The Necks

The Necks - Townsville - 2007 - Fish Of Milk

Another amazing album from the Australian experimental jazz band. It's very hard to categorise The Necks music. They have been labelled "trance jazz" and have received much critical acclaim worldwide. The music, at times seems to be structureless, and seems to float along as if there was no set pattern before the group starts playing. Almost like a band in a recording studio jamming freestyle, with no pre-conceived ideas, and waiting to see what develops. Normally in a scenario like this, a lot of rubbish would be produced. However, The Necks know exactly what they are doing. Their music has a structure, albeit irregular, and sometimes seemingly aimless. Their music is normally composed of very long disciplined and deliberate passages. These passages are developed very slowly, with extreme patience, and gradually evolve into wonderful musical pieces. This album will please your aural senses with it's unique rhythmic patterns, and often a style reminiscent of early seventies minimalistic Krautrock. This is quite accessable music, and very enjoyable. Check out the discography of this amazingly talented band. There is info on their "Silent Night" album @ NEX/SILNI

TRACKS

1. Townsville

BAND

Lloyd Swanton (bass)
Tony Buck (drums)
Chris Abrahams (piano)
Recorded Live at Riverway Arts Centre, Thuringowa, Australia, 15th February 2007

BIO (Wikipedia)

The Necks are an experimental jazz trio from Sydney, Australia, comprising Chris Abrahams on piano and Hammond organ, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar and double bass. The band plays improvisational pieces of up to an hour in length that explore the development and demise of repeating musical figures. As well as jazz, their sound could be said to be reminiscent of Krautrock. Typically a live performance will begin very quietly with one of the musicians playing something very simple. One by one, the other two will join with their own contributions, all three independent yet intertwined. As the 'piece' builds through subtle micro-changes, the interaction of their instruments creates layers of harmonics and prismatic washes of sound that lead some to appellation 'trance jazz'. Instant by instant, their music seems driven not so much by the convention of cause and effect, but by the 'insistent demand of the moment'. Consequently their live performances can be challenging for those expecting a conventional musical experience, as The Necks' music may remain in a seemingly interminable 'holding pattern' until, paradoxically, sufficient momentum has built up for a break-out into the next phase of development. The Necks are also well known in Europe. Their soundtrack for The Boys was nominated for ARIA Best Soundtrack Album, AFI Best Musical Score and Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award. They have also recorded soundtracks for What's The Deal? (1997) and In the Mind of the Architect (three one-hour ABC-TV documentaries, 2000). Venues played in Sydney include The Basement, the Harbourside Brasserie, and the Vanguard in Newtown. A performance at the Sydney Opera House in 2003 was interrupted by the venue management due to a minor technical problem, to the obvious dissatisfaction of band and audience. In Melbourne, they have played numerous times at The Corner Hotel in Richmond. In 2006 the Necks played at the Melbourne Town Hall with Abrahams playing the pipe organ instead of piano. Unfortunately a hard drive failure meant the recording of that performance was also interrupted, much to the dismay of the band.

MORE ABOUT THE NECKS

Unclassifiable, the Necks stand aside any other musical act Australia has gave birth to. Neither jazz nor rock, this deceptive piano trio has kept a single line of conduct throughout its career. They usually start playing a very basic melodic and rhythmic figure, and then keep going at it for an hour, gradually introducing microscopic changes and variations. Some critics have compared them to Krautrock groups like Can and Faust. Others find similarities in the works of minimalist composers like LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad, even Philip Glass. The Necks were formed in Sydney, Australia, back in 1987. The original lineup of pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton, and drummer Tony Buck remained stable, even though they all lead busy and highly different careers. Abrahams is an acclaimed session keyboardist who has released a couple of solo piano albums, has written music for film and television, and toured the world in 1993 with the rock group Midnight Oil. Swanton is a much in-demand session jazz bassist and a regular of the jazz festival circuit. He has played in the Benders and the Catholics, and accompanied Stephen Cummings and Sting. Buck spends most of his time in avant-garde circles, with multiple collaborations and projects. His best known engagements have include the trio PERIL and the klezmer-punk group Kletka Red. The Necks' first album came out in 1989 on their own label, Fish of Milk. The reviews were enthusiastic, most people praising the group's ability to blend simplicity and experimentation. They would play whenever the three musicians were in Australia at the same time. The next three albums experimented with the format, integrating occasional guests (Stevie Wishart on Aquatic), electronics, and more. But, by the 1998 Piano Bass Drums, the recipe had been fixed and would not change anymore. In 1996, the label Private Music released Sex in the United States. It was the group's first exposure on the American continent and it did not get them far. But Europe was catching on and the group began a series of annual tours there. Piano Bass Drums and the soundtrack for Rowan Woods' film The Boys both received Australian award nominations in 1998. The more energetic, almost space rocking Hanging Gardens, released in 1999, opened more doors, including a first American tour in late 2001. The album was picked up for distribution by the British avant-garde label ReR Megacorp the same year. Another North-American tour in 2002 followed the release of Aether, the group's studio masterpiece. Drive By followed in 2003. © François Couture, All Music Guide

