Signs of Life with Jack Wright
For
Adventurous Eardrums
Jack Wright and his
hair.
Jack Wright - alto saxophone, Bhob Rainey - soprano saxophone, Matt Ingalls - clarinet, Tom Djll - trumpet, whatever
- New to improvised music? May we recommend you check out A Far-Too-Brief Rundown of Freely Improvised Music before reading on....
ack Wright is probably the
best-known unheard of musician in improvised music. Improvisation has
been his musical territory of choice since the ‘70’s, and
through these years he has developed an unmatched ability to make his
vocabulary work in an incredible diversity of musical settings, while
at the same time retaining an instantly recognizable individual voice.
Bhob Rainey’s intense sensitivity and highly controlled extended techniques render him one of the clearest voices to come from the miasma of innumerable improvising saxophonists currently performing and recording. A mainstay in the Boston improvisation scene, Rainey’s ongoing partnership with Wright has been a fruitful one, as is evidenced on this album.
Matt Ingalls uniquely brings to his acoustic instrument a background in electronic music. This is well-evidenced in some of the tones and textures he uses and some of the electronic-like, stuttered phrases he plays. Tom Djll continuously extends the vocabulary and the expressivity of his instrument, playing with a remarkable fluency on this album. Ingalls and Djll, both long-time improvisers, are highly active in the Bay Area improvised music community.
Recorded on Wright and Rainey’s west coast tour in March of 2000, this is one of the hands-down prettiest albums of improvised music I’ve ever encountered. Melodic fragments creep in, intertwine and dissipate into extraordinarily lovely, alien textures, or abruptly wheel to grapple with sparse, spastic fractures of sound. All of this is executed with such an organic sensibility that it’s difficult to believe that several people, rather than one, are navigating the music. There is no apparent attempt to reach climaxes, and at no time does the music feel forced; each gesture made seems almost inevitable. It is generally a quiet album, slow and thorough in a rare way—rare especially on recordings of multiple horn players.
Highly recommended for anyone who likes improvised music, has ever liked improvised music, or who believes that in a past life or a dream they liked improvised music. For those not fitting into any of these categories, check this album out if for no other reason than that there is someone on it named Bhob and someone else named Djll—you can’t lose!
Reviewed
by Ava
Mendoza
09.25.03
|
