Collaboration is crucial to creative endeavors involving entities beyond the individual in number. To that end Assif Tsahar has demonstrated time and again his acumen at choosing and sustaining artistic alliances that encourage prosperous returns. Cooper-Moore and Tsahar share a musical kinship dating back at least to their work together in William Parker’s 90s collective In Order to Survive. The years subsequent to that seminal ensemble’s dissolution have presented various touring opportunities for the duo. A pair of eclectic albums on Hopscotch documents a partnership that continues to grow. Lost Brother takes the template and adds a third catalytic force in the persona of percussionist Hamid Drake. Tsahar has tapped Drake in the past for various performances and recordings so the pick isn’t a complete curveball, but it’s still impressive how well the drummer’s multifarious rhythms augment the energy reservoir of the three.
C-M avoids piano completely and pares down his usual bulging satchel of instruments down to just three specimens. The record opens with the harsh scratch of what sounds like a splintered stylus gouging into a slice of spinning vinyl. It’s actually C-M plugging in and calibrating his twanger, a stringed contraption that generates brittle trampoline-like tonalities of often Laswellian-sized proportions. The diddley-bow is similar in construction, but generally much cleaner in tone, sounding akin to a fretless electric bass, which it essentially is, albeit in single string form. C-M’s works around the limited harmonic latitude of both instruments, shaping vamps and anchors that on occasion rival those of Jamaladeen Tacuma in terms of visceral pocket-seated grooves.
Drake renders his role with customary finesse, generating a felicitous range of beats for each setting and purpose. On “Departure” his frothy snare cadences congeal with C-M’s burbling diddley-bow to form an undulating spring-loaded funk mattress for Tsahar’s tenor to bounce and bluster atop. “The Coming of the Ship” favors an even tighter fit and by the time the laser hits “Goin’ Home” the three have sketched a syncopated ensemble schematic that sounds uncommonly close to Spaceways Incorporated, Tsahar chewing through a string of gnarled riffs that would probably make Vandermark crack a smile.
Sequenced between the handful of tenor-fronted ‘groove’ tracks are a series of more meditative excursions. On these C-M turns to malleted ashimba. Drake plays frame drum on the first piece “Falling Leaf,” but turns to supple tabla for the remaining four. Tsahar straps on his bass clarinet and evinces the breadth of his growth on the instrument. His lush articulation and emotive phrasing conjure rustic aural scenery ranging from African savannah to Israeli desert against the plush and soothing percussive backgrounds woven by his partners. I found myself queuing “Dugong the Sea Cow” several times in succession and slipping into a relaxed semi-trance under the aegis of the delicate and earnest interplay.
December always seems to become something of a Dead Letter Office for new releases. Albums released during the month frequently miss the cut for inclusion on year-end lists and it falls on elephant-minded critics and consumers to crow about the cream of the late-harvesting crop over the course of the next annum. In the interest of bucking that troublesome trend this disc sits comfortably among the best two dozen discs I’ve heard during this swiftly waning year. And I'd advise anyone with an interest in the work of these three men to pull the trigger on an immediate purchase.
~ Derek Taylor
Posted by derek on December 28, 2005 5:30 PMI can second that. I enjoyed this one quite a bit, and it will be featured in a Hopscotch roundup in a month's time over at the other site (meanwhile I might warn fellow Baganauts that Derek has also reviewed Cooper-Moore's Outtakes, coming soon). Lost Brother is fun stuff, and it's genuinely funky (Drake, annoyingly brilliant as ever). Assif sounds better and better with each release. Yep, if you have any $ left over after Christmas, this is as good a thing as any to spend them on. You can also add the Kowald / Fernandez duo on Hopscotch, Sea Of Lead.. but methinks a DT review of that won't be long coming..
Posted by: Dan Warburton at December 29, 2005 12:52 AMWell, my Drake phobiae won't get me too far with this one - see the reamings I've received elsewhere on this - but Coop and the presence of Assif's bcl are not unattractive prospects.
Posted by: clifford at December 29, 2005 1:41 PMHm, Tshar getting better & better? One of those players whom I'd more or less scratched off the list after the first couple (disastrous) contacts -- a boring set with Ibarra & Wm Parker at the Rivoli, & various sideman gigs (e.g. his hapless attempt to mimic David Murray & James Carter on Hugh Ragin's Feel the Sunshine). I have this stack of Hopscotch releases kicking around here but hadn't mustered the interest to give them a spin--will give it a shot....
Posted by: ND at December 29, 2005 3:04 PMDo and let me know what you make of it. Think you're being a bit hard on the guy though, Nate; OK, he's probably not going to come out well in comparison with Murray or Carter (though they've turned out some shoddy stuff from time to time.. what's happend to Carter btw?) - but I think Assif's strength lies elsewhere. Come Sunday was a fine piece of work.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at December 29, 2005 10:13 PM"Sea of lead" is the cd of the year for me, along with the BLANK/Pettibon/Yoshide radio play on important records.
Posted by: Damon Smith at January 4, 2006 8:58 AMThe recording of Kowald on Sea of Lead is truly spectacular, and Agusti Fernandez kills me every time. Was less blown away - though touched - by the Tsahar+Tatsuya+strings offering, Solitude.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at January 4, 2006 10:29 PMYeah, I thought--given the cast--that "Solitude" would be better than it is. Seems kind of lackluster compared to other recent Hopscotches like "Jam" & "Fragments," anyhow.
Posted by: walto at January 5, 2006 8:06 AMSeconded on Sea of Lead; Kowald’s gone, but he ain’t gone.
Also like Solitude and while it’s maybe not on par w/ some of the other ‘Scotches of recent vintage, I don’t think I’d call it “lackluster”. Sorry if I steered you wrong, Walt.
Is this disc (and any of the others mentioned) significantly better than "The Hollow World"? I picked that up based on a Cadence review possibly by a poster here and didn't find much interesting going on there. Maybe I'll give it another spin but seems like that hasn't worked in the past. Rightly or otherwise I swore off Tsahar then.
Posted by: Captain Hate at January 6, 2006 7:49 PMCap’n – it’s been ages since I’ve spun The Hollow World, but I whistled its praises back when it came out in ’00 so take the below w/ the proper grain (my review was for OFN though, so I can’t be the culprit of whom you speak).
From instrumentation to intent, this one’s a fried apple to that peeled orange. I think your appreciation will hinge mainly on whether you can get behind weeble-wobble tonality of C-M’s twanger & the rubberband fonk of his diddley-bow. I’ve heard better tenor work from Tsahar elsewhere (not saying it’s at all bad here), but his bass clarinet is something else. He gets this vaporous sound out of it that owes next to nothing to Dolphy & totally jibes with the earthy ethno-rhythms of ashimba & tabla.
Sea of Lead should go on your shortlist, mos def.
Posted by: derek at January 6, 2006 8:13 PMI like "Hollow World" OK, but not nearly as much as the two I mentioned or "Labyrinth."
Derek, I don't think you steered me to "Solitude." Just to Tsahar and his label's output generally--and for that, I'm eternally grateful! After enjoying many of those others so much, I wouldn't have passed over "Solitude"--especially as Katt plays on it!
Posted by: walto at January 6, 2006 8:40 PMGlad to dodge a bullet, Walt ;) I remembered giving Solitude the thumbs up to you & Stone over at JC, thinking that you, especially, would dig it. I’m with you though that the orchestral discs, esp. The Labyrinth have an edge.
Posted by: derek at January 6, 2006 9:41 PM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................