WHIT DICKEY/TRIO
AHXOLOXHA
Prophet Moon
RITI
CD 006
TONE DIALING
Elektrodoki
Putting together
an improvising trio featuring saxophone and drums with guitar as the only
chordal instrument creates a combination rife with potential hazards.
Luckily Trio Anxoloxha includes Joe Morris, an inventive artisan, whose
skills encompass knowledge of bass and banjo techniques, while Tone Dialing
extends its musical menu with electronic attachments.
Ahxoloxha is a palindrome invented by its leader, drummer Whit Dickey
to describe how the group works together, balanced on all sides. Dickey,
whose experience encompasses the bands of pianist Matthew Shipp and tenor
saxophonist David S. Ware; and alto saxophonist Rob Brown, who has also
played extensively with Shipp and bassist William Parker, come to the
drummer's project from the core of New York's so-called ecstatic jazz
movement. Connecticut-based, Morris may not live near Ground Zero, but
much of his playing history is with similar experimenters there and in
Boston.
His separation may account for the CD's only drawback. Morris is such
an original player that his creativity outranks what comes from the other
two. Each is a fine musician, but unlike the guitarist, their solos fit
securely into the niche of what paradoxically could be described as traditional
experimental sounds.
More prosaically named, the Amsterdam-based Tone Dialing trio also seems
more evenly balanced. However like the division in Ahxoloxha, two of its
members are from one place, the third from elsewhere. Reedman Jorrit Dijkstra
has been an active Amsterdam improviser for almost 20 years. He has worked
with locals bandleader Willem Breuker and pianist Guus Janssen, as well
as American trumpeter Herb Robertson and Vancouver-based Talking Pictures.
Also from the Netherlands, Paul Pallesen often combines banjo and guitar
with electronics and works in folk-oriented groups as well as in improv
outfits with Dijkstra, pianist Cor Fuhler and others. Australian percussionist
Steve Heather arrived in Amsterdam from Melbourne in 1995. Since then
he used his drums, triggered samples and a junkyard full of percussion
in groups with Fuhler, soundsinger Jaap Blonk and violinist Jon Rose.
Dealing first with the five tracks recorded in the centre of the universe,
you find Dickey, Brown and Morris pursuing different stratagems over the
course of shorter or longer pieces. Oddly enough, although his tone appears
to be an amalgam of late bebop and Ornette Coleman, Brown's attack here
is reminiscent of the work of a non-sax-playing jazzer. Swing trumpeter
Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge -- who come to think of it did record
with Eric Dolphy and once jammed with Coleman -- always had a pugnacious
side to him, often expressed in a melodramatic, screechy tone. Although
a much more linear player, Brown's vibrato seems to head skywards with
the same regularity as "Little Jazz"'s, whether he's playing
a quasi-ballad like "Telling Moment" or exercising his reed
on the nearly 19-minute title track.
Beginning a cappella, Brown trills and smears his notes with a real fury,
moving ever upwards with shaking, renal squeals. Busy on snare and cymbals,
Dickey is unobtrusive however. Throughout the CD he never asserts himself,
although he wrote all the tunes. In contrast, Morris definitely sounds
like Morris, first constructing carefully emphasized fills and relying
on straightahead comping. His entire mid section output is constructed
in stop time, lazily appearing to move at half-speed as Brown huffs, puffs
and tries to blow the tune down around him.
Later on "Riptide" the fret man appears to be flat picking in
such a way as to tie a circular knot around Brown's histrionic tone. As
Dickey bangs out a few bass drum pedal accents and the saxophonist's playing
gets denser, Morris improvises in parallel lines that seem to progress
without crossing or melding with the others' sounds. Although at one point
he does produce chicken scratches at warp speed, most of time he's content
with single-note pinprick overtones, occasionally sliding into the space
beneath the bridge. This one and other tracks fade out as the three are
still playing, leading to the suspicion that conclusive endings were lacking.
On other CDs Morris has begun using acoustic bass, banjo and banjouke,
and while none of these instruments are present here, such techniques
as lower-paced rhythms or high-pitched flailing torque up his performances
on Prophet Moon.
Meanwhile, a continent away, Pallesen brings his banjo, plus guitar and
effects to Elektrodoki. It's all the better to mate with the sounds emanating
from Heather's percussion and sampler collection and Dijkstra's alto sax
and lyricon, an analog electronic wind synthesizer.
Both bizarre -- for improv at least -- axes get a workout as early as
track #1, with tremolo distortion and tongue slaps meeting stuttering
electronic fuzz and the intermittent pluck of bass strings. Lyricon-created
duck quacks vie with straight, theme-advancing lines, while effects allow
Pallesen to alternately showcase harsh, lofty electric guitar notes and
what appear to be high-frequency pressure fingering from an electric piano.
Sounding at times like he's rolling dice on his drum heads, Heather also
triggers samples from his kit, which produce paper crinkling tones and
percussion-like clatter. Lyric tones are smeared out by the sax man before
the ending, with a 30-second coda that replaces intermittent machine-like
buzzes with spacey floating tones.
While the sounds on other tracks suggest that a rock band -- or maybe
a highly electrified version of Aussie improvisers The Necks -- have made
it toouter space, most of the music is more earthbound. On track #5, for
example, the flailing tones of a tenor banjo meet manipulated lyricon
squeaks, as what sounds like the echoes of a chugging toy locomotive provides
the percussion element. Elsewhere the drummer smashes his cymbals with
blacksmith's strength, while what could be tones from manhandled chopsticks,
sea shells, garbage can lids and mushroom boxes are overlaid on corpulent,
funky electronic pulses. As finger picking emphasizes the guitar line,
the music builds up in intensity, appending lighter-than-air alto effects
and off-kilter, drum patterns. Before it ends with an intermittent buzz,
you hear chiming guitar lines and clinking synthesizer wiggles.
Another aural metaphor appears at the end of track #4 with what sounds
like a motor running down. Before that sharp metallic sounds -- from percussion
samples? -- chirping corkscrew twists -- from a reed? -- and pulsating
static resolve themselves into a simple beat.
Although merely LP length -- 34:09 -- this disc is worth investigating.
But one would hope Tone Dialing gets a larger scope to express its ideas
in future. As for Ahxoloxha, its CD will no doubt attract Morris fans.
Too bad his soloing couldn't have inspired the other trio members to more
inventive work.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing Prophet Moon: 1. The Word On The Street; 2. Prophet Moon;
3. Trial By Fire; 4. Riptide; 5. Telling Moment
Track Listing Elektrodoki: 1. #1 - 11:25; 2. #2- 3:44; 3. #3 - 1:19; 4.
#4- 5:15; 5. #5 - 8:05 -; 6. #6- 3:58
Personnel Prophet Moon: Rob Brown, alto saxophone; Joe Morris, guitar;
Whit Dickey, drums
Personnel
Elektrodoki: Jorrit Dijkstra, alto saxophone, lyricon, analog electronics
Paul Pallesen, guitar, banjo, effects; Steve Heather, drums, percussion,
sampler