REVIEWS

This extraordinary Australian trio have just entered their third decade, and Townsville, a live 53-minute recording, is a fine example of what you might expect at one of their totally improvised gigs. Superficially, they are a traditional jazz trio (piano, double bass, drums) yet their unclassifiable music falls somewhere between jazz, ambient, minimalism and the avant garde. Likewise, the usual problems that beset live albums (irritating audience participation routines, had-to-be-there levels of excitedness, poor sound quality) simply don't apply; this is every bit as engaging as any of their studio efforts. The Necks' last studio album Chemist (2006) moved away from a long-established format of single hour-long pieces (with a suite of three twenty-minute tracks) so Townsville marks a return to familiar territory. What's initially most notable is the lack of any regular metre from drummer Tony Buck. Completely ditching drums (possibly except for a subtle sounding of the 'kick') he spends the entire duration tapping out silvery cymbal patterns as steady but irregular as falling rain drops – something suggested by Emma Walker's lovely cover painting – and fondling a few tinkly percussive items. It's bass player Lloyd Swanton who actually initiates the piece with a few hesitant plucked notes, but before long, he’s worrying the strings with his bow, or creating great shuddering smears of sound suggestive of distant thunder. Just trying to work out how he makes such noises is part of the wonderful mystery of this music. At first, it might seem as though pianist Chris Abrahams dominates, with dense, trilling clusters of notes cascading from both hands throughout. However, on closer listening, you can hear the creative ebb and flow (and the effect strongly evokes tidal forces, waves surging up and down a beach) shifting between the players in startlingly organic and democratic cadences. They all seem to reach an intense crescendo around 48 minutes in, as an Abrahams motif suggests an exotic bird call…or something. Oddly, the closest thing I can compare this to is the work of another Australian – Paul Schütze's ''Throat Full Of Stars'' from the 1995 album Apart. Blue Peter would suggest making up your own visuals anew each time, changing them according to mood; Townsville is a delightfully dreamy, drifting piece that rewards repeated listens and encourages the imagination to run riot. You’ve read this far; you deserve it. © Jon Lusk, 26/10/07, www.bbc.co.uk

Lloyd Swanton (bass), Tony Buck (drums) and Chris Abrahams (piano) have built up a considerable repuation in the past few years Ì they could have sold out at the Vortex for a residency of a week or so, rather than just selling out two nights, such was the demand for tickets Ì and this album, 53 minutes of music recorded live at the Riverway Arts Centre, Thuringowa, in their native Australia, goes some way towards explaining the phenomenon. Blended from a beguiling mix of minimalism and trance music with just a pinch of jazz improvisation, their performance relies for its success on fixing the audience's attention on the tiny changes in rhythm, the odd little hints of melody, the almost imperceptible dynamic variations that creep into their music from time to time Ì this is definitely not jazz-piano-trio music as we know it, but a horse of an entirely different colour, owing more to the likes of Tony Scott's music for meditation and other joys than to, say, Bill Evans or Keith Jarrett. Those who like their music informed by virtuosity, wit and panache will swiftly become impatient; the trick is to surrender without such expectations © www.vortexjazz.co.uk/cd-reviews/townsville.html

Cult Australian experimentalists The Necks return with this follow up to last year's wonderful Chemist album. While that album proved to be a break in form for the band, wit the disc divided into discreet tracks, this new work returns to their more customary format of single, lengthy pieces. Townsville begins with a few tentative bass figures, paving the way for fluttering, sensitive cymbal textures and the introduction of Chris Abrahams' always-impressive piano improvisations. Starting with this fairly conventional jazz trio format the group avoid the more obvious route of wandering freeform elaboration, instead maintaining a minimal, almost krautrock-like discipline when it comes to rhythmic structures, those solid, unwavering cymbal constructions keeping a steady bedrock for Abrahams to venture out into increasingly florid passages. The kinds of intervals he chooses bring to mind the sort of thing you might hear on a particularly energetic Harold Budd composition, and by the time you get halfway into the disc Lloyd Swanton's bass is following suit, delivering evermore elaborate phrases. Soon the rhythm has shifted into a kind of wave-like motion, increasing and decreasing in tempo as if in some sort of undulation. The intensity of the piece heightens as the disc goes on, with a surge in low-end heft that carries the group onto a natural conclusion after an impressively restrained, structured fifty minutes of jazz-inspired minimalism and remarkable musicianship. © www.boomkat.com

A bit of a change of pace for Australian free jazz trio the Necks, Townsville is a live album recorded in the fairly remote Australian town of the same name. A single improvised piece (as nearly all of the Necks' live performances are) in the 53-minute range, Townsville is the trio in full-on Erik Satie-meets-Brian Eno mode, with drummer Tony Buck sticking almost exclusively to cymbals and hand percussion, and bassist Lloyd Swanton at times playing so quietly as to be almost inaudible, and at others repeatedly returning to one simple recurring figure. This leaves pianist Chris Abrahams to take the organizational lead, playing wave-like clusters of Cecil Taylor-like chords that tinkle off into near silence before roaring back like surf on an Australian beach. That's pretty much it for the duration of the piece, an extended exploration of a placid mood that meanders pleasantly for most of an hour before quietly petering away. For a trio best known for playing hard-edged jazz with rock intensity, Townsville is an intriguing but inconclusive side trip. © Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

