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BassDrumBone<br />
The Other Parade<br />
Clean Feed 223<br />
HHHH<br />
On and off this trio has<br />
been together for more<br />
than three decades, and<br />
if this recording is any<br />
indication their best years<br />
might still lie ahead. No<br />
sign of fatigue is showing.<br />
On this new recording, bass player Mark<br />
Helias, drummer Gerry Hemingway and trombonist<br />
Ray Anderson sound surprisingly fresh<br />
and as excited as if this were a much anticipated<br />
first encounter.<br />
Their take on various styles is not gimmicky<br />
but stems from a deep appreciation for<br />
the trailblazing artists that have preceded them.<br />
Their sincere respect for the tradition is epitomized<br />
by Anderson quoting “It Don’t Mean A<br />
Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” in “Soft<br />
Shoe Mingle.” Whether they break into a blues<br />
or embrace New Orleans beats, their approach<br />
is also supported by the unique rapport they<br />
have cultivated over the years and their own<br />
innovations—here, their radical ideas are often<br />
Ketil Bjørnstad/<br />
Svante Henryson<br />
Night Song<br />
ECM 15236<br />
HHH1/2<br />
Night Song plays like a suite<br />
of classical music. It is mannered,<br />
with little in the way<br />
of overt juxtaposition or<br />
sudden turns. That’s not<br />
to say it isn’t evocative or<br />
expressive. It is.<br />
The disc is pianist Ketil Bjørnstad’s first<br />
duo recording with a cellist since his ’90s<br />
work with David Darling. Night Song is like<br />
chamber music, more moody, music to listen<br />
to when grieving or maybe feeling some<br />
doubt if not wonder. Maybe that’s why I struggle<br />
with it, trying to get over what feels like<br />
a sameness that gleams onto each individually<br />
beautiful piece. The delicacy and acute attention<br />
to execution that pervades everything here<br />
starts with the opening title track followed by<br />
“Visitor” with nary a sense of transition; a<br />
seamless web of notes flows into what follows.<br />
There is a wealth of artistry, composure and<br />
assurance displayed by both Bjørnstad and cellist<br />
Henryson, who, despite a full classical pedigree,<br />
is well-versed in various musical styles.<br />
This isn’t the first time Henryson and Bjørnstad<br />
have worked together; their Seafarer’s Song<br />
was released in 2003. It may make for a more<br />
complex picture to know that Bjørnstad, who<br />
has been equally as musically collaborative as<br />
Henryson, is also a celebrated author.<br />
wrapped in ear candy. The<br />
seamless and nimble shifts<br />
speak volumes about the telepathic<br />
abilities of the trio.<br />
Their wonderful interaction<br />
is supplemented by impressive<br />
skills and craft.<br />
Anderson delivers articulated<br />
solos with astonishing nuance<br />
over Helias’ full and resonating<br />
bass and Hemingway’s elaborated<br />
rhythms—the drummer<br />
even dares to provide such a backdrop on the<br />
pastoral “Unforgiven.” And the slow-cooking<br />
“The Masque” is a tribute to Anderson’s seemingly<br />
endless range.<br />
But highlights are difficult to single out in<br />
such a consistent and enthralling collection.<br />
The mournful yet hopeful title track is nevertheless<br />
a wise choice to close a recording that<br />
also benefits from great engineering, which<br />
provides the opportunity to admire in fine<br />
detail the exceptional art of these three musicians.<br />
<br />
—Alain Drouot<br />
The Other Parade: Show Tuck; The Blue Light Down The Line;<br />
King Louisian; Rhythm Generation; Soft Shoe Mingle; Unforgiven;<br />
The Masque; Lips And Grits; The Other Parade. (59:07)<br />
Personnel: Ray Anderson, trombone; Mark Helias, bass; Gerry<br />
Hemingway, drums.<br />
Ordering info: cleanfeed-records.com<br />
There’s also a lot<br />
going on with Night<br />
