THE TRADITION TRIO
Tone
a l l
004


Once they develop facility on one instrument as adults, few musicians bother themselves with another. Oh, some may adopt a variation of their chief axe, like tenor saxophonists do with the soprano or bassists who also play cello, but with the dubious example of saxophonist Ornette Coleman's violin and trumpet forays, few attempt mastering instruments from another instrumental family.

There's New Yorker Daniel Carter, of course, who is equally proficient on all the saxophones and the trumpet and Toronto's Don Thompson whose abilities span piano, bass, vibes and drums. But pioneering free jazzer Alan Silva appears to be the one musician who has more-or-less abandoned playing the bass, with which he made his initial reputation with leaders like Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra, to devote his time to what he calls the "orchestral" synthesizer.

A composer, orchestrator and teacher, whose associations have ranged from the fire-breathing Frank Wright Quartet to the Globe Unity and Celestial Communication Orchestras, American-born Silva, 63, has spent most of the past 30 years in Paris. His interest in orchestral sound as it relates to multi-media installations led him to the synth, which he insists gives him as a soloist the colors, sounds and tones of an entire orchestra of instruments.

Thus the title of this CD, recorded live during 2001's Free Music Festival in Antwerp, Belgium is particularly apt. For if Silva, who could be termed a tone scientist, like his old boss Sun Ra, then he couldn't have found two better fellow researchers than trombonist Johannes Bauer and percussionist Roger Turner. Together 10 years as a trio, the three are working hard to extend the tradition.

Berlin-based Bauer has spent years playing with most open-minded continental improvisers including the Globe Unity Orchestra, Barry Guy's New Orchestra and with Belgium pianist Fred Van Hove. Londoner Turner, always seeks out new musical challenges like playing off British improvising vocalist Phil Minton in various groups, as well as being a member of Konk Pack with Austrian synthesizer player Thomas Lehn and British guitarist/saxophonist Tim Hodgkinson.

Concerned with the aggregate and variation of tones their instruments can produce, the three spin out one continuous 50-minute improvisation with peaks and valleys of speed and noise. Despite only relying on his lung capacity and physical movements -- as well as ideas -- Bauer's oral instrument often serves as the lead voice. He's first among equals, and as the piece builds up then diffuses, his guttural growls and brass multiphonics do more than the others to shape it.

Like a frisky puppy, much of his style, at least here, is based on attaching himself to a favorite note and then pulling it every which way until he has got the last ounce of nourishment out of it. Then he moves on to the next one, all the while constructing a thematic map. Meanwhile, Turner produces steady counterpoint, relying not so much on the regular parts of his kit but the scrape of maracas, sizzle of hand cymbals and rattle of hand bells and chains.

Muting the synth's kaleidoscopic tints that he initially tweaks and worries, Silva begins replicating electric piano lines and vibraphone shimmers, in the background, gradually fading to a ghostly continuum. Soon, Bauer is triple tonguing, multiplying the gritty smears into lazy, Jack Teagarden-like accents. As the drums rumble and shake and Silva creates horn-like crescendos, the trombone tone expands through dissonance, burrowing into his throat and tearing out small animal sounds. With brassy reverberations and whoops a philharmonic of diffuse smears and buzzes is next on show.

But that isn't the extent of his breath control, soon the instruments in his mouth appear to double as the single mouthpiece concentrated blowing in joined by Bauer simultaneously mumbling through his bell. With his nonsense syllables a collection of "dadas," you might say he has created "dada"-ist music. The trombone tone now begins to resemble those glottal blasts the Big Bad Wolf used to frighten the Three Little Pigs. Turner meanwhile is banging his sticks together creating a rhythm that sounds like cars speeding by on the Autobahn, while Silva produces ominous sounding orchestral runs.

This crescendo diminishes to tiny noise farts then echoing piano percussion from Silva's keyboard as cymbals produce a regular ringing, as if it was a level railroad crossing. Eventually, with constant brush strokes creating a electronic-like continuo in the foreground Turner sounds as if he's shining up his snare tops, Bauer stops whistling and japing inside the bell long enough to turn out some old-timey, plunger mute laughs and guffaws. Smeared outer space sounds reminiscent of Sun Ra's synthesizer repertoire arise from Silva, as the musical pace picks up and Turner showcases some this-side-of-bop drum rolls. Frenzied trombone tones meet the rattle and bounce of the drums and Silva starts spinning electric piano-like jazz vamps.

Everything comes to a head with a concluding section that finds the drummer banging his skins with simple strokes, fading synthesizer twists and Bauer modulating between whispering flutter tonguing and elephant snorts before all lapse into silence.

The finicky might quarrel with the name of this trio. Those open to evolution will hear how each man singularly, and all three together, extend the tradition.


-- Ken Waxman


Track Listing: 1. Tone


Personnel: Johannes Bauer, trombone; Alan Silva, orchestral synthesizer; Roger Turner, drums and percussion