Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Brian Groder: Groder & Greene

281

Brian Groder: Groder & Greene

By

Sign in to view read count
Brian Groder: Groder & Greene
Trumpeter Brian Groder has a talent for creating combinations of players to achieve certain musical outcomes. This instinct is especially important when the territory traversed is free jazz , where the mixtures of players are indispensable if the music is to be coherent. On Groder & Greene, the free jazz is indeed cogent and compelling.

This disc follows Torque (Latham Records, 2006), where Groder was paired with free jazz legend/octogenarian Sam Rivers. Here he invites Burton Greene, the Chicago jazzman turned 1960s avant-garde pianist to make music. Also heard is a who's-who of innovators, alto saxophonist Rob Brown, bassist Adam Lane, and drummer Ray Sage.

With eight group improvisation and just one composition, Greene's "Can You Thropt The Erectus?," the expectations might be for chaotic, shambolic music. But this music is nothing of the sort. The group interplay tends toward coherent statements and organized, at least for free improvisation, tracks. This band's music crystallizes into fully formed conceptions.

Greene's welcomed piano is playful, melodic, often plink-planking notes that grab the attention. The funky "Nigh" opens to the nodding pulse as the players each add their voice to the groove, playing the straight-man to the often comic one-liners passed between saxophone and trumpet. The piece seems to decompose with the dancing notes of Greene just as the locomotion halts and the music opens to the multiple possibilities. It's these interfaces that make this a complete album. Groder's muted trumpet glides over Sage's stuttering drum solo on "Surmised Wink" before Brown enters playing a tribute to Ornette Coleman. The band splits into combinations elsewhere, like "Amulet"—a piano/bass/drums trio more inside the piano, on the drum kit and over the bass strings—or, perhaps, the album highlight, a duo between Groder and Greene on "Cryptic Means," a stellar example of tension-and-release in free improvisation. Greene coaxes Groder, then cuts the current, turning the edge into reflection. It is pure magic.

Track Listing

Landfall; Only The Now; Seperate Being; Amulet; Cryptic Means; Nigh; Hey Pithy, Can You Thropt The Erectus?; Surmised Wink; Sleepwalker.

Personnel

Brian Groder
trumpet

Burton Greene: piano; Brian Groder: trumpet, flugelhorn; Rob Brown: alto saxophone; Adam Lane: bass; Ray Sage: drums.

Album information

Title: Groder & Greene | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: Latham Records

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

What Was Happening
Bobby Wellins Quartet
Laugh Ash
Ches Smith
A New Beat
Ulysses Owens, Jr. and Generation Y

Popular

Eagle's Point
Chris Potter
Light Streams
John Donegan - The Irish Sextet

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.