Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Jim Black: Dogs of Great Indifference

360

Jim Black: Dogs of Great Indifference

By

View read count
Jim Black: Dogs of Great Indifference
The fourth Winter & Winter studio release by Jim Black's longstanding AlasNoAxis group is, like its predecessors, remarkably consistent in delivery. The progressions the group makes at times are so subtle from one album to the next that the different recordings can seem interchangeable. But AlasNoAxis soldiers on as part of a brave new tradition, blending the contemporary sounds of indie rock and electronica with jazz improvisation into an organic and satisfying brew.

Black gained initial exposure in the early 1990s with the impressive Human Feel quartet, which featured Kurt Rosewinkel, Andrew D'Angelo and Chris Speed. All the founding members have since gone on to greater acclaim. Since disbanding, Chris Speed and Jim Black have remained core members of each other's groups; Speed's Yeah No most closely mirrors Black's own ensemble.

AlasNoAxis integrates current rock and electronica rhythms, bittersweet pop melodies, lush harmonies and open structures into an impressively seamless fusion. By modulating stock rhythms and altering conventional chord progressions with just a pinch of advanced jazz theory, the players elevate run of the mill structures into multi-layered, careening anthems that are both strident and reflective. Never pedestrian or dilettantish, Black knows the independent underground scene well enough to make crossover music that matters.

Black locks into propulsive, chunky rock groves, but with an ever so slight twist, just enough to keep the rhythm changes and meters fresh. Chris Speed eschews furious linearity and endless sheets of sound for soaring, plangent tenor sax lines which accent the highly melodic nature of the pieces. Dissonant, split-tone texture is used in place of rapid fervency when that kind of energy is required.

Guitarist Hilmar Jensson weaves gauzy, ECM-ish sheets of atmospheric sound during ethereal moments, but he can dirty it up like any Brooklyn-bound son, spraying waves of thick distortion and dropping fuzzy augmented power chords when the time is right. Skúli Sverrisson's bright-toned electric bass is the rhythmic and melodic fulcrum around which the ensemble gravitates, and his precise timing is the beacon that keeps them earthbound.

Black's group does not veer far from its previous sound or conceptual outlook on this release, but for those already swooning over the future of electro-acoustic improvisation, Dogs of Great Indifference is as good as contemporary "fusion" gets.

Track Listing

Oddfelt; Dogs of Great Indifference; Tars and Varnish; Spins So Free; Star Rubbed; Harmstrong; Everybody Says the Same; You Know Just Because; Desemrascar; Harmsoft; I Am Seven.

Personnel

Jim Black
drums

Jim Black: drums; Chris Speed: tenor sax; Hilmar Jensson: guitars; Sk

Album information

Title: Dogs Of Great Indifference | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Winter & Winter

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

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.