Expresso review by João Santos

Tony Malaby’s Tubacello – Scorpion Eater (CF 318)
****
A acompanhar a receção crítica às suas mais inusuais formações, no jazz contemporâneo é normal impor-se um ponto que se propõe disputar a acracia que lhes é implícita e se resume nestes termos: é essencialmente subversiva ou apenas dispersiva a energia que da sua dinâmica resulta? Isto é, a insólita disposição dos seus elementos é mais uma das suas marcas de distinção ou será a única? Tony Malaby, que surge aqui à frente de um conjunto em que se une a um tubista (Dan Peck), a um violoncelista (Christopher Hoffman) e a um baterista (John Hollenbeck), e conforme se depreende pelo modo em que arruma o assunto, nunca quis tornar uma questão acessória da outra: “Há um contínuo mistério no som da tuba: de onde vem, qual a sua origem, em que lugar se situa na esfera de ação do grupo. [Possui] uma dimensão de que gosto muito.” Aliás, não seria aos 50 anos que substituiria uma convenção por outra. Na verdade, e independentemente da maneira em que se apresenta, a sua produção permanece extraordinariamente avessa a fórmulas. Quanto muito – e o título deste seu disco, só na aparência acerbo, ao inspirar-se por uma criança que adora chupa-chupas de escorpião parece apontar nesse sentido – utiliza-a para assinalar preconceitos a que jamais adere. Ou seja, não é por partilhar a instrumentação que, não há muito, Dave Douglas reuniu em “Mountain Passages” ou, há um pouco mais, e também excluindo o trompete, Arthur Blythe acomodou em “Metamorphosis”, que dos dois se irá aproximar. Até porque, acre e doce e obtusa e aguda e venenosa e sadia, esta é uma música imune ao cinismo. Simplesmente é.

All About Jazz Italia review by Giuseppe Segala

Tony Malaby’s Tubacello – Scorpion Eater (CF 318)
****
Tubacello: un bel sincretismo lessicale per definire l’organico riunito da Tony Malaby in occasione di questo Scorpion Eater. L’accoppiata di tuba e violoncello (che con il termine tubacello diventano un unico strumento, fantastico) viene scelta dal sassofonista in sostituzione del contrabbasso e dà vita a una formazione di marcata duttilità, in grado di affrontare con efficacia l’ampia tavolozza compositiva e la varietà delle improvvisazioni. L’organico strumentale, che si può leggere come un ampliamento del precedente Cello Trio (sempre con John Hollenbeck alla batteria ma con Fred Lonberg-Holm al violoncello), rinuncia pure al pianoforte, nella linea di altre formazioni guidate da Malaby. Tutte le scelte timbriche e di mescolamento cromatico del quartetto ne sono fortemente caratterizzate.

Da una parte c’è il raddoppiamento delle voci gravi, che a volte diventa rafforzamento in unisono, altre volte prende la forma di linee separate. Da un altro punto di vista c’è la liberazione dalle funzioni tradizionali degli strumenti coinvolti, che assumono di volta in volta ruoli di emergenza melodica, di impasto armonico, di intreccio polifonico e poliritmico, oppure di guida, in un gioco che richiama da un lato certe metodologie di Henry Threadgill, dall’altro il Tim Berne del periodo di Fulton Street Maul e Fractured Fairy Tales.

Si passa dunque dalla fitta trama contrappuntistica della musica da camera, in cui la batteria di Hollenbeck è voce melodica e timbrica autonoma (con un inserto al piano preparato in “Beaded Braid”), ai brani con ritmo lineare e danzante, alle esplorazioni timbriche in cui gli strumenti si fondono uno dentro l’altro. Bello in questo senso il citato “Beaded Braid,” il brano più lungo, di circa 15 minuti, costruito a episodi che alternano trasfigurate esplorazioni sonore a concreti momenti tematici.

Modalità di sviluppo simili, a episodi contrastanti tra l’esplorazione astratta e incisive parti tematiche, sono utilizzate in “Trout Shot,” con il tenore del leader, la tuba di Dan Peck e il violoncello di Chris Hoffman alla ricerca di pregnanti giochi mimetici. Cameristico è “March (For Izum),” aforistico e misterioso è “Fur,” con il sax che entra solo nel finale con un’unica, pregnante nota della durata di venti secondi. Altrettanto sintetico (sui due minuti) è il brano che apre l’album, “Buried.” Ma qui il mood è muscolare e perentorio.

