JAZZ

ROUND(UP) ONE:
They come from Canada
By Jim Galloway
 
DMBQ is one of the most interesting and enjoyable groups on the contemporary scene today and their CD DMBQ Live (DMBQ01232008), recorded in concert at the Western Front in Vancouver, is a rewarding programme of original and challenging compositions from the three principals in the band – Tara Davidson and Mike Murley on reeds and David Braid on piano. The compositions are consistently creative – see if you can figure out which standards fit the changes on Things and On The Spot – and it goes without saying that the playing is exemplary. The two other members of the group are Jim Vivian on bass and Ian Froman, drums. They play a vital part in demonstrating that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. (www.davidbraid.com )
 
Fern Lindzon - Moments Like These (iatsos IM 01)   Take a sensitive singer/pianist, choose an imaginative set of songs, add George Koller on bass, guitarist Reg Schwager and Don Thompson on vibes – but only one of them on each number – and you are already rounding third and heading for home. It is difficult to choose favourites from this CD and Lindzon has created an album that might just be too good to be “popular”, but real listeners to the music will find a great deal of pleasure in this tasteful collection of superior lyrics and melodies. (www.fernlindzon.com ) 
 
The title composition No Passport Required (Barbarian Records CDMO6) is a duo-concerto in three movements for trumpet, trombone and big band. The trumpet belongs to Brad Turner, the trombone and big band belong to Ian McDougall and the inspiration for the work, although recorded last year, comes from 1960-61 when Ian was living in Britain and playing in the Johnny Dankworth band. The six other compositions on the CD are dedicated to a wide range of influences from Lord Alfred Tennyson to Rob McConnell via singer Bobby Breen and Carl Jefferson, founder of Concord Records. Greetings - from McSlide to McValve is a friendly tribute to Mr. McConnell and, indeed, there are times when the arrangements on the album bring to mind the sound of the Boss Brass. The band is strong in the solo department with West Coast heavies such as Campbell Ryga, Phil Dwyer and Oliver Ganon to name only a few. Surprisingly, this is Ian McDougall’s first CD of big band arrangements. Better late than never, say I. (www.ianmcdougall.com)
 
Jim Galloway
 
ROUND(UP) TWO:
They come through Canada
By Ken Waxman
 
Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution. This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. “Reg Erg” and “Primordial Soup”, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln, are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label (www3.sympatico.ca/cactus.red/toucan ). “The Bay Window” and “Green-Wood”, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn, are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint (www.songlines.com ).
 
Way Out Northwest (Drip Audio DA 00272) characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Müller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Free improv at its finest, “Way Out Northwest” highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements. While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Müller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like magiC CloCk maCHine evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls. (www.dripaudio.com )
 
Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, Kartet’s The Bay Window (Songlines SGL SA 1560-2) presents shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes Chrysalide/Imago a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a cappella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. It proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.
 
Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg (Red Toucan RT 9332). De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication. On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings. “Reg Erg” climaxes with Wadi, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.
    
There’s no bass or piano on Carl Ludwig Hübsch’s Primordial Soup (Red Toucan RT 9331). Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tuba player Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between. Take NCG 2270 Terrier, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers. Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats. Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven NGC 2276 Inspektion. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.
    
Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD Green-Wood (Songlines SGL SA 1566-2). The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody. Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock. With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named Power and Half the Battle, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven Willwaw, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps. A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about “Green-Wood” is encapsulated on the melancholy It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.
 
Ken Waxman