James Beaudreau - Java St. Bagatelles

Workbench
01

It’s kind of interesting to encounter improvisational recordings that manage to elude relatively easy encapsulation in this or that sub-genre. James Beaudreau, a guitarist from Brooklyn, somewhat manages to do it in this collection of 24 short pieces, mostly improvised. He calls them “bagatelles” and, not picking up much of a trace of Webern, I take it he’s using the term as in “trifles”, not in a derogatory sense but indicating small, everyday things. That homespun quality is one of the more endearing aspects of the music, much of which was recorded in Beaudreau’s kitchen on Java St. in Greenpoint. The surrounding atmosphere can be clearly discerned on several of the tracks and when it is, one derives the pleasant sensation of, possibly, occupying the apartment above and hearing the gentle guitar playing as it wafts upwards and out. That casualness and lack of presumption serves the music very well.

The pieces themselves are a bit difficult to describe, not because they’re so unusual but because they flicker between identifiable genres without ever really settling on one. You hear a bit of Bailey maybe but Beaudreau’s most outside playing is less so than Bailey at his most inside. There are flashes of British folk and classical song, hints here and there of flamenco and tango and tinges of older jazz traditions (Django). Perhaps more than anything, I was reminded of the thoughtful Beefheart instrumentals like “Peon” and “One Red Rose That I Mean”, especially insofar as having a structure that seems to want to cohere but insists on fragmenting, or cohering in unsettling ways. That said, there’s a certain amount of sameness in the selections, perhaps an inevitable outcome when you’re dealing with 24 pieces, all between one and three minutes in duration. It’s one of those odd cases in improvised music where I think I would have liked to hear more traditional melodic material, actually; I get the feeling that’s where his strength might lie. When that aspect emerges a bit more clearly, as in the piece titled “Spanish Moss”, there’s some really wonderful music created. I’d be curious to hear, if Beaudreau is interested in doing so, lengthier explorations in this area.

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