VWCR - Noise Of Our Time
Intakt CD 310
Ken Vandermark: saxophone, clarinet; Nate Wooley: trumpet; Sylvie Courvoisier: piano; Tom Rainey: drums.
Recorded 17th August 2017 by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Studios, Mount Vernon, New York.
This is a powerful, genre-defining set of free jazz by some of the most significant players on the International scene today. In part, this justifies the title of the collection. The group also want to emphasise how individual activity can be harnessed to a collective purpose – showing how a respect for individual freedom can coexist with a democratic and shared vision and counter the grating clamour of populism in contemporary politics. So, the ‘noise of our time’ might also be something that, musically, the quartet is seeking to reflect and challenge. As a quartet, they met for the first time a year before this was recorded (while Vandermark was resident at John Zorn’s The Stone club) and the recording was completed in the space of a four hours on the day before the quartet played a live gig (is it too much to hope that the live gig finds its way to vinyl?). Of course, it is not that these players are unfamiliar to each other. Vandermark and Wooley plays in the Shelter quartet, Courvoisier and Rainey have frequently collaborated, and Courvoisier plays a pivotal role on Wooley’s Battle Pieces project. However, this would not guarantee that the various intersections would reassemble into a coherent whole.
So, it is an absolute joy and delight to hear not only that there is coherence in the playing but also that there are moments of pure genius in the interplay between musicians. The set consists of three compositions each from Vandermark, Courvoisier and Wooley that move from frenetic bursts, particularly on the opening ‘Checkpoint’ and ‘VCWR’ (track 7) – both from Courvoisier, Vandermark’s ‘Tag’ (track 5), or Wooley’s ‘Truth about mass individuation’ (track 8), to Wooley’s ambient tone poems (‘The space between the teeth’, track 4, and ‘Songs of innocence’, track 6), and the shimmering, ballad-like serenity of Vandermark’s ‘Simple cut’ (track 9). Courvoisier once again shows that she has inherited Cecil Taylor’s crown, with her wonderful bustling, percussive piano sound, but she tempers this with a marvellously rich harmonic sensibility that is often absent in free-jazz pianists. Vandermark’s reeds and Wooley’s trumpet evoke a panoply of free jazz styles from the late 1960s to the present, while keeping their own unique and idiosyncratic styles. Rainey’s intelligent and resourceful drumming provides lead and support in equal measure.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Intakt CD 310
Ken Vandermark: saxophone, clarinet; Nate Wooley: trumpet; Sylvie Courvoisier: piano; Tom Rainey: drums.
Recorded 17th August 2017 by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Studios, Mount Vernon, New York.
This is a powerful, genre-defining set of free jazz by some of the most significant players on the International scene today. In part, this justifies the title of the collection. The group also want to emphasise how individual activity can be harnessed to a collective purpose – showing how a respect for individual freedom can coexist with a democratic and shared vision and counter the grating clamour of populism in contemporary politics. So, the ‘noise of our time’ might also be something that, musically, the quartet is seeking to reflect and challenge. As a quartet, they met for the first time a year before this was recorded (while Vandermark was resident at John Zorn’s The Stone club) and the recording was completed in the space of a four hours on the day before the quartet played a live gig (is it too much to hope that the live gig finds its way to vinyl?). Of course, it is not that these players are unfamiliar to each other. Vandermark and Wooley plays in the Shelter quartet, Courvoisier and Rainey have frequently collaborated, and Courvoisier plays a pivotal role on Wooley’s Battle Pieces project. However, this would not guarantee that the various intersections would reassemble into a coherent whole.
So, it is an absolute joy and delight to hear not only that there is coherence in the playing but also that there are moments of pure genius in the interplay between musicians. The set consists of three compositions each from Vandermark, Courvoisier and Wooley that move from frenetic bursts, particularly on the opening ‘Checkpoint’ and ‘VCWR’ (track 7) – both from Courvoisier, Vandermark’s ‘Tag’ (track 5), or Wooley’s ‘Truth about mass individuation’ (track 8), to Wooley’s ambient tone poems (‘The space between the teeth’, track 4, and ‘Songs of innocence’, track 6), and the shimmering, ballad-like serenity of Vandermark’s ‘Simple cut’ (track 9). Courvoisier once again shows that she has inherited Cecil Taylor’s crown, with her wonderful bustling, percussive piano sound, but she tempers this with a marvellously rich harmonic sensibility that is often absent in free-jazz pianists. Vandermark’s reeds and Wooley’s trumpet evoke a panoply of free jazz styles from the late 1960s to the present, while keeping their own unique and idiosyncratic styles. Rainey’s intelligent and resourceful drumming provides lead and support in equal measure.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
