Apr 18 2019
Ralph Towner at Big Ears Festival 2019: Hearts go still
From the palpable shock and astonishment that swept through the church, it was obvious that most of us hadn’t known: Not long ago, Ralph Towner had been through heart surgery. The guitarist relayed this information on the wings of a joke, as he introduced the next piece of that evening… a rendition of the standard “My Foolish Heart.” That’s the kind of evening it was. Towner had the audience wrapped around his finger. His guitar was simply a tool for enchantment, and all of us were locked in. But he also kept a smile on our faces. Sometimes because of a whimsical phrase on guitar. Sometimes because a familiar tune elicited pleasant associations. And, sometimes, the smile was the cause-effect pairing with a joke. But he had us all, for any and every reason.
Towner performed on a Friday evening at St. Johns Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Knoxville, TN. His show was one of the highlights of Big Ears Festival 2019, and one I’ll never forget.
All it takes are a couple phrases of a familiar song to send me adrift in memories, and back to a time when the music became imprinted my timeline. And since all of these songs are familiar, it means I’m perpetually fighting the gravitational pull of the past, trying hopelessly to stay rooted in the moment. Because, damn, Ralph Towner is thirty feet away, playing guitar in an environment of superb acoustics, stained glass all around, and nothing between me and the notes. A minute into a new piece, and I’d suddenly hear it through stereo speakers in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains or an autumn day with a ceiling of cloudy Chicago gloom contrasting with the brilliant explosion of autumn colors and the crunch of leaves beneath my feet. And then, suddenly, I’m transported back into the present moment of the church as the song reaches the homestretch.
[Ralph Towner’s 2017 ECM Records release My Foolish Heart is available at Amazon]
This was my second show of Big Ears Festival 2019, and both had taken place in a church. And no different than the Harold Budd, Mary Lattimore & Nief-Norf show earlier that afternoon at Church Street United Methodist, the St. Johns Episcopal Cathedral was a gorgeous venue matched perfectly with this gorgeous music.
It’s impossible not draw comparisons between the masterful craftsmanship of the stained glass and church architecture and the musicianship of Towner with his guitar, and, by extension, the lofty plateaus of creativity aspired to, and achieved, by the artists on both building and music.
There’s a majesty to the music of Ralph Towner. If the totality of one’s interface is, like mine, through the vehicle of studio recordings, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that all of this electricity is simply the product of this man and his guitar, hunched over in concentration, and channeling everything inside that yearns to manifest into the world as sound. It’s weeks later, and I still find myself astonished at having ended up in place I’d never imagined life would take me and it just so happens, Ralph Towner is thirty feet away and playing his guitar. The memory freezes me in time, observing it all over again.
Jan 26 2015
Outside Ordinary: Tim Daisy’s Relay Recordings
Relay Recordings is the label of Chicago drummer Tim Daisy. It was originally a device for releasing his own music, but lately it’s begun to release albums by musicians that Daisy either collaborates with or has existing relationships. As a lynchpin of the Chicago free improv scene, naturally, these recordings represented Daisy’s hometown environs, but now, with his New Composer’s series, Relay Recordings has begun expanding its reach outside of Chicago and overseas to Europe.
Ultimately, though, Daisy sums up the label’s goals as such: “I try to release the music that I feel best represents what I’ve been up to recently both as a performer and composer,” adding, “But also to capture and document some of the new music being made in Chicago’s thriving avant-garde scene.”
With its focus on new and experimental music, Relay has already built up a nifty collection of exactly that. Much of the music on this label presents a challenge… this is not conventional stuff intended to imprint a catchy melody on the brain, nor is it likely to get the foot tapping. But it’s key to remember that challenging music can also be friendly and allow for any number of points of connectivity with the ear.
A lot of the music on this label is wildly expressive. The path taken isn’t always laid out with clear trail markers. Car chase scenes have their fair share of collisions. Genre has little to do with it except as established points of reference. Improvisation and in-the-moment creativity is key. Some of this improvisation takes the form of new ways of thinking and some of it echoes traditional forms of Jazz language. It’s also exciting and imaginative and fun.
Here are some of the albums I’m really taking to…
*****
Tim Daisy – October Music Vol. 1: 7 Compositions for Duet
Drummer Tim Daisy invites other musicians from the Chicago scene to each perform a duet with him for the newest recording on Relay. Those musicians (James Falzone on clarinet, Dave Rempis on baritone sax, Katherine Young on bassoon, Marc Riordan on piano, Jen Clare Paulson on viola, Jason Adasiewicz on vibes and Josh Berman on cornet) each develop compelling dialogs with Daisy, and the action ranges from a track like “Roscoe Street,” which has Rempis burning it up on baritone sax while Daisy just keeps tossing matches to the flame, to a track like “Some Birds,” a duet with bassoonist Young, that possesses both the languorous presence and distant warmth of moonlight.
Released December 2014.
*****
Russ Johnson Quartet – Meeting Point
A solid modern jazz set from the quartet of trumpeter Russ Johnson, bass clarinetist Jason Stein, bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Tim Daisy. Perhaps the most appealing quality of Meeting Point is how Johnson gets his trumpet to mirror the bass clarinet’s fuzzy lyricism and wide-lens expressiveness. In addition to the harmonic peculiarities this invites, it’s just plain fun hearing them bounce ideas off one another. Nice mix of inside/out and free improvisation.
Released May 2014.
*****
Bill MacKay – Chatham Park
Bill MacKay experiments with folk and rock mediums as much as jazz, and the ability to cross-pollinate between those genres shines through pretty strong on the strangely alluring Chatham Park. The challenge of speaking in several lexicons doesn’t prevent MacKay from developing a nice chatter, simultaneously informing both melody and tempo. This solo album has him on guitars and requinto. At times, it’s positively magnetic.
Released October 2014.
UPDATE: It appears that this album is no longer on the Relay site. You can check it out now on MacKay’s own Bandcamp page.
*****
Vox Arcana – Soft Focus
Arguably, Soft Focus represents the true spirit of experimentalism that Relay is looking to represent. This trio of clarinetist James Falzone, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm (also on electronics) and drummer Tim Daisy (also on marimba) dives into free jazz, chamber, inside/out and a vague post-bop, and their dizzying run through these expressions makes them indistinguishable from one another and perpetually self-referential… as if they’d discovered a new form of language that had been in use all along and nobody had yet noticed. Personal favorite quality of Soft Focus are the shifts from thick dissonance to the oddly melodic.
Released in September 2012.
*****
Tim Daisy Quartet – Streets In Time
The quartet of drummer Tim Daisy, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, trombonist Steve Swell and bassist Tim Hebert has a real personable way of delivering the bursts of chaos and dissonance and furtive kinetic energy of their improvisations amongst the firmly entrenched passages of modern post-bop and classic inside/out. It’s like watching a good friend go off on one of his wild tangents, growing increasingly unstable, then returning back to the original point as if that had been his predetermined path all along. Streets In Time is an album that finds time to bop and swing in between the big explosions.
Released February 2013.
*****
Purchase these titles (and others) at Relay Recordings’ Bandcamp page.
*****
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By davesumner • Artist Overviews, I Listen To All Of This • 0