A tour-de-force of modern creative jazz from the quintet of Larry Ochs on tenor & sopranino saxophones, Nate Wooley on trumpet, Ken Filiano on bass & effects, Pascal Niggenkemper on bass & effects, and Harris Eisenstadt on drums, the familiar history of the musicians and the staggering skill of each bearing out the album's title, in 2 collective and 3 Ochs compositions.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2019 Country: Portugal Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded at Orange Music Sound Studios, in West Orange, New Jersey, on May 29th, 2018, by James Dellatacoma.
3. And The Door Blows Open (For Cecil Taylor) 3:58
4. With Liberties And Latitude For All (For Warren Sonbert) 19:28
5. A Fictive Form Of Closure 6:50
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descriptions, reviews, &c.
"Larry Ochs quintet with trumpeter Nate Wooley, bassists Ken Filiano and Pascal Niggenkemper and drummer Harris Eisenstadt started with an intriguing ambition: to create soundscapes (landscapes with sound, or what the acousmatic French composers call "cinema pour l'oreille" - cinema for the ear in English) with the language of jazz and the procedures of improvisation. To fulfill this concept, Ochs sought inspiration from visual artists and film directors like William Kentridge and Wim Wenders. Or, the reverse: upon realization of the soundscspe, he dedicated the work to a film-maker; essentially invititing the invitee (and all listeners) to create imagery for the now-existing soundscape.
At their second opus, Anything is Possible, the connection with specific personalities and their works is more loose, but it continues. One piece is dedicated to Spike Lee and another to Warren Sonbert, but in the middle there's a tribute to Cecil Taylor, in a gesture saying much about the recognition of the inner imagetic qualities of music itself, personified by a master in that domain. The presence of two double basses keeps the center of gravity of the music lower than in a common jazz combo, with crispy drumming on the bottom and, on the top, two horns contrasting harsh (Ochs tenor saxophone) and crystalline (Wooley) sounds, either when playing unisons or getting argumentative. If you know Larry Ochs from his work with the Rova saxophone quartet you'll recognize the same type of structures and narrative strategies, but it will be different. Here, the ignition of your imaginative skills is intended."-Clean Feed
"The first thing you might notice when perusing The Fictive Five composition titles is that three of them are dedicated to film-makers; artists outside the music world. I was thinking the other day that that might be indicative of the situation "music" finds itself in these days. Which is to say, very briefly, slightly less respected than it once was, since there was a time when music was most often appreciated for itself. Everyone sat around the radio, I'm told (not that old), digging the new release by Duke Ellington, or the then-famous blues players. But even after television, in my time when we sat around with our stereos, there was still tons of live music, multiple touring venues, and of course mostly concerts where one sat and watched the musicians play, and that was enough. It seems like a lot of that ambience has gone away in the 21st century, at least for now.
Just a couple of decades ago, I spent tons of time listening to recordings by Steve Lacy, who seemed to dedicate every piece he wrote to one great artist or the other, and primarily to musicians. I am currently composing or "creating" a lot of structured-improvisational schemes, including the three long pieces on this CD. (More on that in a minute.) The dedications are to film creators (William Kentridge is - I would say - primarily known as an installation-artist but often creates animated films as part of or all of his installed creations. Wim Wenders you all know for sure; a great humanist among other things; his recent documentaries are all ultra-inspiring. Kelly Reichardt I know less about because she's been made fewer films, but her sense of time and her use of space are both very powerful parts of why her films resonate for me.) Now usually when the film and music worlds meet, the music is added on after the film is basically completed. But I'm thinking differently here. Number one possibility might be that I'm listening to a piece after recording it and imagining a favorite director that might be moved by it enough to organize images to that piece of music. But I like this next raison d'etre for the dedications much more: I'm inspired to create musical landscapes that the listener when closing her eyes can then imagine her own visual images into, inspired by my music. That's something everyone can do, and without any budget at all. Turn on the music, sit back, and let the images roll inside your head. Stan Brakhage liked to say that his films were the music; they didn't need any actual musical accompaniment. (And he was right. I'd like to see a dance choreographer take this attitude and present his choreography without music; the possibilities for audience participation would be much greater.)
So maybe I'll take the attitude that this music is the film, the story, or the imagery, only everyone gets the opportunity to decide for themselves what the imagery is, what they're seeing. When listening to music, the fun is in the seeing; there's no need "to understand it." If you're looking to understand music, I think - and I know this is very personal - one is approaching the experience the wrong way. "Be there" with the sounds; actively collaborate. Trust that the composer or the collaborative improvisers are setting up a playground of sound that you can join in on.
As to the process in operation on the compositions on The Fictive Five, I have been saying what follows from almost the start of my life in improvised music -back when Rova got going in the late '70s-but now, so many years later, I love the idea that what I aimed for back then works better than ever now. Namely: I create compositions for improvisers; structures that act not as pre-arranged enclosures for musicians to inhabit without spoiling any of the arrangements, but rather as free-form apparatuses that encourage them to take out their best color wands and music machines, playing on those instruments while themselves being ratcheted up to a most intense focus. And the goal is simple: to change the opening question when two musicians meet from "Are you working?" to "What's exciting you?" I think that the other gifted musicians on this CD-when introduced to the four compositions on the recording-could sense in the very first rehearsal that there was something special within each piece for them to discover. And that's my other goal: to create pieces that invite musicians in, even as they're being pushed out and into the wild. Together.
Today's best improvisers make room in each musical soundscape for all the participants, and their own contributions to any given terrain make the others' contributions sound that much better. And once confidence in your fellow explorers is established - and The Fictive Five seemed to jell during our very first performance at my Stone residency in 2013-then it's all about focusing in on our journey together after that. No fear of failing if the band has your back. All three extended works involve coded charts, including signs introduced to me by Lisle Ellis during the What We Live era. Some notation; some visual cues developed with Rova. Enjoy the rides."-Larry Ochs