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the strongest core of soloists you’re ever likely<br />
to hear in a Canadian free-jazz band, including<br />
the reeds of Jean Derome, Lori Freedman,<br />
Christopher Cauley and Damian Nisensen,<br />
trombonists Tom Walsh and Scott Thomson<br />
and guitarist Sam Shalabi. The vitality and<br />
high spirits are palpable and they sometimes<br />
explode, as in the eruption of Beat poet Brion<br />
Gysin’s permutational Kick that Habit Man.<br />
Toronto guitarist Ken Aldcroft’s<br />
Convergence Ensemble has released a 2-CD<br />
set of the leader’s compositions called Sneaky<br />
Pete/Slugs’ (Trio Records try 015, kenaldcroft.com).<br />
Disc one is a collection of pieces<br />
that emphasizes sub-groups and solo improvisations;<br />
Disc two, by the full sextet, presents<br />
Slugs’: Suite for Sun Ra, named for the New<br />
York club where Sun Ra once played regularly.<br />
It’s animated at once by Aldcroft’s melodies<br />
and swaying rhythms, but it’s elevated by<br />
the focused improvisations of the ensemble,<br />
from Aldcroft’s own divergent approaches<br />
(sometimes a lyrical minimalism, at other<br />
times tumbling, rapid flurries of notes) to<br />
the extended techniques of trumpeter Nicole<br />
Rampersaud, playing multiple tones at once,<br />
and trombonist Scott Thomson (yes, he manages<br />
to appear in both these bands) who<br />
explores seemingly contradictory low-pitched<br />
whistles. The final piece, combining themes<br />
from both Sneaky Pete and Slugs’, goes<br />
through numerous textures, highlighted by<br />
the intensity of saxophonist Evan Shaw.<br />
More Aldcroft? Tiina Kiik’s review of two<br />
new Ken Aldcroft “free improv” releases, one<br />
with Joel Le Blanc and one with Andy Haas,<br />
can be found at thewholenote.com.<br />
Something in the Air<br />
Peter Brötzmann’s Triumphant Seventh Decade<br />
Although the witticism<br />
that “free jazz keeps<br />
you young” has been<br />
repeated so often that<br />
it’s taken on cliché<br />
status, there’s enough evidence<br />
to give the statement veracity.<br />
Many improvisers in their eighties<br />
and seventies are still playing<br />
with the fire of performers in their twenties.<br />
Take German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann,<br />
who celebrated his 70th birthday and nearly<br />
50 years of recording a couple of years ago.<br />
Case in point is Solo +Trio Roma (Victo CD<br />
122/123, victo.qc.ca), recorded at 2011’s<br />
Festival International de Musique Actuelle<br />
de Victoriaville (FIMAV) in Quebec. Not only<br />
does Brötzmann play with unabated intensity<br />
for almost 75 minutes, while fronting a<br />
bassist and a drummer about half his age on<br />
one CD; but on the other inventively plays<br />
unaccompanied, without a break, for another<br />
hour or so. The multi-reedist still blows with<br />
the same caterwauling intensity that characterized<br />
Machine Gun, 1968’s free jazz classic,<br />
but now a balladic sensitivity spells his gofor-broke<br />
expositions.On Solo, his overview<br />
is relentlessly linear mixing extended staccato<br />
cadenzas with passages of sweet romance that<br />
momentarily slow the narrative. Climactically<br />
the nearly 25-minute Frames of Motion is<br />
a pitch-sliding explosion of irregular textures<br />
and harsh glissandi that seems thick<br />
as stone, yet is malleable enough to squeeze<br />
the slightest nuance out of every tune. Slyly,<br />
Brötzmann concludes the piece with gargling<br />
split tones that gradually amalgamate<br />
into I Surrender Dear. Backed by Norwegian<br />
percussion Paal Nilssen-Love and Italian electric<br />
bassist Massimo Pupillo, Brötzmann<br />
adds lip-curling intensity and multiphonic<br />
glissandi to the other program. Centrepiece<br />
is Music Marries Room to Room that con-<br />
KEN WAXMAN<br />
tinues for more than 69 minutes.<br />
Besides wounded bull-like cries<br />
tempered with spitting glissandi<br />
from the saxophonist, the piece<br />
includes jet-engine-like drones<br />
from Pupillo as well as shattering<br />
ruffs and pounding shuffles from<br />
the drummer. Several times, just<br />
as it seems the playing can’t get<br />
any more ardent, it kicks up another notch.<br />
Indefatigable, the saxophonist spins out staccato<br />
screams and emphatic abdominal snorts<br />
in equal measures, with his stentorian output<br />
encompassing tongue slaps, tongue stops and<br />
flutter tonguing. Brief solos showcase Pupillo<br />
crunching shards of electronic friction with<br />
buzz-saw intensity, while Nilssen-Love<br />
exposes drags, paradiddles, rebounds and<br />
smacks, without slowing the beat. There<br />
are even lyrical interludes among the overblowing<br />
as Brötzmann occasionally brings<br />
the proceedings to a halt for a capella sequences,<br />
which suggest everything from Taps to<br />
Better Git It in Your Soul. Finally the brokenoctave<br />
narrative reaches a point of no return<br />
to wrap up in a circular fashion with yelping<br />
reed cries, blunt percussion smacks and<br />
dense electronic buzzes. Rapturous applause<br />
from the audience spurs the three to go at it<br />
again at the same elevated concentration for<br />
an additional five minutes.<br />
For reviews of other discs by Brötzmann,<br />
with trumpeter Toshinori Kondo; pianist<br />
Masakiko Satoh and drummer Takeo<br />
Moriyama plus two younger saxophonists,<br />
Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson,<br />
see the continuation of this column at<br />
thewholenote.com.<br />
Berlioz reimagined by French free music<br />
ensemble La Marmite Infernale? Ken<br />
Waxman’s review of Le Cauchemar d’Hector<br />
is also on our website.<br />
February 1 – March 7, 2013 thewholenote.com 59
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