Tim Berne + Hank Roberts : "Cause & reflect"

(Level Green)

What would you make of a 1998 meeting between longtime vanguard jazz buddies like saxophonist Time Berne and cellist Hank Roberts? It'd be a skronk-fest, right? Wrong. This gorgeous duet album between Berne and Roberts explores improvisation to be sure, but more than that it picks up where their phenomenal collaboration left off in the early '90s. Cause & Effect explores the limits of compositional structure, as well as exploring their expansion via dynamics, phrasing, tonal equations, harmonic extrapolations, modular architectures, and intervallic episodes. Is it jazz? Yes, and much more; this is a dialogue, so symbiotic as to be almost uncomfortable. This pair can delve into the instinctual vibe so deeply that they surprise one another by predicting what the other will play. These written-out sketches offer the framework for one tonal or modal idea that can be expressed in numerous ways before being drafted out and stretched to the contrapuntal and harmonic limits before they have to give way to something else, which is as anguishing as it is breathtaking. The notion is that neither man wants to exhausts the inherent improvising capabilities inside a particular architecture. The absolutely wrenching "More Than One Dance" is one example, and "In Other Worlds" is another. That's not to say there isn't humor here. Berne's too loopy to leave it totally out: "Showdown!," with its striking western motif, and "Invasion of the Freudian Shrimp," with its nod to Wagner at the circus, is another. In all, this is a pure delight, and leaves listeners wanting to hear as much of this fruitful collaboration in the future as we have in the past.

Thom Jurek (All Music)

HERE

Hank Roberts trio : "I'll always remember"

(Level Green)

A trio outing recorded with bassist Peter Chwazik and drummer Bill King, "I'll Always Remember" is another worthwhile addition to the Hank Roberts catalog; intuitively fusing jazz, prog-rock, classical and avant-garde sounds, the music defies easy categorization, with Roberts' original compositions (like the excellent "Living Bicycles/Jersey Devil") as well as the group's improvisational pieces infused with real energy.

Jason Ankeny (All Music)

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Phil Haynes & Free Country

(Premonition, 2000)

On Gordon Bok’s “Rosin The Beau”, the great cellist Hank Roberts performs vocal harmonies with his earthy and wooden toned Cello lines as guitarist Jim Yanda kicks the proceedings into an affable all acoustic jazz motif. This and other imaginative renditions of Stephen Foster’s “Oh Susannah”, “Beautiful Dreamer” along with American traditionals such as “She ’ll Be Coming Down The Mountain” and “Shenandoah” comprise some of the 13 pieces on drummer Phil Haynes ambitious and thoroughly refreshing new release titled, Phil Haynes & Free Country.
Phil Haynes is a well-known drummer who has performed with the creme de la creme of modern jazz stylists such as saxophonists Ellery Eskelin, Gebhard Ullmann and many others too numerous in scope to cite here. Along with fellow New York City Downtown/modern jazz musicians - bassist Drew Gress, cellist Hank Roberts and acoustic steel string guitarist Jim Yanda, “Free Country” fuses grassroots Americana with hip, upbeat arrangements that toggle jazz, bluegrass and country. Wonderfully recorded direct-to-stereo, sans amplification Haynes and his cohorts extend or in some situations parallel concepts actualized by guitarist Bill Frisell with his recent forays into Country & Western and Bluegrass.
Sterling resonance and soulful interplay witnessed on “Old Joe Clark” serves as a prime example of the striking sonic characteristics of this recording as Gress’ heavy and explicit bass lines in tandem with Haynes’ equally wooden toned drums emit a gorgeously radiant environment. Throughout, Haynes & Free Country breathe new life into American heritage and traditionalism with this joyous and to a greater extent, ingenious and immaculately executed outing.

