Spring Heel Jack - The Sweetness of the Water
(Thirsty Ear)
Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake - Back Together Again
(Thrill Jockey)
Far be it from me to lead you on into thinking that I know anything about jazz. I'll be the first to admit I'm a novice in the genre, only having come to seriously appreciating it and broadening my collection in the last few years. I can't chat it up for hours with real jazz aficionados, much less identify who's playing drums on that live recording in Copenhagen from 1976.
So with that said, here is my take on a couple of records I've been listening to a lot lately.
Spring Heel Jack's new one, The Sweetness of the Water, is god damn beautiful. It's their third studio installment for The Blue Series, an offshoot of NYC's Thirsty Ear label curated by powerhouse pianist Matthew Shipp. The Blue Series tends to focus on more experimental, jazz oriented releases, and this is by far one of the finest installments. Over the last few years the Spring Heel Jack duo of John Coxon and Ashley Wales have completely overhauled their sound, leaving behind the Drum & Bass methods of their early years and taking up a caustic mix of free jazz, noise, and ambient drone. The Sweetness of the Water marks another turn for the two, an open ended live approach to recording that leaves as much space as their pervious efforts filled up with vibrant cacophony. That's not to say that they've really toned things down per se, but the record tends to resemble the embers after a bonfire, rather than the fire itself. Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet and Evan Parker on saxophone are both mesmerizing, mixing the right amount of edginess to their overall restrained performances. "Quintet," the second track on the record, has the two waltzing back and forth in a call and response play that ends in a hovering fog above Mark Sanders' kinetic drumming.
The following track, "Lata," is a standout mix of Coxon and Wales samples and Parkers dexterity, his saxophone blending seamlessly with digital feedback and a sonorous liturgy of organ drone. "Track Two," the second to last track on the record, is made completely seductive by Parker, here on piano, floating at the very top of the tune; his playing random and widely spaced, as if he was in a room all alone, unaware of the trouble the rest of the band was brewing. Any-a-way, "Track Two" exemplifies the record as a whole: smoldering late night dramas that are unfolding for the first time for us as well as for the players.
Back Together Again the newest disk of duets from Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake is an all around sexier affair. These two have been in various groups together over the years, but this is the first time they've teamed up for a duets recording. Drake's drumming is nothing short of ecstatic, mixing together Afro rhythms, fat ass back-beats, and hyper rhythms that swing back and forth from skin tight to the edge of imploding. The first track, "Leap Forward," has Drake on various hand drums, laying down a buoyant groove that is impossible to avoid shaking too. Fred Anderson's sax tone is warm and fuzzy, bear hugging Drakes beats, and occasionally showing his teeth. Melodically diverse, he slides around in eastern tinged gospel leads, breaking each down into rapid-fire micro tones. Coltrane's late period vision of Sheets of Sound comes to mind, as does Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell's work together (Mu & El Corazón in particular). On first glance an hour of saxophone and drum duets seems like a bit much to take in, but the shear force and musicianship of these two easily keeps this record afloat.
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