MICHAEL O’NEILL
Scream of Consciousness
Spring Garden Music
SGM 005

BRIAN ALLEN
Solo Trombone
Braintone
001

JACK WRIGHT
places to go
Spring Garden Music
SGM 003

BAIRD HERSEY
Waking the Cobra: Vocal Meditations on the Chakras
Bent Records / Hersey Music
BRS6

I have a problem when it comes to solo improvisation. For years it was a foregone conclusion that I was not going to enjoy any solo performance, short of Cecil Taylor’s Silent Tongues - and perhaps this is why I have accumulated a half-dozen or so solo discs in my to be reviewed pile. At some point, I had to bite the bullet and change my habits, and I’m glad I did. Though solo performances remain rather hard to swallow (from my perspective), I was charmed by their intimacy and low-budget (but not low-fi!) warts and all approach to music-making. I’m happy to report that I found each of these discs to be much more accessible and enjoyable than I had anticipated.

Guitarist Mike O’Neill first came to my attention as a member of Instrument Panel, an aggressively adventurous Boulder-area quartet whose free-improvised excursions had a curiously Henry Cow derived avant-rock flavor. From the git-go, Scream of Consciousness confirmed my suspicions that O’Neill, like me, had listened to a lot of progressive rock during his formative years: the first track is a nervy exploration of those looped, fuzzed-out guitar sounds known affectionately by most as "Frippertronics." Fortunately, O’Neill is resourceful and talented enough to put his own spin on the technique. O’Neill makes ample use of all sorts of effects pedals and whatnot (digital delay in particular), but the music is never lost in the electronics. O’Neill seems just as happy playing with a relatively unadorned tone ("Shit-canned," for example) as he does when generating layers of fuzzed out tones (e.g., "Plinko" and "Polyphonic Heart"). Despite his rather heavy credentials as a free-improvising guitarist (he has worked extensively with saxophonist Jack Wright, for example), O’Neill’s own compositions figure heavily on Scream of Consciousness. A lot of these seem to hew closer to structures one would associate with classical and experimental rock-derived music, rather than jazz. That may well be off-putting to some, but in O’Neill’s hands, the results are quite rewarding, and have none of the pretension or stiffness I associate with either genre. Highly recommended, particularly for those who were (or still are) fond of weird rock music. Available through www.springgardenmusic.com, or directly from O’Neill at oneillm@bvsd.k12.co.us .

Brian Allen’s Solo Trombone is a rough-hewn gem. Most apparent is Allen’s innate sense of swing. He’s one of those guys who can’t help but swing, no matter how abstract the music gets. Each of the 20 diverse performances on Solo Trombone is well-paced, and beautifully executed. Though there are a few pieces that are quite free, noisy, and experimental, the majority of Solo Trombone grows out of thematic materials, sort of like a jazz tune would. As an improviser, Allen seems to come out of the Roswell Rudd / Gary Valente / Ray Anderson school of expressionistic modern jazz trombone players, but he never gets hung up in his own bluster or silliness. Allen wisely tempers his taste for broad humor with skillful and soulful, even lyrical, playing. Best of all, Allen is not a one-trick pony: he approaches this music from every conceivable angle, and always seems to make it work. Solo Trombone is available directly from Brian Allen, who can be reached at: http://homestead.juno.com/bka4/brian.html, or via e-mail at bka4@juno.com

Jack Wright’s places to go, unlike Allen’s or O’Neill’s discs, is completely and spontaneously improvised. To the casual observer, Wright’s playing has the feel of free jazz, in all its sweaty, atonal, impassioned glory. Sure, he’s a cooler player than, say, David S. Ware or Ivo Perelman. Something about his playing brings Lee Konitz to mind, actually. If you ignore the part of your mind that keeps referring to this sort of music as post-Ayler you will cut through the nonsense and glimpse what Wright is really getting at: the joyous whimsy of sound. Fortunately for all of us, Wright’s liner notes (best read and digested prior to experiencing places to go) gently prod the listener away from his / her free jazz expectations. Free, certainly, but not necessarily jazz. That said, Wright’s sound has its roots in jazz of various types – from Johnny Hodges through Albert Ayler to Anthony Braxton. Rather than making an issue of this (one could just as easily be a classically-trained player), Wright instead focuses on the exploration of a sound world where each nuance produces another, and another. The result may seem chaotic – and this is not music for casual listening – but there is a curious sort of motionlessness and peace within the noise. It amazes me that I just described this music in this way, but there you go. Very little of places to go goes where one would expect it to, instead, Wright makes us aware of the music of possibility. places to go is available through www.springgardenmusic.com .

