QUINSIN NACHOFF With MARK HELIAS/JIM BLACK et al

Magic Numbers [H-SACD]

Label: Songlines 1556 Country: Canada

Format: CD Category: AVAILABLE Price: $17.00 Back Add / View Shopping Cart

Description: Featuring Quinsin Nachoff on tenor & soprano saxes & compositions, Mark

Helias on contrabass and Jim Black on drums plus a string quartet with

Nathalie Bonin & Noemi Racine Gaudreault on violins, Jean Rene on viola and

Julie Trudeau on cello. This is quite an impressive debut disc from Vancouver-

based saxist Quinsin Nachoff and his NY rhythm team and a fine string

quartet. Considering that I was completely unfamiliar with Mr. Nachof before

this, I am even more amazed by ambitious ideas and writing. On each of the

eight pieces, Quinsin sets up different tactics, grooves or structures for the

sax-led trio and string quartet to navigate through. The string quartet is an

integral part of the proceedings, often playing their parts as the trio tightly

connects with them. Quinsin's bittersweet tone works well with string quartet

that often starts off or continues the phrases that the sax exhales. What is

most interesting about this is that it is very hard to define, being in between

established categories of jazz and modern classical. There are elements of

short somewhat funky grooves interspersed with some further out string

sections. It is difficult to combine these extremes without sounding forced, but

the entire group does a great job of making it flow together. We received this

promo more than a month before we got in copies to sell, so I played it a few

times and always met with good response from customers in the store who

knew that this was something unique and successful. Another unexpected

gem from the consistently superb Songlines folks. - BLG Bruce Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery NYC

Reuben Radding has had to take initiative to get hismusic heard before. Luminescence, a recording of duetsperformed with multi-reedist Daniel Carter wasshopped around and ultimately released by AumFidelity in 2002 and gave off a do-it-himself scent thatcarries over to Intersections, the first release on thebassist’s own Pine Ear Music label. Radding is plentybusy, performing and recording in combinations ofvarious size and styles (including wicked work withSeattle’s Wally Shoup Trio), but Pine Ear is an exampleof what jazz musicians must do these days in order toget their music heard, rather than have sessions languish in the can. Radding’s trio on this CD offerschamber-style interaction, musical delicacy and whispered intimacies.

Radding has one of the thickest tones on the double bass to be heard in jazz today and his playingrelies on notes that carry on and linger horizontally,while his compositions run the scale vertically. Thisbidirectionality infuses the music with a favorable creative tension, particularly on the hypnotic “MakingCertain it Goes On”. Oscar Noriega’s snake charmerclarinet seduces on “Siren”, a tone poem that featuresRadding’s evocative arco attack and enables MattMoran to put the ‘vibe’ in vibraphone with his resonating sustained notes. “Canal and Lafayette”picks up the tempo a bit from “Brush”, but continuesthe same mathematically precise playing by Noriegaand Moran, while on “Bellevue, Bellevue andBellevue”, Moran’s single-note strikes jump from leftto center to right, orienting you to the compositioneven as its repetitiveness locks your attention.“Marginal Way” mixes Radding’s arco and pizzicatoand alternately pairs him up with his bandmates: mirrored by Moran’s metallic vibes, in dialogue withNoriega, then back to Moran for a concluding conversation. Drum fans need not fear. Noriega,Moran and Radding create a world of melody andrhythm all their own.

For more information, visit www.reubenradding.com.Radding is at Café Grumpy Feb. 18th. See calendar.

A new pair of releases teams New York edge-cutterswith their north-of-the-border counterparts.

Toronto-based reed player Quinsin Nachoff hasone foot in jazz performance and the other in classicalcomposition. While this combination can sometimeslead to a musical no-man’s land, Nachoff manages toavoid stylistic malaise, largely by dint of the decidedly rockin’ drum work of New York’s Jim Black.

A jazz trio, featuring another New York import, thesuperb Mark Helias on bass, is spliced together with afirst-rate string quartet drawn from Toronto’s pool ofyoung classical talent.

Remove the jazz trio and you’d have a tasty littlesuite of string pieces, but not only has Nachoffbrought in drums, he’s apparently instructed Black togo more for Sonic Youth than Billy Higgins, a starkconstrast against the delicate strings. Nachoff’s ownsax work adds further textural and stylistic counterpoint. What we have in the end is not quitegumbo, but a distinctive sound that can’t yet be categorized (although, add it to the body of work JohnHollenbeck and a few others are busy creating andsoon enough we’re sure to begin hearing some newappelation - Fourth Stream? Classical Groove?).

