Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Tyrone Hill Quartet: Out of the Box

174

Tyrone Hill Quartet: Out of the Box

By

View read count
Tyrone Hill Quartet: Out of the Box
Big bands have had a long history serving as spawning grounds for smaller jazz collectives. Leaders such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie encouraged their players to form into compact groups outside the needs of the larger bands. Curiously, unlike the rosters of other big bands such as the Ellington and Basie Orchestras, the Sun Ra Arkestra’s register rarely parsed down into smaller working combos, except when finances mandated that the entire band be reduced in size. There were rare occasions when members took gigs with other groups to pay the bills (John Gilmore’s short stints with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and Pat Patrick’s stay with Mongo Santamaria spring immediately to mind). But more often than not the rigorous and alluring demands of Ra’s ingenious arrangements coupled with erratically organized rehearsals precluded most band members’ cultivation of outside interests. With Ra’s passing the obligations and opportunities of touring decreased, lessening the time constraints of many of the players and necessitating the formation of smaller groups. This disc features four veteran tone scientists playing in homage to both Ra and to their own equally cosmic musical sensibilities. The denouement is a fascinating glimpse at what smaller Arkestra combos might have sounded like if they had been afforded the opportunity to record in earlier years.

Allen’s “Angels and Demons at Play” unravels across a deceptively simple bass/drums vamp. Whereas the original version of the piece (included on Ra’s album of the same name) was an illustration in brevity the reading here stretches out for nearly fourteen minutes. The extra space allows for plenty of stirring interplay between Hill and Allen and communicates a feeling of unencumbered exploration. Celestial’s “Galactic Dance” works off a similar rhythmic vamp supplied by Oettel’s spatulate string plucks, but is more subdued in sound until an unexpectedly roaring finish. Allen and Celestial sit out on “My One & Only Love” leaving Oettel and a plungered Hill to converse in an earthy bass register vernacular. “Journey to Birmingham” is a musical account of Hill’s visit to Ra’s grave site and is filled with extraterrestrial tonalities thanks to Allen’s flute and an undulating underpinning of bowed bass and cymbals. Allen also has an opportunity on this piece to work up a squealing sirocco of sound on his alto. The quartet’s interpretation of the Ra classic “Interstellar Lowways” is beautifully rendered in a wave of melancholic tone colors and Allen’s solo is particularly engrossing in it’s juggling of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ elements. Hill also solos at length and turns one of his finest improvisations of the session on this piece. “Lush Life” serves as an amazing chance to hear these four deconstruct a standard. Each of them seem to recognize and build upon the core elements that make the tune so memorable to begin with. Allen’s opening solo section sets the stage and the ensemble soon enters to follow in a similar suit. Considering the scarcity of sessions like this one anyone with an interest in the Arkestra and its members owes it to him or herself to seek this disc out. In doing so it’s possible to discover not only what might have been, but what will most certainly be as group’s like this one continue to record.

Track Listing

Angels & Demons At Play/ Galactic Dance/ My One & Only Love/ Journey to Birmingham/ Interstellar Lowways/ Your Guess Is As Good As Mine/ Lush Life/ Discipline 27.

Recorded:

June 30 & July 1, 1997, The Spirit Room, Rossie, NY.

CIMP recordings are available directly from North Country Distributors (http://www.cadencebuilding.com)

Personnel

Tyrone Hill
trombone

Tyrone Hill- trombone; Marshall Allen- alto saxophone; flute; Jason Oettel- bass; Samarai Celestial- drums.

Album information

Title: Out of the Box | Year Released: 2000 | Record Label: CIMP Records

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.