Chicago Calling
Twin Talk, Hearts & Minds, Christian Wallumrød & Ivar Grydeland
Chicago’s Twin Talk Achieve Peak Sophistication
I’ve been a fan of the long-running Chicago trio Twin Talk since they were still billed as Laurenzi/Ernst/Green, more than a decade ago. From the beginning they stood out from the usual saxophone trio, thanks largely to bassist Katie Ernst’s ability to enhance her sleek, woody lines with wordless singing. She was never a scatting vocalist, preferring to create elegant counterpoint either with saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi or her own serpentine bass patterns. She sings with astonishing precision and clarity, eschewing hollow ornamentation or bombast in favor of pure melody shaped intimately by whatever rhythmic scheme Ernst finds herself within. Over time all three members of the group—which also includes drummer Andrew Green—have all become integral parts of the Chicago scene, both within the jazz community and as helping hands in the rock world. Over time their remarkable talents have been duly recognized, especially Ernst who felt like a prodigy when she emerged in the early aughts, and who was embraced by no less a titan than Jason Moran, who enlisted her to sing and play on his ambitious Looks of a Lot project where her unfussy embrace of Franz Schubert’s “Der Doppelgänger” opened the album with profound beauty.
While Ernst has recently landed touring work with the indie rock band Iron & Wine, she’s never forsaken her deep jazz roots, routinely stretching those parameters. Earlier this year she and clarinetist James Falzone—a former Chicagoan who is now the Academic Dean at Cornish College in Seattle—released the second album by their long-running, geographically-challenged duo Wayfaring on the latter’s Allos Documents label, revealing remarkable growth since their 2017 debut. The performances on Intermezzo are flush with enhanced interplay and sophisticated listening, but the terrain is broader than ever, building on chamber jazz, church hymns, and folk music with a remarkable reading of the John Dowland song “Flow My Tears.” There’s also a series of brief improvised pieces dubbed “tankas” named after the Japanese poetic form. But the biggest difference might be the subtle use of overdubs which makes the reading of the bloody Irish folk song “Who Put the Blood” so powerful. It opens with a cycling clarinet pattern before Ernst’s gorgeously unadorned, crystalline delivery of the violent lyrics. Falzone’s lines fan out in weightless layers, conveying a hypnotic sense of movement before being edged aside by a shruti box drone and Ernst’s own grainy arco long tones. The reedist then drops in some sorrowful penny whistle commentary—which he deploys like a shakuhachi more than a Celtic folk instrument—before the clarinet swirls return over warmly plucked bass tones. It’s as starkly beautiful as anything I’ve heard all year—check it out below. Each musician wrote some original tunes for the project, whether Falzone’s spry “Ghost Ferry” or Ernst’s beautifully melodic “Bounce,” and the album concludes with a stroll through the classic Jimmy Giuffre 3 theme “Gotta Dance.” No matter how thorny or feverish a piece gets, both musicians retain remarkable pitch control, a quality distinguishes everything Ernst does.
Laurenzi has also been spreading his wings. I remain a huge fan of his Moondog project called Snaketime, but he’s also been stretching out in rock bands. A few years ago he toured in Bon Iver—Justin Vernon originally released the second Twin Talk album, Weaver, on his 37d03d label in 2019—but he’s really found his groove with Bill Callahan, and his playing is one of the things that makes the recent live album Resuscitate (Drag City) so fantastic. The band is driven by the ever remarkable drummer Jim White and guitarist Matt Kinsey, and together they all lean heavily into the material, stretching out grooves a la Crazy Horse, but Laurenzi has deftly found a way within narrow harmonic material to uncork both searing solos and contribute excellent lines in fixed arrangements that give the music much more than what appears on the surface. Callahan explained the decision to chronicle this live performance heavy with tunes from his 2022 album YTI⅃AƎЯ, opining, “Songs tend to mutate after they’ve been recorded. These songs were mutating faster than usual. Like whatever happened to Bruce Banner in the lab — I knew these songs were about to get superpowers. As far as I was concerned, this change needed to be documented.” There’s little question he was right, and these renditions feel like they’d taken on a life of their own from the studio versions. Below you can hear Laurenzi’s scorching contribution to “Coyotes,” but I’m just as impressed with less noticeable, more subtle bits of commentary or patterns that form crucial building blocks in the thrust and momentum of each tune. On “Partition,” for example, Laurenzi’s needling, scrappy lines almost register as a layer of extended feedback threading through the primordial stomp. The music is the product of a band disinterested in pristine replication, and while it’s not exactly jazz, there’s something deeply organic in the elastic interplay and spontaneity on display across the entire album. The album was recorded at Chicago’s Thalia Hall, and several local guests sit in on a few tunes, including alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella, and, on the tune “Natural Information,” Joshua Abrams and Lisa Alvarado of Natural Information Society, on guimbri and harmonium, respectively. But the core band can get the job done masterfully on its own.