Un disco davvero pregevole, arricchito dallo splendido lavoro solistico di Malaby e dei suoi comprimari.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/scorpion-eater-tony-malaby-clean-feed-records-review-by-giuseppe-segala.php

New York City Jazz Record review by Ken Micallef

Tony Malaby TubaCello – Scorpion Eater (CF 318)
Malaby’s TubaCello quartet with tuba player Dan Peck, cellist Christopher Hoffman and drummer John Hollenbeck improvises on broader material that is also more otherworldly in design. “This band has a different type of gravity that playing with a bassist simply doesn’t have. I just want to be embedded in that and be in the middle,” Malaby has said. With a drummer/ percussionist as strong as Hollenbeck, everyone’s game rises a notch, allowing the leader in particular to go for musical broke.

Hollenbeck plays trashcan percussion in the fluttering “Bearded Braid”, Malaby croaking like a disturbed morning dove as tuba utters dance-like growling notes. “Buried” recalls old school Chicago swing set afire, Malaby repeating a bluesy phrase as Hollenbeck swing/stalks and cello bobs; Malaby paints engrossing, historic imagery here, like David Murray juking mad in a New Orleans brothel. “Trout Shot” takes yet another turn, Hollenbeck hitting his floor tom in a sparse cadence as Malaby and Hoffman trade interweaving scrawls, all giving way to swashbuckling brushwork and scattershot inside jokes. The lovely title track closes the album, Malaby showing his gentle side, practically mewing soft notes to swooning cello. With Malaby you’re never sure what you’re going to get, but he is surely capable of delivering it all.

Click to access tnycjr201501.pdf

Free Jazz review by Paul Acquaro

Not so long ago, I had the pleasure of seeing a gig that paired up saxophonist Tony Malaby, drummer Gerald Cleaver, and bassist Ingebrit Haker-Flaten at the tin foil lined JACK Arts in Brooklyn. The music from the trio was just cooking. There was a point in the groups playng when there was no longer a group, but a THING. To start this review, I thought I would first share a video of the gig – expand it to full screen and enjoy:

Tony Malaby’s Tamarindo – Somos Agua (CF 304)
****
The release concert for this gem was at the Cornelia Street Cafe, a tiny sliver of old Greenwich Village – from a time before all the frozen yogurt, macaroon shops and luxury condos. You can still line up to squeeze into the basement of the club and enjoy some insanely good music. Malaby’s Tamarindo hit the stage there last year to play ‘selections’ from Somos Agua, or rather, music like you may find on Somos Agua, because as far as I can tell, this is music that can only really happen once.

This release though does a great job capturing the trio, sounding as alive on the CD as they did on the stage that night. Between the interactions of bassist William Parker, drummer Nasheet Waits, and of course saxophonist Malaby, there is so much to hear. The great strength of Tamarindo, to my ears, is the way Malaby will play inside, outside and all around his saxophone, but never once will it sound out of place with whatever else is happening. Maybe it’s Waits, whose drumming can be subtle and reactionary, exploratory and reserved, or rumbling and aggressive like on the opening “Mule Skinner”. Or maybe credit goes to William Parker, whose participation on a session does not necessarily guarantee its success, but seems to come pretty damn close. His playing, whether arco or plucking a pulsating bass-line, directs individual embers into a mighty conflagration. But no, the credit goes to the whole combination, a trio of musicians who really know how to craft a sound.

As I write this, it may seem that Somos Aguas is a powerhouse of a album, burning on all cylinders, And while these three are more than capable of making your old CD player combust, here they often hold back the volume a bit and explore the tensions and textures. The follow up to Mule Skinner is ‘Lorretto’, in which space is used along with light extended technique to evoke a certain melancholy. ‘*matik-Matik*’, up next, is an upbeat tune that relies on a tasty melody that spins our of Malaby’s horn over time. Here, Parker and Waits syncopated play gives Malaby something in which to get entangled. the group expertly turns up the heat on this one – it is an absolute album highlight. Honestly, almost the same can be said about “Can’t Find You …”, another slow build that reaches an apex and then crumbles wonderfully as the trio deconstructs what they just built.

This outing from Tamarindo is really enjoyable, all three are master at their craft and what they accomplish together is certainly well crafted, but free and exciting. By amping up the quiet – so to speak – Somos Agua’s high points are that much higher and the quieter stretches are nuanced and captivating.

Tony Malaby’s TubaCello – Scorpion Eater (CF 318)
****
“This band has a different type of gravity that playing with just a bassist simply doesn’t have,” writes Tony Malaby about Tubacello, the group behind his latest Clean Feed recording Scorpion Eater. Needless to say, Tubacello, a new configuration for the saxophonist, is a bottom heavy combination – with tuba and cello adding new textures and sounds that are not too often heard in free jazz.

