Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Bad Luck: Two

118

Bad Luck: Two

By

View read count
Bad Luck: Two
When Bad Luck comes in the shape of drummer Christopher Icasiano and saxophonist Neil Welch, it can be a pretty good thing. They met at the University of Washington and, driven by an interest in improvised music, began a musical partnership. Both are fearless navigators of the unknown and communicate with an intuitive sense of empathy. Their music takes them across a wide panorama, over which they forge acoustic unions or use electronics to expand the dimension,all aspects given free rein on the two-disc Two. Either way they have something interesting to say.

The first disc, Bats, has seven improvised tracks that run for just over 43 minutes, culled from a six-hour recording session. Welch sticks to his saxophones, often unleashing a fiery fusillade of spirals. He holds nothing back when imposing a welter of sounds in ramped-up intensity, or in a seemingly forlorn cry. His freewheeling excursions are well met by Icasiano, who is no slouch as he churns out a whirling bed of rhythm. To give unfettered rein without vision would be pushing the boundaries out of focus. Welch balances his thrusts with the heavy barrages countermanded by a more calculated advance that serves to give the music a greater presence and power. This works particularly well on "Flare" and "Salt," the latter actually carrying a discernible melody.

Josephine, the second CD, opens the door to more instruments, a greater reference to melody, and quite a contrast in mood. The glockenspiel casts a crystal sound on "Hourglass" before it is met in soft interweaving by the bass clarinet. Welch articulates "Friend & Foe" with feeling, as he lingers on the beautiful melody, adding occasional grain as he breaks the line before folding it in a soft blanket. Icasiano makes it all the more germane, playing the beat against the grain in this top-notch offering. The rest of the music stirs different embers, from the quicksilver lines of "Two" to the initial expansive silence of "Singing Bowl" that finds the reason for its existence in the gradual dawning of sound.

Bad Luck frees up a lot of ideas and spins them into appealing tales.

Track Listing

CD1 (Bats): Sunbeam; Glacier: Flare; Salt; Bats; Mud; Lure. CD2 (Josephine): Hourglass; Friend & Foe; Josephine; Two; True North; Menagerie; Singing Bowl; Architect.

Personnel

Bad Luck
band / ensemble / orchestra

Christopher Icasiano: drums, glockenspiel; Neil Welch: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, singing bowl, live loops, effects.

Album information

Title: Two | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Table and Chairs Music

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.