If you were scanning the Necks’ career for blemishes, the biggest streak – a great dirty stain running right across it – would be that no band should consistently be this good. The format is, by now, well-established: unscripted piano, bass and drums for an extended playing time; jazz, but not as Norah Jones knows it. Their last recorded release, Chemist, broke expectations to good effect – it was a series of relatively short workouts. Townsville, a recording from a gig near the titular city, is a return to the earlier template. It is, again, a brilliantly subtle study in tension and release. Closer to works like Sex, Townsville sees the group more active than some mid-period stuff: it’s still minimalism, but in a busier mood. The Necks emphasise duration here; a tracing of lines and the joy of their deviation, the holding in mind of one pattern as you hear it tilted. Like some blissful Australian meeting of Morton Feldman, John Cage and Steve Reich, The Necks manage to be both spacious and insistent. As pure background music, the unfortunate fate of many jazz trios, The Necks would never do – it’s all too fraught and frisky. There’s a pace to their motion. They do not stand still. On Townsville, the set begins with the see-sawing melody of Lloyd Swanton’s beautiful double bass. The others enter unobtrusively: Tony Buck taps his symbols into the rhythm, prising open his own space; Chris Abrahams, with signature lyricism, wanders up and down the piano, eight fingers in search of a melody. It starts here and goes through every permutation imaginable, twisting inside itself like an Escher illusion, taking delight in thoroughly exploring this creation of theirs. Changes happen, each one seeming like a mammoth event. Booming bass chords. Lunging piano changes. Kick drum strikes. The Necks successfully get at what almost an entire global scene of post-rockers with delay pedals failed to express: a slow-motion glory, a weaving of bitter and sweet that is never glib, a singular vocabulary of musical invention – unfamiliar and yet still deeply affecting. The Necks are manic and poised, patient and restless. There’s something vital in their every outing. © Ben Gook, © 2008 Mess+Noise p/l. All rights reserved

Rachel Z

Rachel Z - Everlasting - 2004 - Tone Center

Rachel Nicolazzo is a wonderful pianist, and "Everlasting" is as good an example of modern piano jazz as you will ever hear. She adds a beautiful "understated" touch to these great arrangements of jazz and pop tunes. The selection of tracks here is extremely unusual, covering music from artists as varied as Johnny Cash, King Crimson, and The Smashing Pumpkins. But it all fits, and is totally accessible. At times shades of Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Coltrane, and Bill Evans can be heard in the arrangements. A superb album, and VHR by A.O.O.F.C. For all you Steely Dan afficionados, she covers "Kid Charlemagne" brilliantly on this album. Obviously a SD lover, she once played in a Steely Dan cover band when she was in her early teens. Buy her "Moon At The Window: Jazz Impressions Of Joni Mitchell " album, and listen to Wayne Shorter's brilliant 1995 "High Life" album on which she played.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

Here Comes the Sun - George Harrison
Kiss from a Rose - Seal
Interlude
Mortal - Nicolazzo/Rae
Ring of Fire - Merle Kilgore, J.D. Cash
Wild Horses - Mick Jagger
Black Hole Sun - Chris Cornell (Soundgarden)
Fields of Gold - Sting
Kid Charlemagne - Donald Fagen, Walter Becker
One Time - Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson)
Tonight Tonight - Corgan B. (Smashing Pumpkins)
Kiss of Life - Sade Adu, Andrew Hale, Stuart Matthewman
Interlude
Red Rain - Peter Gabriel

