Ian Carey: Strange Arts

Wood Metal Plastic is a septet that consists of a jazz quartet (trumpet, alto saxophone, bass, drums) and three-member string section presided over by San Francisco Bay area-based trumpeter Ian Carey, who wrote and arranged the material on his seventh album as leader, Strange Arts. It was recorded as a tribute to Carey's father, the innovative visual artist Philip Carey, who died in 2022.

Aside from Carey, those in the quartet are alto Kasey Knudsen, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer John Arkin. The strings are Mia Bella d'Angelli and Alisa Rose (violin) and Jessica Ivry (cello). The bulk of the album is devoted to Carey's five-movement "Set for 7." For reasons unknown, another of his compositions, "Sink/Swim," is inserted between the first and second movements of the suite, following the opening "Chorale" and preceding "Ostinato," "Nocturne for Solo Violin," "Unforeseen (CGBG)" and the closing "Alien Anthropology."

This could be called chamber jazz were it not for the fact that Carey and his teammates wander rather far afield on most numbers, into the realms of declension, dissonance and free jazz. That is neither good nor bad, only different. It is for the listener to decide whether or not to embrace it. There is some lovely music to be heard—especially on the romantic "Nocturne"and empyrean "Unforeseen" (at whose core is a mellow trumpet/alto duet)—and it should be noted that everyone in the ensemble is an accomplished musician.

Having said that, it is clear that free jazz is an acquired taste, one to which not every palate is adapted, a keynote that must be taken into consideration. For example, the closing "Alien Anthropology" starts in a bebop vein (even though slightly revised) but soon devolves into something more in keeping with Carey's frame of mind, which is rather akin to every man for himself (within limits, of course). Some listeners may derive pleasure from that, while others may choose to cover their ears. It is a matter of taste and experience.

Whatever the reaction, Carey and his companions have a game plan, one they approach with ardor and efficiency. While not everyone may accept and appreciate the result, they have accomplished what they set out to do, and that is admirable.