MATT WILSON
Humidity
Palmetto
PM-2089
After a while, it's embarrassing to keep repeating it, but Matt Wilson
has emerged as one of the most accomplished -- if not the most accomplished
-- inside/outside drummer of the 21st century.
Wilson, whose inside credentials include membership in mainstream pianist
Bill Mays' trio, and whose outside work includes being a part of the experimental
Jazz Composers' Collective, demonstrates once again on his own discs that
he can switch effortlessly from the cerebral to the demonstrative. Humidity
provides 12 sizzling examples of this.
Appropriately enough, he begins this CD with a salute to the late Billy
Higgins, another jazzman whose versatility allowed him to play on alto
saxophonist Ornette Coleman's first earth-shattering LPs, then turn around
and record the funkiest Blue Note sessions. Informed by Coleman's unique
sense of rhythm, "Thank You Billy Higgins," written by Wilson
like all others but three here, suggests a pastiche of Ornette's early
compositions. On it Wilson emulates the foot-tapping, shuffle rhythm of
Higgins, a drummer whose playing he said he experienced as a "life
changing experience."
Another track that will soothe the traditionalists, is the band's more
than 61/2-minute version of Tadd Dameron's bop classic, "Our Delight."
Given an amiable, ambling beat from Wilson's cymbals and door knocking
rim shots, at times you'd swear the drum work comes from Ur-bopper Roy
Haynes. Although the horns play off one another's lines, alto man Andrew
D'Angelo and tenor saxist Jeff Lederer aren't afraid to add some non-boppish
slurs and altered notes to the tune.
The composition follows another exercise in modern traditionalism, Lederer's
arrangement of McHugh-Fields' "Don't Blame Me." On top of conventional
plucked bass and restrained drumbeats, the head is advanced with screechy
alto split tones that meet shakes and flutter tonguing from the deeper
tenor saxophone.
"Free Willy" is a pulsating freeboppish D'Angelo line that sounds
like would have happened if some New Thingers had infiltrated the 1960s
Jazz Messengers. Performed staccatissimo, it has the horn men howling
at the skies before, as per the tradition, trading fours. Yosuke Inoue's
walking bass and Wilson's rolling rhythms keep things on an even keel.
Although there are as many allusions here to standards and Ellingtonian
color as out-of-the-ordinary rhythms and World sounds, the Wilson coterie
shouldn't be mistaken for one of those retreading neo-con combos, however.
One of the drummer's tunes for instance, is inspired by the poetry of
Carl Sandburg; a couple of others wouldn't exist, except for the extended
playing techniques and compositional emancipation brought to the music
by free jazz.
Several compositions, especially those that add trumpeter John Carlson,
trombonist Curtis Hasselbring and violinist Felicia Wilson to the basic
quartet, are even artier. The title tune, for instance, manages to combine
a finger-snapping beat with an overall theme that swirls about just this
side of cacophony. Finally it's brought to fruition with ringing chimes,
plunger trombone lines, a single-lined contralto clarinet part, legit
violin tones and triple time drumming.
"Raga," despite its title, combines intimations of Peking opera,
a Brazilian beat and a short South Asian measure. Beginning with clanking
gongs, the theme advances with a sour sounding alto tone and single, powerful
cymbal crack. Although every quartet members may be shaking hand bells,
this is yet another foot tapper, with the theme wiggling from Far Eastern
to Klezmer territory first from the massed horns, then from Wilson's kit.
Setting up some jazzy, raga-like bounces, Wilson also gives Inoue scope
for some sawing and sliding arco work.
Humidity is another hot platter from Wilson & Co. that should please
jazzbos of every school. Right now, with all his pliability and talent,
though, it seems that the only challenge left for the drummer is to make
a CD of completely free music.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing: 1. Thank You Billy Higgins; 2. Swimming in the Trees*@%;
3. Cooperation; 4. Free Willy; 5. Wall Shadows; 6. Raga; 7. Code Yellow;
8. Humidity+@%; 9. Don't Blame Me; 10. Our Delight; 11. All My Children;
12. Beginning Of A Memory%
Personnel: John Carlson, trumpet*, pocket trumpet+; Curtis Hasselbring,
trombone@; Andrew D'Angelo, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, handbells;
Jeff Lederer, tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet and handbells; Felicia
Wilson, violin%; Yosuke Inoue, bass and electric bass, handbells; Matt
Wilson, drums, percussion, chimes, Univox, handbells