CD continues with the minimalist approach, with a long dialogue between the two saxes, interlocking and interweaving calm yet urgent phrases...
Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval,
Jay Rosen and Mikolaj Trzaska
Magic
Label: NotTwo, 2009
Catalogue No: MW 816-2
Format: CD
Tracks:
Disk 1:
1. The Magician
2. War Criminals
3. Sex Toys
4. I Remember Max (Drum Solo)
Disk 2:
1. Return of the Terror
2. Contra-ception (Bass Solo)
3. Political Stripper
4. Turtles Crossing
5. A Night in Alchemia
6. Transaction
Line-up:
Joe McPhee – tenor sax, pocket trumpet
Mikolaj Trzaska – alto sax, bass clarinet
Dominic Duval – bass
Jay Rosen – drums
Recorded at Alchemia, Kraków, November 8, 2007
Reviews:
After the excellent "Intimate Conversations", Joe McPhee
and Mikołaj Trzaska release a new album together, again with Jay Rosen on drums,
but now also with Dominic Duval on bass. You might say it's Trio X + Mikołaj
Trzaska, and that's correct if you look at the names, but not when you listen to
the music. This band does not even touch on the "traditional" Trio X repertoire.
McPhee plays sax and pocket trumpet, Trzaska alto sax and bass clarinet.
The album starts with "The Magician", with tribal sounding tones from Trzaska,
full of primitive incantations, slowly being joined by trumpet, bass and drums,
and developing into a slow, smooth and warm open lyrical exploration. The fit
between Trzaska and McPhee is almost perfect, since they have the same attitude
to music, one of freedom, respect and authentic warmth. That doesn't mean they
don't go wild at times, but the dominant element is careful and reverent. The
first track immediately illustrates this range, from tribal over sensitive
dialogues to more boppish uptempo steaming improvisations. The second piece is
more free form in nature, with Duval playing arco, McPhee delving into the
deeper regions of his tenor, Rosen accentuating, and Trzaska's alto adding
layers of sensitivity on top. "Sex Toys" is more minimalist and subdued, with
the musicians scarcely breaching through the silence, and I think rarely a track
has received such an inappropriate name (there isn't even an orgasm of sound to
conclude). The first CD ends with "I Remember Max", a luckily not too long drum
solo by Jay Rosen, dedicated to Max Roach.
The second CD continues with the minimalist approach, with a long dialogue
between the two saxes, interlocking and interweaving calm yet urgent phrases,
with McPhee doing some quiet singing while blowing his sax, bursting open into a
screaming duel, waking the sleeping dogs of drums and bass in the process.
"Contra-ception" is a bass solo track by Duval, nohting wild, nothing too smooth
either, and when he starts using his bow, some shouting brings back the sax for
one of the most intense pieces of the album, that shifts mood a little over
half-way when McPhee picks up his pocket trumpet: for almost spiritual gospell-like
lyricism. One of the most beautiful tracks is the long and slow "Turtles
Crossing", a tune that was already on McPhee's Jumala Quintet release with the
same name. As the title suggests, there is no need to hurry (from the turtle's
perspective of ignorance), but the deep tension of the menace of being crushed
is omnipresent, and this horror of course gets articulated musically near the
end of the track, but it ends happily.
Again, Trzaska is a perfect fit for this band, who deliver a strong, balanced
and varied album of great instrumental power and coherent musical expression,
full of emotional depth and moments of fun. Enjoy!
(freejazz-stef.blogspot)
****
The story goes that Mikolaj Trzaska, a longtime fan of
McPhee, sought out Trio X at a performance in Krakow in 2006 to ask if he could
play with the group. With that meeting, a plan evolved for a 2007 tour with the
support of Not Two Records owner, Marek Winiarski. Trzaska and Trio X together
became the group Magic. The two-disc set, Magic, documents the 2007 tour in
Poland.
Given the improvisational expertise of McPhee on alto sax, clarinet and pocket
trumpet, of Trzaska on alto sax and bass clarinet, Duval on bass, and Jay Rosen
on drums, this recording imparts more than anyone could expect. The musicians
inspire and interact with one another in exceptionally intricate and subtle
ways. The smallest details of the playing fill volumes of space with intelligent
musical conversation, no matter whether one, two, three or all four are involved
in the improvisation. The instrumental layering is so clear and unique that
listening is an extraordinarily fulfilling challenge. There is bubbling and
boiling, but absolutely no mayhem.
Duval and Rosen transcend their rhythm-section-ness. Their responsiveness to the
horns is stunning. Duval’s infusion of his beautifully shaped arco and pizzicato
technique at befitting junctures in the music is particularly noteworthy. His
solo, “Contra-ception,” displays how his relaxed fingers feather the bass
strings, catch one or two in a twang to spring further into new, softly
expressive patterns. Rosen’s essential timing ensures that the actions of any
other instruments are not so much ornamented as logically enhanced. Rosen’s
drumming is never syrupy; it is dry, clean and rhythmically acute, even when he
opens up on cymbals. His solo, “I Remember Max,” ends the first disc.
McPhee and Trzaska are a musical marriage made in heaven. Their exchanges extend
and complement what each is doing. Their instruments can assume one direction,
even though, for example, McPhee might be playing a pocket trumpet and Trzaska,
the alto, or McPhee is barely singing through the reed of his sax while Trzaska
is restraining his arpeggios. In the opening “The Magician,” their solo lines
overlap; their artfulness, distinguishable. In the closing “Transaction,” their
phrasing is so interlocked and focused that they sing together as in a choir--in
unison or contrapuntally; or one blows high and the other low, their contrasting
tonalities, a means to suffuse their sound with unaffected sincerity.
(Lyn Horton)