Miles Okazaki: Thisness

A guitarist as freakishly talented as Miles Okazaki demands a listener's full attention. This is the case whether one is parsing his fiendishly complex compositions, or beholding his astonishing technique, or simply taking in all the shifting meters and grooves that permeate his music. From the remarkably ambitious Work (Volumes 1-6), his self-released solo document in 2018 of the complete works of Thelonious Monk, to his recent albums with his Trickster quartet, like Trickster (Pi Recordings, 2017) or The Sky Below (Pi Recordings, 2019), there's never a sense that Okazaki is taking anything for granted or coasting; his musicianship always displays consummate thoughtfulness and dedication to craft. It is certainly "work" for Okazaki, and sometimes it may feel that way for the listener as well— although one of the things that makes Thisness so compelling is that the music it offers is so engaging and accessible, one can appreciate it without having to fathom the esoterica behind its construction.

Some of Okazaki's most important contributions as a sideman have been to Steve Coleman's various projects, most recently on the superb Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (Pi Recordings, 2018). Coleman's music can also be conceptually difficult, but the triumphant grooves at its core always outweigh its more challenging aspects, and it is clear that Okazaki has followed a similar path here, helped to no small degree by Coleman's unparalleled rhythm unit of bassist Anthony Tidd and drummer Sean Rickman, both of whom have played on all of Okazaki's Trickster albums. Tidd and Rickman have a preternatural ability to intuit and adapt to quick transitions, as well as a seemingly unlimited repertoire of rhythmic motifs, so they are perfectly suited for both the intricacies and the grooves at the heart of Okazaki's music. Keyboardist Matt Mitchell is another crucial component, with his own combination of conceptual sophistication and technical brilliance, and a willingness to follow the fluid contours of Okazaki's compositions wherever they might lead.

One of the immediately noticeable qualities of Thisness is that the music "breathes." Unlike the earlier Trickster releases, which had shorter, concentrated pieces and a plenitude of discrete ideas, here we have just four tracks, about ten minutes each, and their evolution feels fundamentally organic. In the liner notes Okazaki discusses his goal of taking an "exquisite corpse" approach to the music's creation, bringing in ideas that could be altered and reconfigured during the playing of each piece. As he puts it, "The borderlands are where the Trickster hangs out, the undefined space where logic dissolves and creativity thrives." The beauty of the music is found precisely in those points of indeterminacy, the places where the next transition unfolds.

The track titles are taken from Sun Ra's poem "The Far Off Place," each one from a different line—and they are better seen as parts of a whole than as distinct creations, especially given the music's shape-shifting essence, where one idea flows into the next almost seamlessly, with multiple transitions within each track. The expansive opening of "In Some Far Off Place," with Okazaki's acoustic guitar floating above the lilting pulse of the band, soon becomes something more hard-edged, with Tidd and Rickman generating the first of the album's many grooves, and with Okazaki bringing in his electric guitar overdubbed alongside the acoustic one to heighten the thematic contrast. "Years in Space" gets funky right at the outset, built at first around a repeated descending phrase from Okazaki complemented wonderfully by Mitchell before Rickman starts breaking up the rhythm and a rock-inflected section emerges, leading Mitchell into a scintillating dialogue with Okazaki.

The complexity of the music never wanes, and if one wants to pause to analyze it there are certainly opportunities to do so. Dissecting the intricate passages in "I'll Build a World" could keep a person busy, as well as trying to figure out how Mitchell and Okazaki can remain in perfect sync while playing them. Okazaki himself might at times be just a bit too clever in employing his "robots," computer-generated sounds that add texture—and perhaps unnecessary distraction—at various moments in each of the tracks. But in the end, with this band it will always be possible to stop thinking and simply enjoy the music, and Thisness may offer the best opportunity yet for it.

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