Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet: Apparent Distance

177

Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet: Apparent Distance

By

View read count
Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet: Apparent Distance
It is nearly impossible to stand far enough away from Taylor Ho Bynum's four-part suite, Apparent Distance, to take the entire piece in. It is both a thoroughly composed and an improvisational undertaking that swings as a conventional jazz sextet but challenges like a multi-directional chamber ensemble. Like Bynum himself, the music is not easily pigeonholed.

Drop your phonograph needle just about anywhere (never heard of this? ask your dad) onto the record and the focal point changes. From a slurry-blopping cornet solo to Tomas Fujiwara's mad drumming, the scene always adjusts. This outward disorder does though have a method, however. Bynum's history is the clue, and his apprenticeship with Anthony Braxton is perhaps the key. Like Braxton, he never feels restricted to the limiting term "jazz," in his recordings. Among his projects are his SpiderMonkey Strings ensemble, Positive Catastrophe (a Latin/free little big band), Thirteenth Assembly, various duos and trios, and the Convergence Quartet, with drummer Harris Eisenstadt, responsible for the brilliant Song/Dance (Clean Feed, 2010).

If Bynum had to be grouped with contemporaries, they would be Eisenstadt, saxophonist Steve Lehman, and fellow trumpeter Nate Wooley—all players that blur the lines between genres.

As Bynum's sextet lineup has changed from his previous discs—Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths (Hatology, 2008) andThe Middle Picture (Firehouse 12, 2007)—so, too, has his composing has been refashioned with these players in mind. This suite was written as if Bynum were selecting ingredients to bake a cake. Mary Halvorson's sound is perhaps the most distinct guitar sound in modern music today; her unique tuning both stirs the melodies and adds a shimmer to the pieces, coloring "Strike" with a balance shifting dissonance that lends a strange naturalness to the affair. Likewise saxophonist Jim Hobbs (Fully Celebrated Orchestra) and tubaist/bass trombonist Bill Lowe can accent the compositions or carry on untethered from the sextet.

Bynum's topsy but not turvy suite is accommodated and realized in a coherent manner by Fujiwara and bassist Ken Filiano, both given the task of corralling a piece that can shift from ungainly to clever in a split second. To define this music would require a room full of pigeonholes.

Track Listing

Apparent Distance Part I: Shift; Part II: Strike; Part III: Source; Part IV: Layer.

Personnel

Taylor Ho Bynum: cornet; Jim Hobbs: alto saxophone); Bill Lowe: bass trombone, tuba; Mary Halvorson; electric guitar; Ken Filiano: acoustic bass; Tomas Fujiwara: drums.

Album information

Title: Apparent Distance | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Firehouse 12 Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About 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 make 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.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves 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

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

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

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.