New-England based avant jazzmen Laurence Cook and Eric Zinman each have an impressive track record in improvisatory music. Laurence has played drums and percussion in a number of important ensembles over the years; Eric Zinman's pianism has been a central part of significant live and recorded dates.
For all that, one might nonetheless be unprepared for what happened when the two began working on a series of duets in 2009. The fruits of that collaboration can be heard on Double Action (Ayler 085). Eric plays on a Yamaha Stage Piano throughout; Laurence alternates between drums, percussion (including mallets) and a Casio keyboard. What you get with the increased timbral palette of this set-up is an almost orchestral ambiance. The two make maximal imaginative use of the wide variety of musical sounds available to create a series of sound poems, “free" yet the opposite of random; serious yet playful; self-determined yet almost selfless in their dedication to the ensemble whole. This is not your grandpop's bebop; it's not your dad's “free jazz" either, should you have had a free-jazz dad (I didn't, but I digress).
This is sound-color painting of an ingenious and musically stimulating sort. It has electronics and acoustics woven together in a fabric that dazzles with its colorful patterns yet can be “worn" frequently without aesthetic fatigue setting in. It is a tribute to their impressive musicality and imaginative timbral sensitivity. It is a bold statement of intent, a declaration of independence from rote repetition and an enslavened compulsion to repeat what has gone before.
So do I like this music, then? Yes, I most certainly do. If you are looking for something rather authentically “new" out there, Double Action is that. Bravo!
For all that, one might nonetheless be unprepared for what happened when the two began working on a series of duets in 2009. The fruits of that collaboration can be heard on Double Action (Ayler 085). Eric plays on a Yamaha Stage Piano throughout; Laurence alternates between drums, percussion (including mallets) and a Casio keyboard. What you get with the increased timbral palette of this set-up is an almost orchestral ambiance. The two make maximal imaginative use of the wide variety of musical sounds available to create a series of sound poems, “free" yet the opposite of random; serious yet playful; self-determined yet almost selfless in their dedication to the ensemble whole. This is not your grandpop's bebop; it's not your dad's “free jazz" either, should you have had a free-jazz dad (I didn't, but I digress).
This is sound-color painting of an ingenious and musically stimulating sort. It has electronics and acoustics woven together in a fabric that dazzles with its colorful patterns yet can be “worn" frequently without aesthetic fatigue setting in. It is a tribute to their impressive musicality and imaginative timbral sensitivity. It is a bold statement of intent, a declaration of independence from rote repetition and an enslavened compulsion to repeat what has gone before.
So do I like this music, then? Yes, I most certainly do. If you are looking for something rather authentically “new" out there, Double Action is that. Bravo!
