Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit: Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit

191

Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit: Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit

Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit: Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit
Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit takes free playing to its outer limits on this self-titled release, improvising the tunes in the studio and letting everyone's collective musical instincts work toward creating a coherent whole. Because the tunes were improvised during recording, the disc sounds closer to a live performance than a studio session, underscoring the concept.

The opening cut, "Nothing Purifies Like Fire, lets you know what to expect. This half-minute of frenetic interplay by reedman Steve Baczkowski and percussionist Ravi Padmanabha sounds like a thumbnail sketch of Interstellar Space. "Without Love We All Feel Sad showcases the horns of Baczkowski, altoist Mike Allard and trombonist Michael Hermanson. Allard plays something close to a standard bop melody toward the middle of the piece as the hordes of free jazz bray and buck against his conventionality. "Still Life With Meat begins slowly, with the reeds lowing and Padmanabha percolating on percussion. Things keep brewing until they come to a full boil, with the horns charging the air like ions and Padmanabha using all of the percussive effects at his disposal.

The longer pieces on this disc are played with bold atonality and a truckload of brio, but the shorter ones have the greatest impact. The solemn "Elegy For One Another (with Baczkowski overdubbed on bugle and bass clarinet) and the excellent "Sojourn No Troppo work not only because of their comparative brevity, but also because the improvisers follow something close to a structure and play heartily without trying to blow the studio away.

Track Listing

Part I: Nothing Purifies Like Fire; Termites Eat the Wind; Revolting Phantoms; Without Love We All Feel Sad; Elegy For One Another; The Smoke Makes You Cough; Sojourn Non Troppo; Oak Flesh; Part II: Still Life With Meat.

Personnel

Mike Allard: alto saxophone; Steve Baczkowski: tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, bugle; Michael Hermanson: trombone; Leif Ingvar Nicklas: contrabass; Ravi Padmanabha: drums, percussion.

Album information

Title: Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Realm of 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.

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.