CD Review: Anna Webber - Idiom

Anna Webber
Idiom

(Pi) www.pirecordings.com

The term "extended technique" pops up on this blog often (hopefully not too excessively). It describes a non-traditional approach to getting sounds out of an instrument. Noticeable examples include a trumpet player getting some sub-basement tuba growls on the horn or a saxophonist creating some banshee wails beyond the high F key (where the range of all saxophones, in the formal sense, end). But extended technique can be used in more subtle ways too, such as the use of alternate fingering on an instrument, which creates buzzes or microtonal shifts in pitch.

As a fan of untethered free improv, I can get into sounds created this way - most of the time. A while back, I explored an album by two trumpeters going at it whole hog, growling, whispering, splatting and generally sounding a little flatulent, and I had to turn it off after a quick preview of a few tracks. It was probably the moment, but it sounded like a free jazz equivalent to metal hammering on the fretboard and it soured me on the idea for a while. 

Saxophonist/flutist/composer Anna Webber based all of Idiom on specific extended techniques played on woodwinds. One of the pieces, "Idiom II," appeared on her 2019 album Clockwise. The other five pieces appear here, along with interludes. Once again, there are moments that feel pretty jarring but the forward motion of music pulls you in even when things feel tense.

The first of the two discs features Webber in a trio with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer John Hollenbeck. "Idiom I" kicks things off with Webber's flute playing a rapid 7/8 ostinato which makes her breathing technique alone impressive. While the riff alone could be a bit much, the fascination lies in the way things keep shifting underneath it and the way the trio seems to volley the seven-note line around.

By contrast "Idiom IV" sounds spare, at least initially.. Mitchell plinks alone for 96 seconds before Webber enters with a single buzzing tenor note. Just shy of the three minute mark, the trio launches into an angular piece with Webber playing a series of lost notes. When Hollenbeck breaks away, it sounds like an extension of the tenor sounds. 

Running order is crucial on Disc One. Heard in numerical order the Idioms might sound similar in pitch, but Webber scrambles the set, breaking from the program with "Forgotten Best." The center track sounds the closest to a pure "jazz" piece, at times sounds like a ballad but never long enough settle easily into that, or any description. Like everything else, the point seems to be to keep the sounds flowing. "Idiom III" highlights several static techniques on tenor, with rhythms providing the variations. As Mitchell hammers on the lower end of the piano - and adding striking colors at the opposite end - it rocks, sounding much larger than a trio.

A 12-piece ensemble, of jazz musicians and new music players, join Webber on Disc Two to play "Idiom VI," a piece broken into six movements, with four interludes. With brass, reeds, strings, bass, drums and a synthesizer joining the leader (on tenor, flute and bass flute) dissonant clusters of sound bounce around, What sounds a bit abrasive and repetitive at the start of "Movement I" slowly comes together as an oddly engaging riff. The instruments rumbling beneath the proceedings provide the forward momentum this time. As one technique evokes the shower scene music from Psycho, the vibrations between pitches becomes more noticeable and add to the intrigue.

Only "Movement IV" gets to be too much, with the repetition of high synth note, that again recalls a cinematic moment, this time an eerie scene when a Theremin ratchets up the suspense. Here the note lasts less than a second and it repeats ad nauseum. 

Several players from the ensemble get solo spotlights. Unlike her part in "Movement IV" synth player Liz Kozack rips things apart in "Movement I." Trumpeter Adam O'Farrill also contributes a lot to one movement and to one of the interludes, the series of passages which create some rather beautiful moments of low drones in between. It all leads up to the final movement, where everyone seems to take an individual extended technique idea and creates a rolling wave of sound. 

Building a book of compositions from a set of extended techniques might sound like an effort with limited results. But Anna Webber has managed to take the edginess of these sounds and build a wide dimension of music from them. 

PS Anyone interested in Idiom is advised to check out Rectangles, a 34-minute piece by a Webber quartet released last year on Out Of Your Head's digital-only Untamed series. Quite different in many ways, but quite good.