Glenn Astarita (All About Jazz)

"When I first performed with cellist Hank Roberts on Andy Laster’s CD Twirler, I thought how Hank’s Appalachian barn dance roots - performing bluegrass with his fiddling grandfather - would be a perfect match with guitarist Jim Yanda’s Iowa-grown country & western dance hall beginnings. A few years later, my good friend Christian Kvech said “Why don’t you get a string band together to play all of that old pre-1900 American Folk music you wanted to arrange for 4 Horns & What? It might very well gain a wider ‘non-jazz’ audience and become a popular success.” At that moment, Free Country was born.
Either Hank Roberts or Jim Yanda should have put this band together for themselves as it is a unique expression of their earliest musical influences. My leading role here as a producer, arranger, and drumming “sideman” in this romantic context creates a “looking glass” at our American roots, as well as our future. How could the “NPR crowd” resist?"

Phil Haynes

HERE

Andy Laster : "Twirler"

(Sound Aspects, 1990)

Alto/baritone saxophonist and composer Andy Laster was born in 1961, grew up on Long Island, and studied jazz at Seattle's Cornish Institute before moving to New York City in 1985. His first recording, "Hippo Stomp," appeared on the Sound Aspects label in 1989. This album was followed by two more Sound Aspects releases, Twirler (1990) and the first eponymously named CD by Hydra (1994), one of Laster's key ongoing projects. During the 1990s Laster emerged as a unique and significant voice on the so-called "New York downtown music scene" that has also served as a launching pad for musicians like Dave Douglas, Tim Berne and John Zorn. In 1995 the Songlines label released Polyogue, the second Hydra recording; next came another Songlines CD by Laster's Interpretations of Lessness Band in 1997. Soft Shell followed three years later. While leading these two groups Laster also appeared in collaborative ensembles Orange Then Blue and New and Used, as well as Erik Friedlander's Topaz; the Julius Hemphill Sextet; the Pink Noise Saxophone Quartet; Bobby Previte's Weather Clear, Track Fast; and Ballin' the Jack. He has also performed with Mark Helias, Hank Roberts' Birds of Prey and Lyle Lovett. Laster has developed a unique compositional style that often draws from techniques employed in modern classical chamber music, with highly scored passages that serve as a backdrop for or intertwine with soloists. While often complex, the music is also spacious, rhythmically open and expressive, with considerable appeal to fans of well-executed contemporary jazz and creative improvisation.

Dave Lynch (Allmusic)

nb : there is a hidden (or bonus) track not mentioned on the cd : track 8 = "Lyleland" !

HERE

Christy Doran's Phoenix'

(Hat Hut, 1990)

Irish-born, Swiss-bred, Christy Doran is among the least heard — in the U.S. at least — yet most innovative guitarists on either side of the Atlantic. His many bands and guitar duos have taken to stages across the globe as either a collaborator or a sideman. But this date, in a sense, is all his. These very intimate, and often humorous, duo improvisations with a host of innovative musicians create a gem of an album, one that features a stunning array of musical styles and expressions, yet all characterized by the singular, disciplined talent of Doran. On "Beyond Words," Doran and Marty Ehrlich move through a short, slippery Delta-styled blues into an off-Basie jazz mode where Doran's guitar dictates interval and Ehrlich claims the mode. They don't sweep around each other so much as play through the itinerant voicings created by the microtonalities of each instrument — and swing on top of it! On "The Warm Up," Doran and Ray Anderson slide through bebop phraseology toward frenetic harmonics based on major and augmented chords. Anderson strikes out first with lines that quote both J.J. Johnson and Curtis Fuller as Doran trades him a Frippian counterpoint — and via a delay box, plays double counterpoint to his own guitar! "Spiral" with Urs Leimgruber is the monolith on this set. Fifteen-plus minutes of guttural groans, shifting timbres, collapsing overtones, and shimmering harmonics whipped into a spacey intensity that is almost unbearable. Leimgruber is a fiery soprano player. He's sophisticated, inventive, and passionate. Doran's sounds here create an ominous orchestral tension as Leimgruber ghosts his way through in mournful phrases and sonant moans. Hank Roberts' cello is as painterly as Doran's guitar. Sound upon sound, textured ambiences, and chorale lines emanate from both of them on "Song for Sonny." Hendrixian feedback and droning melodies carry the two through each other's voices, creating an openness of intervallic wonder and delight. Doran's Phoenix is an astounding showcase of the colors, textures, tones, and diverse abilities of one of the world's most original guitarists.

Thom Jurek (All Music)

HERE