Bill Frisell – Guitar; Richard
Teitelbaum - synthesiser, piano; Ben
Street – double bass; Andrew Cyrille – drums.
(Review by Hugh C)
In a previous
blog post, Lance has alluded to fact that I am his preferred recipient of the slightly
more outré offerings that drop through his letterbox. I was not surprised therefore, bumping into
Lance at the Sirkis/Bialis gig at the Globe, when I was greeted with “I've got
something for you – Bill Frisell?”. As
my answer was in the affirmative, I was handed a smart red CD still in its
polythene wrap, placed it in my coat pocket and thought nothing more of it –
the International Quartet were starting up.
Lance knows I
like the ECM product. Many, but by no
means all, of the CDs I am offered for review are on the ECM label – this
appeared to be an exception, no moody black and white photograph on the front,
just a smart red cover with white lettering.
The packaging, in the cold light of Sunday morning, however, felt
familiar – an outer cardboard sleeve concealing the CD jewel case. Yes, this was ECM.
I was surprised
to read that this CD was by the Andrew Cyrille Quartet, Bill Frisell being
second in the listing. This is,
apparently, avant-garde drummer, Andrew Cyrille's ECM leader debut. Unusually,
no promotional material (other than the CD itself) was sent to BSH for
review. When reviewing a CD I tend to
read through the promotional literature before listening to the CD, this often
provides me with a hook on which to hang my additional verbiage. The CD booklet has the usual moody
photographs of the band and the individual members during the recording
session. Uncharacteristically for an ECM
recording, there are also four pages of commentary on the CD. Unfortunately (for me, as reviewer) I can
barely understand a word of it!
Apparently in the musical world of the 20th century we had
“become enmeshed completely and needlessly in steady, even time signatures
deriving from military applications, to the exclusion of any other
understanding of musical flow” - and so it goes on.
To the music
then – this CD comes in at 45 minutes or thereabouts. There are 9 tracks, the first being composed
by John Coltrane and the remainder by individual, or a combination of the band
members. Some are previous compositions
and three are new improvisational pieces involving all four musicians. The languorous guitar style of Frisell is
dominant throughout.
As the title of
the CD and the sleeve notes suggest, the music is largely devoid of the
metrical contstraint of a time signature, one does get the impression from time
to time (no pun intended!) that the output is a series of interesting, but
unconnected noises rather than a continuous whole. This is not to detract from the beauty of
some of the more lyrical passages.
As I have
commented before in respect of some of the CDs I have been offered for review,
this is likely to appeal to the enthusiast, but perhaps not to the more general
audience. Would I buy this CD - no. Would I recommend it to others – possibly,
with the enthusiast proviso above. Will
I use this review copy to scare the birds in my allotment – no, I don't have
an allotment.
All in all
then, an interesting (to coin a phrase) adventure – but not
over-inspiring. As Jazzwise Magazine's
regular correspondent, The Colonel, might say:
“Could do with some military discipline!”
Hugh C.
Track Listing:
Coltrane
Time [Coltrane]
Kaddish
[Frisell]
Sanctuary [The
Quartet]
Say [Street]
Dazzling
(Perchordially Yours) [The Quartet]
Herky Jerky
[Teitelbaum]
Begin [Frisell]
Manfred [The
Quartet]
Song for Andrew
No. 1 [Frisell]
The Declaration
of Musical Independence is released on ECM, Cat No.
ECM2430 and is available now.
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