Carl Clements - Forth and Back (Saraswati Productions)

I had the privilege of meeting saxophonist Carl Clements in France last November, at a conference dedicated to John Coltrane. He was in his musicology costume and presented a brilliant paper concerning Indian music’s influence on Coltrane’s reading of “Nature Boy.” At the time, I had no idea that he was also a fine composer and player, but this disc confirms both.

The title track exemplifies perfectly the shifting meters and harmonic complexities that form Clements’ compositional rhetoric. Third relations abound and the quartet sound sports a glossy patina, but there’s a surprise every moment, and the tune’s focus never falls prey to needless harmonic prowess. Pianist Bennet Paster, bassist Jim Whitney and drummer Diego Voglino decorate the suggestive chords with gorgeous fills, ornaments and counterpoint, providing a vibe suggestive of Bill Evans’ best trio work under Clements’ flowing and expressive lines.

The B-section of “Fools and Kings” inhabits similar territory, but the A-section shows how Clements attacks post-Coltrane modality. The head quivers on the edges of D-Minor, toying with it and skirting playfully around it while Voglino and Whitney are way in the pocket, not to mention the mode. When Clements solos on soprano, it’s all about those neat motivic visions Trane was constantly fostering—dyads, glides and atomistic swoops with lots of space and equal vigor. However, Clements’ vibrato is flexible, as with Paul Dunmall’s most recent work, maybe due to his assimilation of Indian music performance techniques. Paster in particular also demonstrates a penchant for New Thing sweep and hammer on this track, contributing to its success.

This is a fantastic disc by a fine scholar and an insider. Like Ekkehard Jost, Clements can articulate verbally and on his instrument with ease and dexterity, and God knows we need more of those in a music that, inexplicably, is still marginalized after some forty-five years.

~ Marc Medwin