Guitarist Mark O'Leary Blazes in A Trio Setting on New Ayler CD "Stoj"

This is post number 601 here. I look back and think of how this blog grew out of the first one at gapplegate.com, how all the blogs grew out of my work at Cadence, and think of the enormous amount of work it takes to keep the two daily work-week postings informed, smart and I hope insightful, and I cannot say "it has been fun." Rewarding, enlightening, challenging and satisfying, yes. Fun, no. But it was not meant to be that for me. And so we continue to move along.

Today we have a CD appropriate to the milestone, a kick-tail guitar trio set with the remarkable Mark O'Leary improvising his way into the stratosphere. Stoj (Ayler 072) would get my vote for the Gapplegate Inner Circle of Mother Guitarist CDs Award, which doesn't exist really, but it wins anyway along with a few others so far this year.

I've reviewed some excellent examples of his work on these pages (search his name on the search box and you'll find them), but this one is in the most definite directional mode. Not that the others weren't but he flourishes especially finely with the trio he has fielded. It's Peter Friis-Nielsen on bass, Stefan Pasborg, drums. They do a marvelously convincing job aiding, abetting, and spurring O'Leary on, adding two separate yet related improvisational voices to Mark's.

This is rock-laced free improv of a definite "jazz" inflection. They basically let it rip over the course of the CD's 56 minutes in nine interrelated sections. It's flat-out hitting it with a few moments of relative quescence. Maestro O'Leary's considerable prowess is harnessed to scaling expressive heights much of the time in rapid, freely articulated phrasings that flow in and out of time along with the trio. This is a lining bag more than a noise-sound excursion for the most part. O'Leary weaves some exceptionally complex, burning, quicksilver-laced lines, though. Some of the very best coming out of a new cat on the block.

It's an elated performance of hard-charging freedom that sends out some very hip smoke-signals, Jack! He's most definitely among the handful of most promising young improvisational guitarists working today. I mean that. Listen to this one! Click the Ayler link on this site and you'll get more info.

And thank YOU, all who have read and supported this blog for the first 601 posts. Now on to the next 601!

Michael Bisio, Covert Choreography, 1996

We turn back the clock today to 1996, and an album that has not been given its due. I'm talking about the Michael Bisio Quintet's Covert Choreography (Cadence Jazz 1063). It documents a part of the lively Pacific Coast improvisatory scene of those days; it gives equal weight to the bass playing and compositional side of Michael Bisio's work of those years; and it features some excellent musicians who perhaps do not get the recognition they deserve.

The central focus of the album is on the title cut, a 40 minute opus, with compositional elements occurring as signposts throughout, and plenty of room for the players to stretch out and solo in various settings, swingtime, freetime and out-of-time instrumental combinations. Michael Bisio, of course, has by this point gelled in his playing approach to an all-over propulsive dynamo whether in pizzicato or arco mode. Eyvind Kang is Michael's violinistic counterpart, with an energetic approach, the technique and projection of a Michael White and the energy of Leroy Jenkins in overdrive. Rob Blakeslee wields a rootsy yet out trumpet that contrasts nicely in sound color with the other soloists. Ed Pias swings and gives a surcharge of energy to the ensemble in ways that show his sense, taste and keen ears. Bob Nell is a pianistic revelation, a cut-and-dash charge of adreniline at his most frenetic, a man with bop and after roots, and an out lyricists in the less propulsive passages. He's someone I am glad to be catching up with.

After "Covert," things get a bit more intimate with some excellent duets between Michael Bisio and Bob Nell on "He's Everyone I Ever Knew," and Michael and Rob Blakeslee on "Spheroid". The album concludes with nine minutes of boisterous violin, high-voltage bowed bass and bombastic drums on "Geographically Correct." In the end you feel satiated and, if you are like me, quite satisfied that something good has taken place.

There you have the basic run-down. It's a beautiful free date that shows what very good music was coming out of Seattle in this period, with an excellent ensemble and Michael Bisio in top form.

This is a sleeping gem that needs to be awakened by you. Get a copy and dig it. Click on the CIMP Records link on this page and once there, click on Cadence Jazz Records and you'll find the complete details on the album and, if you like, have the opportunity to order a copy.