The Squid's Ear Magazine


Fefer / Revis / Taylor: Ritual (Clean Feed)

Saxophonist Fefer's NY based trio with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Chad Taylor play an ecstatic and spiritually charged modern jazz style with great drive and expressiveness.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Avram Fefer-alto-tenor and soprano saxophones-bass clarinet

Eric Revis-doublebass

Chad Taylor-drums


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UPC: 5609063001457

Label: Clean Feed
Catalog ID: CF145
Squidco Product Code: 11501

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2009
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardstock Gatefold Sleeve
Recorded and Mixed on March 27 and April 3, 2008 in New York City by Ivan Julian at N.Y. HED Recording Studios.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi poem that you'll find in the booklet of the new album by the Avram Fefer Trio reminds us: "don't think all ecstasies are the same!" and "drink the wine that moves you". If you are ready for some potent new "wine" from New York City, then the music inside "Ritual" will bring you to another state of consciousness and ecstasy.

Saxophonist Avram Fefer possesses that "undeniable spiritual feel for the music", to quote what was written about this extraordinary musician by the online journal All About Jazz. Always positioning himself in the sequence of the jazz tradition, Fefer is more a visionary than an experimentalist in the scientific sense. That circumstance alone means that his music is not laboratorial, but deeply ritualistic. You don't need to be mystical or religious to really feel that it connects you with the Great Spirit of all things terrestrial, an achievement few before (among them John Coltrane and Albert Ayler) were able to accomplish. With a personal style fed by blues and gospel, you can recognize his roots and at the same time understand that what makes his voice so distinctive must come from something else---a spiritual restlessness, an ability to listen and feel his band mates, and a soulful intellect.

On Ritual, he got a big help from his friends Eric Revis and Chad Taylor -- like him globetrotters of musical idioms and aesthetics. Fefer's trajectory included work in the areas of trip-hop, acid jazz, jungle, funk, world music and rap; Revis is committed to both mainstream jazz (he works regularly with Branford Marsalis) and the avant-garde; and Taylor is equally recognized in the domains of creative jazz, electro-acoustic improvised music and alternative rock, in projects like Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, Quartet and Orchestra, Iron and Wine, and Isotope 217. What a trio!"-Clean Feed


Artist Biographies

"One of the most talented and accomplished musicians of his generation, Grammy Award-winning bassist and composer Eric Revis has, over the past 15 years, become an important voice in jazz. Branford Marsalis states, "Eric's sound is the sound of doom; big, thick, percussive." Scores of musicians across various disciplines agree. Revis has performed and recorded with Betty Carter, Peter Brotzmann, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Steve Coleman, Ralph Peterson, Lionel Hampton, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Cyrille, and Tarbaby (the experimental trio he tri-leads with Orrin Evans and Nasheet Waits).

Manning the bass chair with Branford Marsalis' powerfully flexible quartet since 1997, Revis has also recorded four brilliant albums as a leader. 2004's Tales of the Stuttering Mime and 2009's Laughter's Necklace of Tears have both revealed his startling range as a musician and composer. Informed by his past but not tethered to it, a glimpse into the musical trajectory of this artist is indelibly clear on his latest release Parallax (Clean Feed ) and the soon to be released City of Asylum (Clean Feed).

"Tales of the Stuttering Mime was an amalgam of songs I'd been composing for quite some time," Revis explains. "Being that there were a lot of different influences at play, it required that I use various band configurations on almost every tune, which was great in that I had a very real connection to all of the musicians involved." With Laughter's Necklace of Tears the same conceptual construct was in place in terms of the confluence of musical influences, but the goal was to present it in a more cohesive fashion in terms of having one group navigate the songs for the record as opposed to five or six".

Conceptually improvisational and thematically broad, Parallax (Clean Feed) is timeless and borderless. The albums' approach is one of inclusion, extrapolation and exploration. Joined by Jason Moran, Ken Vandermark and Nasheet Waits, it is a true document of Revis' growth as a composer, bassist and sounding board. As on previous recordings, Revis' playing is personal and distinctive: his tone deep and woody, his execution, agile, melodic and clear. A musical polyglot, Revis is comfortable in any setting, any direction. His skills as a band leader and composer are equally profound and inspiring."

-Eric Revis Website (https://ericrevis.com/about/bio/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Chad Taylor (b. 1973) is a composer, educator, percussionist and scholar who is a co-founder of the Chicago Underground ensembles. Originally from Tempe, AZ, Chad grew up in Chicago where he started performing professionally at the age of 16. Chad has performed with Fred Anderson, Derek Bailey, Cooper-Moore, Pharoah Sanders, Marc Ribot, Peter Brotzmann, Malachi Favors and many others. Chad leads his own band Circle down which debut recording was given a 5 star review by All music:

"What is remarkable is that there is no wasted motion, no histrionics or grandstanding, as pure emotion is translated to superlative music making on this most highly recommended recording, one for the ages." Allmusic.com

Chad has a BFA from the New School in Jazz Performance and a MFA in Jazz Research and History from Rutgers University."

-Chad Taylor Website (http://www.chadtaylordrums.net/html/about.php)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Testament 6:17

2. Shepp in Wolves' Clothing 10:29

3. Ritual 6:19

4. Feb. 13th 6:49

5. Blinky Palermo 6:37

6. Club Foot 9:07

7. Ripple 7:34

8. Outspoken 4:52

9. When the Spirit Moves You 7:02

Related Categories of Interest:


Clean Feed
Improvised Music
Jazz
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Chicago Jazz & Improvisation
Trio Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Clean Feed.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

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