MUSICIANS

Rachel Z - Piano
Bobbie Rae - Drums
Tony Levin - Basses

REVIEWS

Rachel Nicolazzo, or Rachel Z, emerged in the 1990s as a talented “Young Lion” pianist. Having graduated from the New England Conservatory in 1984, she has studied with John Hicks, Richie Beirach, and JoAnne Brackeen, and has toured with such performers as Wayne Shorter, Al DiMeola, and Lenny White. In addition she was a member of the 1980s fusion band Steps Ahead and the Arsenio Hall Show band. Z also figured prominently on Wayne Shorter’s 1995 album High Life, creating synthesizer orchestrations for Shorter’s compositions and serving as musical director on the tour that followed. Most recently she has toured as keyboardist with Peter Gabriel. Her early solo recordings were a bit unfocused, with a combination of acoustic straight-ahead work and fusion. This approach worked fairly well on 1993’s Trust the Universe and 1996’s Room of One’s Own, giving Rachel a contemporary edge, but firmly placing her as a solid jazz player. The same cannot be said 1998’s disastrous GRP release, Love Is the Power. That recording threatened to carry the talented musician off into the neverland of smooth jazz. Fortunately, Z found a new approach (piano trio) and a new label (Tone Center) that would allow her to focus on her acoustic work and show what she could do. Her first release for the label, On the Milky Way Express was a tribute to the compositional diversity of her old boss Wayne Shorter. Leading a supportive trio through a selection of Shorter’s work, Rachel demonstrated that she was the real deal. In 2002, she released The Moon In the Window, a tribute to Joni Mitchell. While Z focused maybe a bit too much on Mitchell’s earlier, major chord-folky material rather than the later, jazz-influenced work, the album managed to do justice to both Mitchell’s songwriting and Z’s impressive talent. On Everlasting the approach is once again to take contemporary pop music and make it serve the purposes of a jazz piano trio. This time out she works with drummer Bobbie Rae, who also played on Moon at the Window, and bassist/Chapman Stick master Tony Levin, another member of Peter Gabriel’s recording and touring group. Levin adds a lot to this disc with his solid yet elastic sense of time, and Rae is a welcome return, creating an ongoing dialogue with Rachel and Levin. Nicolazzo’s choice of material is nearly unerring in terms of allowing her to display the best features of her playing. Following the same concept as The Bad Plus and singers like Cassandra Wilson, the pianist takes her repertoire from a spate of ‘80s and ‘90s pop songs, with versions of the Stones’ “Wild Horses” and the timeless “Ring of Fire,” made famous by Johnny Cash. In Rachel’s hands, the songs become fodder for her explorations of post-modern piano jazz, often resembling their original versions very little. Take the opener, a version of George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun” that explodes forth with a McCoy Tyner-like blast of modal power chording with a swingy, 6/8 feel. Underlying the melody with skeletal chord voicing in the keyboard’s low range, the piece resembles John Coltrane’s re-imagining of “My Favorite Things” until, a little over a minute in, it breaks into a swinging 4/4 for Rachel’s solo, which is lighter and much more evocative of Bill Evans. Though her style has its limits—she relies heavily on healthy doses of Evans’ impressionism, Keith Jarrett’s earnest American gospel, and the wide-open chord voicings of a singer/songwriter—she manages to balance the need of her audience to hear familiar melodies and song structures with her ability to play straight-ahead, complex jazz. Her touch is light and nuanced, never resorting to novelty or bombast. Some will see her as a populist performer, but ultimately her take on the piano trio is often more compelling and satisfying than the high-flying acrobatics of The Bad Plus. Some of Rachel’s material is better suited to her adaptations than other. “Ring of Fire” comes off as too mannered, prissy even, and the fast bebop of “Black Hole Sun” undercuts the natural majesty of its melody. But when she and her trio get it right, the results are wonderful. Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne” loses some of its nervous jitters and becomes a sultry, slinky tune, thanks in large part to the funky bass figure that Tony Levin invents to open the track. Rather than belabor the snappy, dissonant chords underlying the melody, Rachel finesses the whole thing, allowing the energy to come from the song’s natural momentum and the push of drummer Bobbie Rae. King Crimson’s “One Time,” on which Levin played originally, has an introspective feel and is an excellent vehicle for Rachel’s improvisations. And the album’s closer, a version of Peter Gabriel’s “Red Rain” is magnificent, exuding a quiet power that gets inside the listener. There are also two Interludes, the first one extensive, and a song, “Mortal” composed by Nicolazzo and Rae, which link some of the other material and provide proof that Rachel Z is not dependent on pop music to make her musical mark. I’m sure many jazz aficionados and modern music fans will consider Rachel and Co.’s approach to be a bit too light to hold their attention, but understated does not necessarily translate to ‘light’ music. Nicolazzo, Rae, and Levin are all accomplished musicians who play and interact well together. On Everlasting Rachel seems more interested in getting down and playing some piano than worrying about the semantics of musical labels, and that suits this listener just fine. © 2007 Jazzitude, Marshall Bowden www.jazzitude.com/rachelz_everlasting.htm

Driven along by the tight rhythms of bassist Tony Levin and drummer Bobbie Rae, Z alternates between light and happy twists that put the familiar melody up front ("Here Comes the Sun," "Kiss from a Rose") and darker, melancholy meditations of more obscure chestnuts like the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses." Her dives into early alternative rock, tackling Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" and the Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight Tonight," don't quite pack the drama of Herbie Hancock's take on Nirvana via The New Standard, but they're still fun. She starts the first in a grim, noodly mood, creating a grungy atmosphere before, well, finding the sun and hopping and skipping over a swinging rhythm section. The Pumpkins are given heavy chords to start with before she settles into a more gentle spirit. Other tracks like "Ring of Fire" find her roaming off the melody completely, all but creating her own songs. She is both optimistic and gloomy on her two originals with Rae, having much more fun on "Interlude." Z's plan seems to be to make jazz palatable to younger audiences. She may be a little too artsy to fully achieve that, but that simply makes the effort more appealing to the more discerning jazz buff. © Jonathan Widran, All Music Guide

BIO (Wikipedia)

