Rapid rep

 

Affinity Plays Nine Modern Jazz Classics

(Music & Arts 1994)

Angelika Niescier Quite Simply

(Enja 2011)

There are other whole albums of repertoire to cover, still - and I'll get to them - but in the meantime, why not deal with two very different treatments of numbers from B's creative ensemble books? I say two treatments, but really it's three: they are just found on two different albums, seventeen years apart. One of these, I knew about for years before I eventually got hold of a copy (late last year); the other was completely unknown to me until very recently, and I really only found out about it by accident.

The Affinity album - which has a rather longer title on its front cover - was the first by this quartet, and originally saw release on (what I presume was) Joe Rosenberg's own short-lived label, Creative Context, before being more widely reissued on Music & Arts later the same year. Aside from having one of the most unappealing covers in the entire history of music, the original issue - which bore no album title - misattributed a couple of the tunes played, to the bandleaders who recorded them rather than to the actual composers: thus, Lee Morgan's "Afrique" was credited to Art Blakey (a hugely-influential drummer and leader who probably never wrote anything in his whole storied career), and Curtis Fuller's "Three Blind Mice" to Cedar Walton. The reissue sorts out such troublesome details, as well as providing the album with a title (or two titles, as noted above). Quite what the Ellis Marsalis tune is doing on here, who knows; but it's also not clear at which point it was decided, and by whom, that the album comprised "modern jazz classics". 

I daresay most of the material on here fits the description perfectly well, and of course I'm only too happy to see not one but two of B's pieces on there, taking their place in the wider modern jazz canon. Of the two, you could easily argue that the less adventurous choice is also the less successful: Comp. 40b, much recorded (and continually referenced as secondary/tertiary material by GTM ensembles in particular), is a fairly safe selection... but rather lacks a certain something. The band - with its distinctive twin-sax line-up - tackles the spooky theme well enough, but when this gives way to a bass solo, alarm bells might ring: this is a very odd strategy to employ, and it is all too easy to infer that the two sax players were too nervous to commit themselves. - and that is at least somewhat borne out by the two solos which follow: both  Rosenberg (on soprano) and Rob Sudduth (on tenor) sound a little hesitant, unsure of how to handle themselves on this kind of piece. This is a bit of a shame, because both players have pleasingly expressive tones on their respective axes, and the band generally sounds great on the theme, driven by drummer Bobby Lurie. It also has an unexpectedly brusque, but highly effective ending. But it's pretty easy to conclude that the soloists are rather more comfortable on some of the album's more basic material.

However, album closer Comp. 58 - which on the face of it is a bizarre choice of cover for a quartet: a piece written for creative orchestra, and only previously played by such ensembles - really does enter into the spirit of the music surprisingly well, providing some very adventurous moments from all parties. Inevitably, the main theme sounds a little subdued, being so short of voices, but the bass and drums both get stuck into the march aspect of the music, and when the tessitura reaches its "bent" phase, Sudduth really does go out -while Rosenberg beeps along for good measure. Bassist Richard Saunders is next to cut loose, using the bow to great effect and setting up Rosenberg, so that before the piece is done, all four players have had their chance to mix things up and sound almost equally free. It still seems pretty extraordinary that such a version should even exist - a reading for quartet lasting rather less than five minutes - but this number transcends the limitations of its instrumentation and ends up feeling like a real success, closing off proceedings with a triumphant flourish. It's well worth tracking this down if you're not familiar with it; the band, which has a very sporadic recording history, basically only got together occasionally for these "tribute" projects celebrating different aspects of contemporary jazz-based repertoire, gradually branching out to include their own originals, but their willingness to promote B's music to "standard" status (at a time when most musicians and labels still wouldn't) is heartening, and their enthusiasm comes across infectiously.

***

Polish-born, German-based composer/improviser Angelika Niescier seems to be far better known in Europe than she is in English-speaking territories. I didn't come across her myself until 2019, when I heard a pair of her small-group dates for (Swiss label) Intakt: The Berlin Concert, with Christopher Tordini and Tyshawn Sorey, and New York Trio (with Tordini, Gerald Cleaver - and Jonathan Finlayson, even though this is mysteriously still billed as a "trio"). I was quickly persuaded of the leader's all-round technical facility and of her confidence to move in such fast company; but I must admit that I did then rather forget about her until more recently. (Like I say, she's not especially well known outside mainland Europe - for whatever reason. In Germany, she is very highly regarded and gets plenty of exposure: way back in 2008, she was the first Improviser in Residence at the Moers Festival, and ever since then she has been both well recorded and sought out for festival appearances. Youtube furnishes plenty of examples, including this excellent trio performance from 2022's Cologne Jazzweek with Tomeka Reid, one of Niescier's successors as a resident improviser at Moers.)

Quite by accident, then, I recently came across the altoist's 2011 album Quite Simply, with bassist Thomas Morgan and (for the first time I think) drum wizard Tyshawn Sorey. A search for Braxton amongst the items a particular Discogs seller was listing for sale had unexpectedly revealed this, which I then discovered contains a version of Comp. 69(o). [This reminds me of just how reliant we friendly experiencers were on the Restructures discography, which somehow managed to keep track not just of B's own releases, but of every cover version recorded by anybody. How many recordings from 2011 onwards might we have missed?] I ended up buying a copy of the album, largely in order to have this track. (I was happy to acquire something by this leader anyway - and I'm always content to hear more recordings by Sorey, who for a while back there was pretty much the most in-demand player on the entire creative music scene.)

Once again, the meditative 69(o) seems a rather unusual choice for a cover, especially in a trio setting where the leader's alto is the only single-line instrument. The piece was originally recorded in 1983, for B's first small-group date with Gerry Hemingway; and it became something of a live staple for the "Forces quartet" later, being played both at Willisau in 1991 and at Santa Cruz in 1993. For the studio version, B's contemplative alto lines were shadowed by George Lewis, and although this aspect of the arrangement is missing from the later live readings, the presence of the piano still adds a further dimension to the soundscape which is entirely missing in Niescier's spare trio rendition. Still, you could argue that it shows daring just to take on such an atmospheric, unostentatious piece in the first place; having established her technical credentials already, the sax player here shows a willingness to examine subtler, deeper textures and territories. Doubtless she also knew that in Sorey, she had a natural playing partner for this kind of material; and his cymbals in particular provide a very similar hypnotic backdrop to that laid down by Hemingway almost three decades earlier. In the second half of their reading, with the written elements of the score already dealt with and all attacks under a microscope, as it were, we get a really close look at the trio's skills with profound material and they basically pass with flying colours. It will never be regarded as one of the more noteworthy covers of B's repertoire, I don't suppose; but it is a fascinating choice, from a leader who deserves to be much better known in the anglosphere.

And that, for now, is that. Did I really get through a whole post without a single footnote? Looks like it, yes ;-)