Briggan Krauss : "300"

(Knitting Factory, 1998)

Immerse head in big bucket of New York downtown saxophone skronk. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. That's kind of what listening to Briggan Krauss' 300 is like. Krauss is a bit of a madman on the alto saxophone, even by the standards of the downtown scene, which — after all — is not populated by a bunch of shrinking violets. Leading this two-session recording with keyboardist Wayne Horvitz and drummer Kenny Wollesen, Krauss is positively unhinged a good deal of the time; most of his work with groups like Babkas, Pigpen, Sex Mob, and even the Andrea Parkins Trio (which also features Wollesen) is comparably restrained. He cuts loose with scalar runs that permute into screams, wails, and gravel-voiced roars — as well as mews, sputters, flutters, and burrs that seem to mimic a variety of fantasy forest creatures (or bizarro aquatic denizens, as in "Sea Monster"). On the DX-7, Horvitz unleashes his own assault of funkified synth distortion, while the always inventive Wollesen contributes everything from wild thrashings to subtle colorations to spot-on delivery of the rhythmic pulse. 300 moves through sometimes wrenching mood shifts from one piece to the next: Horvitz's "Bingo," an understated piano and saxophone duet with a lovely melody, is followed by the sheer hysteria of "Some Woman's Strange Laugh," with its flurry of low-register sax notes followed by a high-pitched downward glissing squeal, over and over again (that's some laugh all right). Most of the tunes are improvised by the band, and a third are composed by either Krauss or Horvitz. Scored or not, many of the pieces are like sonic snapshots rather than extended-form cinematic excursions; Krauss and his bandmates don't usually roam far afield from the beginning to the end of a tune, choosing instead to discover and fool around a while with particular (sometimes lunatic) ideas that will either tickle or drill into your ears, and then abandon them before they've worn out their welcome. Krauss does actually display a sensible streak, at least knowing how long to push his repetitions before they get too bonkers, unless of course getting bonkers is the point. Then after working up a thick lather, Krauss will rinse it all away with a touch of simplicity and beauty — before dumping the crazy stuff all over your head again. And when you step out of his shower of saxophone squeals, your ears will be squeaky clean.

Dave Lynch (All Music)

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Andrea Parkins : "Slippage"

(Knitting Factory, 1996)

Multi-Instrumentalist/composer Andrea Parkins plays a significant role within the adventurous, often cutting edge New York City Downtown scene. Here, along with fellow New York Downtown constituents, Kenny Wolleson (d) and Briggan Krauss (saxes), Parkins continues her unique conceptual approaches with the follow up to her previous Knitting Factory release “Cast Iron Fact”.
On “Slippage”, Parkins pays a bit more attention to compositional and thematic development in contrast to “Cast Iron Fact” which dealt more with “free” improvisation and placed more emphasis on abstractions, disparate sounds and unorthodox voicings. An interesting approach, which worked well; however, Parkins and company seem to convey a bit more self-assurance and focus on this new release. “Slippage” does not forgo the exploratory dialogue and improvisational techniques utilized in “Cast Iron Fact”; however, the compositions are slightly more structured and attain a richer balance of continuity and direction. Ultimately, the overall flow fares well on this project.
The opener, “Remarkable Spectacle of a Frozen Cataract” features Ms. Parkins on sampler and piano. The music is fitting for such a bizarre notion of witnessing a frozen cataract and sounds menacing or perhaps even scientific. “Local Cosmography” is at times surrealistic as Parkins utilizes her sampler to invoke circus-like themes. The title cut “Slippage” is a free jazz piece where Parkins’ piano work treads waters that touch on Cecil Taylor and features creative and spunky dialogue with saxophonist Briggan Krauss. Kenny Wolleson’s drumming fills in the gaps and generates off meter tempos to offset the conversational motifs between Parkins and Krauss. “Beautiful Animal” features Krauss’ furious clarinet work as he paints a vivid picture to coincide with Parkins’ brief fragmented statements on the piano. The overall tone of this composition appears to mimic a chamber-esque like environment as the recurring theme provides the foundation for otherworldly forays into meaningful yet rampant dialogue. On “Early TV”, Parkins picks up the accordion as this tune summons imagery of TV pioneer and funnyman Milton Berle’s goofy slapstick routines or the comedic banter of Sid Caesar. “Early TV” is a gas! The playful nature hints at comedic TV in the 1950’s as Parkins explodes with gobs of imagery and clearly engages her innermost thoughts and creative wherewithal. Here, the movements segue into a fantastic ambient-electronic interlude, which could draw some comparisons to some of the well-known Germanic gods of electronica ala Cluster or Peter Namlook. Here, the band deterministically portray the increasing presence of Television in our lives, as Wolleson moves forward with a straight-four style backbeat. The main theme resurfaces and serves as the finale or coda. “Lost Lure” is a hard-edged rocker as Krauss shows commanding presence with his baritone sax. Parkins goes it alone on the solo piano piece titled “Capture” complete with huge block chords, thematic developments that hit you in spurts and an overall inquisitive style of play as detected by the linear voicings in her compositional evolution. The final track, “Story Of An Eye” (you have to love these titles) features more sampler articulations that once again straddle a quasi ambient-electronic feel, complete with firm backbeats and Parkins subtle accordion maneuvers which adds a dash of nuance.
Andrea Parkins hits the mark with Slippage as she mirrors concepts and styles that may seem familiar yet her patented artistic voice serves as the focal point and the results are imminently rewarding. Also, Ms. Parkins reaps numerous benefits from her equally gifted peers, Briggan Krauss and Kenny Wollesen.

