Despite a reviewer's best intentions suppressing them, heightened expectations have a habit of undermining the appraisal of certain albums. Regrettably, this newly released outing by the power trio of guitarist Joe Morris, reed player Ken Vandermark and drummer Luther Gray registers in that category for me. I have a great deal of respect for all three players, having thrilled to their previous work separately and in various combinations over the years. Morris' meeting with DKV Trio released on Okka back in '01 speaks to the strengths of Boston and Chicago improv sensibilities, and Gray has been a regular collaborator supplying sticks on some of his best albums. Along with these hits, have come the misfire of the last Morris/Vandermark project with pianist Hans Poppel, a case where the creative gunpowder was a bit wet and the fireworks dampened as a result This one errs closer to that one in that the music feels oddly stifled by the sharply delineated frameworks the players chose to work in.
Referencing the album title for a quick and dirty analogy: it's as if the three are working from a sack containing too narrow a selection of puzzle pieces. Vandermark and Morris are both highly skilled rhythmic improvisers and it goes without saying that Gray shares similar abiding interest in this area. The stutter stop patterns of their fevered interplay generate a high amount of centripetal aural force that, calling upon a visual corollary, reminds me of an Olympic athlete running vigorously in place. Another binding agent is Vandermark's decision to limit himself to tenor, the instrument in his armory where his harmonic encumbrances are often most manifest. Morris also often sounds tethered in this respect, his barrages of ricocheting single notes often bouncing within perplexingly confined corridors. His solo on “Rebus, Part 2” marks one of several refreshing exceptions where he opens things up. There's a fair bit of flash to these pieces, with lots of notes and energy expended, but to my ears not a commensurate amount of heat. The disparity makes me mull again on the project title and the associative mystery as to why these musicians decided to hedge themselves in as they did.
~ Derek Taylor
Posted by derek on August 26, 2007 7:54 AMOf the recent Clean Feeds I like this one and the TECK string quartet the best. Vandermark does some of his best playing with Joe.
I like hearing Joe play guitar, and kind of like Georg Gräwe he has a great tone and a beautiful sound, I can get into just hearing that and not need much more.
I think he often goes for a monochrome texture, but like Robert Ryman understands exactly what he is doing with his white paint Joe knows exactly what he is doing.
I'd give this one a few more spins, I think there is a lot more to it than you think.
I hope so, Damon. This is one I REALLY wanted to like & I don't doubt Joe, Ken & Luther know exactly what they are doing. But right now, I'm just not feeling it. I pulled out the DKV + Joe disc for comparison & dig that one quite a bit more. Maybe Joe will swing by & get me back on the good foot.
Posted by: derek at August 26, 2007 7:02 PMI am very lucky to be criticized for playing too much and for not playing enough, for being too intense and not intense enough, for being too jazzy and not as jazzy as my other work, and always for not fullfulling the expectations that others have for me, or for how the guitar should sound or be played. I follow my nose to what interests me and encounter the results. It's been that way from the very beginning. Reading comparisions to myself can be frustrating and/or fun.
Finding form without directions makes life interesting. The pleasure of thinking is addictive.
Keep doing what you're doing, Joe.
Posted by: derek at August 27, 2007 8:46 AM"Reading comparisions to myself can be frustrating and/or fun."
Sounds like you find this one more fun than frustrating, Joe. While you're here, is there any news of that Malcolm Goldstein disc you were talking about releasing on Riti?
Joe, it might be a conversation better suited for private emails, but I would love to get specifics from you on how I “missed the boat” on this one. It’d help me out a lot. It’d also be great to hear from others who’ve heard this (Cliff? Dan? Others?). Damon digs it & I’ve read a few other glowing reviews, so again, I’m wondering what I missed.
Posted by: derek at August 28, 2007 5:58 AMI've only heard this once, so don't feel particularly qualified to comment, to be honest. I'm still working veeeery slowly through the huge backlog of Clean Feeds. Haven't even got to the Scott Fields yet, nor the Corsano Parker bash. (Still digging the Fields before, Beckett, and Wally Shoup's) What is it about these cats in Portugal? What with Creative Sauces they're certainly flooding the market these days. Maybe they're getting some kind of funding from Brussels or something (though I rather doubt it).
It all comes back to the eternal nagging question: how many times are you supposed to listen to something before committing your thoughts on it to paper? Having temporarily halted operations at Paris Transatlantic, I'm enjoying the wonderful luxury of being able to listen to things more, and realising how important it is. In a typical Joe Morris solo there's enough information to keep your mind busy for a whole week.
