Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Tom Abbs: Lost & Found

379

Tom Abbs: Lost & Found

Tom Abbs: Lost & Found
It is possible to respond to Tom Abbs & Frequency Response's Lost & Found with eyes wide shut, ears completely unlocked and a body ready to leap up and dance to some of its eighteen randomly arranged musical fragments. There is a cerebral angle here, most likely deliberate on the part of the artist. It has to do with the arrangement of the fragments—the songs, that is. Some are inspired by visual images and intended to sound like aural depictions of those imagined images. Abbs refers to these as video graphic scores—presumably graphics generated to provoke musical interpretation—so that "Suspect" is suitably sinister, as Abbs' bass growls, while Brian Settles' tenor saxophone speaks in squeaks, Jean Cook's violin howls and Chad Taylor's drums rumble incessantly. "Consolation," "Box" and "Missing"—also musical interpretations from graphics—are no less inspiring.

And then there is the primary set of musical fragments. These are narrative structures and indeed they are like short vignettes; all fully formed song structures, each with a beginning and an end. Again, it would appear as though they were randomly arranged, but there clear evidence suggests the contrary. The opening "Lost," for example, is bracketed with the penultimate "Found," followed only by "Reflection," which appears to summarize the disc's entire musical expedition.

The entire minimalist exercise is reminiscent of an Edgard Varese journey. "Ionizations" jumps to mind, but to liken these to that path-breaking, memorable composition may be a tad presumptuous; then again, it may not be so, although Lost and Found is a musical journey similar to Varese's legendary piece. Each of the fragments is linked and exquisitely explores the edge of melodic invention, the elasticity of harmony and the maniacal polyrhythmic possibilities when each of the musical elements collides with the other. So, in the end, this is far from a desultory assortment of compositions strung together by the randomness of their interconnectivity. Rather this record works as an ambitious suite where the elemental tones and textures of musical notes and rhythmic invention intersect minimally to bring forth a work that can also make for a crazy "drunken body" dance.

It will be interesting, indeed, to see where Tom Abbs takes his imagination next.

Track Listing

Lost; Static; Torn; Suspect; Lock; Tidal; Parse; Consolation; Bars; Box: Cross; Pin Top; Pedestrian; Strung; Tightrope; Missing; Found; Reflection.

Personnel

Tom Abbs
bass
Brian Settles
saxophone, tenor
Jean Cook
violin

Album information

Title: Lost & Found | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: Engine Studios

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

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

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.