Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » The All Ear Trio: Boiler

239

The All Ear Trio: Boiler

By

View read count
The All Ear Trio: Boiler
Although born in Denmark, the peripatetic John Tchicai has been a true citizen of the world in his forty-plus years of performing. He has resided in various parts of the globe and been a willing collaborator with everyone from West African drum ensembles to electronic mavens Spring Heel Jack. But periodically, he seems to go back to his native Denmark, renewing collaborations with old friends as well as playing with musicians several generations removed from his own. Drummer Peter Ole Jorgensen's relationship with Tchicai goes back to the late 1980s when Tchicai recorded an album with Jorgensen's band Clinch and saxophonist Thomas Agergaard recorded with Tchicai on the latter's 1999 album Moonstone Journey; these three formed The All Ear Trio. But added to the mix and making it a quartet is an old cohort of Tchicai's, American bassist Sirone, who now resides in Germany.

The program on Boiler is a mix of free improvs, originals by the group's members and a standard ("Alice In Wonderland ). It's a nicely varied group of pieces. Surprisingly, "Back Yard Trouble," which sounds like it could be an Ornette Coleman piece, is given a full-group accreditation indicating it's an improvisation. Tchicai's piece "Erik Momento is scored for a frontline instrumentation of flute (Agergaard) and bass clarinet. It's nice to hear Tchicai playing alto again, an instrument he all but abandoned around the early 1980s for the tenor. He and Agergaard mix well together and are easily distinguished from each other. Tchicai is known for a patented tart but lyrical sound; initial reaction might characterize it as fragile but deeper listening reveals its strength: tensile and flexible lines carved with assured strokes. It contrasts nicely with Agergaard's burly, fuller sound. Jorgensen is one of Denmark's finest drummers, as comfortable in his Wild Mans Band with Peter Brötzmann as he is with the more composed elements of a group like this. He and Sirone work well together, providing a solid yet flexible base for the frontline.

Boiler is a terrific record, successfully straddling the line between free improvisation and composition without selling either one short. And it contains some of the finest music recently made by a four-man trio.

Track Listing

Jasmine Morning; Alice In Wonderland; Rare Light Over Charm; Back Yard Trouble; La Musique; Conversation With Miss Cutie; Erik Momento; Crawling Spirit; All Things From The Garden; Snake Traffic; Chung's Palace; The April Gangster.

Personnel

John Tchicai: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, voice; Thomas Agergaard: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute; Peter Ole Jorgensen: drums, ballophone, percussion; Sirone: bass.

Album information

Title: Boiler | Year Released: 2008 | Record Label: Ninth World Music

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.

Near

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

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.