, sound and thought.

“Chocolate Geometry” moves along in multi-layered fashion. It’s like meditative suite. Gentle introspective passages delivered by simultaneously by Sorey’s complex brushes and some dense strokes from Tordini. Dessen’s trombone turns into a manipulated trumpet augmented by just the right amount of electronics to mix things up and send the piece soaring.

“Water Seeks” comes flying in to the close out the session. A beautiful and searching piece dedicated to Alice Coltrane with all the harmonics and resonance that would be associated with great composer/harpist/keyboard player. It’s loaded with rich texture, sharp hues and rising atmospherics that quietly fades leaving the listener some traces of a long beautiful journey.

Dessen reassembled his trio for the even more rugged Forget The Pixel (Clean Feed; 2011). This time with Dan Weiss on drums and Tordini remaining. The results are the same but Weiss does pack a aggressive punch to Sorey’s more insular and thought-provoking approach. Both drummers are perfect in this setting though.

“Fossils And Flows” rips through the speakers introducing the lineup and direction. The trio never let up. Its sound quickly becomes an avalanche and Dessen’s use of electronics feels like a thousand aliens sending a message that things will be different this time as his group visits your stereo. “Fossils And Flows” is actually an observation on the BP oil spill in the U.S. and and when listening, you get the feeling how things quickly got out of hand in the Gulf is similar to how unique the sound of this trio moves shapes and patterns.

“Forget The Pixel” is a more organic and improvised piece with each member exploring different aspects of Dessen’s composition. It’s a number that moves, and moves with light but an effective pace. Dessen and Tordini’s exchanges are tight and beautiful well placed. Weiss’ drums come in first like a military band and quickly turn impressionistic. Tones and utilization of space is one of the reasons why I have been so captivated by Michael Dessen’s trio work. “Three Sepals” is another exemplary mark of his unique writing skill. It’s a subtle ballad that stretches from note to note. It also has just the right amount of hard tones to keep the listener engaged, waiting for the next unknown marker. A real treat for the ears.

I have to admit, I’ve only just discovered Michael Dessen’s work in the last year so I have a lot of catching up to do. But from his trio work and a couple of other albums I’ve gotten over the last few months I am completely absorbed and excited by his material and direction. His playing and writing are superb. He doesn’t use the electronics as a gimmick. The sounds are more a subtle aid moving in and out time. They never overtake the rhythm or the meaning of a tune. And that’s pretty hard to do. Michael Dessen has proven he is a gifted artist with the trombone, electronics and in composition. An artist who is continually thinking and rising above.
http://jazzwrap.blogspot.com/2011/09/michael-dessen.html

Jazz Magazine review by François-Rene Simon

Jazz Magazine review by Peter Cato