The group joining Malaby is Chris Hoffman on cello, Dan Peck on tuba and John Hollenbeck on drums. It’s not just the instrumentation that make it different, but really in how they jell. In fact, after giving this a listen, I am reminded a bit of how the fantastic Dogon A.D. from Julius Hemphill made my jaw drop when I first heard it – especially in regards to how the cello introduced such rough hewn textures to the lurching grooves. Forty three years later, Scorpion Eater, though a much different recording, still introduces something unexpected and moving in its rich sonority.

The low frequency of the combo is really quite versatile and gives Malaby a lot of room to experiment. For example, on ”Buried’, which opens the recording, the track beings mid sentence, so to speak. The group, already in full motion, shows off its full range of sound and fury between a syncopated melody that introduces and ends the short piece, and leads into the uptempo ‘Trout Shot’. The track ‘Fur’ is a textural piece with sounds floating in the background as the instruments play slow measured lines. ‘March (For Izumi)’ sees the sax playing in the upper register with the cello providing counter motion in the lower middle, while Peck ably handles the bass role. ‘Bearded Braid’ slows things down. The ambient piece unfolds slowly, each instrument taking an extended solo as the song builds to an intense climax.

Tubacello’s instrumentation opens a lot of interesting possibilities – whether it’s providing a ambient canvass on which to build his ideas slowly, or creating deep and effective grooves, the combination works.

http://www.freejazzblog.org/2015/01/tony-malaby-tamarindo-tubacello.html

Sound of Music review by Joacim Nyberg

Nytt från Clean Feed

Portugisiska Clean Feed Records har en tämligen hög produktionstakt, nästan 30 skivor under 2014. Joacim Nyberg sitter på en liten hög nya releaser, åtta skivor med blandad musik av blandad kvalité.

Clean Feed är alltid ett spännande bolag. Musiken och kvalitén är blandad och man vet aldrig riktigt vad man får. Det är bara att lämna förutfattade meningar och förväntningar bakom sig och hugga in!

Friends and Neighbors – Hymn for a Hungry Nation (CF 310)
Friends and Neighbors (F&N) är ett ungt band från Norge som spelar en uppdaterad och genuin musik full av referenser. Det är mycket jazz och bop, frijazz, impro, toner av modern konstmusik, men rötterna finns ändå tveklöst i 60-talets frihetssökande jazzutflykter. Bandnamnet kommer från Ornette Coleman, det gör musiken på något sätt också. Men det är en förenkling. Det ryms så mycket mer i F&Ns musik. Det är en moderniserad frijazz, en frijazz med stark personlighet. En solklar liknelse senare i tiden är Atomic, både till instrumentationen, soundet och kompositionsmässigt, men F&N har ett luftigare sound, mer utrymme och musiken rör väldigt mycket på sig. Det är även mer spjuveraktigt och musiken har sina skönhetsfel. De åtta spåren är en blandning av frifräs, ballader och subgrupperingar och det finns en spelglädje som smittar av sig. Samtliga medlemmar får mycket utrymme för solon och det är fem fantastiska musiker vi hör, lyssna särskilt på svenske Oscar Grönbergs skeva monkiga piano och Thomas Johanssons vansinnigt bra trumpet. F&N har spelat ihop ganska länge och det är ett mycket välsmort maskineri som utan några tveksamheter dundrar fram och skapar en skiva med enastående modern jazz full av liv.

Förra uppdateringen skrev jag om Leo-skivan SKEIN där en multinationell ensemble levererade enastående improvisationsmusik. Pianisten i den ensemblen heter Achim Kaufmann och han kan nu även höras på skivan Pith & Twig, den andra skivan från trion Grünen med basist Robert Landfermann och den unge trumslagaren Christian Lillinger. Kombinationen Landfermann/Lillinger återfinns även på skivan The Line, den andra från Lisbon Berlin Trio, med portugisen Luís Lopes på elgitarr.

Grünen – Pith and Twig (CF 311)
I trion med Kaufmann bjuds det på underlig musik, långt ifrån gängse pianotriotjat, en upphackad impro som lämnar utrymme för slumpen. Jag har inga direkta referenser vilket känns befriande. Inga beats eller direkta grooves, snarare antydningar. Melodiskt fast atonalt. Kaufmann är skicklig på att väga tonerna och spela precis det som krävs, han är aldrig vräkig. Lillingers trumspel är mycket finurligt, han närmar sig den fria improvisationen med tekniken som vapen. Hans trummor flödar och puttrar men tar aldrig över. Balans och musikalitet. Landfermann har bra stuns i basen och pushar nästan mer än vad trummorna gör. De tre spelar tätt ihop och rör sig som i en dans. Men den lite stapplande och konstiga sorten. Just när man tror att man fattat stegen så gör trion något som vänder upp och ner på allt. Det är svårt att förstå och den plötsliga förvirringen känns underbar. Det är ovanlig och rolig musik som får en att haja till, tänka till och förundras. Det är rysligt bra.

