Michael Bisio Trio, Composance, 2003

Composance (Cadence Jazz Records 1173) comes out of the bassist/composer's Seattle days. It is an intimate trio date with Rob Blakeslee on trumpet, Greg Campbell on drums (and a cameo appearance on French horn) and of course Michael on bass. Michael wrote most of the pieces, the title cut is a collective collaboration, there's a classic Duke item, and there's one piece each by Rob and Greg.

The primary emphasis is on blowing loose and coherently, and that is most definitely happening here. It's a good mix of distinctive players. Rob has obviously listened to Don Cherry and Bill Dixon (and who hasn't?), which in part comes out in his sound, but the notes are his and help define the music played on the date. Greg Campbell has an excellent presence here, a melodic sense and the ability to loosen the time or notch it in. Michael whether bowing or pizzing has a mastery and projective melodic inventiveness that rivals the very best--because he is up there as part of the very best. His tone is beautiful too!

What's most important for the listener is that this is excellent modern jazz that hangs together throughout, grooves and takes it out a bit, and has a very engaging melodic and textural heft to it. The trio version of Ellington's "Come Sunday," where Campbell adds french horn to Michael's bowed bass and Rob's trumpet is a sign of the very real versatility of the group and has a beauty that's chamber-like and soulful too.

You could just listen to Bisio's bass on this CD and get off on that. Open your ears to all three working together and you will hear why the improvisatory arts are exciting and worthy of your attention! Well worth your time.

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.

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.

Michael Bisio, Solo Bassist

Dave Holland (album on ECM), Bertram Turetsky (especially The Contemporary Contrabass, released as an LP long ago on Nonesuch), William Parker, and Peter Kowald come to mind as having recorded exceptional contrabass solo work. I'm probably leaving someone out, but theirs are the performances that have become vividly etched in my musical memory banks. Now I can add to that list Michael Bisio, who has just recorded and released a full CD of solo bass, Travel Music (self-released, no catalog #).

It is intended not as an exercise in wizardry (which it also happens to be), but rather as MUSIC for the contrabass. And it succeeds remarkably well. Any acoustic bassist with a full set of techniques should be able to achieve liftoff both with the bow and pizzicato. Liftoff is just the start of the trip, though. It's where you go that matters in the long run. Michael shows himself a well-seasoned traveler with the sense of exploration and ability to go anywhere his muse takes him, anytime. He remains his very expressive self and goes to wonderful musical destinations whether using the bow or the fingers. "Nitro, Don't Leave Home Without It," for example finds Mr. Bisio engaging in the kind of extended creation of expressive energy, arco-style, that could only come from his bow.

Michael pays keen attention to the sound-color capabilities of the instrument, which of course are considerable. He has over the years mastered the near-infinite range of textures and colors available to him, and Travel Music in this and many other ways constitutes a tour de force of bass power and bass finesse.

There are eight improvisations on the disk. One is a loving tribute to Charlie Haden, by way of a poignant meditation on Haden's "Human Being." The program concludes by paying homage to the great master Coltrane with a moving rendition of "Alabama." In between there are eminently musical improvisations that show a structural logic. Phrasing is sure. Expression ranges from a searching and yearning quality to an untrammeled explosion of movement and turbulence.

Ultimately this is to be heard as MUSIC, and that's where Bisio and the recital move a giant stride beyond the too common bass-solo-as-interlude between horn & piano solos, bass solo as a break in the action. With Travel Music the bass IS the action, front and center. One does not expect the music to resume after the solo ends. The music is right there, from beginning to end. That's been the way with Mr. Bisio for a long time. He never fills space! This album gives him the chance to show in an extended way how far he has gone into territories both charted and unknown.

