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a r t i s t : Michael Blake Trio
t i t l e : Right before Your Very Ears
d a t e : 2005
l a b e l : CleanfeedCD044
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : October/2005
t r a c k s : 09
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 80,6 MB
_______________________________________________________________________
Right Before Your Very Ears
Michael Blake | Clean Feed Records
By Michael McCaw
Opening with an overblown tenor sound that nearly causes your
stereo system to clip, Right Before Your Very Ears marks a
departure for Michael Blake, especially from his earlier
output. Recorded in Brooklyn following a European tour which
culminated at PortugalÆs Coimbra Jazz Festival, the album is
comprised entirely of first takes (save for ôFly With The
Windö) intended to force everyone into the moment and inspire
some of the magic often created in the sax trio format. The
results are decidedly rawer and carry an insurgent message of
established creative musicians pushing themselves.
Fellow Jazz Composers Collective co-founders Ben Allison and
Jeff Ballard round out the trio, demonstrating the rapport and
flow that they have cultivated during years of performances
and various recording projects, including AllisonÆs Medicine
Wheel and the Herbie Nichols Project. Throughout,
independently and collectively, the three have documented some
of the finest modern mainstream jazz in recent years. And
although the end result has a decidedly more freewheeling feel
than anything they have recorded together thus far, it is a
direct extension of their established rapport.
Dictating directions and rhythms, Allison is more
participatory and engaged in the flow of the improviser here
than he is normally on record. And while Ballard has recorded
in this format before (the expansive Fly, on Savoy), he too
sounds like he's exploring his space more than usual. No one
is in a comfort zone. Even on the more subdued performances,
like ôMt. Harissaö or ôCareless Love,ö listeners feel as if
they are in the momentùa credit to engineer Andy Taub.
ôCareless Loveö in particular shines with a feeling of
exuberance contained in ballad form. BallardÆs drums have a
dry kick to their sound, in contrast to BlakeÆs robust and
breathy tenor and AllisonÆs resonating tone. Midway through,
Allison and Ballard drop out from the blues figure, leaving
Blake and his tenor to exhort everything he can from the song
and formùin the same lineage as someone like Coleman Hawkins
or Ben Webster, but with his own voice.
The agitated ôFlipö opens up with Ballard and Blake working in
tandem through various phrases, eventually building them into
fragments of a theme with Blake playing with a throaty sound
of concerted effort and release. Meanwhile Allison emerges
from behind the two and fills the gaps between with vignettes
that bridge everything together. As they move into a less
stressed and more elongated mode, Blake and Allison take the
fore and create a dialogue that builds into the next section
of the performance. This is music that calls attention to
itself. Not because it is overbearing, but because the three
are listening to one another and responding in kind.
This recording is more than a simple saxophone trio album of
originals plus standard, the three cover territory that spans
a wide swath of modern jazz, developing a collective sound
derived from both sketches and open compositions. Right Before
Your Very Eyes is an interesting addition to the collective's
catalog and a very strong record.
_______________________________________________________________________
01-Run For Cover [05:31]
02-Funhouse [08:28]
03-Mt. Harissa [03:55]
04-Right Before Your Very Ears [05:51]
05-Flip [08:23]
06-Fly with the Wind [07:57]
07-San Francisco Holiday [05:34]
08-All of This Is Yours [06:39]
09-Careless Love [05:21]
-------
57:39 min