Nachoff’s writing is, harmonically, quite sophisticated and he sets up lovely chord progressions, articulated by the strings, over which heblows with inspired technique. His idea here is muchclearer than that of pianist Chris Gestrin, who haspaired Vancouver’s Dylan van der Schyff on drumswith another New Yorker, guitarist Ben Monder, on arecording of mostly open improv with a couple original tunes: The Distance.

The lack of bass leaves Gestrin and Monder toparcel out the melodic and harmonic duties. Thoughthey occasionally seem to trip over each other, the combination mostly works. Monder’s playing seemsmost inspired and original on the improv pieces.Gestrin’s fine piano work is given distinction by a fewprepared strings that appear unexpectedly, lendingpleasantly mystifying moments. Van der Schyff’sdrumming is subtly superb - exhilarating cascades ofbrushed snare, toms and cymbals blend with microtonal piano and guitar outbursts or fall intobreathtaking silences. All three have a keen sense ofhow to build and resolve dramatic tension, though themood is exclusively murky.

For more information, visit www.songlines.com. Nachoff isat Tonic Feb. 23rd. See calendar.

Few tribute albums released these days do justice tothe music of the honoree, or the artistry of the playeracknowledging the influence of the venerated figure,on the high level that Joe Locke reaches on Rev-elation,easily one of the hardest swinging records releasedrecently. Together with the trio of Mike LeDonne, BobCranshaw and Mickey Roker that regularly accompanied vibist Milt Jackson in his final years,Locke wows an ecstatic audience at London’s RonnieScott’s with a set of bebop, ballads and blues out of theBags book, along with two new dedicatory composi-tions: LeDonne’s soulful title track, a reference to oneof Jackson’s other nicknames, “Rev(erend)” and theleader’s “Big Town”, a clever play on Roker’s baptismal name, Granville.

Right from the start of the opening track,Jackson’s “The Prophet Speaks”, Locke shows that hehas what it takes to walk the great vibraphonist’swalk, without trying too hard to fill his shoes. Therhythm section supplies the same easy going groovethat endeared it to its late leader and the hip

arrangement shines the solo spotlight on each of thefour band members. The date continues with a coupleof original arrangements by Jackson alumni - CedarWalton’s relaxed medium tempo take on “Young andFoolish” and Ray Brown’s sensitive reworking of “TheLook and Love”. The program proceeds with theaforementioned title tune, featuring LeDonne’s tastefully swinging Fender Rhodes, followed by“Opus de Funk”, Horace Silver’s early hardboppingJackson feature and the beautiful ballad “CloseEnough For Love”. Locke digs in deep on his soulful“Big Town” and shows off his chops on the closer, RayBrown’s “Used To Be Jackson”. Rev-elation is full ofsubtle nuance and unselfconscious attention to detailthat takes the music to the highest level and truly honors the man who inspired it all.

Locke figures prominently on bassist Calvin Hill’sfine endeavor I Can’t Give You Anything But Love. Thequartet date, which also features Michael Cochrane atthe piano and Yoron Israel on drums, is another sort oftribute date - this one in praise of love. Yet, despite thefact that almost all of the disc’s titles include the Lword, this is anything but a schmaltzy ballad record.The exceptional arrangements pleasingly vary tempoand meter, from the waltzing “I Fall In Love TooEasily” to the latinish “Beautiful Love” to the straightahead swinging “I Can’t Give You Anything ButLove”, imparting an agreeable variety to the program,which is uniformly excellent. Hill reveals himself to bea lyrical soloist, while judiciously sharing the spotlightwith his stellar bandmates on the nine odes toromance. A superb Valentine’s Day soundtrack.

For more information, visit www.sharpnine.com andwww.calvinhillmusic.com. Locke is at The Kitano Feb. 3rd-4th with Ben Wolfe and Feb. 24th-25th as a leader. See calendar.

16 February 2006 | ALLABOUTJAZZ-NEW YORK

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IntersectionsReuben Radding (Pine Ear Music)

by Jeff Stockton

Rev-elationJoe Locke

(Sharp Nine)

I Can’t Give You...Calvin Hill

(Arichi Music)by Russ Musto

Magic NumbersQuinsin Nachoff

(Songlines)

The DistanceGestrin/Monder/Schyff

(Songlines)by Ty Cumbie