Luís Lopes Lisbon Berlin Trio – The Line (CF 312)
Landfermann/Lillinger fortsätter att leverera på skivan The Line. Den tredje medlemmen, och ledaren i Berlin Lisbon Trio, är som sagt portugisen Luís Lopes på elgitarr och nu är det helt annan musik det är tal om. Vi får distad elgitarr, distad kontrabas, mer rock, mer oväsen och mindre dynamik. Lättheten som fanns i trion med Kaufmann är som bortblåst och återfinnes endast i Lillingers mjukhårda touch. Lopes har ett gammalt tröttsamt rock/fusion-sound som mest maler på. Han tar lite för stor plats och saknar den där riktiga fingertoppskänslan. Tur att han har ett så förbaskat bra ”komp”, för Lopes är tyvärr den svagaste länken, och som vi alla vet är en kedja inte starkare än sin svagaste länk. Så trots Landfermann/Lillingers hjälteinsatser blir The Line en ostimulerande skiva.

Velkro – Don’t Wait for the Revolution (CF 313)
Ytterligare en trio får vi på skivan Don’t Wait for the Revolution. Velkro är namnet på trion bestående av slovenske tenorisaxofonisten Boštjan Simon, norske gitarristen/basisten/elektrikern Stephan Meidell och portugisiske trummisen Luís Candeias. Trion har sina bakgrunder i Noise, hip-hop, alt-rock, electronica, improvisation och folklore och på Don’t Wait for the Revolution är det också en blandad musik som möter oss. Det är klart beatbaserad pop/rock med en folkton. Trion tar ett enkelt riff (som på ”Nolero”) eller en tonalitet (som på mörka ”Undercurrents”) och sedan bygger de sina improvisationer runt det. Musiken är flytande, men med tydlig rytmik och harmoni. Soundet är ganska polerat även om de också spräcker på lite grann som på ”Mayhem” (passande titel). Sista spåret ”Grinding” är ett Sonic Youth-inspirerat rockjam. Det är dock luftigt och låter fortfarande jazzigt. Jag tycker att det är trevlig musik, lite charmigt i sin enkelhet och otvungenhet.

Zanussi 5 – Live in Coimbra (CF 314)
Skivorna The Line och Don’t Wait for the Revolution var båda väldigt rockiga, så Zanussi Fives Live in Coimbra hamnar i tydlig kontrast; det är jazz och inget annat. Vilket börjar bli ovanligt. Zanussi Five har skapat sig ett alldeles eget sound, dels tack vare den annorlunda sättningen kontrabas, trummor och tre saxar, och dels tack vare Zanussis starka men öppensinnade ledarskap. Musiken är uppbyggd kring formen ”groove, tema, soli, tema”. Det är välbeprövat men trots det bjuds man konstant på överraskningar. Per Zanussis låtar är otroligt listiga och känns samtidigt självklara och nyskapande. Förstaspåret ”Celestial” är hisnande vackert, en sakral stämning med högpitchade sköra sounds, medan andraspåret ”Blood Flower” är en riktig Zanussi-fräsare och ”Double Dream” har en orientalisk mystik. Jag tror att Zanussi Fives styrka ligger i just det att låtarna är så grymt bra. Och att det helt tveklöst är jazz, modern och transformerad, men ändå jazz. Dessutom är instrumentspelet också alltid av högsta klass. Det svänger och kränger, det är svett och jävlaranamma och fantastiskt roligt att lyssna på. Live in Coimbra är en riktigt bra jazzskiva från en väldigt speciell grupp.

