Roman Stolyar and Dominic Duval, Park West Suite

Back to the improvisational arts today. And as for that there is a very good place to be with Roman Stolyar and Dominic Duval's new program, Park West Suite (Cadence Jazz Records). It's a substantial program of free-wheeled improvisational duets with Dominic D of course on contrabass and Roman Stolyar at the piano.

Maestro Duval remains one of the most original, most accomplished bassists in the improvisational world of today. Roman Stolyar is a pianist with various influences (clearly Cecil Taylor, perhaps a bit of Jarrett in his more outre moments, new music performance practices, etc.), which he harnesses for an organic style that is not eclectic as much as it is respectful of those who came before but determined to plow a singular furrow, so to say.

It's a near-hour of the two conjuring up forward moving modes that have room for contemplation at points. Dominic is in top form, playing a great deal of well-thought out bass alternating with space and sound-color moments of relative restfulness.

Mr. Stolyar impresses with good use of motifs, droning full-piano sonances, prepared and inside-the-piano chimes, cosmic whirligigs of turbulence, exploratory moments of spontaneous freedom, and scalular, tone-centered rubatos.

This is a very impressive set--Duval sounds inspired by Stolyar's all-over pianism; Stolyar gets much to interact with from Dominic's explosive bass-mastering.

These two would make a fabulous trio with the addition of a very musical, keenly attuned drum master. But there is so much going on already one certainly feels no lack. Excellent disk!

Trio Caveat, Introspective Athletics; Josh Sinton, Pine Barren

Something different this morning: the Trio Caveat and their Introspective Athletics and Josh Sinton's Pine Barren (Engine 044) grouped together on one split release.

The trio consists of James Ilgenfritz, bass, Chris Welcome, guitar, and Jonathan Moritz on saxophones. It's an interesting free trio date with thoughtful interactions among the three. Chris Welcome's guitar alone is worth hearing for his flow of ideas. All three get something going that is not so much frenetic as it is abstract, in the new music sort of freeness mode.

Josh Sinton's solo spot on baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, and contrabass clarinet has a sense of space and structure. He has good control and good ideas, a kind of AACM-like attention to saying something with sound and form. The last piece is an interesting overdubbed sax ensemble that has a nice quasi-African riff feel.

This may not be an essential offering but it does give you two worthy albums of new avant music on one disk. The music has charms! Support small labels and up-and-coming improvisers. Buy this disk!

Bruce Arnold and John Stowell, "Sonic Infestation," 2008

Today a look at the last of the series of CDs by guitarist Bruce Arnold that we have been covering (see previous posts), namely, Bruce Arnold and John Stowell's Sonic Infestation (Muse Eek 149). The album is subtitled "Electroacoustic Guitar Improvisations," and that is what we have here. These are a series of multilayered, acoustically manipulated duets for acoustic and/or electric guitars.

Sonic Infestations finds common ground in the musical space between players like John McLaughlin and Ralph Towner without actually straying on the usual turf of either artist. There are 11 fairly short sequences that total in an EP-lengthed playing time of 33-odd minutes. The electroacoustic manipulation often provides a third voice-texture via its interesting transformation of guitar sounds.

In the end this is an always-captivating venture into improvisational and transformational brightness. Arnold and Stowell play interesting dual improvisations and the electroacoustics complement the stringed immediacy with a dimensional depth that I find quite appealing. It is a good listen.

Bruce Eisenbeil, Carnival Skin, 2006, with Robinson, Evans, Greene, Kugel

Carnival Skin (Nemu 003) has it. It has the free exuberance that sometimes comes about when some excellent improvisers get together and let it all out. The compositions, one by each group member and one collective collaboration--provide a good springboard for the solos and group improvisations that follow.

This is a choice pairing of five burners and they show some beautiful chemistry here. Bruce Eisenbeil goes at the electric guitar in an outside way with great control and judicious note/cluster choices. (Check the article listings on the right for several more reviews of his recordings on Gapplegate Guitar.) He sometimes executes rapid, rolling dissonant clusters, something that Sonny Sharrock did so well. However Eisenbeil's voicings are different than Sharrock's. Bruce gets into various ways of out-articulating; his phrasing is accomplished and poetic. Perry Robinson, THE towering exponent of improv clarinet, gets some tremendous energy and torque throughout. Young trumpet firebrand Peter Evans is in great form as well. Together the three front-liners kick up a good deal of dust. With the addition of Klaus Kugel on drums and Hilliard Greene on bass, both potent players who know what to do in this sort of context, the picture is complete.

Together the group generates some wildly exciting free music. This is one kick-tokas session!

Gary Hassay, Michael Bisio, My Brother

Duets can be interesting, they can be less interesting, but you cannot often say they are riveting. I would say that of alto saxist Gary Hassay and acoustic bassist Michael Bisio's My Brother (Konnex 5275). It is riveting because both players have virtually limitless imaginations and realize ideas in their very own way. It is riveting because it's the best kind of duo: where two excellent players inspire each other to bring out a side of their playing that sounds especially well in the context at hand.

Gary Hassay realizes well-thought-out yet spontaneous sound sculptures that take advantage of the classic jazz and outer realm capabilities of the alto; Michael Bisio complements and spurs on those alto flights with equally considered pizz and arco structures that have freedom but are logically and executionally exceptional.

