The new york city jazz record



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16

  

December 2011 



THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

S

uno Suno

 (Listen Listen) is the second offering from 

guitarist Rez Abbasi’s Invocation, a band with altoist 

Rudresh Mahanthappa, pianist Vijay Iyer, bassist 

Johannes Weidenmueller and drummer Dan Weiss. 

Individually and collectively the members of this 

quintet have been at the forefront of charting a new 

course for Indo-Pakistani jazz. But Suno Suno is an 

exploration of ethos as opposed to a modern co-opting 

of folkloric and ancestral forms. Qawwali, a musical 

structure that originated on the Indian subcontinent as 

a part of Sufism, motivates this session. Its defining 

characteristics are the vocal fleetness of its central 

singer and a hypnotic beat often presented via a 

wonderfully textural dholak/tabla percussion section 

combined with handclaps. Invocation, especially 

Mahanthappa’s speedy alto, beautifully reflects this 

spirituality. They cleverly do so while paying as much 

homage to a jazz-inspired transcendence as to specific 

culturally inspired sacred dynamic. 

 

Spirituality aside, what immediately impresses is 



the quality of musical interplay; Abbasi and 

Mahanthappa electrify with fluid joint phrasing on 

quickly moving passages while Iyer, whether 

buttressing the rhythm section or firing off his own 

swift phrases, is an integral part of the overall sound. 

Weidenmueller and Weiss combine to create rhythmical 

patterns that are both hypnotic and fertile ground for 

improvisation. Expansive compositions with meaty 

soundscapes and intricate rhythms stretch time as well 

as geographical and musical borders on Suno Suno.



For more information, visit enjarecords.com. This group is 

at Jazz Standard Dec. 6th-7th. See Calendar. 

S

oprano saxophonist Alexandra Grimal and pianist 



Giovanni DiDomenico have come together to discover 

paths of expression that, like the koans which give 

titles to five of the nine numbers in this suite, make 

their meaning available through intuition or some kind 

of non-rational thinking. Grimal has traversed the 

areas of jazz and new music, always with an ear 

towards improvisation while DiDomenico has proven 

himself as a composer of meaningful scope.

 For 

Ghibli

, the Arabic name for the Mediterranean 

wind often called the sirocco, DiDomenico has 

composed an eight-part suite whose openness and 

sense of space allow both musicians to create music 

that often feels very free. 

 

Even the tunes that seem to have a more pulsing 



rhythm are, somehow, quietly insistent. “Earworm”, 

for example, opens with a dense theme with many 

notes but still feels as if it’s quietly developing. 

DiDomenico takes the open solo and uses the lower 

part of the keyboard to provide a dark underpinning 

even as the music seems to be constantly opening out. 

Grimal’s entrance is subtle and goes almost unnoticed 

but it immediately complements the darkness of the 

piano and takes it to a number of places, some almost 

sprightly and bright, as it throbs to its opening theme. 

“Coldfinger” has a melody that suggests the 

impressionism of Debussy or Ravel but is also the most 

defined ‘jazz’ composition of anything in the set. The 

series of five koans make us forget that this music is 

composed, so seamless are the improvisations and 

written notes. Even when at high volume the musicians’ 

delicacy of tone and approach make them feel like 

whispers.

 

The final piece, “Svanevejens Rundkorsel”, is 



written by Danish bassist Claus Kaarsgaard, a brief 

excursion well-suited to the capabilities of the two 

players. It’s a moody, beautiful ballad and it puts a 

quiet period at the close of the remarkable story that 

DiDomenico and Grimal have told.

For more information, visit sansbruit.fr. Grimal is at 

Alliance Francaise Dec. 3rd and 5th, I-Beam Dec. 17th and 

Douglass Street Music Collective Dec. 18th. See Calendar. 

S

axophonist Mats Gustafsson and bassist Barry Guy 



are each celebrated for their membership in great trios 

tracing their inspiration to Albert Ayler’s 1964 band: 

Gustafsson for The Thing, Guy for his 30-year tenure 

in the Parker-Guy-Lytton Trio. They share membership 

in another trio: Tarfala with Swedish drummer 

Raymond Strid. The group first performed together in 

1992 and since then have gathered sporadically, 

releasing two CDs on Guy’s Maya label - You Forgot to 



Answer

, recorded in 1994-95 and Tarfala, 2006. Syzygy 

presents a 2009 concert from Belgium, released as a 

vinyl-only, limited-edition two-LP set with an 

additional EP. 

