Bassist-Composer Ron Anderson and His PAK Do "Secret Curve"

To say Ron Anderson and PAK must have rehearsed a little to get the music they do on Secret Curve (Tzadik 8079) would be to understate the situation. The music is filled with irregular figures, hairpin stop and go turns, ensemble synchronicity of a most intricate sort and all manner of asymmetrical burn-grooves. A first listen makes that plain.

Mr. Anderson does not set out to overwhelm with virtuoso hi jinks a la some of the more notorious speed fusers. Secret Curve begins and ends around the centrality of compositional thrust. The complexities are harnessed to Ron's musical vision, just like a fast movement in a classical symphony is indeed what it is, fast, because that is how the music moves, not because the music is second, that speed first.

Secret Curve highlights the playing of PAK, a trio of Ron on electric bass, Keith Abrams, drums, and Tim Byrnes on trumpet, French horn and keyboards. The music gets reinforcement and color-depth with the help of some key guests: Anthony Coleman on piano, Jerome Noetinger, electronics, Eve Risser, piano, Tom Swafford, violin, and Stefan Zeniuk on reeds.

The trio is at the heart of the music, though. Anderson's throttle bass has extraordinary moments of centered line building which get plenty of interpretive, complementary drive from Abrams' drums. Byrnes' horns and keyboard fill in with harmonic and melodic top-parts that have style and distinction. The ensemble expands and contracts with the entrance and exit of the guest performers.

This is a downtown thrash-jazz tour de force. There are not a lot of solos but rather ensemble excellence. The music expands upon the two Z's--Zappa and Zorn--at their most intricate and frenetic. In the end, though, the music has a Ron Anderson sound to it. This is HIS music. This is original music. This is exciting music.

Anderson plays some impressive bass. The entire ensemble excels in ever-building cascades of thrash ecstasy. The pieces bear up well under repeated listens. You should most definitely hear this one!

Elysian Fields and Their Thoughtful New Album "The Afterlife"

Elysian Fields is a group for a post-post-post world, for everything that comes after everything that went before. Very young people (like still in high school) don’t quite understand that world. It’s the nature of youth not to feel the weight of the recent past. And that’s good for them. For the rest of us, there is this music for us to savor.

The latest album by Elysian Fields, The Afterlife, has all the charm of their previous efforts, only there is a quieter, more reflective stock-taking in the lyrics and the music has that suspended on the edge of another epoch feel to it.

The group is Jennifer Charles on inimitable vocals and Oren Bloedow on guitars, with a solid cast of others. This is not heavy music in terms of edgy weight, thought it does have some push when needed. It is indie art song, if you pardon the phrase. It’s the darker side of life and love (and death), without dwelling on the obvious of what that means. The lyrics are thoughtful and poetic and the delivery by Ms. Charles puts the whole thing in the class of world-class dream. I dream you dream we all dream for. . . what? Elysian Fields tries to grasp that elusive feeling that is complex and ineffable, the post-post life out there to live, after what has gone from us remains only in memory.

Musically the songs are quite strong and have originally written all over (and under) them. The arrangements are very well-honed. Jennifer is in a vocal world that she owns; nobody quite has her quality. Super laid-back, impeccable phrasing and a dead-on pitch center that she has the ears and skill to play around with. This music triumphs! The album is out in a good vinyl edition and I’m sure also as a download. Their site www.elysianmusic.com has details.