Rachel Carmel Nicolazzo better known as Rachel Z, is a jazz pianist. She attended the Berklee College of Music Summer School and Manhattan School of Music Pre-College, where she launched the quintet, Nardis, whilst studying with Joanne Brackeen and Richie Beirachin NYC. Later Rachel Z graduated from the New England Conservatory with a 'Distinction in Performance' award. Meanwhile she was playing professionally in and around Boston in a small group. In 1988, Rachel returned to New York and co-wrote Tokyo Blue with schoolmate turned pro-saxophonist Najee and then played mostly keyboards with classic fusion band Steps Ahead where leader Mike Mainieri suggested she altered her name as to be easier to pronounce. Rachel Z remained with Steps Ahead until 1996; however, she collaborated with a number of different artists during this time, establishing her name within the jazz scene. In 1995 she worked with Wayne Shorter, on his album High Life, which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. She was responsible for the CD's synthesized orchestral settings, acoustic piano solos and several concurrent world tours. While signed to Columbia by Dr.George Butler, she released an influential CD "Trust the Universe" which was unique in featuring a jazz A side with Charnette Moffett and Al Foster and an electric jazz B side with Lenny White and Victor Bailey. Her next solo CD ,"Room of One's Own-a tribute to Women Artists" featured arrangements by Maria Schneider and Alvaro Cordero. "Room" won 4 stars in Downbeat and extensive critical acclaim for the original compositions and wind ensemble arrangements. In 1999 Rachel Z was a part of a jazz fusion project by Stanley Clarke and Lenny White. The effort, simply called Vertu, featured such artists as Karen Briggs on violin, Richie Kotzen on guitar. The album received a very positive review from All About Jazz, (Clarke and White played together with Chick Corea in Return to forever). She dedicated A Room of One’s Own to the many women artists who have played a significant role in her life. Her characteristic musical intelligence and development of her genre has made her one of the most exciting female jazz musicians of the twenty-first century. In 2002, having formed a trio with Bobbie Rae, she created a tribute to Joni Mitchell called Moon at the Window. This trio group continues to record New Standards and formulate complex arrangements of pop and jazz tunes and has 5 CDs released to date. Intermittently, Rachel Z experimented with her own rock group Peacebox as a vocalist and Bobbie Rae as the producer. During this time she was also working with the Italian legend Pino Danielewith whom she first began working in 1996. She later toured with Peter Gabriel during his Growing Up tours from 2002 to 2006, which gave Rachel the opportunity to widen her fan base and work with renowned bassist Tony Levin. Her recent project, titled Dept. of Good and Evil, features drummer and husband Bobby Rae and bassist Maeve Royce. This trio's mission is unity and its ideas for transforming modern pop songs into jazz masterpieces using the jazz tradition as a benchmark for innovative and imaginative arrangements have thrust this group into the forefront of modern jazz.

BIO [ © Steve Huey, All Music Guide ]

Over the latter half of the '90s, pianist/keyboardist Rachel Z blossomed into one of the top female performers in contemporary mainstream jazz. Because of her work in fusion and jazz-pop, she hasn't always enjoyed universally high critical regard, but it's clear that commercial accessibility doesn't constitute the full breadth of her ambition. Plus, the more she came into her own as a solo artist, the more committed she became to spotlighting and collaborating with other female jazz players. Rachel Z was born Rachel Nicolazzo in Manhattan; her mother was an opera singer, and so Rachel began voice training at the mere age of two, adding classical piano lessons at seven. At 15, she began playing in a Steely Dan cover band, and discovered jazz when she heard Miles Davis' Miles Smiles while attending a summer program at Boston's Berklee School of Music. Upon returning to Manhattan, she formed her own quintet, Nardis; she later graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Joanne Brackeen, and gigged with several prominent artists in the Boston area, including George Garzone, Miroslav Vitous, and Bob Moses. She returned to Manhattan once again in 1988, first touring with Conservatory classmate Najee and then joining the fusion group Steps Ahead. Drawn to fusion because that was where the gigs were, Nicolazzo also played with Al DiMeola (Kiss My Axe), Larry Coryell, Special EFX, and Angela Bofill during this period, and also collaborated with Najee on 1990's big-selling smooth jazz hit Tokyo Blue, co-writing the title track and playing on the supporting tour. It was Steps Ahead leader/vibraphonist Mike Mainieri who suggested Nicolazzo change her name to Rachel Z, which was simply easier to spell. In 1993, a year after she debuted with Steps Ahead on Yin-Yang, Mainieri produced Rachel Z's first album as a leader, Trust the Universe. Released on Columbia, it displayed the influence of Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, and also spawned a smooth jazz radio hit in "Nardis." In 1994, she began collaborating heavily with saxophone legend Wayne Shorter on his Verve debut and comeback effort, High Life, orchestrating his compositions (mostly on synth) and adding her own synthesizer and piano work. Released in 1995, the results were a commercial and (for the most part) critical success, winning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. After serving as musical director on the supporting tour, Z officially left Steps Ahead and signed with Mainieri's NYC label as a solo artist. Her label debut, A Room of One's Own, was a series of compositions dedicated to the female artists (in all fields) who'd inspired her. Appropriately, her backing group -- which featured, among others, her regular trio of the time in bassist Tracy Wormworth and drummer Cindy Blackman -- was heavily weighted toward female musicians. Released in 1996, the accessible acoustic jazz of A Room of One's Own was generally well-reviewed. For her next project, Z signed with GRP and cut a hip-hop-flavored smooth jazz outing dubbed Love Is the Power, which was informed by her recent divorce and released in 1998. The following year, she participated in the fusion supergroup Vertú with former Return to Forever rhythm section Stanley Clarke and Lenny White, and subsequently returned to acoustic jazz with her next album for Tone Center. On the Milkyway Express: A Tribute to the Music of Wayne Shorter featured her young new trio of bassist Miriam Sullivan and drummer Allison Miller, with whom she'd been playing for several years and now made her primary group. Additionally, she and Sullivan began playing together in a rock-oriented outfit called Peacebox. Although her own career was going quite well, an invitation from Peter Gabriel to perform on his 20 city U.S. tour in 2002 was too much to resist. She found herself going on the road at the same time her newest solo album, Moon at the Window, was arriving in stores. A disc of Joni Mitchell covers and interpretations, the album was very personal to Rachel, but the chance to work with Gabriel was one of the few reasons she would purposefully not tour behind her own record.