Brötzmann / Edwards / Noble – Soulfood Available (CF 316)
Något speciellt verkar även Peter Brötzmann ha hittat i John Edwards och Steve Noble. Denna, Brötzmanns (relativt) nya ”UK Trio”, har spelat mycket ihop de senaste åren och Soulfood Available är den tredje skivan där de tre muskelmännen står sida vid sida. Edwards och Noble är nog det köttigaste ”komp” jag vet. De är ett av mycket få komp som utmanar och eggar Brötzmann. På Soulfood Available eldas det på i sedvanlig ordning och det är fräsig frijazz som låter precis så man förväntar sig att den ska låta. Det är intet nytt men inte mig emot, jag är ett jättefan av både Brötzmann, Edwards och Noble och jag tar dem precis så som de är. Men det finns ändå även överraskningar på skivan: när trion går ner i dynamik, när melodier och luft får samsas på samma yta, då träder den där så kallade ”känslan” fram som gärna förskrämt drar sig tillbaka när det ska ösas på. Då blir musiken laddad och man får en chans att tränga djupt in i den och notera alla små gnistor som slår. Grejen är att det är ganska mycket ”lugna” partier. Börjar vi skönja ålderstecken från Brötzmann? Det är hur som helst en bra Brötzmann-skiva, inte extraordinär, men bra. Hans UK Trio fortsätter att leverera.

De Beren Gieren / Susana Santos Silva – The Detour Fish (Live in Ljubljana) (CF 317)
En helt annorlunda trio är belgiska De Beren Gieren, bestående av Fulco Ottervanger (piano), Lieven Van Pée (bas) och Simon Segers (trummor). På skivan The Detour Fish, inspelad under Ljubljana Jazz Festival i somras, har de bjudit in härliga Susana Santos Silva på trumpet. Det är lätt och luftig modern improvisationsmusik med stark melodisk och rytmisk kärna. Det finns också en lite melankolisk ådra, kanske känns det lite eftertänksamt. Vilket blir problematiskt. För musiken känns något återhållsam och behärskad, till den grad att den inte riktigt lossnar. Det tänder inte till! Kompositionerna känns dessutom lite formlösa och då musiken bygger mycket på tillstånd blir det även lite stillastående. Det finns dock några undantag: ”Weirs” är ett av de tillfällen då det faktiskt tänder till, och då blir det intressant! Vidare är ”Slippery Men (on the riverbank)” en kvasijazzig historia med hetsigt pianospel. Det är när kvartetten bråkar lite som det blir som roligast. Tyvärr är det lite för sällan. De Beren Gieren är en fin trio, de skulle dock må bra av att härja lite mer. Santos Silva spelar som så ofta bra, men lyssna istället på henne i duo med Torbjörn Zetterberg (Almost Tomorrow, även den på Clean Feed), för där händer det grejer!

Tony Malaby’s Tubacello – Scorpion Eater (CF 318)
Den sista skivan i denna Clean Feed-hög är med Tony Malaby’s Tubacello och heter Scorpion Eater. Malaby är en aktiv New York-saxofonist som har haft trios med cello/trummor och med tuba/trummor, men nu har han alltså kombinerat cello och tuba i en kvartett med sin sax plus trummor. När jag recenserade den senaste omgången från NoBusiness Records fanns där en skiva med Malaby där han spelar med cellisten Christopher Hoffman som även dyker upp här på Scorpion Eater. Det verkar vara ett inspirerat samarbete för de låter rysligt bra tillsammans. Dan Peck har vi hört spela äventyrlig tuba med bland andra Nate Wooley och han är kul att lyssna på. Bakom trummorna sitter John Hollenbeck som har den sällsynta förmågan att kombinera åttaarmad teknik, fjäderlätt anslag och driv. Han är en modern trummis med sinne för balans. Tony Malaby spelar både tenor- och sopransax på olika sätt. Sopranen låter lite slick och beräknande medan tenoren är härligt oborstad. Musiken då? Det är en blandad påse, allt från minimalistiska vyer till rockabilly-röj. Det är ganska mycket sax men alla får utrymme. Tuban ligger ofta lite i bakgrunden men förgyller musiken medan cellon ömsom axlar basistrollen, ömsom stråkar sig längst fram. Musiken är sprudlande, nyfiken och pigg. Scorpion Eater är en skiva som suger in mig och det händer saker hela tiden. Den är lite “otippad” och det glädjer mig.

Clean Feed har gett ut åtta skivor som alla föder tankar. Skivan med trion Grünen är ett måste, men Friends and Neighbors är också ruggigt bra. Tony Malabys Scorpion Eater är den mest överraskande skivan medan Brötzmann levererar själfull frijazz som bara han kan. Zanussi 5 bjuder som vanligt på underfundig modern jazz av högsta kvalité, medan övriga skivor inte riktigt slår an en sträng. Men så mycket bra musik Clean Feed har gett oss. Det är bara att tacka och bocka.

http://www.soundofmusic.nu/artikel/nytt-fran-clean-feed

All About Jazz Italy review by Vincenzo Roggero

Nate Wooley Sextet – (Sit In) The Throne Of Friendship (CF 280)
Si respira aria di festa in (Sit In) The Throne of Friendship ultima fatica discografica del trombettista e compositore Nate Wooley. Si avverte quella sensazione un po’ démodé che solo il circo o il luna park sono in grado di offrire, tra momenti di eccitazione per le novità o per le mirabolanti avventure promesse, rassicuranti sensazioni dalle cose che non cambiano, profumi invitanti che sanno d’altri tempi.

