A Pumpkin-Spice-Free Zone
Kris Davis' Diatom Ribbons, Nick Mazzarella's Anagram Series, Zinc and Copper, Sir Richard Bishop
Kris Davis and Diatom Ribbons Finds its Groove
When Kris Davis released Diatom Ribbons (Pyroclastic) in 2019 the album served notice that she had a more expansive artistic vision than a lot of listeners assumed. With a sprawling support cast the pianist revealed a broad sweep that spanned from hard-core post-bop into free jazz, electronic manipulations, and hip-hop derived ideas, with those various threads all knotted up in one big messy ball. I was impressed by what Davis was putting out there, but I didn’t think the album fully deserved the hyperventilating critical reception it was awarded. In hindsight the album seems like a necessary step for Davis to figure out where she wanted to do with the project, because the recent Live at the Village Vanguard (Pyroclastic) has stratified (or at least memorialized) one particular vision, delivering one of the year’s most visceral, exciting, and creatively loaded releases. Most of the folks playing alongside Davis were participants in the studio project—drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, DJ Val Jeanty, and bassist Trevor Dunn—with new participant, guitarist Julian Lage, not only fitting in beautifully, but also upping the ante. Whereas the debut had a bit of a kitchen sink vibe, this live transmission feels like the perfect dish where not one ingredient is extraneous.
The album makes a statement right out the gate, launching into an interpretation of “Alice in the Congo,” a ripper from drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson’s 1982 album Mandance. Here’s hoping this performance launches a reconsideration of the heady, off-kilter funk grooves Jackson made with his killer Decoding Society, because the way Dunn’s knotted up chords on electric bass braid with Carrington’s taut shuffle—which feels like a respectful celebration of Jackson’s stuttering style, without imitating it—creeps up with such powerful subtlety that it would be stupid for others not to tap into that overlooked aesthetic. They provide an excellent foundation for a jaw-dropping Lage solo, channeling the spirit of James Blood Ulmer while staying true to his own sound, as well as a Davis solo that enfolds shattered glass splatters, breathless runs, and oddly tender melodic shapes without a hiccup or any sense of hesitation. “Nine Hats” is a Davis tune, but it draws ingeniously upon two disparate sources: “Hat and Beard,” Eric Dolphy’s iconic opening track on his 1964 classic Out to Lunch and Conlon Nancarrow’s “Study for Player Piano No. 9.” I don’t think I would have ever deduced that material from the Davis piece, which is far more atmospheric, although the leader and Jeanty bat around one brief sequence from the Dolphy throughout the piece. Dunn plays shimmering, hydroplaning arco lines and electronic tones flicker as if Nancarrow’s player piano had turned into a sampling machine. Below you can hear the group’s reading of “The Dancer,” a Geri Allen nugget from her 1987 album Open on All Sides in the Middle (Minor Music), another overlooked gem a la Jackson that Davis takes as a quiet storm jam, her damped acoustic piano parts complemented by a seductive braid of synthesizer and guitar before Lage pulls away from a sublime, ambling solo.
Several pieces incorporate extended spoken word fragments from some of the pianist’s heroes, whether it’s Sun Ra holding forth on the nourishing power of art on “VW,” Paul Bley recounting how Charlie Parker’s playing spun his head around in “Bird Suite, Part 2: Bird Call Blues,” or Karlheinz Stockhausen sharing wisdom in “Bird Suite, Part 3: Parasitic Hunter.” The group also includes two different accounts of the Wayne Shorter standard “Dolores,” recorded on different evenings, I would imagine, where Davis really gets to unwind and deliver a pair of galvanizing solos the stream with ideas. Lage delivers great solos, too, revealing a tougher side of his playing. Davis originally composed the multi-partite “Bird Suite” for a Charlie Parker centennial celebration, but it was put on ice during the pandemic. The suite enfolds numerous ideas, even transcending the somewhat cheesy incorporation of birdsongs recorded near her home in Ossining, New York, which elaborates the use of Jeanty’s warped calls on “Corn Crake” from the first Diatom Ribbons album. Some parts revel in bebop, particularly the Davis solo in part 2, but most of the suite pays homage to Parker by crafting something altogether different. Davis isn’t afraid to cool things down, blending a kind of ambient chill with restrained improvising, as on “Endless Columns,” yet beneath the surface calm remains a heightened degree of interaction and careful listening. Here’s hoping that Davis can keep this group together and take it on the road, as there’s an awful lot of good stuff going on here that would seem certain to improve with additional gigs.
