LP/DL Review: Jackson/Hoogland/Abrams/Avery - These Things Happen / Slow Bell Trio - When the Circle Was Closed

Keefe Jackson/ Oscar Jan Hoogland/Joshua Abrams/ Mikel Patrick Avery

These Things Happen

(Astral Spirits) asthesethingshappen.bandcamp.com/album/these-things-happen

Slow Bell Trio

When the Circle Was Closed

(Dinzu Artefacts) dinzuartefacts.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-circle-was-closed

Saxophonist/clarinetist Keefe Jackson often turns up in a variety of different musical projects, not only in his Chicago home area but abroad as well. These two releases from the past few months reveal the opposite ends of the spectrum with Jackson and his collaborators, each with its own brand of sonic lure.

These Things Happen features Jackson's tenor saxophone together with Chicago comrades Joshua Abrams (bass) and Mikel Patrick Avery (drums), as well as Dutch pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland. The quartet interprets two Thelonious Monk compositions, one by Dewey Redman, one by Herbie Nichols and two by Hoogland. 

The zeal displayed on this all-too-short release can bring to mind the ICP Orchestra, a group that seems to be at the crossroads of the hardest swinging jazz ever and a desire to blow it all into sonic smithereens - while still keeping some semblance of order in the music. Hoogland's "Wimpel" begins several times like a rich tenor ballad, but the rubato set up keeps splattering into little blasts of freedom. Then it starts over again for another go at it. A two-chorus version of Monk's "Bemsha Swing" comes with stuttered notes that make it almost unidentifiable to those who don't already know the source. "Epistrophy" by contrast, swings with reckless abandon, with Avery's crashes stoking the fire. "Aanhanghuis," the other Hoogland original, pits a 30s style piano vamp against some icy sopranino sax lines. 

Along with a devoted reading of Nichols' "The Happenings," These Things Too only has one flaw - its brevity. The entire album (their term, not mine) lasts a measly 22 minutes. That's not an album. It's a tease. Where's the rest, gentlemen?

This would be a good place to point out that here I am, in less than a month, covering a new release on cassette. But since the Slow Bell Trio released When the Circle Was Closed this past summer, the cassette has sold out, at least on their Bandcamp site. If that's where you're looking, it's download city.

This trio presents Jackson in a setting far removed from Monk or Herbie Nichols. His clarinets (bass and contrabass) and sopranino team up this time with the drums and electronics of both Steven Hess and Mike Weis. Each of them has an extensive c.v. playing in more rock-centric bands as well as ambient and electronic settings, at their sensitivities come into play here.

When the Circle Was Closed is the sound of understatement combined with unspoken communication between players. Much of the six tracks feels like they could be attempts to recreate the blend of disparate sounds heard on a Chicago street in the wee hours of the morning. "Abandoned by language" evokes the sound on a subway platform. Drums echo in the background but they sound heavily processed, almost dreamlike. Jackson's bass clarinet imitates water flowing down a drain. 

Although each piece is spare, all six contains elements that keep a flow going, like a droning electronic tone, metallic or wooden percussion, or a percussive hit on a drum that sets a pulse, if not a steady beat. Ghost sounds lurk in the background, sometimes sounding like another bass clarinet track ("Without face, without name, without saying I have come"). Sometimes it hard to discern one of the lower reeds from the electronics. The sound of static in "On their long boats" starts to feel more like rain, adding more of a visual feeling the music.

At times, it feels like the trio could build into something. After all the gentle drones and bass clarinet squeals, it would be great to hear the two drummers and Jackson kick into a wild free improvisation, with some drones adding to it. But it never happens. For that reason, the 37-minute set resides in the same dynamic range for its entirety. That in itself feels impressive, since Jackson, Hess and Weis really interact with each other with the textures they develop. But it would be nice to have some storm along with the calm that precedes it.