Dave Fox, a pianist from North Carolinian environs, presents a solo piano suite that straddles the boundaries between the post-Cecil Taylor jazz avant garde and the contemporary pianistics of composer/performers like Frederic Rzewski. The cover photo shows an up-close panorama of the instrument’s interior and Fox does on occasion dip into that box, though the majority of time here is spent on the keyboard, often using preparations on the strings. After the initial “Prologue and Invocation” (admittedly, I could do without most of the titles used here) which does indeed involve some messing about the piano’s interior, Fox plunges into “Mayday”, beginning with a jaunty little figure that recalls some of Abdullah Ibrahim’s ruminations before expanding into what appears to be a freely improvised section. This is the first of several times I was reminded of Ibrahim, not so much (unfortunately) with regard to the great South African’s pure musicality but to a type of compositional line he often used in his early solo work, a kind of bumpy, rambling approach, like someone wending his way downhill along rough and narrow streets. Here, as elsewhere on the disc, Fox’s sound is quite clear and rich, the technique formidable but maybe a bit steely. He has some of Rzewski’s vigorous, iron-fingered attack but not so much of that composer’s lyricism and the one without the other can make for some tough going.
Fox is extremely active and busy throughout the disc and perhaps this is one of the elements that trends the session toward a certain amount of sameness. There’s too little contemplation, no apparent interest into listening to what one has done before charging to the next section. The improvisations (I didn’t pick up anything that sounded composed, though I could be mistaken) hover around a relatively small conceptual area, differentiated more by the specific technique employed in a given piece than any breadth of musical ideas. At best, when things get roiling and chaotic, as on the aforementioned “Mayday” or “Dedication #3: Toccata”, Fox achieves a level of involvement that one might expect from any self-respecting, post-Taylor pianist and that’s fine but those instances are rare. I can imagine the disc having some value for listeners looking to extend their ears beyond avant jazz pianism a little bit into contemporary “classical” concerns including some extended techniques (though they might be better served trying out someone like Denman Maroney) but for myself, “Dedication Suite” generally failed to sustain interest.
.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................