John Butcher/Gino Robair
New Oakland Burr
Rastascan
BRD 051
John Butcher possibly spoiled me for life several years ago during a solo performance of his at Tonic. Three or four of the pieces were so perfectly realized, so precisely balanced between amazing extended technique on the one hand and substantial, song-like (though abstract) structure on the other, that I was floored. Not only has that concert stayed with me since then but, rather more unfortunately, I keep expecting each subsequent disc he releases to achieve that level of inspiration. A handful of the solo pieces, on discs like “Fixations (14)” have come close (and are certainly excellent work), but I’ve yet to relive that same thrill while listening to his recordings.
I can’t say that I expected to have these yearnings fulfilled on “New Oakland Burr”, a duo collaboration with SF-area percussionist (and other-stuff-ist) Gino Robair whose work, to the extent of my exposure to it, has generally struck me as, well, just OK. (I still regret that his Braxton project, “Jump or Die”, though not bad, wasn’t as wildly fantastic as it could’ve been). The sixteen studio-recorded tracks here are far more “simply” elaborations of technical approaches than they are considered explorations of sound. The sort of idea that I’ve heard undergirding the best of Butcher’s work isn’t to be regularly found. The pieces are also pretty short, ranging from less than a minute to under five, a time span that I don’t think suits him particularly well. At least it doesn’t suit the Butcher I want to hear. I find I prefer him in temporal mid-range, say the 6-10 minute area, where there’s both enough time for considered exploration of some arcane sonic facet and not enough of it so that the structure gets lost.
And, to these ears, the most successful tracks here are the longest, generally with Butcher on tenor, like the opening “Throat Rust” and the resonant “Fid”, each inhabiting its world fully, each implying that there’s a wealth of fascinating sounds left to be investigasted in the area and closing out with the listener wanting more. As with my time length preference, I find I generally enjoy Butcher more when he plumbs the lower depths of his big horn and I’ve especially enjoyed his use of feedback therein. When he gets into that territory here, the results are rewarding, all the more so when Robair’s contributions become difficult to distinguish from Butcher’s, i.e. when they’re not overtly percussive, which occurs pretty often. Still, those tracks account for perhaps a third of this disc and the rest is scattershot enough that, on the whole, I find “New Oakland Burr” somewhat disappointing (and, I should say, there are a couple of cuts where I glanced at the timings to see, even at a couple of minutes, how much more I had to endure, e.g. the amusingly titled “Whine Model”). Even so, there are few saxophonists I’d rather listen to these days and others may not share my prejudices and/or experiences in beautiful Butcherania. Myself, I’m just waiting for the discafied reappearance of those unrecaptureable moments.
Posted by brian on October 24, 2004 8:46 AMPoooor Ollie; an outstanding performance by Butcher ruins him for life. Do you realize how that sounds to us poor hicks out in the improvised music sub-backwaters that would commit minor felonious acts just to get a mediocre Butcher performance? Let me pull out an eyelash to generate a crocodile tear. OUCH dammit... no tear; dry tear ducts, hope it's not a detached retina....
I like "Fixations" but how does your *great* performance measure up to "Invisible Ear"?
I was disappointed by "Jump or Die" also; it wasn't bad but the potential was so high.... Has anybody ever asked Braxton what he thought of it? Not that he would give an honest answer if he didn't like it. Has anybody ever asked Ornette what he thinks of "Spy versus Spy" or are people only allowed to ask him really dumb questions about harmolodics?
Posted by: Captain Hate at October 25, 2004 4:15 PMHey, I can't help it if you live in a godforsaken swamp in a state no one's ever heard of, like Ohio.
If memory serves, I believe Ornette did indeed give his blessings to the Spy vs Spy project though, of course, who knows whether or not he was just making nice. I rather liked it myself and caught a fine show of that group at the old Knit. But I happy Zorno didn't go all Masada on us with that one.
Posted by: Brian at October 25, 2004 5:29 PMI think Ornette should honestly like "Spy vs Spy" because I think it captures at least part of the essence of his music. For example listening to it gives me a headache, just like "Dancing in Your Head". I'd have to think that he's aware of Zorn since Greg Cohen's been with him for a while now.
Posted by: Captain Hate at October 25, 2004 6:08 PMYeah I wasn't all that taken with previous Butcher/Robair collabs I've heard (two on Meniscus as part of various-duet round-robins; haven't heard the Spool trio) so I think I'll give this one a miss....but, Brian: have you heard Cavern with Nightlife (solo/duo with Toshimaru Nakamura)? That's much more like it.
Posted by: ND at October 25, 2004 8:32 PMThe Spool trio with Sperry is one of my favourite Butcher discs. Well worth getting hold of.
I drove through Ohio once.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at October 25, 2004 10:14 PMfor me, it's a more general thing that Butcher on record isn't as powerful an experience as he can be live. I was at the Tonic set Brian mentions above and a bunch of others over the years, but the solo set he did in AMPLIFY in May really blew me away to an extent I really never get from his records, although I like a lot of them. neither the recording of the Berlin set nor the new release with Toshi has had nearly the impact on me that the set in Berlin did.
Posted by: Jon Abbey at October 25, 2004 10:30 PMHeartily agree, Jon - and you should try PLAYING with him! Wonderful!
Posted by: Dan Warburton at October 26, 2004 12:06 PMI must agree that experiencing John Butcher live is a memorable experience. When we watched and heard him solo live in Nickelsdorf couple of years ago me and my pals didn't even noticed that a heavy rain is pouring on us. But Invisible Ear is one hell of a recording. His new one Cavern With Nightlife on his new label Weight On Wax (continuation of his Acta label) is at least to my ears completely different affair- Butcher much more plays with the rooms acoustics, preffering to toy with it's acoustic rather than ''showing'' his outstanding techniques (and he is heard much more on tenor on it than ussually). But still even in this setting his playing still burns my ears a lot more than Evan Parker in recent years ...
Posted by: LukaZ at October 27, 2004 7:32 AMShared a bill with Geno (duo with German trumpeter Brigid Uhler (sp?) a couple days ago in SF, first time I'd heard him live. I'd only heard him previously on the 13 Milagritos record with Butcher and Sperry (RIP). I found his approach to be completely chasing-each-other-around-the-room-ish, and Uhler(sp?) was trying to make music while he was breathing down her neck. I used to play with guitarist Doug Theriault and he used to play that way too, it's unnerving. Live it's fun to *see*, but the results of that style (exclusively, at least) are not often interesting to me.
Posted by: foster at October 31, 2004 5:21 PMI thought "New Oakland Burr" to be the strongest thing either of them have done in quite some time now. Each piece is truly a piece, very focussed and succintly executed. Not just another improv record.
Braxton was tickled pink about "Jump or Die" from what I hear.
Welcome, Mr. Shiurba. Hope you stick around and contribute more (that is, if you can wade through the spam).
Posted by: Jason at November 13, 2004 5:37 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................