The Quiet Disappearance of Nick Mazzarella’s Anagram Series
Last month I saluted the efforts of Chicago reedist and improviser Dave Rempis, who ended a long run programming the Improvised Music Series at Elastic—an endeavor he launched back in 2002 in the early days of the space when it was in Humboldt Park and called 3030. I only learned about his decision to end the series—as well as stepping down as the chair of the venue’s board after eight years—in an email he sent out in the last weekend of August. I wrote about the news in the August 28 edition of this newsletter, the same day the venue’s executive director Adam Zanolini first shared the news on social media. Perhaps the post was in the pipeline, but it shocked me that the news came so late.
It took another week or so before I learned that another key weekly series at Elastic ended around the same time, which I still have yet see reported by any Chicago media outlets. In 2015 Rempis asked saxophonist Nick Mazzarella if he wanted to organize a series at Elastic, which led to the emergence of the Anagram series every Monday, which was formulated as a complement to Rempis’ Improvised Music Series. The endeavor never got the attention it deserved, and I feel bad that I didn’t shout it out during my time at the Chicago Reader, which ended in 2018. In an email Mazzarella explained what he aimed to do with the series:
I chose to focus on curating primarily straight ahead and composition-oriented jazz because Elastic historically had not presented much of that kind of programming (in fact, the scene by and large tended to supply more creative opportunities for avant-garde players), and Dave’s long-running series already catered to improvised music. That way, between the two of us, we could cover both the “inside” and “outside” areas of the scene and diversify what Elastic was doing as a venue. We didn’t really have to coordinate too closely to be able to achieve that, although we did check in from time to time and trade requests from musicians who would be a good fit for one series or the other. But for the most part, it worked out naturally that our respective networks and knowledge of the community allowed us to compliment one another’s programming decisions and run the two series symbiotically. From the beginning, the stated mission of Anagram was to provide young musicians working in the genre of contemporary jazz with an opportunity to test and refine ideas, develop collaborations, and gain valuable performance experience, and to serve as a platform for seasoned and touring artists to present new work.
I kept tabs on what Mazzarella programmed after I left town, and over time I became more and more impressed with his efforts. Looking back at the hundreds of concerts he programmed it’s astonishing how much it says about the Chicago scene. Most of the attention on the city’s jazz scene has focused, understandably, on improvised and experimental work, and with a legacy that includes Sun Ra and the AACM, that makes plenty of sense. But Chicago has always been a thriving jazz city, and even when folks like Ken Vandermark, Rob Mazurek, and Jeff Parker garnered much of the attention, Chicago’s straight-ahead jazz scene never stopped producing. In fact, Mazurek and Parker were also both active figures in that world, once upon a time, underlining the oft-overlooked reality that most worthwhile musicians can’t be pinned down to this or that thing. Anagram offered a platform for those who never strayed too far from jazz orthodoxy, but it also allowed more avant-garde figures to work in the tradition. Some shows he programmed were super mainstream, while others would have certainly fit within the series programmed by Rempis. Mazzarella’s instincts were driven by a respect for tradition and a catholic sensibility as to where jazz could go. Anagram presented Chicago musicians, primarily, but touring artists from around the US and Europe both turned up on the schedule. Anagram wasn’t splashy or, relatively speaking, distinguished by marquee names (although some of the past participants fit that category now, like drummer Makaya McCraven or Claire Rousay, when she was still playing improvised percussion music), but instead it provided a platform for musicians to present work to listeners deeply invested in the practice.
