Tom Rainey's New York Trio performing in the East Village Cornelia Street Cafe, with the drummer and leader accompanied by guitarist Mary Halvorson and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock on soprano and tenor, as the three trade complex and intertwining lines and lay out solos that on the surface are lyrical while underneath they seethe with intricate interplay and bold concepts.
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Sample The Album:
Tom Rainey-drums
Ingrid Laubrock-soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
Mary Halvorson-guitar
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UPC: 7640120192563
Label: Intakt
Catalog ID: ITK256.2
Squidco Product Code: 24103
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2015
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded live at Cornelia Street Cafe, in New York City, New York, on December 30th, 2013, by Amandine Pras.
"After making the studio recording "Camino Ciel Echo", New York drummer Tom Rainey's trio has now recorded a live album containing the distilled essence of numerous concerts including several European tours. Tom Rainey, born in 1957 in Santa Barbara, was known at an earlier stage of his career as an exceptional drummer. Since he moved to New York he has played with some of the "heavy weights" of the contemporary jazz scene including Mark Helias, Kris Davis, Tim Berne and Tony Malaby. For his own trio, he has chosen two strong female musicians. Ingrid Laubrock is a saxophonist who plays with an extraordinary sensitivity for structure and form, fusing intellect and poetry in her refined improvisations. Mary Halvorson is one of the most sought after jazz guitarist of her generation. One critic, praising this release, called it "a concise lecture on the aesthetics of collective sound shaping."-Intakt
"Whether figurative or concrete, the address of the edifice name-checked in the Tom Rainey Trio's latest release is a mystery. Even so, one location can be ruled out unequivocally- the Cornelia Street Café where the drummer, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and guitarist Mary Halvorson have capitalized on a recurring performance residency for the past half-decade, using the Greenwich Village eatery as an incubator for numerous musical pursuits together and individually. Hotel Grief presents one such concert, recorded on the penultimate evening of 2013 when the three musicians decided to shelve compositional concerns in favor of spontaneous collective improvisation.
Five pieces add up to exactly an hour of music. Common component to each is propulsive and continuous activity with the opener "Last Overture" practically over-flowing in that regard. Minutes in, Halvorson sets up a repeating, densely-packed motif around which Laubrock's tenor swirls and eddies as Rainey feverishly works mallets over his drum heads. The guitarist taps a pedal, loosing crunchy waves of distortion that disperse into shimmering arcs against the leader's sequenced cymbal splashes. Rainey changes to bustling brush play and Laubrock juggles a clutch of honking riffs as the crest of guitar fuzz returns and the three converge on a slanted funk groove.
Rainey's metric dexterity comes directly into play again on the title piece, a ballad of sorts, which suddenly sprouts fangs and horns at separate intervals after a languorous beginning of pitch-bent tones and repetitious beats. Laubrock switches to sonorous soprano for the second half and Halvorson dials up the distortion for an abrupt finish. "Proud Achievements in Botany" is the other lengthy excursion, spooling to just under a third of an hour and visiting the trio at both its most overtly melodic and free-wheeling. "Briefly Lompoc" and "Mr. K.C." register as fractions in terms of duration, each piece germinating from staccato drums patterns echoed by embellishments from Halvorson brittle, metallic strings and Laubrock's coloristic reeds. Rainey's name tops the marquee, but it's a trio of equals all the way and one of the most accomplished examples of an improvising ensemble on the crowded Cornelia Street Café docket."-Derek Taylor, Dusted Magazine
Get additional information at Dusted Magazine
