Ben Allison’s bands are built on the thrills of interplay, but a fetching simplicity has marked the bassist-composer’s music ever since he dropped his Seven Arrows debut in the mid-Nineties. Umpteen albums later, that mix of pop pith and jazz extrapolation gooses the action on Layers of the City, a new quintet date that’s emblematic of Allison’s p.o.v. The intricacy in play is delivered with a fully focused ease; whether it’s a swampy groove supporting a gurgling trumpet drone or an inventive and poised refraction of John McLaughlin’s “Follow Your Heart,” dude’s stuff flows in a kaleidoscopic way. Bet the tension sounds a bit like release at this four-night stand.
Whenever I see William Parker in action, I’m reminded of the first time I watched him play, at New York’s Sweet Basil as part of Cecil Taylor’s band in the early ‘80s. Thirty-five years later, he’s an icon of the NYC experimental-improv scene, a keenly physical jazz bassist who can make a fierce thump come from his instrument whenever need be. The same fervor the 65-year-old used to parallel the density of Taylor’s attack so long ago remains a key element of his current art.
Parker works in numerous groups. At the start of the summer he thrilled with Farmers By Nature at NYC’s Vision Festival, and the same volition that marked his earliest work was actively resonating from his corner of the bandstand. Of course, Parker’s just as adept at lithe rumination and tactful agility as he is at thickening any given ensemble passage. If you want to learn more about how he pulls it all off, his new double album Meditation / Resurrection finds him helming a pair of bands and deploying a wealth of gambits. For a few reasons – the legibility of the tunes, say, or the eloquence of he and his confreres – this is one of his most entertaining discs.
The joyous freebop of “Criminals In the White House” is driven by the honking and swinging of a foursome that’s bent on making a statement. The first disc’s music is created by the William Parker Quartet, and from his longtime mate Rob Brown on alto to his new associate Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson on trumpet, the chemistry at hand is fetching. The two front-line players flipping back and forth conjures memories of the exuberance that fueled early Black Saint albums like Frank Lowe’s Exotic Heartbreak and Julius Hemphill’s Flat-Out Jump Suite.
Parker’s flexibility is remarkable. “Handsome Lake” is wiry and off-hand; the bassist says the tune arrived as a “full thought,” and was written in five minutes. Compared to the decidedly more elaborate pieces on 2015’s For Those Who Are, Still, it borders on elementary. Like “Rodney’s Resurrection,” it virtually prances as it dispenses its info. A twirl of brass and reeds, some fluid rustles from the rhythm section (Hamid Drake, who the leader calls the band’s “connecting force,” is the drummer on both discs) – the exchanges are mercurial and engrossing, especially when everything gets sparse and Parker trades his bass for a tarota, a double-reed folk instrument from Spain, on “Horace Silver Part 2.”
Parker’s group on the second disc is called In Order To Survive. It’s the trio referenced above with Cooper-Moore on piano rather than Nelson on horn. Here the music gets a bit more gnarly, but in some ways its effervescence increases as well. The pianist provides sprawls of notes on “Some Lake Oliver,” and Brown’s articulation leans toward the Jimmy Lyons realm: a torrent of abstraction that manages to be earthy, precise, and engaging.
Romanticism sometimes takes on an odd character in Parker’s work, and his use of a bow occasionally signals that his dramatic side is being called into action. On “Sunrise in East Harlem,” he spends the first few minutes waxing sentimental with his bow as the group lightly pores over a pulse that gives everyone some solo time. It’s sparse, effective, and perhaps a smidge formulaic. But by the time it concludes, there’s a feeling of catharsis in the air, as if the particulars of a genuine event have marshaled themselves towards some kind of transitional experience.
Ultimately, Meditation/Resurrection illuminates Parker’s personality. This is very candid music made from an activist’s mindset. But anyone stymied by the meaning of these collaborative efforts can have their curiosity easily sated. One of the most illustrative parts of the package are these six sentences from Parker’s notes. “Listen to the music; if you have any questions call me, write me, I will tell what it is. What do you think it is? Do you like it? Hate it? Love it? Let’s Talk.”
William Parker’s In Order To Survive plays Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn, Thursday July 13 – Friday, July 14
You kinda knew Matt Wilson was headed somewhere valuable when his first album dropped a snatch of stoic philosophy from Carl Sandburg and got Dewey Redman to play “Sweet Betsy From Pike” (which was part of The American Songbag anthology Sandburg published in 1927). The bandleader has inventive ideas about the way the arts can intermingle. Spoken word and song have flecked his largely instrumental work ever since, and he’s actively harked to his Midwestern roots.
Wilson’s Honey and Salt group deals exclusively with Sandburg’s verse, and this new disc not only reminds how whimsical a poet the master truly was, but how how gifted the drummer is at arrangements and presentations. The program shifts and shifts, but each turn introduces a genuinely discrete approach to the verse at hand. Christian McBride intones the social strata thesis “Anywhere and Everywhere People” while Ron Miles and Jeff Lederer fly expressively around him. Dawn Thompson coos a campfire lament that manages to synopsize heartbreak with the line “love is a fool star” while bringing some twang to the party.
The core ensemble (bassist Martin Wind rounds out the quintet) is versatile enough to cover this willful variety. As Jack Black echoes Ken Nordine on “Snatch of Sliphorn Jazz,” Lederer and Wilson freebop their retorts. When Bill Frisell demurely asserts Sandburg’s thoughts on “Paper 2,” the group rolls through some bawdy swing. Rufus Reid’s gritty basso enhances the noir vibe of “Trafficker.” Carla Bley’s hush on “To Know Silence Perfectly” contrasts with a bittersweet chamber music miniature. Ultimately, the voices themselves feel like instruments.
A tip: don’t doubt that Midwestern affinity between honoree and honorer. Wilson’s Illinois home town abuts the poet’s birthplace, and when the drummer eerily mallets his toms as Sandburg’s recorded voice repeats the lines of “Fog,” the performance cuts to the essence of this irresistible record: the connections are deep.
Just back from the Ojai Festival, and with a scad of successes under his arm, percussionist-composer Tyshawn Sorey sets up shop at The Stone to probe the articulation of new sounds rendered by a collection of ensembles. Highlights include duos with Jen Shyu and John Zorn (the latter appearing on Sorey’s 37th birthday); a new sextet called Smirk that on paper promises to let a trumpet and tenor front-line romp with the help of a jazz rhythm section; an outing with brass virtuoso Peter Evans, whose index of extended techniques almost matches that of the drummer himself; and an evening of solo work that may have you redefining the term “orchestral” to accommodate Sorey’s ever-expanding lexicon. Treat yourself to a couple of shows — variety is the idea here.
At 8:30 each night, the Stone, Avenue C and 2nd Street, thestonenyc.com, $20
The band Riverside invented itself to celebrate the music of Jimmy Giuffre, a wily composer who did things with small ensembles that others weren’t doing. You know, an innovator. But trumpeter Dave Douglas, bassist Steve Swallow, and the Doxas brothers Chet (reeds) and Jim (drums) have moved on. Now they’re saluting Carla Bley, who Giuffre covered and Swallow lives with. She’s a wily composer who has done things with large ensembles that others haven’t done. You know, a marvel. The group illustrates its agility while delighting us with whimsy on The New National Anthem, which bundles three Bley jewels and unpacks a handful of originals that walk in her shadow. Freebop started somewhere, and as the foursome puts its improv expertise in gear at this two-night stint, its coordinates may be revealed.