La strumentazione è insolita con quattro strumenti dai registri gravi— clarinetto basso, sax baritono, tuba e contrabbasso—a fungere da liquido di contrasto per gli interventi lucenti del vibrafono e per le multiformi sembianze assunte dalla tromba del leader. L’ampio uso di tecniche estese passa inosservato rispetto alla miriade di sfumature che Wooley dissemina con sapienza e noncuranza, ai continui cambi di atmosfera, alle sorprese dispensate da una stanza degli specchi sonora deformante e bizzarra.

Tutto scivola via con naturalezza, come se una mano invisibile tirasse i fili dei singoli strumenti seguendo il ritmo della natura, assecondando irregolarità di percorso e cambi di umore. Wooley oltre che trombettista innovativo si rivela compositore non convenzionale e leader dalla forte personalità in grado di dar risalto alle peculiarità dei singoli in funzione di una chiara progettualità.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=46570#.UwYOb2J_suc

Downbeat review by Peter Margasak

Few trumpeters find and develop disparate contexts and projects as assiduously as Nate Wooley, a fiercely original and curious horn player who straddles the divide between jazz and abstract improvisation as if it was a mere crack in the sidewalk. These two new recordings capture him in wildly different settings, for which he masterfully calibrates his sound and approach to suit the needs of each, yet  his personality shines through on both.

Nate Wooley/Peter Evans/Jim Black/Paul Lytton – Trumpets and Drums: Live in Ljubljana (CF 282)
****
Live in Ljubljana is a fully improvised quartet set that puts him in the company of two of his most trusted duo partners: fellow trumpeter Peter Evans and drummer Paul Lytton. Drummer Jim Black, a regular member of the quintet led by Evans, rounds out the Trumpets and Drums quartet. For the majority of the album’s two lengthy pieces, wryly titled “Beginning” and “End,” the horn players dig into their huge bags of extended technique, blowing sibilant growls, unpitched breaths, machine-like sputters, brittle whinnies, and more. But rather that come off as a predictable catalog of sounds, the pair reveal a stunning connection, playing off one another with rare empathy and ensemble-oriented focus. But the bond between Wooley and Evans is hardly the only connection at work here. Lytton and Black contribute a veritable thicket of frictive clatter and percolating chaos, but never at the sake of forward propulsion.

Nate Wooley Sextet – (Sit In) the Throne of Friendship (CF 280)
****
(Sit In) the Throne of Friendship was recorded with a dazzling, resourceful sextet. The disc not only shows off Wooley’s deep jazz roots on demonstrates his startling growth as a composer and arranger. The album opens with a sparkling adaptation of Randy Newman’s “Old Man on the Farm,” setting the tone with some bracing multi-linear improvisation between himself, reedist Josh Sinton, and tuba player Dan Peck. Wooley deftly scurries between clarion-toned lines that suggest the influence of Dave Douglas, especially the half-valved fluidity, and the scuffed, striated sounds generated with extended technique, fitting both aesthetics into the flow of his compositions. Wooley’s multipartite tunes make exceptional use of his scrappy ensemble, giving them a deceptive orchestral quality. While there’s little about this session that sounds like Birth of the Cool, the agility of Peck reminds me of Bill Barber’s smooth, dominant presence on that Miles Davis classic, while the sometimes shimmering, sometimes dissonant vibraphone lines of Matt Moran adds an additional layer of cool to the proceedings.

Wooley’s tunes are packed with attractive melodies that wind and wend though ever-shifting timbres thanks to inventive, rich arrangements that keep the sonic landscape in constant motion. There are plenty of solos here, but there’s no blowing over cycling forms. Wooley’s technical imagination and mastery of jazz fundamentals has been established already, but this new sextet effort definitely adds notches to his belt.

Free Jazz review by Stef Gissels

Nate Wooley Sextet – (Sit In) The Throne Of Friendship (CF 280)
****½
Music fans who are familiar with Nate Wooley’s latest releases will be surprised to hear the other side of the trumpeter’s musical vision, one that is less focused on sound and technique, but more on composition and arrangements, and with equal success I must say.