All of this is leading up to Twin Talk Live (Shifting Paradigm), the trio’s best album which came out in late September–it’s a studio album tackled with the mentality of a live set. From track to track the ensemble subverts the usual sax trio conventions in clever, immensely satisfying ways. All three musicians toggle between lead and support roles, developing the tunes in a more holistic fashion that dispenses with endless strings of solo passages. The group builds things from the ground up; the opener “Always Left” begins with a see-saw groove meted out by Green, balancing elegance with clankiness, but once Ernst and Laurenzi enter the fold the tune falls into place without losing that back-and-forth vibe. The saxophonist deviates from the written line a little bit, but the improvisation primarily arrives in low-key three-way negotiation. More than halfway through, Ernst starts singing wordlessly, moving the melody to voice with Laurenzi blowing terse, knotty little figures that form a kind of profound yin-yang construction with her bass and voice. A similar modus operandi carries forth across the whole album. On “Nine” Ernst’s vocal line could be little more than adornment, but in her typical style the delivery is deliciously austere and ultra-precise, setting up a vibe and a melodic clearing for one of Laurenzi’s most fiery, soulful improvisations, perpetually stoked by Green’s tightly-coiled accents and displacements. “You’re On Your Way” reminds me of the early work of the Bad Plus, albeit with a much lighter touch, both in terms of Green’s drumming and the way Laurenzi embroiders the theme with the smallest of gestures, using his horn to shape the melody with aerated daubs of sound more than fluid lines.
The group’s originals are all pretty darn memorable, with a dusky pop veneer, and if one only listened to the album without digging in closely it could feel like a crossover thing. But that would be a foolish choice, as the real pleasure is listening to how the group’s almost telepathic rapport and years of experience together allow it to inhabit the material with such preternatural authority. Each member of the trio stretches and smears the arrangements in fascinating ways, and it’s those fine-tuned gestures that make Twin Talk such a good band, the kind of a group that’s going to perpetually be refashioning its material without dispensing with its essence. While it might be tempting to say that the trio is borrowing from rock music in how it essays these sturdy compositions, it would sell the accomplishments short; each tune is in an endless state of transformation.Serious dividends are yielded by carefully surveying each element as the tunes unfold. Below you can listen to “Keep it Heated,” its ambling lope resisting the fire its title might suggest. It’s built around Ernst’s flawless intonation and feel, moving from exposition to groove without a hiccup. While Ernst elucidates the melody with her voice Laurenzi ducks around it at first, before forging a dreamy unison. Just when you think the table is set for lengthy saxophone feature the tune loops back into ensemble feel, except Green gets the spotlight, with Laurenzi working over a single little faux-bossa lick with endlessly morphing cadences—suddenly you’ve been pulled in by microscopic shifts and the tune resets, with Laurenzi blowing little harmonic puffs, Green receding, and Ernst cooing the vocal line over her handsome bass lines. Sometimes the smallest details hit the hardest. Don’t let the chill vibe stop you from getting lost in this undeniably heavy music.
Quick Hits
On Friday, October 19 most of the Chicago trio Hearts and Minds will make its Berlin debut at Sowieso. The long-running group includes bass clarinetist Jason Stein, keyboardist Paul Giallorenzo, and drummer Chad Taylor—all accomplished leaders on their own who’ve forged a satisfying sound in pooling their ideas. The group will release its third and best album for the Astral Spirits label in January, so consider this an early peak at the music on Illuminscence. Well, take that promise with a grain of salt, as Taylor was forced to cancel his participation thanks to new duties as the head of University of Pittsburgh’s jazz department, a post previously filled by the likes of Nathan Davis, Geri Allen, and Nicole Mitchell. For the Berlin visit the drum throne will be occupied by Tony Buck. The upcoming record carries on the group’s sideways reflection of Sun Ra, but the connection has grown more tenuous, as the trio has settled into a sound of its own. Giallorenzo—a killer pianist heavily influenced by Monk, Nicols, and Hope—sticks to synthesizer here, laying down bass lines while adding contrapuntal lines that fit elegantly with Stein’s serpentine post-bop blowing, all driven by Taylor’s elastic grooves. I’m curious to hear how Buck will adapt to the trio’s sound.
The next Nowhere Street concert happens on Tuesday, October 15, at KM28 when the Norwegian duo of pianist Christian Wallumrød and pedal steel guitarist Ivar Grydeland makes its Berlin debut. The musicians have long worked together as part of the improvising quartet Dans Les Arbres, but each individual has been working in a variety of other contexts going back decades. Wallumrød is a fascinating composer whose primary vehicle has been a shape-shifting group that’s produced a series of ravishing, elegant recordings for ECM and Hubro over the last two decades, while Grydeland has been a core member of Huntsville, the minimalist trio with percussionist Ingar Zach and bassist Tonny Kluften. I’ve only heard a couple of live recordings from the project, but the music is decidedly abstract in its improvised conception, with each player digging into the outer reaches of their instrument’s usual sound world.
