Personnel:
Andrea Parkins (acc), Ches Smith (d), Mary Halvorson (g), Tim Berne (as), Tony Malaby (ts),
Though drummer Ches Smith has a penchant for christening his compositions with playfully oblique names, the name he chose for the title track of the second album by his band These Arches couldn’t be more straightforward. “Hammered” is relentless, pounding, fueled by a driving, recursive pulse that goads tense, urgent playing fromSmith’s quintet of master improvisers.
The piece is a vivid illustration of the precarious balance that Smith strikes between the worlds of avant-garde jazz and experimental rock. He’s in demand as the drummer for such forward-thinking jazz artists as Tim Berne, Darius Jones, Mary Halvorson and Trevor Dunn; and at the same time he’s provided the backbone for adventurous rock acts like Xiu Xiu and Secret Chiefs 3, not to mention uncategorizable hybrids between the two like Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog and Smith’s own Good For Cows.
Clean Feed
