RALPH ALESSI - Imaginary Friends
ECM 770 1818
Ralph Alessi (trumpet) Ravi Coltrane (tenor and sopranino saxophones) Andy Milne (piano) Drew Gress (double bass) Mark Ferber (drums)
Recorded May 29th – 31st Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines, France
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For his third ECM album as leader, New York trumpeter Ralph Alessi has assembled a quintet of past compatriots who, at various times, have worked together under the group identity known as `This Against That`. The efficacy of their working relationship is evident in the poise with which they navigate the leader’s nine compositions which range from introspective legato musings to tight motivic clusters that develop through shifts in mood and tempo into intriguing settings for their individual solo voices.
To describe these voices as distinctive is an easy cliché but there really is something quite arresting about the sounds they create which make for a recording that utilises many of the features of ECM’s stock in trade hermeticism and applies them to music pervaded with stateside jazz nous. Alessi’s sound is a case in point: Milesian traits are perceptible but his attenuated high register, sinewy lines, burnished with delicately applied vibrato are all his own and when wedded to Manfred Eicher’s musical philosophy that favours passages of brooding intensity and jewel-like precision we have an amalgam that really lays claims on our attention.
The other ingredients are just as important. Coltrane, with whom Alessi has worked with since their student days, balances the purity and carefully delineated phrasing of the leader’s horn with the warm enunciations of his tenor and contributes solos of real compositional substance whilst pianist Andy Milne brings a gossamer touch minimalism to several of the pieces, including prepared piano sonorities, crafting fascinating ostinatos and tonal effects that bind together the shape shifting nature of Alessi’s compositions.
Of these, the title track is typical of this approach: opening with an eerie arco solo from Drew Gress, the piano comes in with a repeated motif that sounds very much like the alien call signal from the movie `Close Encounters`, followed by the horns which appear as querulous extra -terrestrials emerging into the light. Elsewhere we have `Oxide`, an example of post-modern cool that exudes a brilliant metallic sheen and `Melee` that offers some boundary blurring free-bop alongside more meditative fare; then, for unbridled hedonism, they all let rip on `Fun Room` which opens with a stirring and inventive drum solo leading the horns into a rolling dance over an insistent `Manteca` style vamp.
I’ve no doubt that in the course of the year ahead ECM will produce several fine sessions but I don’t think that many of them will top this release in terms of their ability to deliver fascinatingly variegated content and pure aesthetic satisfaction. My boxes are all well and truly ticked.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
ECM 770 1818
Ralph Alessi (trumpet) Ravi Coltrane (tenor and sopranino saxophones) Andy Milne (piano) Drew Gress (double bass) Mark Ferber (drums)
Recorded May 29th – 31st Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines, France
.
For his third ECM album as leader, New York trumpeter Ralph Alessi has assembled a quintet of past compatriots who, at various times, have worked together under the group identity known as `This Against That`. The efficacy of their working relationship is evident in the poise with which they navigate the leader’s nine compositions which range from introspective legato musings to tight motivic clusters that develop through shifts in mood and tempo into intriguing settings for their individual solo voices.
To describe these voices as distinctive is an easy cliché but there really is something quite arresting about the sounds they create which make for a recording that utilises many of the features of ECM’s stock in trade hermeticism and applies them to music pervaded with stateside jazz nous. Alessi’s sound is a case in point: Milesian traits are perceptible but his attenuated high register, sinewy lines, burnished with delicately applied vibrato are all his own and when wedded to Manfred Eicher’s musical philosophy that favours passages of brooding intensity and jewel-like precision we have an amalgam that really lays claims on our attention.
The other ingredients are just as important. Coltrane, with whom Alessi has worked with since their student days, balances the purity and carefully delineated phrasing of the leader’s horn with the warm enunciations of his tenor and contributes solos of real compositional substance whilst pianist Andy Milne brings a gossamer touch minimalism to several of the pieces, including prepared piano sonorities, crafting fascinating ostinatos and tonal effects that bind together the shape shifting nature of Alessi’s compositions.
Of these, the title track is typical of this approach: opening with an eerie arco solo from Drew Gress, the piano comes in with a repeated motif that sounds very much like the alien call signal from the movie `Close Encounters`, followed by the horns which appear as querulous extra -terrestrials emerging into the light. Elsewhere we have `Oxide`, an example of post-modern cool that exudes a brilliant metallic sheen and `Melee` that offers some boundary blurring free-bop alongside more meditative fare; then, for unbridled hedonism, they all let rip on `Fun Room` which opens with a stirring and inventive drum solo leading the horns into a rolling dance over an insistent `Manteca` style vamp.
I’ve no doubt that in the course of the year ahead ECM will produce several fine sessions but I don’t think that many of them will top this release in terms of their ability to deliver fascinatingly variegated content and pure aesthetic satisfaction. My boxes are all well and truly ticked.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
