How many sounds can a woodwind player get from a horn? How about three horns? If you're a player with the skills and imagination of a Ken Vandermark, the answer is "an amazing amount."
Creative music is indeed the best term to describe what this Chicagoan does, and Vandermark's artistry is amply represented here in this solo outing at a concert recorded on November 29, 2010 at the Alchemia in Krakow, Poland and released at the end of 2011 on the Polish Not Two Records label.
A solo concert means a highly exposed instrumentalist, which is just fine, as it allows listeners to savor the wide-ranging reed artistry Vandermark has been able to develop over the years. The thematic thread through the ten pieces that make up the CD is a "Portaits" concept , with players Peter Brotzman, Anthony Braxton, John Carter, Joe McPhee, Steve Lacy, Eric Dolphy, Coleman Hawkins, Evan Parker and Jimmy Guiffre being referenced, or at least serving as starting points for compositional material. They have all, Vandermark writes in the notes, been important sources of inspiration. The only non-reedist being paid homage is Mississippi blues guitarist Fred McDowell, whom Vandermark admires as one "who has made some of the most perfect solo music I've ever heard."
The same can perhaps be said of the music on this disc, which consists of all kinds of reed sounds, beginning with the dry, reiterative and timbrally narrow music of "Lead Bird" on bass clarinet, the most dramatically expressive horn used on this date. A more lush, airy sound comes in the tenor playing of "DeKooning," inspired by Coleman Hawkins, and each track in turn takes on particular challenges of embouchure and other technical hurdles, which prove to be spurs to the instrumentalist's imagination, as he explores the possibilities posited in the materials of the horn-of-the-moment and the stylistic allusions to the respective homage subjects.
The tenor sax takes up most of the side, with bass clarinet a close second, and the smaller Bb clarinet, third. In each case, the sounds the Vandermark lays down have stylistic connections with the sources of inspiration. For example, the heavy use of extended techniques and strong core of sound of Evan Parker in "Steam Giraffe," the mercurial flow of John Carter in "Burning Air," or the percussive, at times screechy, at times and full-throated euphoria of the bass clarinet of "Future perfect" that recalls Dolphy's lyricism. The piece dedicated to McDowell throbs with percussive passion, and a strophe-like use of form, and though it sounds nothing like the slide guitar, it is just as expressive.
Full of bold, expressive leaps and bounds, this sonic exploration is evidence of a musician performing at the top of his game. No matter the horn being used, what stays with the listener are the textures and deep resonance of the music that may leave you stunned, elated and delighted.
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