 

Named for Sweden’s Tarfala Glacier, the group 



might immediately suggest the sheer auditory power 

for which Gustafsson is known, almost a force of 

nature himself. But other natural analogies will suggest 

themselves for the trio’s music: it can be as delicately 

variegated as the leaves of a forest or light on water. 

Strid moves from dense rhythmic overlays to feather-

light cymbal shadings and almost alarm-clock rolls; 

Guy, the fleetest of bassists, finds ways to combine 

lightning-fast runs with shifting timbres and a host of 

extended techniques that include ‘prepared’ bass, with 

multiple shifting bridges. The three can create the 

quietest atmospheric layerings, as in the introduction 

to “Cool in Flight” with Gustafsson creating key-pad 

rhythms, but the dialogue can also launch Gustafsson 

on heroic expressionist episodes, from roiling high-

speed runs and skittering flights into the upper register 

to some glacially slow, wailing passages: at one point 

in “Tephra”, he vocalizes through his horn with 

sufficient passion to suggest a man playing Picasso’s 

“Guernica” on a tenor saxophone. Tarfala Trio may not 

be a well-known configuration, but when it gets 

together, it’s one of the great bands in free jazz.  



For more information, visit nobusinessrecords.com. 

Gustafsson is at Issue Project Room Dec. 3rd. See Calendar. 

W

ith Japan’s year filled with disasters both 



geographical - an earthquake and a tsunami - and 

societal - political instability and falling interest 

rates - it’s heartening to hear CDs proving that 

musicians’ improvisational skills are still intact. The 

sessions are also noteworthy, because like relief 

efforts, their success is due to collaborations with 

foreigners.

 

Trumpeter Itaru Oki moved to France in 1974 



and he and bassist Benjamin Duboc work together 

frequently. On Nobusiko Duboc uses the bass’ 

percussive qualities to maintain a chromatic bottom 

as Oki splutters split tones. Pointed bass plucks 

match rubato brass squeaks while steady walking 

accompanies tongue flutters. Oki thickens brass 

shrieks with multi-flute resonations as Duboc 

thumps his instrument’s wood on “Ihoujin”. Plus 

Duboc’s stops not only mute Oki’s note squalling at 

the end, but also move the duet towards melody.

 

Akira Sakata, who has released 35 discs since 



1969, dedicated …and that’s the story of jazz to a 

friend missing since the tsunami. The alto saxist has 

worked with noise experts like bassist Bill Laswell 

and he extends that concept with drummer Chris 

Corsano, bassist Darin Gray (Chikamorachi) and 

guest Jim O’Rourke on guitar, harmonica and 

electronics. No conventional melodies appear, 

rather tension without release. “Kyoto” finds 

O’Rourke’s choked guitar strings spurring the 

reedist to staccato screams as Gray hammers his 

four strings over Corsano smacks. Sakata’s nephritic 

growls also create a menacing interface when paired 

with the guitarist’s slurred fingering. If Sakata 

introduces “Nagoya 3” with unforced clarinet trills, 

paramount stimulation is soon attained. Luckily the 

result is more exhilarating than exaggerated.

 

KuRuWaSan’s memorable CD pairs tuba gusts 



from Osaka’s Daysuke Takaoka with Brussels-based 

reedist Grégoire Tirtiaux, keyboardist Pak Yan Lau 

and drummer João Lobo. The eponymous album 

references parade rhythms, microtonalism and 

electronica. On “Baking”, Lau’s kinetic piano 

patterns brush up against tuba bellows as drum 

beats bounce. “Traffic Jam” finds Lau pulsating 

electric piano plinks plus resonating organ washes 

as Tirtiaux’ breathy flute lines challenge Lobo’s 

slide-whistle squeals. The disc climaxes with 

“Trilogy”. Surrounding a protracted pause are 

variants that include piano soundboard scrapes 

plus ascending drums rolls pushed aside by pedal-

point tuba and saxophone tongue slaps. The result 

is restrained and exhibitionist in equal measure. 

For more information visit improvising-beings.com, 

family-vineyard.com and quintoquarto.net

 

Nobusiko 

Benjamin Duboc/Itaru Oki (Improvising Beings) 

and that’s the story of jazz... 

Akira Sakata & Jim O’Rourke with Chikamorachi 

(Family Vineyard) 

Eponymous  

KuRuWaSan (Quintoquarto)

by Ken Waxman

GLOBE  UNITY: JAPAN



     

 

Suno Suno 

Rez Abbasi’s Invocation (Enja)

by Elliott Simon

     

 

Ghibli 

Giovanni DiDomenico/Alexandra Grimal (Sans Bruit)

by Donald Elfman

     

 

Syzygy 

Tarfala Trio (NoBusiness)

by Stuart Broomer

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