A Pouting Grimace is the audacious new release from pianist/composer Matt Mitchell, whose prior release Vista Accumulation
(Pi 2015) The New York Times calls “a bold signature” that “simmers
with deep intensity.” Not only is he one of the most in-demand pianists
in jazz – Mitchell plays in bands such as Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, Steve
Coleman’s Natal Eclipse, the Dave Douglas Quintet, John Hollenbeck’s
Large Ensemble, Jonathan Finlayson’s Sicilian Defense, Rudresh
Mahanthappa’s Birdcalls, and David
Binney’s Quartet -- he has established himself as a composer of bold
distinction. Substantial in scope, the album, which features twelve
musicians: five woodwinds, four percussionists, harp, bass, and the
leader on piano, Prophet 6, and electronics, weaves an intricate web of
off-kilter rhythms and logical frenzy. Produced by the acclaimed
guitarist/composer David Torn,
the work is completely beyond genre, a daring tour de force that
headily mines the interstice between precision-plotted compositions and
the thrill of improvisation.
Highly
regarded among the jazz cognoscenti, Mitchell is a first-call for
musicians seeking a pianist able to deal with the most demandingly
complex material. He is a charter member of saxophonist Tim Berne’s
Snakeoil, who just released their fourth album, Incidentals, and Mitchell also interpreted Berne’s compositions on FØRAGE, released earlier in 2017. He also appears on Morphogenesis (Pi
2017), the latest from saxophonist Steve Coleman, who said of Mitchell:
“Matt possesses a technical command of his instrument and ear for tonal
resources that only a few keyboardists in New York have. I appreciate
his open and creative attitude towards music, which he never approaches
in terms of categories or styles. He’s a great example of the
21st-Century musician: versed in the musical lessons of the past,
present, and poised to help
move the development of this music forward.” Percussionist Dan Weiss,
who played on Vista Accumulation and has worked extensively
with Mitchell said: “He is a rare breed of musician in that he has no
leaks. His improvising is true and creative, his composing is
innovative, his technique is astounding.”
The
intrepid new release takes Mitchell’s music to a whole other level,
featuring ensemble pieces that burst with intricate detail interwoven
with solo electronic interludes. The idea was borne out of his desire to
try composing music with a fresh instrumental palette, one heavy on the
convoluted interlocution between the various woodwinds and percussion.
Each of the group compositions is
derived from a kernel of an idea – listen carefully and you can probably
figure it out. While entirely plotted out, the compositions leaves room
for frequent and varied layers of improvisation, all in service of the
overall arrangements. Dan Weiss says of the project: “This music is very
important to the lineage of composed/ improvised music. The orchestral
palette, harmonic nuance, rhythmic precision and complexity, and
hauntingly beautiful textured melodies make this recording highly
innovative and unlike anything we've have heard before.”
Producer
Torn describes his experience: “As the project proceeded, there grew
out of all-that an increasingly strong undercurrent and vivid sense of
wonder, dread and simple excitement in me, even, eventually... awe: awe,
in light of both Matt's clear vision actually getting birthed into this
world and our real adventure with its passage. What a
remarkably rich piece of work this is, from a truly remarkable man,
bending music, sound and time -- so gorgeously and so necessarily
idiosyncratically -- in order to speak and feel true and affect thusly,
as he must certainly gotta do."
|
Musicians, instrumentation and exegesis in Mitchells own words:
1. bulb terminus [1:11]: Mitchell (electronics) - thrust
into a dream like state, an encoded prequel to the main event which is
its own curious event/environment, you think you’re stuck then you’re
whisked away
2. plate shapes [8:12]:
: Mitchell (piano, Prophet 6); Cass (bass); Gentile (drums,
percussion); Smith (vibraphone); Brennan (marimba); Irabagon (sopranino
sax); Schoenbeck (bassoon) -- exploration of varying momentums
within a fixed grid, repetition breeds semi-familiarity, entire
paragraphs uttered simultaneously, mutating mantras
3. mini
alternate [5:32]:
Mitchell (piano); Cass (bass); Gentile (drums, percussion); Smith
(tanbou, glockenspiel); Robinson (bass sax); Kono (oboe); Weiss (tabla)
--a slice from brim, inverted and gridlocked, the illusion
of forward motion really coming from circular motion, attempts to rescue
ultimately fall back into the centripetal motion, concluding with a
zoom in or out
4. brim [6:50]:
Mitchell (piano); Cass (bass); Gentile (drums, percussion); Brennan
(vibraphone); Smith (bongos, glockenspiel, timpani); Weiss (tabla);
Andrews (harp); Webber (flute); Kono (oboe); Irabagon (soprano sax);
Schoenbeck (bassoon); Robinson (contrabass clarinet); Sorey (conductor)
-- the primordial genetic broth of the whole record, everything on
all other tracks generated from the material here. associations with
multiple definitions of brim intended; margins and the sense of overflowing; palimpsest, chant, kaleidoscope
5. deal sweeteners [1:27]: Mitchell (electronics) -- an electronic brim-based bonus gloss to close out the first half, an attempt to explain that fails to explain
6. squalid ink [0:15]: Mitchell (electronics) -- half remembering what came before and presaging what is to come in a jumbled last gasp of the old guard
7. gluts [4:28]: Mitchell (piano); Cass (bass); Gentile (drums, percussion); Webber (alto flute); Schoenbeck (bassoon); Andrews (harp) -- a ballad, an attempt to lovingly massage an unusual density of information into lyrical spaces…two trios eventually
coming together, false starts/false endings
8. heft [4:16]: Mitchell (piano, Prophet 6); Cass (bass); Gentile (drums, percussion); Robinson (bass sax); Irabagon (sopranino sax) -- a foreboding processional, an ill-meaning weight, a portent coming to pass, a quizzical aftermath
9. sick fields [9:11]:
Mitchell (piano); Cass
(bass); Gentile (drums, percussion); Brennan (marimba); Smith
(percussion, timpani); Weiss (table); Andrews (harp); Webber (bass
flute); Kono (English horn); Robinson (contrabass clarinet); Sorey
(conductor) -- inexorable and inscrutable, a severely fragmented
space containing broken mis-remembrances of what has come, failed
attempts to find solace, dissipation, evaporation, more false starts,
resignation
10. ooze interim [5:07]: Mitchell (electronics) -- a zero gravity reminiscence of the final moments, mutated thought loops overlapping nonsensically temporarily to infinity
|
|
|
|