Travel Music is an exciting journey through a contrasting set of moods and modes. It's a terrific example of the solo bass as a vehicle for some real improvising, spontaneous composing and masterful weaving of line and tone. It should disabuse anyone who doubts that Michael Bisio is one of a small handful of true proponents of the musical contrabass in improvisation today. This album spells it out for you, in ways that are exhilarating, breathtaking, moving, and meditative in turn. Do not miss it. For further info and sound samples, copy and paste the following URL into your browser: http://michaelbisio.com/travelmusic.shtml

Bob Gluck Trio's "Sideways" with Michael Bisio

Bob Gluck and his trio release Sideways (FMR 251-0108) stands out. A free-improv jazz piano trio recording is certainly not an unusual thing in itself. What Bob Gluck (piano & electronics), Michael Bisio (bass) and Dean Sharp (drums) do however is in no way common. Most of the pieces are Bob Gluck originals, with one by Michael Bisio, an Ornette Coleman classic, and two by the late Joe Zawinul.

Electronics color the music in ways that are subtle and organic. Mostly they are applied to the sound of the piano or piano and bass, and give added texture to the musical utterances. There is a heightened three-way dialog between the group members, but Gluck and Bisio are especially notable in their interactions. The music can be introspective, as in the haunting phrase that Mr. Gluck plays on the piano repeatedly on the title cut, with the other trio members adding to the mood. There are the sorts of loosely phrased cantabile passages where the three collaborate to extend the phases initiated by the pianist. There are the more hard-charging moments, moments for Bisio's improv prowess and a good deal of interesting and unusual utterances from Bob Gluck. He strikes me as an original voice in this music.

The overall feeling is one of freshness. The trio is not afraid to stray into new music zones. I wouldn't use the phrase "third stream" here, since that is not precisely what is happening (and the phrase has earlier stylistic connotations nowadays) but there is an expressiveness that evokes pan-stylistic sensibilities. Most importantly, the music comes together consistently.

Listen to "Lonely Woman" to get a quick feel for what they are about. Bisio's droning bass evokes the Coleman melody at the start and Gluck follows through with thematic statements of a high order.

The trio comes off as purposeful, directed, expressive and musically advanced. An excellent outing, well worth your time and money.

SKM: Gauci, Davis, Bisio in a New Recording

The drumless jazz-improv trio (in this case tenor, piano and bass) offers up different possibilities. Without the drums there is a transparency to the musical texture, the bass is exposed in its direct manifestations unmediated by the wash of the ride cymbal and snare-bass-drum punctuations. The bass becomes a third "horn," so to speak. The trio SKM (Stephen Gauci, tenor, Kris Davis, piano, Michael Bisio, acoustic bass) takes advantage of the opportunity in a densely creative self-titled CD just out on Clean Feed (189).

It's modern avant chamber jazz that gives equal weight to all three artists. All the various solo, duo and trio configurations are made good use of. This is serious music. Seriously advanced music.

Michael Bisio is his usual inventive self, using all manner of standard and augmented techniques to create a distinctive aural universe. He is a master. (Any reader of this blog has come across my various accolades on his artistry, so I wont repeat them here.) He is shown in especially good light in this project.

Kris Davis plays a piano that combines a Cecil Taylor motility with some Cagean prepared piano sounds on occasion. She has a finessed earthiness that comes out of her own sensibility. The end result is a player of distinction. She engages in wide-ranging flights of fancy. She is impressive and mixes her attack with the others in a sensitive and eloquent manner. (See my review of Paradoxical Frog at my Gapplegate Music Review Blog for more on Ms. Davis.)

Steve Gauci sounds terrific on tenor, as he always does, though for this outing he is especially inspired with rapid jabs and asymmetrical phrasing that give the three-way musical dialog a special quality (that Kris and Michael pick up on and give back in equal measure. OK, so the causal arrow can go three ways, but it is natural to hear the tenor as the lead instrumentalist if you listen frequently to this kind of music. Here it is a three-way affair, so suffice to say that his fragments of phrases are a mirroring of, and are mirrored by Kris and Michael's phrasings.) Steve also strings together some long, complicated-interesting lines when the music goes that way.

