Perch Hen Brock & Rain: Elegiacal

The quartet Perch Hen Brock & Rain invites you to linger longer with their sophomore release Elegiacal. Their request is reflected in the music they make which has an imperturbable feel about it. Elegiacal, recorded in 2018, follows Live @ The Jazz Happening Tampere (Relative Pitch Records, 2016) from a quartet tour in 2014. This second outing was captured in a studio after their second tour.

Perch Hen Brock & Rain is tenor saxophonist Ab Baars who also doubles on clarinet and shakuhachi, his Dutch partner violist Ig Henneman, plus the New York couple of tenor and soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Tom Rainey. Reflecting the success happy married partners possess, this ensemble has no leader, and this is discernible in the music. Being without a leader does not make the music rudderless. In fact, it creates a platform for more listening than talking by the musicians, which, by the way, is also an attribute of a successful marriage. Tracks such as "Kites," with stop/start explorations of sound, evidence the shared approach the quartet works within. Each player contributes, but moreover pauses continually for the others' contributios. It is as if each is holding a door open and inviting another to enter. The two reeds, Laubrock and Baars always complement and never clash, as do the colorists Rainey and Henneman.

"Walking Art" opens with scratchy viola and off-centere stick work by Rainey, followed by two saxophones exploring the fine edges of sound. Their one upper and one lower register approach builds with fuel from Rainey until both horns are indistinguishable. "Old West Blues" begins with an eerie folk-like viola played over Rainey's brushes before the energy of the quartet ramps up and saxophones are set free. The music returns, as it does throughout, to a quiet listening exercise by the players.