Song that simmers<br />
beneath the appearances.<br />
In other<br />
words, we can’t take<br />
these two at surface<br />
value, sounding<br />
like old chamber<br />
guys just as likely<br />
to put us to sleep as<br />
wake us up with radical<br />
notions of “art<br />
for art’s sake.” “Reticence” comes up a third<br />
of the way through this program of 13 tracks,<br />
and while it still feels like an extension of the<br />
opening “Night Song,” the gentle breezes of<br />
Bjørnstad’s delicate chords and soft single lines<br />
lightly bouncing off Henryson’s equally exquisite<br />
sustains carry a hint of menace.<br />
Not that Night Song is all doom and gloom.<br />
Providing some form of emotional balance,<br />
there are wispy hints of playfulness within the<br />
floatation device “Schubert Said,” a bit of cello<br />
plucking puckish-ness occasioning the strolling<br />
“Serene,” not to mention the slightly sunshiny<br />
“Adoro” (where Bjørnstad veers off on<br />
his own momentarily, again with mysterious,<br />
patient chords and single notes) and “Melting<br />
Ice,” with its memorable four-note phrase perhaps<br />
the brightest and most hopeful sign that<br />
tomorrow is another day. —John Ephland<br />
Night Song: Night Song (Evening Version); Visitor; Fall; Edge; Reticence;<br />
Schubert Said; Adoro; Share; Melting Ice; Serene; The Other;<br />
Own; Sheen; Chain; Tar; Night Song (Morning Version). (77:06)<br />
Personnel: Ketil Bjørnstad, piano; Svante Henryson, cello.<br />
Ordering info: ecmrecords.com<br />
Zevious<br />
After The Air Raid<br />
Cuneiform 287<br />
HHH1/2<br />
Zevious is a guitar power trio. Mostly scabrous<br />
in nature, After The Air Raid’s most interesting<br />
and enjoyable music comes when Zevious<br />
lets the air out of its tires. That contrast helps<br />
make the more intense music sing. The atmospheric<br />
title track, “That Ticket Exploded” and<br />
even “The Noose” offer relative calm, hints of<br />
swing and more nuance next to more ominous,<br />
driving, menacing fare like “Mostly Skulls”<br />
and “The Children And The Rats,” a tune in<br />
which the band combines both elements.<br />
Based out of New York, Zevious is jazz,<br />
it’s rock, it’s the downtown punk-jazz-harmolodic<br />
vibe. With cousins Mike Eber and Jeff<br />
Eber on guitar and drums and bassist Johnny<br />
DeBlase, these guys put their music degrees<br />
to work, influenced by the likes of Ronald<br />
Shannon Jackson, Fred Frith and James Blood<br />
Ulmer. The five-year-old Zevious is for anyone<br />
who loves aggressive rock-oriented improv<br />
with grooves and some semblance of a song.<br />
Hard to believe that its first album,<br />
Zevious (2007), was an all-acoustic affair,<br />
more straight-ahead and jazzy, while After<br />
The Air Raid is not something you’d necessarily<br />
want to play for your grandmother.<br />
“Where’s The Captain” starts things off, letting<br />
us know that being intense doesn’t mean<br />
you can’t have arrangements and that following<br />
a script doesn’t mean you can’t let your<br />
hair down. The song is tethered by a structure<br />
that keeps everyone close, the medium-tempo<br />
oddly metered funk giving way to Eber’s<br />
caustic Telecaster with barely more than a<br />
minute left to improvise. DeBlase’s bass playing<br />
can be heard like a second guitar, busy<br />
and intricate at times, a good contrast to Eber,<br />
as on slowly grinding rocker “Coma Cluster”<br />
and the mesmerizing groove laid out with<br />
“Inciting.” <br />
—John Ephland<br />
After The Air Raid: Where’s The Captain; Coma Cluster; Mostly<br />
Skulls; That Ticket Exploded; The Noose; Inciting; Gradual Decay;<br />
The Ditch; After The Air Raid; The Children And The Rats; Glass<br />
Tables. (53:50)<br />
Personnel: Mike Eber, guitars; Johnny DeBlase, electric and<br />
acoustic basses; Jeff Eber, drums.<br />
Ordering info: cuneiformrecords.com<br />
58 DOWNBEAT SEPTEMBER 2011