The band is actually an extension of Wooley’s quintet that released “(Put Your) Hands Together”, with tuba-player Dan Peck as the new member, next to Wooley on trumpet, Josh Sinton on bass clarinet and baritone saxophone, Matt Moran on vibes, Eivind Opsvik on bass, and Harris Eisenstadt on drums.

The music is as inventive and varied as on the first album, yet taking even a step further, making it more memorable in that sense, maybe more complex, more compelling, with solos that just go a notch deeper and stronger, in such a way that you want to listen again and again, because even if all sounds are quite easy to get into, and are welcoming and warm from the first listen, the compositions and arrangements develop in unpredictable ways, with lots of tempo and rhythm changes within each track, making it an almost mandatory gesture to push on the start button again, just to make sure you understood what was happening, and especially how it all fits together and how it works out so nicely.

The album opens with the magnificent theme of “Old Man On The Farm”, so beautiful and moving, that you wonder whether this is truly Wooley you’re listening to, but then the theme collapses in absolute free improvisation with great duets between trumpet and bass clarinet, spiralling upwards, in absolute frenzy, then move back into the unison theme with Swiss clock precision.

The album also gives us a grand tour of jazz history, with boppish moments as on the second track, “Make Your Friend Feel Loved”, on which Dan Peck plays a lead role, with deep intro growls from his tuba gradually picking up rhythm, Eisenstadt and Moran joining soon, then Wooley Sinton Opsvik bring the theme, things change into hesitant stalling chords, going nowhere at all like a track stand in cycling, full of built-up tension, only to be released by a boppish “walking tuba” underpinning for a great solo by Wooley, full of joy and anger at the same time, things come to a halt again, the theme resurfaces and Sinton shouts through his baritone for his solo part.

“The Berries” offers Moran the stage for a long solo moment in between a jubliant unison theme that is fun although somewhat too mellow for my taste.

Things get better again with “Plow”, with odd thematic counterpoints as beacons in an otherwise open-ended structure, with solos for Opsvik  in the first part, and some weird trialogue between trumpet, vibes and bass clarinet in the second.

“Executive Suites” is a strange animal, with changing themes, rhythms and moods even, varying between funny and solemn, with complex arrangements and sudden surprises.

“My Story My Story” is a melancholy piece that starts rhythm-less with muted trumpet tones over slow vibes which sound like church bells in the distance, and with bass and tuba adding darkness in the lower tones, over slowly changing ascending chord changes, then halfway an explicit slow blues emerges with Wooley unmuting his horn, playing some astonishing fully voiced multiphonics, then sounding like Lester Bowie in “The Great Pretender”, heartrending and deeply emotional.

“Sweet And Sad Consistency”, has a contemplative beginning which evolves into a stomping uptempo 7/8 juggernaut with Sinton blowing some hair-raising howls out of his baritone sax, in stark contrast to Wooley’s warm introduction, while bass and drums are more of the headbanging kind, but when the band is at full throttle, the thing stops for some side conversation of the low volume kind, all this in sharp contradiction with the track’s title.

The album ends with “A Million Billion BTUs”, a composition built around several themes, one more sweeping, the other interestingly accelerating, with changes of tempo throughout and great solo space for Wooley, Sinton and Moran.

So, now listen to this album, and again and again. To describe it in a few words is hard, as you can understand from the above, but here is a try : a warm and heartfelt album, full of inventive compositions, building on various elements of jazz tradition, yet moving it a step further into the future, performed with superb musicianship and equally warm and tight interplay.

Play it again!
http://www.freejazzblog.org/

The New York City Jazz Record review by Stuart Broomer

Joe Morris/Agustí Fernández/Nate Wooley – From the Discrete to the Particular (Relative Pitch)
Nate Wooley/Peter Evans/Jim Black/Paul Lytton – Trumpets and Drums (Live in Ljubljana) (CF 282)
Nate Wooley Sextet – (Sit In) The Throne of Friendship (CF 280)
Nate Wooley is among a group of distinguished younger trumpeters redefining the sonic possibilities of the instrument. More than that though, he combines both rare invention and rare taste across a stylistic range that stretches from free improvisation to his own version of postbop.

