The Onus

Every so often, I’m reminded of the relative perils inherent in allowing my listening diet to revolve mainly around what arrives in the mail for review. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a privilege and a pleasure to have a steady supply of releases show up regularly in the old rusty rattrap of a mailbox. But it also inevitably leads to plenty of other albums falling under my radar. The most recent reminder of this regrettable side effect: The Onus.

I first encountered The Onus on Scott Hreha’s indispensable One Final Note radio show sometime last year. He spun tracks from both of the band’s 2005 releases, Triphony and Y’all Got It, and I recall fixating on the selection of the former disc, a trio date with just clarinet, double bass and drums. Even in what I assumed to be mp3 quality sound, the recording of the instruments was uncommonly vibrant and natural. But sandwiched within a program of other excellent selections, the resulting intrigue wasn’t enough to coax me into further investigation. Fast forward to about a month ago. I was at Saint Paul brick and mortar, half-heartedly flipping through the cd racks and happened across a used copy of Triphony (Scott, please tell me you didn’t sell it!), a mental trigger clicking with the memory of the OFN audition. Mulling over the purchase for a few minutes I opted to put the disc back in the racks, vowing that if it was still there on my next visit the wallet would part with the necessary dough to bring it home.

Sure enough, a week later it was still sitting where I left it (the Twin Cities appears woefully short on Onus fans, a condition that I hope this entry will have some small part in combating). Making good on my pledge I purchased the disc, brought it home. A few days later, I transferred it over to my Muvo portable and brought it to the gym. The nearly 80-minute program of levelheaded, highly animated chamber jazz supplied an absorbing soundtrack for a protracted treadmill session. Clarinetist Darryl Harper compares the group to the pianoless bands of Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman, but I detect the aural shadow of Giuffre in the mix as well. Harper’s woody, speech-like tone and agile articulation milk the same middle register, avoiding grandstanding displays in favor of more measured means of expression.

Also impressive are bassist Matthew Parrish and drummer Butch Reed. Parrish reminds me of a 1960s Steve Swallow weaned on a Motown and Stax record collection (the trio’s spry cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Jesus, Children of America” is no joke). His sonorous intonation and enveloping acoustic girth receive an additional boost from the recording, which captures the resonance of his instrument with a clarity that is rare these days. It’s seriously some of the best-engineered bass I’ve heard in a long while, especially for a jazz recording. I get the feeling that Parrish can play the hell out of his strings, but he keeps the preening peacock side of his personality completely in check. There are places where he matches Harper in terms of melodic acuity and dexterity. Best of all he’s not averse to getting funky, elastic vamps and deceptively complex harmonic patterns rolling off his fingers against the cozy lines of Harper’s licorice stick. Reed plays with a Shelly Manne-like sensitivity and reserve, quiet and sometimes introspective, but always responsive and active, particularly in tandem with Parrish. His rhythms revolve on careful dynamics and judicious accents. The sustained musicality of these three is something I continue to marvel at and the disc is a precious case where a packed-to-the-circumference silver platter actually lives up to the promise of its length.

A visit to the same Saint Paul shop a few days ago yielded an unexpected copy of Y’all Got It, The Onus’s album length exploration of Charlie Smalls’s music from The Wiz, how’s that for some undiscovered improv fodder? On it the core trio from Triphony is joined by two others, guitarist Jeff Ray and keyboardist Harry Appelman in variety of combinations. I’m only a few spins in, but so far, I’m digging it too. Actually, I’m enjoying both so much, I’m seriously thinking about splitting the difference on the used price paid to procure them and sending the band a check. A quick cruise over to the band’s website reveals a pair of releases that predate these two. There’s also plenty of background on Harper, including a pdf of his 6-page C.V. (some estimable credentials therein), and the lowdown on various Onus offshoots.

Encomiums come rather cheap these days and the common consumer claim that music critics aren’t critical enough crops up increasingly often, frequently with good reason. In the interest of allaying such suspicions in this case, I’ll stake a sawbuck as satisfaction guarantee to the following caveat-attached recommendation: anyone with curiosity toward clarinet-fronted postbop would do well to give these guys a listen. The onus now falls on you, dear reader, to heed the advice.