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Tom Rainey "Thomas "Tom" Rainey (born 1957, Santa Barbara, California) is an American drummer. After attending Berklee College of Music he moved to New York in 1979. He has played with American jazz saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, and also with Nels Cline, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, Tom Varner, Drew Gress, Kenny Werner, Mark Helias, and Simon Nabatov. A prolific session musician, he has appeared on close to eighty recordings over a career spanning over 25 years. He released his own first album, Pool School (Clean Feed), in 2010." ^ Hide Bio for Tom Rainey • Show Bio for Ingrid Laubrock "Originally from Germany, Ingrid Laubrock resides in Brooklyn, NY. Between 1989 and 2009 she was active as a saxophonist and composer in London/UK. She performed and/or recorded with: Anthony Braxton, Dave Douglas, Kenny Wheeler, Jason Moran, Tim Berne, William Parker, Tom Rainey, Mary Halvorson, Kris Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, Craig Taborn, Luc Ex, Django Bates' Human Chain, The Continuum Ensemble and many others. Ingrid's current projects as a leader are Anti-House, Sleepthief, Ingrid Laubrock Orchestra, Ingrid Laubrock Sextet and Ubatuba. Collaborations include LARK,Haste,Paradoxical Frog and Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey Duo.She is a member of Anthony Braxton's Falling River Music Quartet, Nonet and 12+1tet, Tom Rainey Trio and Obbligato, Andrew Drury's Content Provider, Mary Halvorson Septet, Kris' Davis Quintet, Nate Wooley's Battle Pieces and Luc Ex' Assemblée. Ingrid was one of the featured soloists in Anthony Braxton's opera Trillium J. Awards include the BBC Jazz Award for Innovation in 2004, a Fellowship in Jazz Composition by the Arts Foundation in 2006, the 2009 SWR German Radio Jazz Prize and the 2014 German Record Critics Quarterly Award. Commissions include Jammy Dodgers for jazz quintet and dancers (2006), Nonet music for Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2007, SWR New Jazz Meeting 2011 and "Vogelfrei", a piece for chamber orchestra (ACO/Tricentric Foundation). She won Rising Star/soprano saxophone in the 2015 in the 'Downbeat Annual Critics Poll and won the 'El Intruso Critics Poll for tenor saxophone in 2013. Ingrid was Improviser in Residence 2012 in the German city Moers. The post is created to introduce creative music into the city throughout the year. As part of this she led a regular improvisation ensemble and taught sound workshops in elementary schools. Other teaching experiences include improvisation workshops at Towson University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Baruch College, University of Michigan, University of Newcastle and many others." ^ Hide Bio for Ingrid Laubrock • Show Bio for Mary Halvorson "One of improvised music's most in-demand guitarists, Mary Halvorson has been active in New York since 2002, following jazz studies at Wesleyan University and the New School. Critics have called her "a singular talent" (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes), "NYC's least-predictable improviser" (Howard Mandel, City Arts), "one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz-or otherwise" (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal), and "one of today's most formidable bandleaders" (Francis Davis, Village Voice). The Philadelphia City Paper's Shaun Brady adds, "Halvorson has been steadily reshaping the sound of jazz guitar in recent years with her elastic, sometimes-fluid, sometimes-shredding, wholly unique style." After three years of study with visionary composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton, Ms. Halvorson became an active member of several of his bands, including his trio, septet and 12+1tet. To date, she appears on six of Mr. Braxton's recordings. Ms. Halvorson has also performed alongside iconic guitarist Marc Ribot, in his bands Sun Ship and The Young Philadelphians, and with the bassist Trevor Dunn in his Trio-Convulsant. Over the past decade she has worked with such diverse bandleaders as Tim Berne, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Ingrid Laubrock, Myra Melford, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey and Mike Reed. As a bandleader and composer, one of Ms. Halvorson's primary outlets is her longstanding trio, featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith. Since their 2008 debut album, Dragon's Head, the band has been recognized as a rising star jazz band by Downbeat Magazine for five consecutive years. Ms. Halvorson's quintet, which adds trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon to the trio, has released two critically acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label: Saturn Sings and Bending Bridges. Most recently she has added two additional band members-tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik-to form a septet, featured on her 2013 release Illusionary Sea. Ms. Halvorson also co-leads a longstanding chamber-jazz duo with violist Jessica Pavone, the avant-rock band People and the collective ensembles Thumbscrew and Secret Keeper." ^ Hide Bio for Mary Halvorson
1/27/2025
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1/27/2025
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
1/27/2025
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Last Overture 13:13
2. Hotel Grief 16:45
3. Briefly Lompoc 6:02
4. Proud Achievements In Botany 18:42
5. Mr. K.C. (For Keith Copeland) 5:24
Intakt
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Trio Recordings
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