If my sometimes faulty suppositions are correct, I’m a fairly typical jazz listener. Always on safari for fresh and, more importantly, irregular purveyors on any given instrument. Saxophonist Stephen Gauci certainly satisfies that prerequisite as far as I’m concerned. Gauci’s got this Zelig-like quality, a chameleonic gift with tone and phrasing that allows him to assume the vague guise of a half dozen different saxophonists within the space of as many minutes. He rarely adheres to one voice or visage for too long, constantly revamping the vernacular and keeping his colleagues on their collective toes. We’re Comin’ Just One Time is alive with examples. It offers an inside-outside mix with priority placed pleasantly on the latter side of the stylistic coin.
The closest analog I can come up with is Joe Henderson. I like to imagine it no coincidence that Gauci’s horn resembles Henderson’s counterpart in its aged look and general divestment of lacquer. Like his departed elder, Gauci plays the hell out of his tenor, leaving no keypad or ligature off limits in service of an improvisation. Nor does he allow his more exhibitionist tendencies to obscure underlying swing His trills and ululations throughout the slightly wobbly “Down Day on Broadway” recall the scalding atonal preface of “El Barrio,” but stretched out over the span of several minutes. The title piece is packed with similarly-sourced pyrotechnics as Gauci generates a fount of multiphonics that douses the propulsive chop churned up by bassist Terence Murren and drummer Jeremy Carlstedt. Suddenly the saxophonic bluster subsides and Gauci intones a dissipating line shot through with rounded lyricism. Carlstedt’s athletic drum solo traces kindred dynamic trajectory from loud to low-key and back again prior to an abrupt end. Several tracks conclude with the punctuating porous rasp of a Gauci reed whistle, yet another personality tick inflected beautifully through his horn.
“What You Say?” jumps back across the arbitrary median as a performance likely to win the approval of a curmugeonly postbop fan. Gauci suppresses any impulse to erupt and instead turns his attention to an extended workout steeped in lithe melodicism, again undertaken with the Henderson-worthy mutability. At the onset of “She Winked” he parcels out breathy rounded notes laced with melancholy in front a propellant blend of pizzicato bass and busy brushes, only to coarsen his attack in the second half through a barrage of gritty acerbic cries. He isn’t averse to his partners occupying their shares of the floor either. Murren crafts crackerjack arco statements on “Dream of Jeremiah” and “Don’t Forget the Poor” while Carlstedt assembles his major statements during the earlier part of the program. “Blue Gauch,” retro-titled and the ballad of the set, holds in its closing minute one of the few moments of the set approximating a peccadillo. Gauci launches into another aerated cadenza, shaping a swirling improvisation that falters in mid-stride, a lapse into silence quickly covered over by a repair of the line. Rather than stressing his fallibility it only dramatizes the demanding level the trio insists on operating at. This marks Gauci’s third release in a space of little more than a year. Count me as an ardent believer eagerly anticipating number four.
~ Derek Taylor
Posted by derek on February 22, 2006 7:43 AMWould you say that he has no personality of his own, or like Whitman does he contain multitudes? I'm interested in things such as these, but where I lose a little bit of patience is if he's consciously, a la post modernism, patterning himself after different voices for different tunes, such as, "Here's my Marsh tune." Or, "now I'm Henderson." What's your take?
Posted by: Jeffrey Little at February 24, 2006 8:35 AMSure wouldn't be my take on it.
Posted by: Reuben at February 24, 2006 9:38 AMThat's great, because there's so little out there that's really interesting to me right now, and I'm hoping that this will prove so. Thanks.
Posted by: Jeffrey Little at February 24, 2006 10:13 AMMine either. I hear loose threads of other saxophonists in his playing, but I don't get the feeling that he's (self)consciously aping their styles. I'm more of the "multitudes" opinion, the Henderson comparison made above being a single point of reference rather than a reflection of copycatting. He's definitely got his own voice on the horn even when it exhibits certain traits of others (hence the Zelig analogy). Sorry if I gave a contrary impression, Jeffrey. Hopefully my enthusiasm for the disc is evident.
Reuben, nice job on the recording. What's your take on Stephen's sound/approach?
Posted by: derek at February 24, 2006 10:31 AMDerek:
No you didn't give that impression, I was just trying to dig a little bit deeper. Some folks like the po-mo attitude; I had a flirtation with it myself way back when in my writing, but have since completely flipped on it & now my teeth ache when up confronted with it. I was just trying to get where you stood on that, RE: this disc. I will be checking out Mr. Gauci in the near future. Thanks for the heads-up on him.
Posted by: Jeffrey Little at February 24, 2006 10:36 AMJeffrey, please post your impressions here after you've had a chance to hear Gauci, I'd very much like to read them.
Another facet I find exciting about him is the variety endemic to his work on the Cadence releases. Blindly A/B-ing his playing in Michael Bisio's Quartet w/ Avram Fefer with his sound on, say, his own CIMP, there are spots where I'd be hard-pressed to guess it's the same saxophonist.
Posted by: derek at February 24, 2006 10:48 AMWell, Derek, I was glad to see your reference to Henderson, which I think is a very apt comparison. I've never followed JH very much, but I really hear that. I also hear a bit of George Garzone in Stephen's playing. I really feel for tenor players. It must be really hard to not telegraph your influences on that instrument. I think Gauci does a great job of just doing his own thing, while still working from out of others' precedent examples.
Glad you like the sound on that CD. I also recorded his trio disc on Cadence with Mike Bisio and Jay Rosen, which is all free improv, and I think a real gem. Bisio is really something...
Posted by: Reuben at February 24, 2006 12:29 PMI like "The Long Night Waiting" made on Cadence before. The rythm section is first quality and, like Reuben has underline it, because of Mike Bisio great playing all along. Bisio is really undervalued bass player.
On this record (and i dont know - yet - the one who's criticise here) Gauci was close (and different in the same time) to James Finn in a more cool manner.
I'd liked to ask Reuben about the "severe hearing loss at age nine" than Gauci suffer and the "major effect of the hearing loss" on the developpement of his music.
Howis his earing today?
"Bisio is [a] really undervalued bass player."
so fucking true.
Posted by: al at February 24, 2006 5:58 PMHey LeMo,
Stephen's hearing loss is very real, and from what I understand is only going to get worse over time. He wears hearing aids in both ears. How much this affects his music is really something only he could explain.
Posted by: Reuben at February 25, 2006 7:53 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................