What is especially ear-grabbing to me is the judicious use of repetition here and there to intensify the particular emphasis at any given point. More than that SKM is improv at its best. The artists make a definitive statement. The CD should be heard by all those wanting to dig the latest in the improvisatory firmament. It makes for exhilarating, absorbing listening.

Cargo Cult and Their "Lonely House (Covers)" Release

When I think of classic chamber jazz, John Kirby, the MJQ, Giuffre's drumless trios, Duke Ellington with Billy Strayhorn and Oscar Pettiford, the Red Norvo Trios, especially the one with Mingus and Farlow. . .these groups spring immediately to mind. If I were to say that Cargo Cult probably belongs to this, my personal inner sanctum of what I consider the very best in this genre, some grouchbag will probably accuse me of hype. But guess what? Hype is only hype if you do not truly believe what you say. And that isn't true with me. These blogs reflect what I like (and sometimes what I don't like so much). There is nothing to be gained by my liking something. Of course it also follows that there's nothing to be gained by my panning something in a kind of Caesarian hissy fit. But of course that authoritative disdain can instill a sense of self-worth where it might be otherwise lacking, and may also appeal to those who would wish to dictate arrogantly what we are permitted to listen to and like. So I try not to do that a lot.

After having heard (and reviewed, here and elsewhere) virtually all of Cargo Cult's releases so far, I am a true believer. This new one, Lonely House (Covers) (CIMP 380) confirms what I've already suspected. That these three musicians have a rather amazing versatility and a thorough grasp of a myriad of styles and moods. We've heard Cargo Cult get outside, shred a little, swing, and now they do everything else you can think of. And they do it their own way.

Radio stations may think they shape tastes. And of course they do in their way. But in the end the most important developments are initiated outside the realm of radio. Trane, Ornette, Ayler built a ground swell for a new style of music without much in the way of radio play, especially at first.

And so Cargo Cult and this album attempt (I think successfully) to redefine what makes a standard standard today. Quick answer: they do not play all the usual done-to-death songs. And they aren't afraid to look outside of the ashpit ruins of Tin Pan Alley to find material that is just as worthwhile. Most importantly, they do the material in their very own way.

Who is Cargo Cult? It's Tomas Ulrich on cello, Rolf Sturm of guitar and Michael Bisio on the acoustic bass. They are a group in the best sense, each harnessing their palpably high-art talents to the interest of the group sound, the refreshingly conceived arrangement.

So to the music. They pick out some of the most ravishing of standard standards and work magic with them. Monk's "Let's Cool One," Porter's "Night and Day," Mancini's "Days of Wine and Roses," Weill's "September Song" and "Lonely House," and invest them with a great deal of affection and respect. But then there are the more surprising selections too, like Robert Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen" with Ulrich playing slide cello while Sturm plays some neat banjo. Then there is a little operatic reconstruction out of Donizetti with Tomas playing the principal role on cello, Stevie Wonder's ravishing "Cause We've Ended Now as Lovers," Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer". . . They make each song work for them, express their group sound, in ways that are both ingeneous and make for a beautiful listen.

Ulrich, perhaps more so than on any of their previous disks, steps forward with a dramatically exuberant style, molto expressivo. But Mr. Bisio and Mr. Sturm are indispensable and equally exceptional components to the music, as always.

A more detailed track-by-track rundown could follow here, but this is music that is best when administered by ear. I believe I can say without the least bit of hype that this is one of a handful of the most interesting, innovative and enjoyable small groups out there today. Covers must be heard more than once before it all sinks in. But it has an advantage to the average listener in that it is accessible for all the right reasons. Not because it panders. Because it communicates! Radio stations, take note. Check the CIMP link on this site for more info.