While the programming of both Elastic series lacked a genuine racial parity, with the balance tilting definitively toward white musicians, they arguably represented the core aesthetics of the practices they were programming. Now, they’re both gone, and I can’t help mourn the losses, which will hurt the city’s vibrant scene. During my 35 years in Chicago some series would come and go, but someone else would usually step up to start something new. Something that lasts eight years is special. I surely hope that happens again, but to lose these two programs at once is brutal. I also find it bizarre that Elastic has been utterly mum about the end of Mazzarella’s series, not even bothering with the same kind of last-minute post they mustered for Rempis. It definitely makes me wonder what sort of commitment Elastic retains for jazz and improvised music. In the same post for Rempis, Zanolini wrote, “While nobody could ever replace Dave, Improvised Music will always have a loving home at Elastic! The Improvised Music Series will continue on Thursdays at Elastic for the foreseeable future. The series has shows booked through the end of this year, and we're planning to continue into 2024 and beyond.” But one look at the Elastic calendar shows that nothing is currently scheduled on future Thursday evenings from October to the end of the year. Of course, some shows have probably been programmed, but that’s hardly a promising situation. On the other hand, the venue has said absolutely nothing about the status of Anagram—it just ended without notice. Let’s all raise a glass to Nick and keep our fingers crossed that someone picks up the slack.
Zinc and Copper’s Well Tuned Brass
Berlin is lucky to count the brass trio Zinc and Copper as a local ensemble. Formed in 2014 by tubist Robin Hayward, trumpeter/trombonist Hilary Jeffery, and French horn player Elena Kakaliagou, the “well tuned brass” trio specialize in just intonation, bringing their full-bodied warmth to many dazzling collaborative projects as well as performing a wide array of commissioned works on its own. I first heard them as key participants on Ellen Arkbro’s masterful 2016 debut album For Organ and Brass (Subtext), but they’ve worked with a ton of fascinating composers and performers over than time, including Cenk Ergun, Duane Pitre, Amir ElSaffar, and Catherine Christer Hennix, among others. A few weeks ago they performed music by Christian Wolff here in Berlin—I was out of town or else I’d tell you all about it. Earlier this year they were key collaborators of drummer/composer Andrea Belfi on his album Eternally Frozen (Maple Death), a diverse song cycle where the brass magisterially dominates the arrangements on a series of art-pop songs. As you can hear on “Setteottavi,” below, their solemn, gorgeously articulated lines sit amid Belfi’s drumming, and subtly swirling synth lines. (On this particular recording the Berlin-based Norwegian trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø ably subbed for Jeffery). Belfi’s directly the ensemble through a series of elegant canons, imparting each of the five pieces with a kind of endless churn, with each phrase reframed by where it falls in the arrangement. As the record evolves, the tunes become more elaborately produced, opening things up around the elegiac brass.
This week Zinc and Copper will perform four collaborative works, including several premieres, over two nights at KM28. On Thursday, September 21 they’ll play Instants and Their Echoes with its composer, guitarist Julia Reidy. I had the privilege of writing liner notes for a recording of the work that will be released later this year on the Australian label Hospital Hill. Reidy’s microtonal guitar fits inside the spare brass, which seems to fall in on itself, like an unquenchable hourglass, like a glove, adding sparkling counterpoint and ghostly harmonies. I can’t wait to experience it live. I’m also thrilled to hear Alloy, a new work by the Norwegian guitarist Fredrik Rasten—one of my favorite musicians and an artist of disarming subtlety and sophistication. On the following night the trio will perform pieces with and by Marisol Jimenéz (Installation für autonome Geräuschmaschinen & Blechblasinstrumente) and Juan Fillipe Waller (Die sprechenden Stummen).
