NAKED ON
THE FLOOR
Naked on the Floor
Valid Records
VR1010
THE NAKED ORCHESTRA
Brief Repairs on the Gradually Unravelling Spool in the Sense Continuum
Naked Orchestra
Outside of New Orleans, guitarist Jonathan Freilich is best known as a
co-founder of the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, a truly polyglot ensemble
whose former members went on to form the highly successful neo-funk band
Galactic. These discs by Freilich’s big band, The Naked Orchestra,
and a subset of Orchestra members that Freilich calls Naked On The Floor,
demonstrate that some musical risks are actually being taken within the
confines of the Big Easy: a oppressively conservative city when it comes
to music, despite its party-down reputation.
The Orchestra disk, actually a couple of years old at this writing, is
Freilich’s debut as a leader. If you make the mistake, as I did,
of reading the very extensive liner notes (by Freilich, James Walsh, and
local writer / fan David Kunian) you would expect the music to be a bizarre
synthesis of Sun Ra and Schoenberg. At first I was underwhelmed. Yes,
the solos were quite good (individual soloists are not credited), but
Freilich’s compositions rambled on like a streetcorner preacher.
Rather careful (or careworn) moderate tempos predominate, dynamics are
underemphasized, and the ensemble work is a bit ragged (particularly on
the opening track). I returned to “Brief Repairs…” after
being thoroughly tickled by the Naked on the Floor disk (see below), and
my impression of Freilich’s larger-scale work was much more positive.
Though the liners cite Sun Ra (repeatedly), Frielich’s (and conductor
James Walsh’s – he composed the disk’s most interesting
piece, Memories of Illegal Music) most audible influences are Frank Zappa
and Charles Mingus. Freilich’s preference for chunky rhythms and
oddly harmonized low brass (bari sax, sousaphone, bass trombone) and high
reeds (soprano sax, flute, piccolo) is reminiscent of Zappa’s early
70s orchestral scores (The Grand Wazoo, Waka / Jawaka). Walsh and Freilich
utilize Klezmer and other Judaic influences in much the same way that
Mingus used Southern gospel and Negro Spiritual forms: to convey musical
ecstasy.
To his credit, Freilich’s compositions utilize a wide range of moods
and orchestral colors, and he doesn’t hog the solo spotlight by any
means. My favorite piece, however, is Walsh’s original, Memories
of Illegal Music. Walsh’s musical concepts are much darker and more
dissonant than Freilich’s, and his use of shifting rhythmic tensions
is a refreshing break from Freilich’s relentlessly linear rhythmic
sense. Whoever solos on Memories does a helluva job, as well. Brief Repairs…
is one of those CDs whose charms are pretty much balanced by its flaws.
Freilich (and Walsh) deserves kudos for having the cojones to propose
such a grandiose project as his solo debut. He almost pulls it off.
Six members of the Naked Orchestra comprise Naked on the Floor. Again,
I was a bit underwhelmed at the outset. The first track, which Freilich
informs the avid liner-note reader as being in an augmented Jewish Freygish
mode, sounds merely like an interpolation between Well You Needn’t
and Night In Tunisia. The subsequent pieces are quite a bit more remarkable.
The lone composition revisited from the Naked Orchestra CD, The Semitic
Problem, is a funky dirge that benefits from less clutter and an excellent
tenor solo by Tim Green that breaks down into a proto-free duet with Freilich’s
madcap guitar before morphing into a Klezmer ride for trombonist Rick
Trolsen. “Possible Reflections” is a jaunty, toy-like march
that falls apart and gets reassembled in unexpected ways – first
by Singleton and Trolsen duetting both unaccompanied and over insistent
drums and guitar – then by the composer himself, manic and fervent
over a hilariously stumbling rockish beat. By contrast, the staccato tutti
of “Cultural Confusion” speeds up, but does not crumble. The
theme is followed by truly first rate collective improvising (this time
by Trolsen and Green) over free-ish bass / drums / guitar. The rest of
the CD balances muscular free jazz (Fears Dress in the Subconscious),
delicate Latinesque moodiness (The Little One), and a subtly funky take
on Italian film scores (Reward…).
As a guitar soloist, Freilich possesses a unique and readily identifiable
voice. This is a rare thing to be able to say about an electric guitarist
these days! He totally shuns electronic gimmicks, preferring to generate
a surprisingly broad sound palette by radically varying his attack and
volume. One of his favorite tricks is a rapid-fire flamenco-like strumming
with both hands going crazy up and down the guitar’s neck –
a stunt previously used to great effect by avant-gardeners such as Eugene
Chadbourne and Billy Jenkins. Freilich’s solos never seem to follow
a script - he may feature swift jazzy single note runs, Jim Hall-like
backhanded lyricism, and rockabilly parody, as well as any number of wildman
antics, all in quick and decisive succession. Other points of stylistic
reference for Freilich the improvisor could be James Blood Ulmer, Kelvyn
Bell, Sonny Sharrock (Black Woman / Monkey Pockie Boo-era), and Scotty
Moore, though he’s more his own man than any list of possible influences
could ever indicate.
The sextet’s other main soloists are multi-reedman Tim Green, a New
Orleans resident who has worked extensively with Dennis Gonzalez, and
trombonist Rick Trolsen. Green is an extremely skilled modern jazz player,
and seems to enjoy playing the straight-man to Freilich’s more outré
stylings, though he can really get out there when he wants to. Trolsen
has a big burry tone that reminds me a bit of Michael Vlatkovitch, though
he’s a bit more conservative in his approach to improv. James Singleton
might just be the most underrated bassist in jazz today. He is a complete
badass on this disc: all swinging, conversational lines and flowing, horn-like
arco. Drummer Diflorio has an appealingly relaxed feel and a devilish
penchant to go off on strange Joey Baron-like rhythmic tangents during
his fills.
Naked
on the Floor is one of those rare CDs that manages to be multi-kulti without
forgetting to swing hard, flakily adventurous while being as serious as
your life, and totally outside though still in the pocket. Find it and
buy it!
--Dave Wayne
Track Listing Naked on the Floor: 1. Jonathan Freygish; 2. Possible Reflections;
3. Cultural Confusion; 4. The Semitic Problem; 5. Fears Dress In the Subconscious;
6. The Little One; 7. Reward for Big Man Morricone
Track
Listing Brief Repairs on the Gradually Unravelling Spool in the Sense
Continuum): 1. Nicholas Slonimsky’s Freedom Mambo Jazz Dance Party;
2. Brief Repairs on the Gradually Unravelling Spool in the Sense Continuum;
3. Sunny’s Late Night Hammer; 4. Memories of 22 Dartmouth Road; 5.
The Semitic Problem; 6. Well… Whatever!; 7. Memories of Illegal Music;
8. The Theme: Red Bathed In Blue Light, A Clean Romance But Not Quite
Personnel Naked on the Floor: Jonathan Freilich – guitar; Rick Trolsen
– trombone; Tim Green – saxophone; James Singleton – bass;
Mark Diflorio - drums
Personnel
Brief Repairs on the Gradually Unravelling Spool in the Sense Continuum:
James Walsh – conductor; Tim Green, Janna Sastaw, Doug Miller, Hart
McNee, Brent Rose, Scott Bourgeois, Joe Cabral – reeds; Michael Ray,
Eric Lucero, Antonio Gambrel – trumpet; Rick Trolsen, Jeff Albert
– trombone; Matt Perrine – sousaphone; James Singleton, Brady
Kish – bass; Mark Diflorio – drums; Jonathan Freilich - guitar