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Holoboer: piano & electric piano; Matt Clohesy: contrabass & electric bass; Jon Wikan:
drum set, cajon, pandeiro, & misc. percussion
This debut CD has been much vaunted on a particular jazz website
and it is fair to say that this big band is drawing audiences from beyond
jazz. Impressive for a self-produced record, the appearance of Canadian
composer Argue on disc represents a triumvirate of former Bob Brookmeyer
students now finding themselves at the forefront of big band arranging,
with Maria Schneider and John Hollenbeck already having established
their reputations. In some respects this band appears to sit in
between the styles of his two colleagues, offering a compromise between
the kind of themes of which Schneider is so fond (“Zeno”, for example)
and the punchy approach of Hollenbeck that looks beyond jazz for inspiration.
Indeed, this band even shares some of the same personnel with
these other bands. More closely, the band puts a nod in the direction of
some of Gil Evans’ 1970s work, albeit without the older man’s immediate
impact. As this record shows, orchestral jazz writing has now become increasingly
complex since the days of Evans’ more minimal scores.
Uncompromisingly contemporary in many respects and clearly a
product of the composer’s generation, the dominant solo voice being the
rock-edged solo guitar of Sebastian Noelle, the music works best when
the ensemble is playing full throttle. There are other soloists who are given
chance to shine, such as trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and trombonist
Ryan Keberle, but this is a record where the band itself is very much the
star and the improvisation is a tad anonymous. On tracks like “Transit”
you do sense the excitement built up in the head being dissipated within
the first couple of bars of the trumpet solo, and you do wonder what a
sprinkling of more established improvisers could have done for this music.
Most of the names listed in the personnel are totally unknown to me.
Argue’s approach eschews the traditional notions of Big Band writing
with its combination of woodwinds, punchy brass, Fender Rhodes and a
rhythm section that embraces rock and minimalism. Clearly, here is an
original voice making itself known and it is fair to say that the superior
writing does dominate.
As exciting as this record is, there are a few reservations. Much of
the material is very similar and only “Transit” seems to pick up the
tempo from the slow /medium compositions that dominate this disc.
“Transit” represents one of the stand-out tracks and is followed by “Redeye”
which starts promisingly with the mixture of acoustic and electric
guitar before developing into a piece convincingly written to describe the
state of tiredness at which you feel you are floating. Coupled with the
similarly slow-moving “Habeas Corpus”, having reached this point in the
record you begin to wish for a greater range of material and a bit more
variety.