Scott Colberg
(bass, voice); Alex Samaris (voice); Angela Morris (tenor sax, voice, composer)
(Review
by Ann Alex).
A 4-track debut EP by Brooklyn-based jazz trio Paper Birds. Music and words
are by Ms Morris apart from the lyric on track one (by poet Johanna Skibsrud). Lovers of free jazz may well enjoy this, as may
do adventurous jazz fans who like strong effective lyrics. It’s good to hear free jazz with words. Track one reminded me of performances by The Incredible String Band, cult folk
band of the 1960’s, and track three had shades of West Side Story. But really this sort of music has to be heard to
be appreciated properly.
The singers perform in
high light voices to portray the paper birds of track 1, to effective sax and
bass interventions. The tracks pass
seamlessly one to another, and track 2 opens with a shimmering sax of many tones,
then scales, and the lyric of a love song, ‘every hair on your head is prettier
than you know’, followed by a jazz scat male voice in a sort of question and
answer with the sax. Tracks 3 and 4
‘smells like paint’ and ‘long time’ sound a bit more like structured
songs. Track 3 is about a man drunk in a
bar, with amusing fast sax between the ‘verses’; track 4 is a meaningful song
about things that happen slowly, such as a ‘heart that takes a long time to
love’, with music from the bass. But the instrumentation is far more
interesting than I’ve made it sound. As
described on the information sheet ‘in contrast to a solo-centric jazz
aesthetic, are largely ensemble constructions whose individual facets emerge
into focus amid the shimmering group textures.
Ann
Alex.
Released
in April from rallidae.bandcamp.com Also
via i-tunes etc.
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