Drew Gress

Drew Gress - 7 Black Butterflies - 2005 - Premonition Records

7 Black Butterflies is the follow up to his "Spin & Drift" album, which was critically acclaimed. .7 Black Butterflies contains nine original, and very acessible jazz compositions by Gress, with fantastic harmonic and melodic structures. All these factors, combined with superb improvisation from the excellent musicians involved in this recording, make this a great modern jazz album. The album is produced by experimental guitarist/producer David Torn (ECM).

TRACKS

Rhinoceros;
Bright Idea;
New Leaf;
Zaftig;
Bas Relief;
Blue on One Side;
WIng & Prayer;
Low Slung/High Strung;
Like It Never Was

PERSONNEL

Craig Taborn - piano
Drew Gress - bass instrument
Ralph Alessi - trumpet
Tim Berne - alto saxophone
Tom Rainey - drums

REVIEWS

Along with Scott Colley, Drew Gress must be the most ubiquitous bassist on the New York scene. Gress' broad stylistic reach has allowed him to support artists including pianist Fred Hersch, trumpeter Dave Douglas, and saxophonist Tim Berne since arriving on the scene in the late ’80s. Capable of bringing an unerring sense of tradition to mainstream acts and a free-spirited sense of adventure to those from left of centre, Gress has also been gradually emerging as a composer of note. With his latest release, 7 Black Butterflies, he has fashioned an album that, while as forward-looking as any, also embraces a kind of postmodern lyricism that, rather than spoon-feeding the listener, demands careful and constant attention.
By enlisting Tim Berne’s Acoustic Hard Cell trio—Berne, along with pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Tom Rainey—Gress has built an ensemble with an instantaneous improvisational chemistry and sense of identity. And yet, Gress’ quintet—which also features trumpeter Ralph Alessi—while cashing in on Berne, Taborn and Rainey’s evolved simpatico, doesn’t sound like merely an expanded edition of Hard Cell. Gress’ growing compositional prowess has its own identity, and while there are certain parallels to Berne’s writing in terms of metric complexity, harmonic breadth, and open-ended improvisational liberty, it avoids the kind of mathematical idiosyncrasies that most commonly define Berne’s approach.
Perhaps because he’s a bassist, and perhaps because he’s spent time close to the mainstream, Gress’ music, for all its rich harmonies, contrapuntal depth, and fluid time changes, also has its own refined sense of swing. The tempi may change, but “Blue on One Side” also retains a sense of groove throughout. Gress is also unashamed of vulnerable melodicism; the ballad “Wing & Prayer” manages to be both dark and tender at the same time.
Nor is Gress afraid to tackle more through-composed music. While there’s a certain air of freedom and space about the opening track, “Rhinoceros,” it relies mainly on gradually unfolding repetitions, dynamic development, and time shifts to get its point across. Elsewhere, exploratory élan is the order of the day. “Bright Idea” asserts a complicated, bebop-informed line over a fluid metric base before opening up to strong solos from Gress, Berne, Alessi, and Taborn. While Rainey doesn’t get much solo space on the disc, his interpretive and intuitive abilities form an essential underpinning.
Also essential to the album’s complexion are producer/mixer David Torn’s contributions. Torn finds creative ways to expand the sound of this acoustic quintet, occasionally creating subdivisions within Gress’ compositions through use of stereo panning and sound processing. Twice during Taborn’s solo on “Blue on One Side,” Torn grabs a short phrase and repeats it multiple times, creating an extremely effective artificial tension.
7 Black Butterflies is the compelling result of an artist working in a multitude of contexts, soaking everything up, and then filtering it through his own personal lens to create an album that proves that modernity need not be equated with obfuscation. © John Kelman © 2007 All About Jazz
Drew Gress throws his contender for year’s best in with 7 Black Butterflies, a crackling collection uniting a stellar cast of players who live up to their collective reputation. With Tim Berne, Ralph Alessi, Craig Taborn, and Tom Rainey fully engaged, Gress holds an all-aces hand. His multifaceted compositions provide the tracks for this ride, while the quintet provides the vivid scenery. While Berne, Alessi, and Taborn usually inhabit worlds of sonic phenomena, the simple acoustic setting here spotlights the prodigious pure jazz power each player wields.
Opening with a dizzying panning hiss and Alessi’s choked breathy notes, “Rhinoceros” lumbers in on Gress’ metronome bass. Alessi and Berne harmonize a classic theme only to evaporate, dub style. A tempo change has Taborn and Gress doubling for momentum, urged on by Rainey and Taborn’s chording right hand. Alessi and Berne return to fan flames and blow the structure apart. A loose-jointed neo-bop line dances through “Bright Idea,” opening for a rubbery solo by Gress. Berne spreads low-register alto butter around the prickly rhythm section, while Alessi flashes through rolling time signatures. Rainey simmers under Taborn’s acute chords and melody line.
Taborn plays spaciously heartfelt music on the ballad “Zaftig.” Berne moves the tune into a more frenzied direction, replacing wistfulness with passion. With a theme that seems to occasionally tease with a taste of “Salt Peanuts,” “Blue on One Side” tears along with Taborn and Berne driving, then Alessi plays an inspired and occasionally echoed duet with Rainey. Alessi and Berne slug it out on “Low Slung/High Slung,” the clunky riff chugging with occasional ultra stereo dub effects, causing the horns to take flight. Taborn slows it, only to use his right hand to start fires.
Between nasty multi-time grooves and emotionally satisfying reveries, 7 Black Butterflies convincingly applies for a long-term residency in your CD player. © Rex Butters © 2007 All About Jazz
Bassist Drew Gress consistently delivers, whether he’s playing straightahead or outwardly adventurous music. He maintains a vigorous touring and recording schedule with a swath of the jazz community. Though creatively challenging, this approach has limited the time he has to develop his own music. With 7 Black Butterflies, his third CD as a leader, Gress makes a compelling musical statement with structured and purposeful composition, supported by focused improvisation.