Glenn Astarita (All Music)

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Kenny Wollesen + Danny Frankel : "Balloon drum duets"

(Sound of Skin, 2004)

Addi Somekh is recognized as one of the most innovative, prolific and well-traveled balloon artists in the world today. A self-taught balloon twister, his style incorporates improvisation, abstract design, and comic delivery, culminating in custom-made headdresses that have an uncanny ability to reflect the wearer’s personality.
In the spring of 2004, Addi made 50 different balloon drums and then invited two of his favorite drummers to record a set of improvised duets : a much in-demand session drummer, Los Angeles–based Danny Frankel has recorded with the likes of Fiona Apple, Bebel Gilberto, and Lou Reed. He is also a regular member of KD Lang’s ensemble as well as the Dakah Hip Hip Orchestra. Danny is particularly renowned for his bongo playing. In addition to his recurring road gigs with Steven Bernstein’s Sex Mob, Bill Frisell, and John Zorn’s Electric Masada, Kenny Wollesen has recorded with Norah Jones and Tom Waits. He also leads his own sextet, The Wollesens.
Although Danny and Kenny had known one another for nearly 20 years, they hadn’t played together before teaming to record the Balloon Drum Album. Explains Kenny: “The balloon drums have so many different types of sounds that we were learning how to play them as we were recording. So it was a really fun and challenging musical conversation.”“Kenny has such great energy,” says Danny. “We never even talked about what we were going to play. We just started playing, and it was like ESP.”

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Trevor Dunn's trio-convulsant : "Debutantes & centipedes"

(Buzz, 1998)

San Francisco Bay Area bassist Trevor Dunn gets around. Dunn has worked with a vast array of such diverse artists as the Kronos Quartet, Tom Waits, Ben Goldberg, Wayne Horvitz, Mike Patton and Buzz Osbourne of the the slash and burn rock band, The Melvins. Dunn is also a co-founder of the avant-rock band Mr. Bungle. As one might detect from his broad resume, Dunn is equally at home playing Rock, Free Jazz or disciplined Chamber-esque charts. Here, with his “Trio Convulsant” Dunn provides a glimpse or two of his diverse musical talents which includes pieces that perhaps disclose his sophisticated mindset towards compositional approach. Along with the electrifying session guitarist Adam Levy and New York City Downtown Scene Drummer Kenny Wolleson, “Debutantes & Centipedes” is unconventional yet for the most part is gregarious, arousing and slightly tempestuous.
“Perfumed With Crime” melds jazz-swing with loud grunge type guitar chords. Eventually matters settle down as Dunn and Levy become almost sheepishly conversational through their respective instruments. Dunn’s acoustic bass has a deep resonant wooden sound and there’s no doubt about his technical gifts. Moments of free improvisation, swing and death metal intermingle on the explosive “An Attempt At Jealousy” yet the brief moments of bombast eventually give way to serious dialogue. Kenny Wolleson covers the full spectrum of drumming and proves why he is such an in demand session musician within the “new” jazz scene. On “Ann-Margret” The boys partake in a manic, hard-core free-style romp. Adam Levy twists his guitar into knots aided and abetted by distortion-fuzz-wah-wah techniques and implementations. Again, as in most of these tracks the themes resurface in various forms and at times the Trio re-work these motifs into call and response settings and pursue dialogue which is insightful and quite interactive. “Premonitions” commences with an intentionally slow yet effective drag beat. Dunn continues to be inventive with proficient and skillful bass maneuvers. More dynamics from Levy and Dunn coalesce into interludes that may suggest mystical or spiritual reckoning. These fellows are definitely on to something here. “Echidna” features modern jazz motifs as Dunn shows amazing dexterity with more fleet fingered bass work. Levy shreds his guitar to bits with fast single note runs and “nasty” hard-edged chord progressions. The proceedings wind down as the boys take a well-deserved break via a slow ballad titled, “Aromatherapy”.
Comparisons? A difficult proposition for sure. “Debutantes & Centipedes” is sure to delight advocates of the New York City Downtown and San Francisco Bay Area scenes where “new” music is at the forefront defying stereotypes and classifications. Trio-Convulsant blend free and mainstream jazz, sub culture grunge rock or at times heavy metal as the overabundance of innovative ideas and impeccable musicianship makes this alliance a triumphant success.