Michael Bisio and Collar City Creatology: Dynamic Chamber Jazz

March 3, 2009—The loudness factor in music seems to be ever increasing. The first brass marching bands were hugely loud for their time. They had to fill the open air and often were a kind of representation in sound of the power and might of the military unit to which they were attached. The Mannheim Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the classical era must have shocked audiences with their ability to crescendo to comparatively dramatic decibel levels. By the time they reached a flat-out, triple fortissimo tutti a few powdered wigs may have been dislodged. Closer to our times the development of more powerful guitar amps led to ever louder rock groups. And now of course most commercial CDs are mastered to deliver maximum volume through super-compression. I’m not complaining though. All this can be very stirring. Of course not all CDs have that super-loud-all-the-time quality. Some aim to carry the full dynamic range of the music being performed. That’s because some musics of course still capitalize on bringing out the dynamic-range possibilities of the material performed.

Nonetheless, jazz and improv can get pretty loud these days. So when a group comes along that plays pretty quietly for much of the time, one takes notice. And when they kick it up a notch, the contrast is that much more effective. Such a group is Collar City Createology, who has recently put out a download-only release on MJB Records, available at cdbaby (http://cdbaby.com/cd/mbgmds). The group is comprised of master bassman Michael Bisio (whose excellent CIMP CD we looked at earlier in the year), guitarist George Muscatello and drummer Dean Sharp. The music is advanced, free and rather quiet most times. There is excellent interplay between the three musicians. Muscatello has a spacey but pure-toned sound, not entirely unlike John Abercrombie but with his own musical vocabulary. He plays some wonderful lines and forms a double melodic tandem with Mr. Bisio that is sensitive and smart, mindful of sound and silence, creative and accomplished. Bisio is a bass player’s bass player, which he shows admirably throughout this disk. And drummer Sharp is a beautiful team member, not stepping on any music toes and making a true contribution with a palpable sensitivity to his aural and rhythmic role in the mix.

Collar City Creatology bases itself in the upper New York State town of Troy, known in the 19th century for its manufacturing of detachable collars. Troy deserves now to be known for producing this group. It’s a wondrously subtle trio. With very nice arrangements and compositions (mostly penned by Michael Bisio), some great improvisational variations and a finely crafted sense of trio sound, Collar City deserves a close listen and will bring increasing rewards and enjoyment as one becomes more and more familiar with the CD. Kudos to this group! May it put Troy back on the map.

Michael Bisio: Triple-Threat Bassist, Composer, Bandleader

January 22, 2009—Bassist Michael Bisio has that triple-threat ability so important for a viable career in the jazz world. He is an extremely able bassist with capabilities that allow him to swing like mad, solo with imagination and maintain an important voice on the free-er channels of contemporary improvisation. He writes and arranges pieces that are well structured and memorable. And he is an astute bandleader, knowing how to pick musicians that each add an important voice to the group sound. All of this is quite apparent in a CIMP release of a 2006 session: CIMP 360: Circle This. The room balanced, record-it-as-it-sounds engineering of CIMP releases works to great advantage with this group. They have a give and take approach to their playing and, with each player attuned to the others, thrive when simply let alone to find their natural group sound.

These are wonderfully seasoned, modern improvisers. Reedmen Avram Fefer and Stephen Gauci contrast well together. Both can be gritty or purer in tone and they adjust their playing perceptively depending on what the other is doing. There are some exciting two-horn improv moments, such as on “Times that Bond,” that stoke fire while remaining phrase-articulate. And their solo spots sum up where modern sounds can go when gifted musicians are allowed free reign. These are players with a rich vocabulary and eloquence of expression. Bisio and Rosen team up as a strong rhythm section that can bear down or support the horns with sound color and flexibility. Bisio’s compositions and arrangements cement the quartet’s direction with variety and subtle nuance.

It’s one of those CDs that can stand endless playing while remaining fresh. That’s because there is nothing stale about it! There is much that is right in the jazz scene of today. And much of that can be found on Circle This. Check it out for a bit of the thrill of discovery. You can find out more or order this CD by going to www.cadencebuilding.com. Once there click on the CIMP banner.