While the tunes are often complex, both rhythmically and harmonically, they flow naturally, and Gress confidently allows his musicians to extrapolate and color the passages. It helps to be surrounded by consummate improvisers with deep, interconnected playing histories like these. Here he taps longtime collaborators alto saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Tom Rainey, altering the mix with the additions of trumpeter Ralph Alessi and pianist Craig Taborn.
The tunes are dynamic, taking unexpected turns. The textured unfolding of “Rhinoceros” builds intensity to a chaotic flourish, while the boppish groove and unison horns of “Bright Idea” buoy a series of solos from the ensemble, with each player emphasizing elements of the written music while Rainey and Gress prod or rein in the tempo. The deceptively simple-sounding “New Leaf” spotlights a lyrical Berne, his wilder tendencies tempered to support the lush tune. The slower tempo of “Zaftig” takes off behind Berne’s solo, with Rainey matching wits with the saxophonist, until Taborn and Alessi restate the sparse opening theme for resolution. “Low Slung/High Strung” is set up by Taborn’s angular piano pattern, which Alessi and Berne swirl around with oblique counter lines, quickening their pace and threatening to lose control before dropping out entirely. As Taborn rebuilds the intensity, Rainey’s drum break signals the horns to return for a powerful finish.
A reflection of Gress, 7 Black Butterflies contains bold ensemble playing and sophisticated improvisation, kept accessible by a strong melodic sense and clarity. © Sean Patrick Fitzell © 2007 All About Jazz
Most of the music on this exhilarating record defies easy description. Much of it is lyrical, even beautiful. There's some driving, fiery swing. The improvising is of a consistently high order throughout. And Gress contributes his inventive compositions, with structures that challenge the improvisers with knotty harmonies and tempo changes. On 7 Black Butterflies, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and the parts are extraordinarily good.
Tim Berne's contribution is obvious. The alto saxophonist improvises with heat and originality. He rarely uses the overblowing or noise effects commonly associated with the so-called avant garde. Instead, he plays striking melodies, as if he were a tart-toned Johnny Hodges. He is especially effective on “Zaftig,” his solo climaxing with high, held tones while Alessi intones the song's mournful melody.
But is good as he is, Berne is hardly the only reason to hear this album. There's also Craig Taborn, one of the finest younger pianists out there. He negotiates Gress' structures effortlessly, his comping pushing the horns, his improvising spiky and memorable. He generates a whirlwind of authoritative swing on “Bright Idea.” Alessi, an emerging giant among younger trumpeters, is in typically excellent form.
Drew Gress is the unassuming leader, with his composing, his booming tone, his fine solos, and his solid time. He leads a state-of-the-art rhythm section, sometimes hocketing the time, sometimes uniting in explosive swing. Sometimes his bass lines enter into dialogue with Berne or Alessi, and sometimes he walks the walk. Ultimately, he's the glue that holds this music together, and Rainey's excellent drumming is always at the service of the music.
In the 21st Century, jazz has evolved into many different styles or idioms, and there are always musicians today who strive for something new. The ones who play on 7 Black Butterflies are definitely in this category. So while Gress' tumbling tunes have a faint echo of bebop, he plants both feet in the present, while he and his quintet look forward. © Marc Meyers © 2007 All About Jazz
To say that Drew Gress may be one of today’s premier bassists/composers is a bold statement, but one with considerable merit. The veteran player has profoundly enhanced numerous recordings by names like Uri Crane, Don Byron, and Ravi Coltrane with his distinct sound, dynamic playing, and writing abilities. But his most revealing work has been on his own recordings, of which 7 Black Butterflies is simply a cut above in terms of vision, creative energy, and sheer musicality. This followup to 2001’s Spin and Drift continues to challenge and yield deep rewards with music that is beyond the norm and thoroughly engaging.
Iron sharpens iron, as the band includes the vast talent of saxophonist Tim Berne, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, drummer Tom Rainey, and keyboardist Craig Taborn, who are a perfect mixture for Gress’ fertile concepts. These artists have proven on many recordings that they that can play it straight, but they definitely push towards the edge with their associations with freer jazz idioms. Collectively they are force to be reckoned with, and with Gress as the catalyst, 7 Black Butterflies unflinchingly gives a broader view of his abilities.
Once again the bassist has composed all new material with the goal of creating music that is “modern and beautiful.” This becomes evident starting with the atmospheric “Rhinoceros”—a composition that at first moves slowly and gracefully, then shows dangerous instincts as the tempo swells and charges, with a forceful vamp powered by robust drumming, and then retreats with eerie sax/trumpet siren wails. The remaining eight selections are compositions in the truest sense, allowing optimum creative interaction between the music and musicians.
The album's beauty has many facets, from the cinematic quality of “Zaftig,” with its grand thematic changes, to the uptempo siblings “New Leaf” and “Blue On One Side,” which employ aggressive swing with heated horn arrangements and outstanding solos solidified by Gress’ bass. Beyond his formidable skills as a composer, Gress is an incredibly strong player. To get a full taste, listen to his solo on “Bas Relief,” which is marked by power, nimbleness, and ingenuity, with biting and sustained notes.
The modern nuance of electronics enhances this acoustic setting nicely, but it’s the musicians themselves who create the fifth element, with many memorable performances like “Low Slung High Strung,” with its serrated tempo, where Berne and Alessi converse against complex and feuding horns as Rainey’s drums push the music, Talborn delivering another stellar solo.
The closing ballad “Like it Never Was” recalls ideas from Mingus and Weather Report, but more so from Gress himself. Wondrous, strange, bold, and beautiful are all synonymous of 7 Black Butterflies, one of this year’s most interesting releases. © Mark F. Turner © 2007 All About Jazz

