Andrew Lamb Trio - The Pilgrimage

CIMP 282

Certainly one of the freshest voices to come out of New York in the past ten years, Andrew Lamb has recorded his first release (and second in total) for CIMP, the unavoidable fringe label of the Cadence conglomerate. My first exposure to Lamb was during the 2002 Vision Festival, where his playing was an absolute show-stealer in Roy Campbell’s commissioned jazz opus, “Buhaina the Great.” Lamb’s handling of both his written parts and the finite spaces allotted for free soloing revealed an incredibly talented tenor saxophonist, one who could charm the shirts off of an audience with his blowing and with his cheery, yet humble persona. His solos were the highlight of an already moving evening of music, and they are sounds I will not soon forget.

The Pilgrimage features Lamb with Tom Abbs on bass and tuba, and Andrei Strobert on percussion. Lamb’s playing here is clearly inspired by earlier figures in improvised music. One can hear echoes of Roscoe Mitchell, Archie Shepp and Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre at every turn, yet Lamb maintains his own individuality in the treatment of the tunes and his own vocabulary with the tenor sax. The music is modest in its delivery, tending toward that brand of energy-based improvisation often associated with New York’s Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker, and Assif Tsahar. But there is spirituality to Lamb’s that is unmistakable, prevalent in the care taken in the changes and in the gentle nature of the trio’s ongoing communication. The music has its highs and lows, but most of it loiters in between. “Ludicrous Ridiculous” is a generic ten minutes of free improv, sans the opening and closing heads. Like “Circus Avenue,” it is unexciting at best, but you have to appreciate the fervor with which Lamb approaches each second of playing. “Contractions” features a nice opening sequence with Abbs and Strobert, the bassist’s chops on welcome display. Using alternative instrumentation, the title track opens with some unexceptional phrases on mismaar, an obscure double-reeded instrument. The tune quickly shifts to conventional rhythms, Abbs supplying the bass end on tuba. His statements on the big-big horn are adventurous to the extent that one can be on such an unwieldy and unforgiving instrument. But as he has in Ori Kaplan’s trio, Abbs makes a new instrument of the tuba, creating an impossibly versatile weapon for improvisation and bringing healthy swells of support in the bass range.

It is the quirks and imperfections that make Lamb’s CIMP debut an enjoyable listen. One might be better off with Dennis Gonzalez’s Old Time Revival as an introduction to his playing, or even Lamb’s own Portrait in the Mist on Delmark. That said, The Pilgrimage leaves hope that Lamb may begin a steady climb from “unheard” to “sought out” among today’s improvising musicians. He would do wonders for a number of otherwise stale ensembles that come to mind.

~Alan Jones