Recommended Shows in Berlin This Week
October 15: Trio Catch (Martin Adámek, clarinet, Eva Boesch, cello, and Sun-Young Nam, piano) play Farzia Fallah, 8 PM, Musikbrauerei, Greifswalder Straße 23a, 10405 Berlin
October 15: Christian Wallumrød, piano, and Ivar Grydeland, pedal steel guitar, 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
October 15: Seun Kuti & Egypt 80; the Berlin Afrobeat Company, 7 PM, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin
October 16: Ada Rave, tenor saxophone, Camila Nebbia, tenor saxophone, Marta Warelis, piano, and Christian Lillinger, drums, 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
October 16: Roman Tics (Michael Thieke, clarinet, Luca Venitucci, accordeon, Burkhard Beins, percussion); Ana Kravanja, violin & Raed Yassin, electronics, 8 PM, Richten25, Gerichtstraße 25, 13347 Berlin
October 16: Megan Alice Clune; Marta Forsberg, 8:30 PM, Morphine Raum, Köpenicker Straße 147, 10997 Berlin (Hinterhof 1. Etage)
October 17: Rebecca Lane, quartertone bass flute, flute, voice, Fredrik Rasten, guitar, voice, Catherine Lamb, viola, voice, play Lamb; Thomas Nicholson, violin, Catherine Lamb, viola, and Fredrik Rasten, e-bowed guitar, play Rasten; Judith Hamann, solo cello, 8 PM, Zunftwirtschaft, Arminiusstraße 2-4, 10551 Berlin
October 17: Rubbish Music (Kate Carr and Iain Chambers); Peter Strickman, 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
October 17: Fusk (Rudi Mahall, clarinets, Jan Roder, double bass, and Kasper Tom, drums), 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
October 18: Karen Ng, saxophone, Brad Henkel, trumpet, Tony Elieh, prepared bass, Samuel Hall, drums, and Caroline Tallone, hurdy-gurdy, 8 PM, Peppi Guggenheim, Weichselstrasse 7, 12043 Berlin
October 18: Bonnie “Prince” Billy; Ned Collette, 7:30 PM, Pierre Boulez Saal, Französische Straße 33d, 10117 Berlin
October 19: Bonnie “Prince” Billy; Sacred Harp Singers, 7:30 PM, Pierre Boulez Saal, Französische Straße 33d, 10117 Berlin
October 19: Hearts & Minds (Jason Stein, bass clarinet, Paul Giallorenzo, synthesizer, and Tony Buck, drums), 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
October 19: Arooj Aftab, 9 PM, Heimathafen Neukölln, Karl-Marx-Straße 141, 12043 Berlin
October 19: Matthias Spillmann Trio (Matthias Spillmann, trumpet, flugelhorn, Moritz Baumgärtner, drums, and Andreas Lang, double bass, with guest Uli Kempendorff, tenor saxophone), 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
October 20: Maramikhu (Karen Ng, saxophone, Reiko Okuda, piano, Antti Virtaranta, double bass, and Rudi Fischerlehner, drums, percussion), 3:30 PM, Industriesalon Schöneweide, Reinbeckstraße 10, 12459 Berlin
October 20: Ensemble Hourglass play Josquin Desprez, Orlando di Lasso, Madalena Casulana, Raffaela Aleotti, Vicenzo Galilei, Carlo Gesualdo, Nicola Vicentino and Mara Winter, 6 PM, Kuppelhalle,Silent Green, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin
October 20: Marisa Monte (sold out), 8 PM, Tempodrom, Möckernstr. 10, 10963 Berlin
October 21: Kurt Rosenwinkel Quartet (Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitar, Ben Wendel, saxophones, Ben Street, double bass, and Jeff Ballard, drums), 6:30 PM, Zig-Zag Jazz Club, Hauptstraße 89, 12159 Berlin
October 21: Clare Cooper, guzheng, plays “Mapped Intimacy”; Dafne Vicente-Sandoval, microphone feedback, bassoon, plays “Minos Circuit Rewired”; Luciano Maggiore, speakers and voice, plays “five legs,” 8:30 PM, Kunsthaus KuLe, Auguststraße 10, 10117 Berlin
October 21: Marta Warelis, piano, Yedo Gibson, soprano and tenor saxophones, and Sofia Borges, drums, percussion, 8:30 PM, Morphine Raum, Köpenicker Straße 147, 10997 Berlin (Hinterhof 1. Etage)
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