Sir Richard Bishop Keeps Listeners Guessing
It's been three years since Sir Richard Bishop dropped his stunning Oneiric Formulary (Drag City), but he’s emerging from that pandemic-induced slumber with a lengthy stretch of touring that brings him to Berlin for a performance at Arkaoda on Wednesday, September 20. That last record ranks among the guitarist’s most diverse recording in a career built on sharp stylistic turns, often in the same piece. Interestingly, half of that album doesn’t feature his guitar, as he turned to various MIDI tricks and digital editing to produce some stunning music. The collection opens with the spooky “Call to Order,” an queasy instrumental marked by Theremin-like meandering, before leaping into “Celerity,” a brisk, almost jazzy strumfest where Bishop’s precision is on full-display. A jazz-influence turns up on several tracks, whether the cool, overdubbed sashay of “Mit’s Linctus Codeine Co.”—check it out below—or the Piedmont style post-ragtime glow of “Enville,” while the aptly titled “Renaissance Nod” offers some baroque modalities even if the composition feels more folk-derived and “Black Sara” conveys flamenco overtones without the drama or extroversion. “Graveyard Wanderers,” an atmospheric musique concrete excursion, kicks of a pair of non-guitar pieces that also includes “Dust Devils,” a MIDI simulation tabla and zurna that blends Indian flavors with the Arabic traditions Bishop is such an ardent student of, even if he always warps his lessons with something unexpected.
Indeed, one never knows what to expect from Bishop, but in my experience that’s a gift. As a member of Sun City Girls flouting expectations was part-and-parcel of the experience, and I certainly didn’t expect the Pink Floyd-like guitar sustain that wends so effectively through “The Coming of the Rats,” the penultimate track on his last solo record. But those surprises are almost always worth it. Below you can see a video from a recent performance at the Runaway in Washington, D.C. that definitely whets my appetite.
Miscellany
The August edition of the contemporary music column I write at Bandcamp Daily was published last week, featuring music from Awadagin Pratt, Sarah Saviet, Carl Stone, Yvonne Lam, Dedalus Ensemble, Natasha Barrett, Arnold Dreyblatt, Thomas Giles & Cole Blouin, Abigail Toll, Harley Gaber, and Ka Baird.
I do my best to catch misspellings, grammatical errors, and typos before sending this newsletter out each week, but I still miss things. Never feel bad about sending me a correction if you see a mistake—always grateful for those eyes on my work.
Recommended Berlin shows this week
September 20: Sir Richard Bishop; Andy Aquarius, 8:30 PM, Arkaoda, Karl-Marx Platz 16, 12043 Berlin
September 21: Zinc and Copper with Julia Reidy and Fredrik Rasten, 8 PM, KM28, Karl-Marx-Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
September 22: Zinc and Copper with Juan Filipe Waller and Marisol Jiménez, 8 PM, KM28, Karl-Marx-Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
September 22: Kara Jackson, 8 PM, Prachtwerk Berlin, Ganghoferstr. 2, 12043 Berlin
September 22: Zapparoli/Hofmann/Lorenz; Anaïs Tuerlinckx, 8:30 PM, Ausland, Lychener Str. 60, 10437 Berlin
September 23: Future Soundscapes Festival with Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void + Pedro Maia; Oval; Sophie Birch, 7 PM, Silent Green, Courtstrasse 35, 13347 Berlin
September 23: Magda Mayas & Nicolas Collins, 8 PM, KM28, Karl-Marx-Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
September 24: Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio with Rudi Mahall and Dag Magnus Narvesen, B-Flat, Dircksenstr. 40, 10178 Berlin
September 25: Ekmeles perform music by Hannah Kendall, Taylor Brook, Erin Gee, and Therese Ulvo, 8 PM, KM28, Karl-Marx-Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
thanks for writing about the elastic programming!