ARTIST INFO

New York bassist Drew Gress became increasingly visible in contemporary improvised music throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In the late '80s, he co-founded the quartet Joint Venture, which released three albums on Enja spanning 1987-1994. Later, Gress led his own N.Y.-based quartet, Jagged Sky, who released their debut, Heyday, in 1998 on Soul Note. The late '90s also found Gress performing and recording in Paraphrase, an improvising trio with Tim Berne and Tom Rainey. Paraphrase released two CDs during the 1990s on Berne's Screwgun label: Visitation Rites in 1997, and 1999's Please Advise. Gress has performed across Europe; Asia; and North, Central, and South America. He has served as artist-in-residence at University of Colorado-Boulder and Russia's St. Petersburg Conservatory, and has received grants from Meet the Composer and the NEA. In addition to the groups already mentioned, Gress also performs in many other projects, including Erik Friedlander's Chimera, the Fred Hersch Trio, the Don Byron Quartet, and Dave Douglas' string group, which released an album on Soul Note entitled Convergence in 1999. © Joslyn Layne. © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved

BIO

Drew Gress falls into the great tradition in jazz of musician/composer/bandleader that was pioneered by legendary artists such as Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk and is practiced in the present day by Dave Douglas, Tim Berne and John Zorn, among others. His instrument is the acoustic bass, although he also plays the pedal steel guitar. He is currently one of the busiest bassists on New York City’s jazz and contemporary improvised music scene with touring and/or recording credits that include work with leading artists such as Fred Hersch, Dave Douglas, Don Byron, Tim Berne, Uri Caine, Lynne Arriale, Ray Anderson and Erik Friedlander. As a composer/ bandleader, he has two records under his belt: 1998’s Jagged Sky (Soul Note) and the current Spin & Drift (Premonition). These recordings have earned Gress recognition as a composer of note, an artist in the forefront of creating important new music in the jazz realm.

Born in Trenton, NJ in 1959, Gress grew up in the Baltimore/Washington, DC area and began his career in music there. He attended Towson State University where he was a composition major studying under composer/arranger Hank Levy (Stan Kenton, Don Ellis). He quickly became a first call bassist on the Baltimore/D.C. scene where he could regularly be found playing at clubs like “Blues Alley” backing up artists such as the singer Ethel Ennis. As his graduation neared he earned an apprenticeship at Hanna Barbera Studios in Los Angeles ghost-writing, arranging and fleshing out sketches for “Casper, The Friendly Ghost” cartoons. Three months in the cartoon business proved to him that jazz, and not “functional” music was where his heart was. He moved back to the D.C. area and then on to New York City where he has lived and worked for the past nine years.

Since then he toured North, South and Central America, Europe and Asia and has served as an Artist in Residence at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia and at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He has been awarded grants from major arts institutions such as The National Endowment for the Arts and Meet The Composer. And, Jagged Sky and Spin & Drift, album titles that also serve as band names, have both received rave reviews. The New York Times called Jagged Sky, “One of downtown’s most promising bands.” The Village Voice described Spin & Drift as “an intimidating brood whose sundry skills are likely to forge a sense of grand abstraction and disarming cogency. Pregnant with possibility, this is a first-time grouping you hope will sustain itself.”

The San Francisco Examiner said Gress’ music is “full of the jazz spirits of excitement, improvisation and technical brilliance.” With Spin & Drift, Gress lives up to the hype offering up an album featuring indelible melodies, rich harmonies, and hip, offbeat rhythmic structures that leave a lasting impression. © 2005 Premonition Music. All rights reserved