Glenn Astarita (All About Jazz)

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J.A. Granelli & Mr Lucky : "El oh el ay"

(Love Slave, 2001)

Bassist J.A. Granelli (the son of drummer Jerry Granelli) named this band after a Henry Mancini song, "Mr. Lucky," a dark-hued version of which appears here. The eclectic quartet boasts some of the leading lights of New York's avant-garde scene: David Tronzo on slide guitar, Jamie Saft on organ, Kenny Wolleson on drums. (Granelli plays the unusual piccolo bass on a couple of tracks.) They make adventurous music together, getting off to a playful start with a ghoulish, cajun-tinged reading of "Whatever Lola Wants," from the show Damn Yankees. Often they wholeheartedly embrace a backbeat, even nodding unabashedly toward funk and rock on tracks like "Tronz," "Karnish," and Charlie Parker's "Red Cross." Granelli's melodic gift comes to the fore on originals like "Crawl," "Lane" (with Bob Hoffnar guesting on pedal steel), and the highly abstract "El Leo Nora." Quirky and even a bit freakish, yet quite accessible.

David R. Adler (All Music)

Here's a concisely arranged, quaint and slightly off-kilter effort from a crew of New York City musicians who generally shun the straight and narrow. Organist Jamie Shaft commences the opener, "Whatever Lola Wants," with an eerie, low-pitched groove followed by David Tronzo's wily slide guitar ruminations. The band continues to meld laid back, funk vibes with country blues and rock backbeats on many of these works. Saft's haunting organ motif serves as the underpinning for Tronzo's dreamy guitar and the group's altogether sullen soundscapes created on "Crawl." However, drummer Kenny Wollesen drags the pulse with his brushes while Tronzo consummates "Lane" with a Nashville flavor with his wistful pedal steel guitar work.
The musicians chart a course of quirkily fabricated themes and whispery choruses, although they provide an edge largely due to their unorthodox voicings and intermittent injections of humor and wit. They finalize the recording with a cacophonous, free improv fest on "Figure 1." Overall, El Oh El Ay is a fun outing, as the respective artists' distinct musical personalities provide that winning formula.

Glenn Astarita (All About Jazz)

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Louie Belogenis + Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz + Kenny Wollesen = Unbroken

(Tick Tock, 2005)

Tenor saxophonist Louie Belogenis traces his roots to Coltrane and Ayler explicitly, having recorded as a duo with drummer Rashied Ali and in Prima Materia, a band led by Ali that has recorded album-long interpretations of Meditations and Bells. His agenda is the same (transcendence) and his vocabulary is similar (ecstatic), but Belogenis builds to his explosions, rather than exploding right out of the box. In this respect, he resembles Pharoah Sanders most. Backed by bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz and drummer Kenny Wollesen, the rhythm section frequently establishes modal grooves and repeated bass vamps that induce a mild hypnosis before Belogenis’ tenor smears away the pleasantry. Blumenkranz and Wollesen shake bells and tick and chime like a grandfather clock while Belogenis’ tone is alternately hoarse and whispery, high-pitched and urgent and smooth and mystical, with a touch of vibrato. Belogenis has been a sideman for too long: his outstanding trio proves they can play in a tradition established by rarified company.

Jeff Stockton (All About Jazz)

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Doug Wieselman + Jane Scarpantoni + Kenny Wollesen = Trio S

(Zitherine, 2002)

Between them, clarinettist Doug Wieselman, 'cellist Jane Scarpantoni and drummer Kenny Wollesen have played with nearly everyone who has set foot on a New York stage in the last ten years. But while it would be hard to predict exactly what a collaboration between these protean session musicians might sound like - their credits include Ellery Eskelin, John Zorn, The Kamikaze Ground Crew, Patti Smith and the Beastie Boys - the self-titled debut from this trio still comes as a surprise. The disc is a collection of low key sound paintings about water composed by bandleader Wieselman.
Unlike say, Charles Hayward's many water - themed songs, which conjure up images of groaning decks and stormy nighttime seas, the music of Trio S - as the cool blue washes of the cover watercolour suggest - is the very image of placidity. According to Wieselman, the predominantly accoustic, instrumental pieces "come from perceived melodies form water sources", a phenonmenon that " is barely audible but can be heard undere th right circumstances". Accordingly, most of the music was inspired by the "melodies" of specific bodies of water: a beach off Majorca, the Kamogawa river in Kyoto, the confluence of two streams in Washington state.
Whether you've been to these particular places or not the group's beautifully languid performances evoke their subject remakably well. And, as with most good sound paintings, the music tends to cohere as an indivisible thing that's haard to think of as a 'performance'. Picking out the sounds of individual instruments is almost beside the point. Nevertheless, the playing here is gently brilliant, with melodies hinted at rather than trumpeted, and development moving at a flowing, leisurely pace.
Metallics are used sparingly, with Wollesen generally emplaying hand-percussion and shakers rather than trap drums, and soft mallets rather than drumsticks. With typical modesty, the major 'work' of the collection, the eight - movement composition "Anthony's River" (based on a simple melodic fragment that came to Wieselman in a dream) clocks in at just under ten minutes. This music can work its way into your subconscious to the point where you almost forget you're listening to it.