Some of you may remember Baird Hersey from his recordings with his big band, The Year of the Ear which appeared on the Arista and Bent (Hersey’s own imprint) labels in the late 1970’s. I loved those LPs: they dared to fuse Mingus-inspired jazz, avant-garde classical sensibilities, and the sheer metallic power of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in a particularly coherent fashion. Others may fondly recall Hersey’s recordings (all three by The Year of the Ear, plus a duet LP titled Coessential) as their first exposure to the brilliant percussionist and vocalist David Moss. After Hersey’s second, and final, recording for Arista, he did a solo guitar LP (ODO-OP8-FX) and then drifted into even deeper obscurity. Guys like me always wonder whatever happened to guys like Baird Hersey, and it so happened that when I asked saxophonist Tom Guralnick (who studied with Hersey under Bill Dixon, at Bennington College) this same question, I was presented with a copy of Waking the Cobra as part of the answer. Waking the Cobra is quite a departure from Hersey’s earlier work. Recorded in 1997 and 1998, this disc is a recording of multitracked vocals (all performed by Hersey) in the Tibetan tradition of overtone singing. Intended as an aid (or vehicle) for meditation, this disc is similar to many of David Hykes’ Harmonic Choir recordings. The music has a very calming, soothing effect, not unlike Gregorian cantation. Hersey’s voice is pleasantly reminiscent of Jack Bruce’s. This is particularly evident in the vocal backings on tracks 7, 9, and 14 (among others). Of all the discs reviewed in this little blurb, Waking the Cobra is the most far removed from jazz. It doesn’t even pretend to be jazz! Even so, it is a rewarding listening experience, and it’s nice to know that one of my old heroes is still out there. Waking the Cobra is available through www.waking-the-cobra.com, or via cd@waking-the-cobra.com .

Dave Wayne

Personnel: O’Neill, electric guitars

Track Listing: 1. Plinko; 2. Dream Residue; 3. Alien Echo Mill; 4. Polyphonic Heart; 5. Shit-canned; 6. Forgiveness; 7. Effing the Ineffable; 8. Shards; 9. Self-Erasing; 10. Cellophane Tear Drop; 11. The Doubts That Shadows Create; 12. Resilience; 13. Cupid’s Gymnasium; 14. Sand in my Pocket; 15. Threshold of Sleep; 16. Diads; 17. Run of the Mill, Everyday, Hell (Parts I – IV)

Personnel: Allen, trombone

Track Listing: 1. Chatter; 2. Planes; 3. Flip Flop; 4. Sounds Like…; 5. Crux; 6. Crisis; 7. Loco March; 8. Berne Baby Berne; 9. Gentle Ben; 10. Whassup; 11. Wah Wah; 12. Pop-eyed; 13. Hostile Takeover; 14. Chant Like; 15. Water Music I; 16. Water Music II; 17. Fly By; 18. Steps; 19. Mission; 20. Carry On

Personnel: Wright, alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones

Track Listing: 1. heaven; 2. elsewhere; 3. all place shall be nameless; 4. to the napping room; 5. to the crook of an elbow; 6. the apple of an eye; 7. the figure of a speech; 8. for broke; 9. in a circle; 10. or just away; 11. out

Personnel: Hersey, voice, Tibetan cymbals

Track Listing: 1. Atha; 2 – 10. Waking the Cobra: A Meditation on the Chakras; 11 – 17. The Conch Shell, the Wheel and the Sword; 18. Between Sthira and Sukha