The trio of Wooley, guitarist Joe Morris and pianist Agustí Fernández that appears on From the Discrete to the Particular has its antecedents in Morris’ prior duos with Wooley and Fernández. It’s free improvisation of the first rank, with each of the seven pieces a developed musical dialogue defining its own timbres and shape, whether it’s the pointillist sputters of the opening “Automatos”, the flurries of discrete sounds that firstmark “As Expected” or the oblique harmonic language of “Bilocation” that flowers into an evanescent lyricism created by all three musicians. “Membrane” suggests an early John Cage prepared piano sonata extended to a collective. The longest pieces, “Hieratic” and “Chumsof Chance”, are works of transformation, whether Morris sounding like the interior of a piano on the former and a bowed cello on the latter; Fernández mounting a virtuosic keyboard assault or creating a resonant soundscape or Wooley drawing out pained multiphonics or assembling wild scratching sounds.

Trumpets and Drums (Live in Ljubljana) is a dialogue between the two fundamental sonic components of the title. If there’s a martial tradition to trumpet and drum music there’s also a mystical one, as with Joshua and the battle of Jericho, but stronger still in the Tibetan Buddhist ritual music that combines long bass trumpets with metal and skin percussion. The quartet is built on several developed affinities: Wooley has long-running duos with both fellow trumpeter Peter Evans and drummer Paul Lytton; Evans has played with Lytton as a guest with the Parker-Guy-Lytton trio and Jim Black has played drums in Evans’ quartet. The performance is divided into two long segments, entitled “Beginning” and “End” and within those parameters there are moments of near silence, whispered trumpet tones and air through horns, gentle percussive rattlings, eerie scrapes and rustlings that demand rapt attention. Quavering electronics might arise from Wooley’s amplifier or from Black’s expanded kit. Elsewhere the reare moments of incendiary power, elemental music focused on mysteries of intensity and pitch.

The Nate Wooley Sextet is a variation on the Quintet that recorded 2010’s (Put Your) Hands Together. A forum for Wooley’s compositions, (Sit In) The Throne of Friendship retains bass clarinetist/baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton, vibraphonist Matt Moran and drummer Harris Eisenstadt while bassist Eivind Opsvik either alternates with newly arrived tuba player Dan Peck or they appear together. The style suggests the Blue Note ‘free’ school and the simultaneous presence of vibraphone and bass clarinet emphasizes the Eric Dolphy influence (“Make Your Friend Feel Loved” seems to reference Dolphy’s “G.W.”). This is exploratory, varied music, alive with passion and dialogue. It’s also exuberant, whether Sinton shouting through his baritone or Peck crafting an unaccompanied introduction. While Wooley is as ‘athome’ with free improvisation as any musician, the forms here emphasize the expressiveness of his lines: on the mournful “My Story, My Story” he combines variations of pitch and inflection to achieve an emotional depth equal to that of Miles Davis or Don Cherry, rare terrain for any trumpeter.

Expresso review by João Santos

Nate Wooley Sextet – (SIT IN) THE THRONE OF FRIENDSHIP (CF 280)
****
Zeloso curador na eminente “Database of Recorded American Music” e inspirado editor e redator na trimestral “Sound American”, Nate Wooley vasculha habilmente nesse espaço em que se arquivam as vanguardas norte-americanas. Quer isto dizer que, contrariamente à opinião comum, que deprecia aspetos hereditários em manifestações artísticas de singular configuração – e, durante anos, Wooley foi tido como um xamane do insólito –, o trompetista cumpre os requisitos para que se entenda a sua ação à luz de um, quiçá subterrâneo, contínuo cultural, no qual, por entre um número excecional de forças expressivas, cabe, naturalmente, essa que se pratica numa jurisdição invulgarmente atenta aos direitos de sucessão e se apelida de jazz. Seria, aliás, presunçoso e injusto considerar que a sua produção – ao lado da de análogos instrumentistas como Peter Evans, Greg Kelley, Franz Hautzinger ou Axel Dörner, invariavelmente coadunados na estirpe de Bill Dixon – se gerava, qual erva-daninha, espontânea e invasoramente. Dir-se-á que o quinteto – agora, com o ingresso do tubista Dan Peck, expandido para sexteto – há dois anos responsável por “(Put Your) Hands Together” se formou para dar resposta a esta questão, ainda que salvaguardando uma premissa essencial: afiançar que cada um dos seus agentes não se aliena no conjunto de vínculos históricos que possa reivindicar. Ou seja, Wooley, Peck, Josh Sinton (saxofone barítono e clarinete baixo), Matt Moran (vibrafone), Eivind Opsvik (contrabaixo) e Harris Eisenstadt (bateria) promovem aqui – numa sessão que tem como único senão uma escrita nem sempre à altura dos acontecimentos – uma genial abstração do pendor relacional no jazz contemporâneo, evocando simultaneamente as mais extáticas e elegantes características que procedem da sua fundação enquanto linguagem. Um caso sério.