Gary has always from what I've heard of him had a kind of Zen-like spirituality to his playing. Michael can go that zone well. The two head for high-consciousness, high-level improvisational territory and explore the terrain with care and inspiration. Gary can do a kind of quasi-Tibetan throat singing and when he does it here it never sounded better than with the accompaniment of Michael's arco chant-drones. But it is the alto-bass twosome that gets to some especially beautiful free places.

This is the best Gary Hassay playing I can recall hearing and Michael Bisio is on a personal high as well. Now that is saying a great deal, since both players are doing some heavy things!

It's a don't-miss-it CD, for adventurous souls and lovers of the new jazz. Grab a copy and go someplace very cool in your mind.

Tom Hamilton, Electronics, Bruce Eisenbeil, Guitar, Duo on "Shadow Machine"

Noise, unusual timbre, texture, duration and percussives...these are some of the key elements in Tom Hamilton's (electronics) and Bruce Eisenbeil's (guitar) duo set Shadow Machine (Pogus 21051-2). I reviewed Maestro Eisenbeil's 1999 CIMP recording Mural some time ago (see posting for March 23, 2011). The 2008 duo we look at here shows a definite movement into more abstract territory. In part it is organic movement and in part it is a logical, creative counterpart to the sound and timbre-oriented electronics conjured by Tom Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton puts together soundscape symphonics of a noisy, ambient and well developed nature. Bruce responds with post-Derek Bailey virtuoso guitar avantics. He impresses with his well executed, fully controlled coaxing of unusual sounds and interesting noting. He sounds harmonics in abstracted clusters, plays below the bridge, mutes the strings and gets various electronically enhanced swoops and dives in a full spectrum of exotic electric guitar possibilities. It's some of the best avant guitar improvisational forays I've heard.

What's especially striking is the two-way Hamilton-Eisenbeil interactions and how they are both double solos and double accompaniments at the same time. They cover much aural ground in fascinating ways and with such deliberation that there is nothing that sounds tentative or experimental. The vocabularies are full and the musical conversations filled with impact.

It's the sort of "free" music that relates palpably to cutting-edge classical avant, yet has the sort of x follows y intensity of jazz.

It may be a sleeper, but it's a winner, start to finish. Highly recommended.

Guitarist Luis Lopes and Afterfall in an Avant Set

We recently encountered guitarist Luis Lopes as part of the Humanization 4tet (see January 13th posting). He returns today as a member of the equally adventurous Afterfall (Clean Feed 208). It's a free-avant encounter with a quintet that includes Lopes, Joe Giardullo on soprano and tenor, Sei Miguel on pocket trumpet, and a rhythm section of Benjamin Duboc on upright bass and Harvey Sorgen on the drums.

This is five-way interaction, a cooperative date all the way, with all five members sharing the composing credits. What that translates into for the listener is seven musical vignettes, each somewhat different in mood. The freetime feel is pretty constant, with time sometimes more overtly implied and sometimes in a free falling zone. Some numbers are sparser and more reflective, some more extroverted and energetic. Sei Miguel's always muted pocket trumpet forms a good contrast with Giardullo's shining soprano or gruff tenor and Lopes' sound-color oriented guitar.

A high point is Giardullo's tenor work in "American Open Road with a Frog," where he is is rippingly muscular over churning drums and bass. "American Tryptich" finds some room for Lopes' spicy, floating chord voicings and chopping staccato-line crafting, some after-Miles-and-Cherry tartly stating-the-fact trumpet inventions and grainy bowed bass. "Return of the Shut Up Goddess" brings a storm of bowing thunder and weighted brushwork underpinning more Miguel muted eloquence and then vibrato-laced sustained guitar lines of a rough beauty. There are plenty of such moments, each one with a slightly different mix of musical voices, shades and degrees of emphasis.

This is a sleeper. It is so subtle in many ways one has to listen a number of times before the logic of the improvisational language truly speaks to you. But I found that it did after a time. And what it said was most definitely worth hearing.

Ursel Schlicht and Bruce Arnold, String Theory

A number of years ago the idea that a very acoustic piano and a very electric guitar (plus electronics) would fruitfully engage in a free-wheeling set of improvisational compositions would have been pretty rarified. A few years before that, virtually an unheard occurrence.

Today it is not that surprising. But then almost any combination of instruments is possible and sometimes even commonplace in the musical avant garde of the present.

When the results are as musically satisfying as the CD at hand, though, you have an uncommon event.

String Theory (Muse Eek 124) teams pianist Ursel Schlicht with guitarist Bruce Arnold. There are five duets on the recording, including a three-part "String Suite." All of it is quite engaging.

What strikes me about these improvisations is the highly imaginative inventiveness of both players, the varied atmospheric mood sequences and the attention to sound color. Bruce, his guitar and some sort of computer driven electronic device called the supercollider, gets blankets of sound that vary from the super quiet to the more turbulent. His individual line constructions are always interesting. Usel Schlicht plays inside and outside her instrument with a real pianism that explains why she has been gaining admiration in and around the New York area for several years. She too plays with a fresh sort of melodic-harmonic sense. Together they create a new music-free improvisation hybrid that has some of the power of the latter with the dynamic and contentual breadth of the former. These are improvisational compositions. Each segment seems thoughtfully preconceived so that there is both looseness and structure in play at all times.

There are parts that drive and more meditative moments. All of it seems inspired to me.

Highly recommended.