And yet, even restricting my writing activities to The Wire and Signal To Noise, I'm still often in the unenviable position of having to review things on the hoof after barely two or three listens. Inevitable, I suppose, given the furious competition between scribblers to place their bets in time for the monthly lottery.
Well get on it, Dan! Box up that violin & give that keyboard some more love.
I echo your sentiments re: the pleasures of Joe’s solos, but there weren’t that many on this set. Lots of etching and coloring, but comparatively little that I could decipher in terms of extended development. That’s what made the solo on the second track stand out for me. A lot of the rest of it just seems really boxed in. Fwiw, I listened to this one about four times fully & several more partially before sitting down to write it up, mainly on my portable Muvo player on walks to and from work. So honestly, I’m a little worried about the veracity of my ears.
Also hear you on the CF fecundity. I’m just now finding time to comment on some of these and feel bad for the delay. That second Fields is actually a reissue of a release on his own Geode imprint (nice double trio w/ some Chicago cats & some of the cleverest/kookiest track titles extant). Clean Feed is also hosting a Festival in NYC, 9/20 thru 9/23. Wish I could make it. Trem Azul must be bringing in some serious euros.
Posted by: derek at August 28, 2007 7:33 AMI'm not sure the sales of the discs amount to all that much, but the financing behind their release must be pretty solid somewhere along the line.
What's the lineup for the CF Fest? Is there a URL somewhere?
Would love to give the keyboard more love, if I had one at home! Time at the moment taken up with organising Han Bennink's IJB for The Wire (a labour of love though it is)
Play Han some J.R. Monterose!
I think the CF fest is going to consist of mostly New York-based players. Of course Trio Tarana will be there.
Posted by: clifford at August 28, 2007 10:20 AMI’m guessing most of the Trem Azul sales come from the other labels they stock/distribute- they’re pretty much the Verge/North Country of Portugal. Their merch table at Vision Fest a few years ago blew me away in terms of its volume of offerings.
As far as the fest, Pedro sent a pdf of the flyer about a week ago, but I’m not sure where it’s up online. Here’s the line-up, all gigs @ The Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, NYC:
9/20
8:30pm Patrick Brennan’s Present Personic (w/ Lisle Ellis & Bern Nix)
9:30pm Alipio C. Neto Qt (w/ Roy Campbell, Ken Filiano & Michael TA Thompson)
9/21
9pm Russ Lossing’s Metal Rat (w/ Mat Maneri & Sean Conly)
10pm Ravish Momin’s Trio Tarana (w/ Sam Bardfield & Brandon Terzic)
11pm Adam Lane’s Full Throttle Orchestra (w/ Nate Wooley, Taylor Ho Bynum, Avram Fefer, Michael Attias, David Bindman, Reut Regev, Tim Vaughn & Igal Foni)
9/22
9pm Gerry Hemingway Qt (w/ Ron Horton, Ellery Eskelin & Mark Helias)
10pm Free Range Rat (w/ John Carlson, Eric Hipp, Shawn McGloin & George Schuller)
11pm Michael Attias Qnt. (w/ Tony Malaby, Russ Lossing, John Hebert & Nasheet Waits)
9/23
8:30pm Ethan Winogrand Qt (w/ Steve Bernstein, Ross Bonadonna & Thomson Kneeland)
9:30pm Rob Brown Trio (w/ Daniel Levin & Satoshi Takeishi)
Are we talking computer keyboard or piano keyboard? I’m actually hoping for more Warburton love channeled to both.
I'd say play Bennink some Frank Butler (circa his stint w/ Curtis Counce).
Posted by: derek at August 28, 2007 10:46 AMJust picked up this disc, and I'm liking it a lot at first listen. Derek, did you ever develop any second thoughts?
Also: is there some sort of general consensus among critics/fans that the Vandermark/Morris/Poppel record was a snoozefest? I gave it a couple of listens when it came out, and loved it.
To those Bags readers who live in the Bay Area, a heads-up: Haight Street Amoeba is selling off a lot of its Clean Feed stock at $9.99. I don't think they're planning to restock the marked-down items, so this is a good time for an Amoeba trip.
Rebus is among the last-chance items, as are A Glancing Blow, Beckett, The Levitation Shuffle, Shapes and Shadows,Delphinius and Lyra, a/o...
Posted by: Bill R at June 28, 2008 7:36 PMis there some sort of general consensus among critics/fans that the Vandermark/Morris/Poppel record was a snoozefest?
That was my impression of it in the past; I'm playing it now to perhaps give it the final chance.
Posted by: Captain Hate at July 1, 2008 2:18 PMI liked that record at first but kind of went off it after awhile. Would be interested in hearing it again, though I think I ultimately dispensed with my copy.
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