Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet: Emergence

Emergence, the latest album by the Texas-based Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet, is by and large chamber jazz, veering often into the realms of avant-garde and free improvisation. The standard of musicianship is high, the urge to listen a second time rather less so—an opinion that must be qualified by the admission that it expresses a neophyte's point of view.

The question thus becomes, what can be said about such an enterprise, given one's basic unfamiliarity with the genre? First, as noted, these half-dozen musicians are exemplary, regardless of the type of music they have chosen to play. Coke is splendid on saxophone or flute, Michel likewise on guitar. They are accompanied by concert harpist Elaine Barber, vibraphonist Carolyn Trowbridge, bassist James Suter and Bob Hoffnar on steel pedal guitar.

Coke and Michel each wrote four of the album's dozen themes, Hoffnar one. The others are by John Coltrane ("After the Rain"), Paul Motian ("Garden of Eden") and Valentin Silvestrov ("Bagatelle II"). Those authors should give a tangible clue as to sextet's frame of reference. It was noted earlier that Coke is splendid on saxophone; an exception is Michel's ballad "Presence," wherein Coke endeavors to make the tenor saxophone sound as displeasingly strident as humanly possible. While he may not reach that goal, he comes vexatiously close.

One point of interest: although the album was presumably recorded at a studio in Austin, midway through the closing number, Coke's country-flavored "Pop!," someone says "thanks for coming out tonight," announces the names of those in the ensemble, and asks for tips "for the wait staff." So there must have been an audience, even though its presence is inaudible.

What that audience heard was a free-spirited program of innovative jazz that included some respectable improvisation (usually by Coke or Trowbridge), occasional slices of melody and harmony, and a large helping of music that may best be described as exploratory or even atonal. Now that the course has been mapped out, pursuing and appreciating it is up to the listener. As advised, it is a matter of personal taste. The star rating reflects the reviewer's own lack of understanding.

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