Dave Mandl (Wire)

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Kamikaze Ground Crew : "Covers"

(Koch Jazz, 1999)

At the rate Kamikaze Ground Crew cranks out albums, we can expect the all-star band's next pit stop around 2006. That's OK, because there's enough musical and emotional content under these Covers to fuel high-altitude listening for years to come. Originally organized to accompany the acrobatic antics of the Flying Karamozov Brothers, KGC recroded its first LP in 1985. Before Covers the rambunctious septet had produces only two other cds, 1990's The Scenic Route and 1993's Madam Marie's Temple of Knowledge. In the meantime, the personnel has shifted about original members Gina Leishman (accordion, saxes, bass clarinet, Hammond organ, vocals) , Doug Wieselman (clarinets, saxes, electric guitar, balalaika, Hammond Organ), and Steven Bernstein (trumpet, slide trumpet). Since the last outing, tenor and soprano saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum has returned (replacing Ralph Carney), and trombonist Art Baron, Tuba player Marcus Rojas, and drummer Kenny Wollesen have come on board.
Whereas previous KGC recordings featured mostly original Leishman and Wieselman compositions, Covers showcases the brilliant way they and Bernstien arrange other people's material. Opening with a dreamy version of a pop tune from Bhutan, Covers turns pieces by Stockhausen, Hendrix ('Electric Ladyland"), Satie, Huey "Piano" Smith ( "Blow Wind Blow" and "Rockin' Pneumonia" ), Eisler and Brecht, and Los Lobos' David Hidalgo into vehicles for extended collective gliding and individual soaring, consistent with the idiosyncratic interpretive styles of other bands that have feartured the players, such as the Lounge Lizards, Spanish Fly, Sex Mob, Heiroglyphics Ensemble and the Carla Bley big band. A hybrid of jazz , modern classical, rock, avant-cabaret, and New Orleans R&B, KGC's music yields pleasure on its own terms, much like that of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Mothers of Invention, or Willem Breuker Kollektief, its bent but beautiful structures providing cover from the mainstream culture's hail of mediocrity.

Derk Richardson

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Kenny Wollesen + Ben Goldberg : "The relative value of things"

(33 1/4 Records, 1992)

"Kenny and I recorded this in my living room with Jeff Cressman at the controls. I think it at least partly reflects Kenny's beautiful homemade philosophy. Kenny designed the actual packaging as well as the cover images and it was printed at his mother's printshop. The title is from Robert Henri's The Art Spirit, a book introduced to me by my brother Adam that had a deep effect on many of us at the time".

Ben Goldberg

On the surface, it might not seem like such a good idea, putting a duet session together between a clarinetist and a drummer. But that's the lovely thing about ideas often we are surprised at how wrong we are. This is a gorgeous little date between two of the downtown scene's most singing and adaptable personages. Here is a program of gently swinging originals and jazz nuggets that offer a startling view of all the tonal possibilities offered by such a stripped down pairing. Most notable are the Monk tunes, which lend themselves to almost any instrumental configuration but are seldom played correctly. Here, "Light Blue" and "Children's Song" are given the royal harmonic-bending treatment by creating Monk's rhythmic bass in the kit and his melodic and harmonic invention in Goldberg's single lines of shifting rhythmic length and texture. Goldberg's use of Monk's deceptively simple lyric line is anchored in a near contrapuntal harmonic one, so that as one element of the tune articulates itself, another complements and eventually undoes it to the point of extension. Meanwhile, Wollesen focuses on the syncopated accents and draws them out with small flourishes on the cymbals and snare fills to keep them anchored in time. Also groovy is the duo's reading of Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts." What's amazing here is that Goldberg takes the original melody, without changing a note, only it's key and time signature, and makes it a near klezmer tune. The wild thing is that nothing sounds rushed or forced; it comes flying out of his clarinet like an old dance tune dusted off and put to use by the jazzers. Wollesen here has a running left hand tapping out the ride cymbal while using the other to syncopate the snare with a tom tom flare up once in a while. Amazing.

Thom Jurek (All Music)

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