Bagatellen: Sabir Mateen’s Shapes, Texture and Sound Ensemble

Sabir Mateen’s Shapes, Texture and Sound Ensemble - Prophecies come to Pass

I have found it to be a mistake, in many cases, to begin an improvised gig white hot. Same goes for a record, and whether I’m listening or performing, I find such intensity difficult to maintain after the initial burst. All the performers on this disc, and 577, are to be commended for doing just that, making this disc one of the strongest in the young label’s catalog.

The band is burning! They come out swinging, as do many fire-breathing post-Ayler aggregates, but from the very beginning, the playing is suffused with a kind of expectancy. The audience is very audibly feeling it, evidenced by some “Yeah!”s as bassist Matthew Heyner and drummer Michael T.A. Thompson kick in to a raunchy gospel-tinged swinging groove that simply grabbed me by the neck. The energy intensifies from that point, as “Sekasso Blues” tub-thumps its secularly evangelistic message.

I’ve known Mateen, Matt Lavelle and Steve Swell to be great players in other contexts, but the chemistry in evidence here takes things to another level. Only listen to the textured beginning, invoking Ascension, of the title track. Mateen, now on clarinet, trades beautifully poetic phrases with Swell’s trombone and Lavelle’s sweetly authoritative trumpet. The music exists in and out of time, historically and rhythmically, as the 18-minute epic alternately evokes ice and heat, making beautiful use of silence along the way. I only wish Mateen had been more closely miked on this one!

It would be impossible to document the styles of soloing on offer here, as each player is clearly extremely well grounded in this music. I’m not even sure if the music was culled from several performances or just one, but this disc works so well as a whole that such considerations lose importance. The recording is a bit rough around the edges, but that actually adds to the excitement, bringing small-venue intimacy to some fantastic material. While I wouldn’t say that any new ground is broken here, the band is so good at the historically proven ground it covers that the disc is a pleasure from start to finish.

~ Marc Medwin

Posted by derek on June 23, 2006 1:25 PM

Comments

Thanks for this review. Can't help mentioning, it's "Prophecies" with a "c".

Posted by: pedantic at June 23, 2006 2:08 PM

Thanks, my bad. If I had a dime for every typo I'd have at least a dollar.

Posted by: derek at June 23, 2006 3:04 PM

If I had a dime for every typo I'd be able to buy this disc cuz it sounds rather good

Posted by: Dan Warburton at June 23, 2006 10:23 PM

I have seen Mateen a few times and have found his music amazing and inspiring each time. He has always reminded me of Sam Rivers in performance, drifting to each instrument like Rivers does, especially in his trio performances.

Posted by: Tim at June 24, 2006 9:23 PM

The drummer on this, Michael T.A. Thompson plays some great stuff with Ken Filiano on Dennis Gonzalez's new Clean Feed disc.
I had not heard of him before.

Posted by: damon smith at June 25, 2006 9:20 PM

Sabir Mateen and Hamid Drake have a good Eremite CD called "Brothers Together." The "mistake" the reviewer mentions does happen there--the first track is so hot the rest of the CD is somewhat of a letdown. But the first track is an astonishing 20 minutes of listening. Mateen can play with great fluidity and joy.

Posted by: rich at June 28, 2006 5:39 PM

I agree with the positive review of this group. Matt Lavelle hipped me to Michael T.A. Thompson, describing him as "always up in your sound," a very accurate decision. His million-miles-a-minute playing is not unlike Hamid Drake's, but there also exists a more responsve quality to his playing. Drake is an amazing talent, but he tends to be not the best foil for things that are strongly composition-based/boppish. For example, I love the aforementioned Brothers Together and his duo discs with Assif Tsahar on Ayler. However, his playing on the David S. Ware Live 3XCD doesn't really sit all that well with me; I much prefer the Guillermo Brown and Susie Ibarra portions. Not that Ware is all that compositionally based (Freedom Suite excepted), but Drake doesn't work as the best complement. Anyway, back to the disc at hand. Thompson IS a great foil, and I really wish some label (maybe me) would release a disc from Roy Campbell's Tazz. How can a group with Thompson and Andrew Bemkey fronted by Roy Campbell not have a disc? Lavelle and Swell are in fine form as well, as is Matt Heyner. Heyner and Lavelle also form 2/3 of Eye Contact, a collective with Ryan Sawyer on drums. Too, Mateen, Swell and Heyner also work together in Swell's Slammin' The Infinite, they have a highly developed sense of interplay. This disc was actually recorded in September of last year, just after the conclusion of a Slammin' The Infinite Tour, so this group, espeically for an ad-hoc ensemble is especially tight. Highly recommended!

Eric

Posted by: ericdevin at June 29, 2006 5:35 AM

sabir's band from this cd is playing tower records at lincoln center on saturday july 22nd at 1:00 for free.(1 to 66thst)
we will have copies of the disc,..no doubt.
come by,and dig sabir's music up close.

peace out
matt Lavelle

Posted by: matt lavelle at July 8, 2006 4:05 PM