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allen/drake/jordan/parker/silva marshall
allen alto saxophone 1. I
(09:53) recorded 1 december, 2000, ica theater, boston, ma an imposing concert recording by a remarkable gathering of first & second generation american free jazz heavyweights. octogenarian marshall allen, a member of the sun ra arkestra since the early fifties & now the arkestra's acting leader, makes a rare small group appearance. septuagenarian edward "kidd" jordan is a secret hero of american music, a legendary musician whose dedication to grassroots education in his hometown of new orleans has kept his profile low among the general jazz public (his sons kent & marlon --& all the marsalis brothers-- number among his many students). a member of the 1960s arkestra, alan silva is widely recognized for his otherworldly bass playing, & his innovations in the rarefied realm of orchestral free improvisation. william parker & hamid drake are the premier rhythm section in the resurgent american free jazz scene, & the all-star game reveals yet another facet of their powerful chemistry. dustedmagazine.com, 2003 redux "there's much to celebrate about these two discs, classic encounters of the energy chapter of free jazz -- in each case two saxophones & rhythm section blowing toward some apocalyptic possibility; no theme in sight, with power & conviction that have too often seemed drained from american free jazz. what happens in each case is an explosion of impassioned utterance, soul-searing work in the rituals first defined by ayler, coltrane, sanders & the sun ra reed section of which marshall allen was a member. these may not, in any sense, be regular bands, but they're bands without a weak link, whether ego-centric, technical or conceptual. the all-star game features what is unquestionably the senior ensemble. it's a marvelous meeting in which allen & jordan dance across the pulsing maze of multiplying rhythms set up by drake & the two basses of parker & silva (another early presence). & what a pleasure it is to hear the two bass combination, a feature of some of the classic & defining recordings of the genre. while jordan unquestionably belongs in the all-star game, he is among the most under-rated of musicians, a fountain of torrid energy & exalted invention who is entirely worthy of this rhythm section." --stuart broomer, coda (the other disc referred to early in this review is leo 369, shoup/flaherty/moore/corsano live at tonic). "anyone who dares say that alan silva's over the hill as a bass player just because he spends a lot of time these days sitting behind a synthesizer should be forced to listen to this baby through ten times in a row. he teams up here with william parker to form the most dynamic two bass section since cecil taylor's unit structures (which featured, as you'll recall henry grimes and.. alan silva). for once even hamid drake sounds like he's being driven rather than doing the driving. not surprising since there's another titanic duo out front, veteran sun ra alto saxophonist marshall allen and edward "kidd" jordan on tenor. actually, "veteran" is the kind of disparaging term that ehlers has been fighting against since he started his label (so i'll tactfully withdraw the epithet): his artistic credo has always been to document the work of the earlier generation of free jazz pioneers who are still very much alive and kicking but whom few labels seem to want to record (the ken vandermarks of this world can fend very well for themselves, after all). this volcanic 75 minute live set recorded in boston's ica theater on december 1st 2000 is glorious proof that ehlers is on the right track. the combined age of these five gentlemen may be well past 300, but any one of them could go the full fifteen rounds with the young cats and probably floor them with a hook to boot." --dan warburton, paris transatlantic "you might think of this as an old-fashioned jam among old friends, with plenty of moments of exquisite beauty throughout. the unusual instrumentation – two saxes, two basses, and drums – works surprisingly well, and even though there are six separate tracks listed this is actually one long piece, with the dividing points artificially marked. marshall allen and kidd jordan are surprisingly compatible, playing off one another with phenomenal intensity, spurred by the furious acoustic string basses of william parker and alan silva, and lifted by the powerful drumming of hamid drake. for some this is bound to be the closest thing to nirvana, though there are occasional times, such as on “II” when the horns get slightly bogged down in a maze of permutations. they manage to extricate themselves, of course, with little difficulty, and continue for lengthy periods to pummel the pavement with high intensity. energized and unabashedly uncompromising, there is a joyous, unrestrained atmosphere that is almost purgative in its emotional impact. when the group clicks, as it often does, it is about as good as it gets, with an almost brotzmanian apocalyptic quality to it that mitigates any lapses in continuity. sure, at times it rambles a bit, and at others the quality of the solos of the horns is somewhat erratic, but by the end all is forgiven as the great moments overwhelm the listener, leaving him (or her) almost breathless." --steven loewy, all music guide "eremite’s oft-unstated preference seems to be releasing live documents and ehlers' mobile recording unit has been present at some concert corkers. one indication of his fecundity, entire tours of the peter brötzmann die like a dog group have fallen under the province of his microphones. the all-star game takes its appellation serious and fans of free jazz will probably be picking up their chins from the pavement when they get a look at the line-up. fortunately the roster fulfills all the promise made on paper. this is an unapologetic throwback to the ecstatic blowouts of yore, with plenty of modern twists thrown for good measure. the frontline team of allen and jordan might seem oddly matched at first. allen, the arkestra veteran whose sound and approach on alto can take on a multiplicity of guises, most commonly a lean, fractured and acerbic style that incorporates an impeccable use of space and wide dynamics. jordan, the errant coltrane disciple who holds a vocabulary in the overblown altissimo register and stamina at long haul improvisation that are rarely rivaled in the music. but surprisingly enough their differences create a stunning marriage of reed-flung sounds. then there’s parker and silva, the ostensible leaders, this disc being the second volume in an ongoing duets project curated by eremite. their sounds and approaches are equally distinctive with parker favoring his signature repetitive patterns and deep bottom-dwelling intonation and silva going for broke, cranking his amp up to the point of scalding distortion and sawing/clawing at his strings, trailing enough fuzz and static to make geezer butler of black sabbath fame green with envy. silva’s viscous figures often aren’t so much cleanly discernable lines as they are hard-chugging riffs. behind it all drake does his best to shore up a rhythmic core and ride above the exhilarating cacophony. that a drummer of his skill and resourcefulness adopts a defensive stance almost from the onset should say something about the amount of firepower brought to bear by this band. track indexes parse the concert’s monolithic length and offer easy ingress into significant shifts in the ensemble make-up and action. like any brewing storm the velocity starts slow, slowly building intensity with silva on the left, parker on the right and drake stoking cymbals and snare from the center. jordan soon sounds off from the left and allen answers from the right, the two twining in braided scintillating arcs. parker’s plummeting ostinato gains steam and suddenly the entire crew is rocketing along on a trajectory set to blow back the audience’s hair and set their countenances to uniformly beaming. allen lays out abruptly and suddenly jordan’s on the move crossing the stage to the right channel and wailing the entire way. then the altoist is back shrieking and cavorting from the left channel as the dual juggernaut of double basses gallops onward and drake pounds out a driving cadence between them. this sort of sonic musical chairs continues throughout the performance. there’s a point toward the end of the second track index where silva draws bow from scabbard and hacks away mercilessly at his strings. with the added physique afforded from amplification he shears off a positively wicked sounding thicket of scorching harmonic ribbons that flange away in collusion with allen’s excoriating squeals. parker and drake can’t help but respond with one of their customary gargantuan grooves in a push to return the proceedings to at least semi-sane surroundings. later sections find the ensemble fractioning into component groupings of virtually every conceivable permutation frin trios to duos with commensurately memorable effects. the simple reality is i could go on for pages attempting to describe these sounds and not come close to doing them justice. by way of cheap summation, this disc will definitely weigh in near the top of my 2003 year end list. it’s just that damn good. --derek taylor, allaboutjazz.com |
