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Han Bennink Trio
Parken
ILK 156
AAAA
Although he’s been a creative force in
jazz and improvised music for more than
five decades, Parken, technically, marks
the first group recording led by the singular
Dutch drummer Han Bennink. I say technically because Bennink
doesn’t really alter his modus operandi here any more than he does on the
countless other recordings he’s played on.
As usual, he plays with jazz fundamentals like putty, warping his for
the tradition in service of spontaneous inspiration. Joined by two excellent
young musicians—Belgian clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst and Danish
pianist Simon Toldam—Bennink flips between crisp, infectious swing and
explosive chaos; sometimes fluidly, sometimes jarringly.
While such transitions are gripping and unpredictable, what the drummer
does in each sphere is just as compelling, riding his cymbal to produce
the most basic pleasure in jazz to loudly cavorting over his kit like a
jungle gym. His partners here clearly share his aesthetic predilections, so
the leaps from knotty dissonance to buoyant lyricism in Toldam’s “Music
For Camping” to the terse, screaming jerkiness of “Myckewelk” arrived in
unified ebbs and flows. Like so much of the best Dutch jazz, this trio lovingly
reveals its affection for the tradition while simultaneously rejecting
any suberservience to it. —Peter Margasak
Parken: Music For Camping; Flemische March; Lady Of The Lavender Mist; Myckewelk; Isfahan;
Reedeater; Fleurette Africaine; After The March; Parken. (48:43)
Personnel: Han Bennink, drums; Joachim Badenhorst, bass clarinet, clarinet; Simon Toldam, piano.
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Ordering info: ilkmusic.com
58 DOWNBEAT April 2010
Greg Reitan
Antibes
SUNNYSIDE 1238
AAA 1 /2
A cursory glance at the selections
on Antibes reveals that pianist Greg
Reitan is involved in the music of
Bill Evans, and not in a casual way.
A superficial listen imparts the
sense of a stylistic bond between
the two. But spend serious time
with this collection and you’ll hear an important emerging pianist dealing
not only with legacy and homage, but with identity and ownership as well.
Reitan’s low-level dynamics, lyricism and probing treatments are legitimate
bonds with Evans. But the run-and-gun right hand excursions on
“Time Remembers” and the out-of-tempo interludes and punching percussiveness
on Reitan’s own “September” are all his own.
Reitan has an ease and natural quality to his playing, no matter the
tempo or the pitch of the trio interaction. The phrasing and design of his
theme and variations on the lazy “For Heaven’s Sake” brings to mind
unforced breathing. The floating time quality of Wayne Shorter’s
“Fall”—with Reitan’s liquid movement and jewel-like grace notes—is
the work of both a thinker and a conjurer. —Kirk Silsbee
Antibes: Antibes; For Heaven’s Sake; Waltz For Meredith; One Step Ahead; Fall; Time
Remembers One Time Once; Sympathy; September; Re: Person I Knew; Late Summer
Variations; Salinas; In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning. (60:01)
Personnel: Greg Reitan, piano; Jack Daro, bass; Dean Koba, drums.
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Ordering info: sunnysiderecords.com
Wadada Leo Smith
Spiritual Dimensions
CUNEIFORM RUNE 290/291
AAA 1 /2
Trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo
Smith and the two aggregations he
fields here juggle the impulse of the
moment with self-restraint to varying
degrees. This double album contains
some beautiful ensemble conclaves but also some overly long meditations.
The two-drummer Golden Quintet knows how to stick and move.
The three-guitar Organic band, while allowing great solo freedom, can
bog down in repetition.
Smith shows a marked distillation in his playing and the frameworks
he chooses. He plays in short bursts and phrases, made of brilliant tones,
startling sounds, pungent runs and lyrical asides. He’s a minimalist who
doesn’t waste anything, preferring to let the ensemble define the form.
He waits for just the right moment to call the assembly to order, accent
or incite. These are rhythm- and tonal center-oriented pieces, rather than
chordal forms.
The Organic band is long on electronic effects and playing times,
short on programmatic variety. This outfit’s “South Central” is a slow
ride through a funk funhouse. The heavily pedaled guitars of Nels Cline,
Michael Gregory and Brandon Ross pop in and out of the landscape,
alternating fright with mirth. “Angela Davis” is a cavalcade of sound but
wears out its welcome at nearly 20 minutes. —Kirk Silsbee
Spiritual Dimensions: CD 1: Al-Shadhili’s Litany Of The Sea: Sunrise; Pacifica; Umar At The
Dome Of The Rock, parts 1 & 2; Crossing Sirat; South Central L.A. Kulture. (54:21) CD 2: South
Central L.A. Kulture; Angela Davis; Organic; Joy : Spiritual Fire : Joy. (63:36)
Personnel: CD 1: Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet; Vijay Iyer, piano, synthesizer; John Lindberg, bass;
Pheeroan AkLaff, Don Moye, drums. CD 2: Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet; Michael Gregory, electric
guitar; Nels Cline, six- and 12-string eclectic guitars; Lamar Smith, electric guitar (1, 4); Okkyung
Lee, cello; Skuli Sverrisson, electric bass; John Lindberg, bass; Pheeroan AkLaff, drums
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Ordering info: cuneiformrecords.com