TOM RAINEY OBBLIGATO - Float Upstream
Intakt CD292
Tom Rainey: drums; Ralph Alessi: trumpet; Ingrid Laubrock: saxophones; Kris Davis: piano; Drew Gress: bass.
Recorded January 19th 2017, Brooklyn Recording, New York.
It is easy to imagine, given the provenance of the personnel of this CD, that improv is all about pushing boundaries. However, sometimes it is about finding the unusual, the unheard and unexpected in very familiar settings. On this their second outing the Obbligato quintet continue their explorations of ‘free playing in a Standards context’ through collective playing and improvising on Standards. The Standards used here include ‘Stella by Starlight’, ‘What is this thing called love’, ‘There is no greater love’, ‘I fall in love too easily’… and I promise you that each of these is played here in ways that manage to be both familiar and disorientingly different. What I really liked is that way in which the group does not resort to some of the more common ‘tricks’ in the free improv canon – so no squawks, blurs or bleats here (or not too many) but rather a straight-playing of the tunes and chords with enough disjuncture to shift your perspective as you listen. There is almost the magician’s sleight-of-hand in what is happening because, on each piece, you are someway into familiar territory before you realise that things are changed quite radically. Each of the pieces was selected because all the band members liked them and could play them by heart. What this brings is an individual understanding of the nuances of each piece that is then developed through collective improvisation. Each player works to subtle differences in tempo and phrasing, so that rhythmically and harmonically the pieces gently unravel (without completely coming apart) before one of the players picks up the solo spot and re-centres the piece. The only original in the set is composition by Rainey, with a title taken from a line in a Beatles song, in which he sketched the framework for the musicians to work within.
In the liner notes, Christian Broecking perceptively observes that “Every decade or so of the last century would see a movement of like-minded musicians challenging each other to create slightly different approach to improvising with one another.” On this set, we have some of New York’s finest players collaborating on an approach to improvisation that works through a quintet finding the delicate balance between the chords and melody of well-known tunes and the challenge of creating new readings of these. That the tunes were recorded in a single day gives a spontaneity and freshness to the playing.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Intakt CD292
Tom Rainey: drums; Ralph Alessi: trumpet; Ingrid Laubrock: saxophones; Kris Davis: piano; Drew Gress: bass.
Recorded January 19th 2017, Brooklyn Recording, New York.
It is easy to imagine, given the provenance of the personnel of this CD, that improv is all about pushing boundaries. However, sometimes it is about finding the unusual, the unheard and unexpected in very familiar settings. On this their second outing the Obbligato quintet continue their explorations of ‘free playing in a Standards context’ through collective playing and improvising on Standards. The Standards used here include ‘Stella by Starlight’, ‘What is this thing called love’, ‘There is no greater love’, ‘I fall in love too easily’… and I promise you that each of these is played here in ways that manage to be both familiar and disorientingly different. What I really liked is that way in which the group does not resort to some of the more common ‘tricks’ in the free improv canon – so no squawks, blurs or bleats here (or not too many) but rather a straight-playing of the tunes and chords with enough disjuncture to shift your perspective as you listen. There is almost the magician’s sleight-of-hand in what is happening because, on each piece, you are someway into familiar territory before you realise that things are changed quite radically. Each of the pieces was selected because all the band members liked them and could play them by heart. What this brings is an individual understanding of the nuances of each piece that is then developed through collective improvisation. Each player works to subtle differences in tempo and phrasing, so that rhythmically and harmonically the pieces gently unravel (without completely coming apart) before one of the players picks up the solo spot and re-centres the piece. The only original in the set is composition by Rainey, with a title taken from a line in a Beatles song, in which he sketched the framework for the musicians to work within.
In the liner notes, Christian Broecking perceptively observes that “Every decade or so of the last century would see a movement of like-minded musicians challenging each other to create slightly different approach to improvising with one another.” On this set, we have some of New York’s finest players collaborating on an approach to improvisation that works through a quintet finding the delicate balance between the chords and melody of well-known tunes and the challenge of creating new readings of these. That the tunes were recorded in a single day gives a spontaneity and freshness to the playing.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
