Players - Downbeat

Ran Blake
Driftwoods
TOMPKINS SQUARE 2097
AA
Ran Blake has long
invited listeners to
assess his work in
terms of its intellectual
orientation and content.
On Driftwoods,
he practically hands
them a syllabus by
which to more fully appreciate the material
and the way he approaches it. In his liner
essay, Blake lays out the concept of this project—it’s
a tribute to his favorite singers—and
then goes into detail about what makes these
songs memorable.
Right off the bat, one characteristic shared by
some of them is their complexity, a point Blake
underscores in his commentary. In terms of his
performance, though, the intricacy of the material
has no obvious bearing on Blake, whether he
feels his way through the labyrinth of Billie
Holiday’s “No More” or sees how far he can
stray beyond the limits of a three-chord tune.
With this, Blake offers the murkiest version
on record of “You Are My Sunshine.” It arrives
with a jagged fanfare, a brassy suspended voicing
that crumbles into a lower register before the
melody emerges as a single line, momentarily
on its own and apparently unconnected to what-
Eli Degibri Trio
Live At Louis 649
ANZIC 3001
AAAA
As part of the potent
community of Israeli
jazz musicians working
in New York these
days, saxophonist Eli
Degibri has already
attracted his fair share
of attention. Herbie
Hancock enlisted him
for his quartet—an
arrangement that lasted almost three years—
and Degibri has cut a pair of fine solo albums.
But his debut recording for Anzic Records represents
a new zenith, capturing his protean
power and expressiveness with exhilarating
effectiveness.
Brilliantly supported by Hammond B-3 whiz
Gary Versace and drummer Obed Calvaire,
Degibri presides over live sessions done at New
York’s Louis 649 in August 2007, where a sui
generis balance between melodic richness and
structural ingenuity couldn’t sound more natural
or familiar. Five of the seven pieces are originals
by Degibri, which sound like instant standards
packed with episodic development and indelible
ever the introduction was
intended to accomplish. This
gives way in a second verse to
a distention of the tune, which
trudges through dissonant flurries
that recall Charles Ives’
The Unanswered Question.
Then, as with most of the
tracks on Driftwoods, the performance
stops, leaving no
sense of resolution in its wake.
If these dissections would
shed new light on this repertoire,
that would lend weight to Blake’s efforts.
But mostly they lead away from greater understanding;
following an approach similar to what
he did with “You Are My Sunshine,” Blake
plods through “Lost Highway” and, by inserting
a minor seventh 47 seconds into a song in which
this bluesy insinuation is otherwise absent, loses
touch with its neo-Appalachian character.
Playing often heavily on what sounds like a
small and not entirely tuned-up grand, Blake
pays tribute neither to the singers who immortalized
these songs nor to the songs themselves, but
rather to his own interpretive identity.
—Robert Doerschuk
Driftwoods: Driftwood; Dancing In The Dark 2; Dancing In The Dark
1; Lost Highway; Unforgettable; Canção Do Sol; No More; I Loves
You, Porgy; Strange Fruit; Pawnbroker; There’s Been A Change;
Portrait; I’m Going To Tell God; You Are My Sunshine. (41:46)
Personnel: Ran Blake, piano.
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Ordering info: tompkinssquare.com
tunefulness.
While Versace isn’t
afraid to shake a little
grease from his keyboard,
by and large he
embraces an elegant
post-Larry Young conception,
creating sleek,
astonishing settings for
the saxophonist that
veer between pin-drop
tender and bulldozer
propulsive. I can’t say
if Versace and Calvaire
are responsible for the
way Degibri’s improvised lines reveal a seemingly
inexhaustible imagination, but they give
him plenty to work with. The leader’s lines ripple
with a sanguine fervor, but they never tap
into organ trio hokum.
The trio hasn’t reinvented the format, but it’s
been several years since a group has injected
this instrumental setting with so much style and
substance. —Peter Margasak
Live At Louis 649: NY-TLV-NY; Every Time We Say Goodbye;
Gypsy; Pum-Pum; I Fall In Love Too Easily; Shoohoo; Colin’s
Dream. (74:53)
Personnel: Eli Degibri, tenor and soprano saxophone; Gary
Versace, Hammond B-3 organ; Obed Calvaire, drums.
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Ordering info: anzicrecords.com