Feb 1, 2013
Intimacy. That’s what always strikes me about Kris Davis. The sense of intimacy. Having been on the scene for only few short years, her visibility has grown in the last few years due to a string on releases as leader and with collaborators. I mistakenly forgot to write about her last record Good Citizen (Fresh Sounds New Talent) as one of my albums of the year in 2010. But this year make no mistake, my two top records of years are set in stone. And I bet you can guess one of them right now, eh?!? There is a peaceful quality to her latest release, the solo piano effort, Aeriol Piano (Clean Feed). “Saturn Return” unravels slowly with dark intentions crafted around a simply melody before moving to a more improvisational mood. It feels like an early John Cage piano work. It’s complex yet gentle enough for the newest of listeners to grasp every endearing moment. A slight reinterpretation of “Good Citizen” is intriguing to experience without the quartet from the last record. This time around it feels more climatic; with more cascading moments than the previous version may not have allowed you to hear. “Beam The Eyes” travels methodically along a path of inversion that makes crackling and disturbing sparks of life towards its conclusion. This theme also carries through a short time later on both “Stone” and “The Last Time” with moments that parallel Keith Jarrett and even more multiform pieces by Morton Feldman. There’s a serenity that is broken up with moments of fierce treatment to keyboard but with clear justification of theme. “Work For Water” closes out the album on a steady more classical trained tone. It’s a soft wistful way to end a session that has interwoven so many challenging patterns. For one to really enjoy and understand one of the best kept secrets in jazz, you have to experience Aeriol Piano for yourself. Kris Davis is one of a short handful of creative pianist on the scene today. If you are looking for legacy of modern improvised piano since Keith Jarrett, and more recently Jason Moran–Kris Davis is it. More on Aeriol Piano towards the end of the year. But for now, I repeat what I said at the outset–Aeriol Piano is one of my two top albums of the year. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Stephan Moore
Feb 1, 2013
Novela is an ideal title for an album with so much narrative appeal. All sorts of stories are told through the music on this unusual retrospective, which consists of songs written by saxophonist Tony Malaby for trios and quartets over the past decade and newly arranged for nonet by pianist Kris Davis. With its richly developed themes and wide stylistic reach, this is an album to curl up with. Like the weather in Chicago (whose schools of free jazz provide their share of edgy inspiration), the temperature of Novela can change in a flash. The warm crosscurrents of “Mothers Love” give way to chilly swells and agitated lines from Joachim Badenhorst’s bass clarinet, and then to a haunted symphonic closing. “Floating Head,” a work of both interchangeable parts and independent gears keyed to Dan Peck’s animated time-marking tuba, shifts from Greek tragedy to circus music to West Side Story. “Warblepeck” is Kurt Weill filtered through Herny Threadgill’s Very Very Circus. Davis, who mostly stays in the background on piano, creates neat pockets of space for improvising-Malaby on tenor, Ralph Alessi on trumpet and Michael Attias on alto saxophone make the strongest statements. (The group also includes baritone saxophonist Andrew Hadro, trombonist Ben Gerstein and drummer John Hollenbeck, mostly holding nothing back.) And on tunes like “Remolino,” with it’s sharp thrusts and impressionistic streaks, there’s a sense of a group improvisation as well. But the bold, unified voice of the ensemble speaks loudest, making Novela a page-turner you’ll want to revisit many times.
Lloyd Sachs
Feb 1, 2013
Over the last couple of years in New York one method for deciding where to hear jazz on a given night has been to track down the pianist Kris Davis. She has been playing in town for 10 years, but her gigs have become almost constant: with the bassist Eivind Opsvik, the saxophonists Tony Malaby and Ingrid Laubrock, the drummer Tyshawn Sorey and others. It was only a matter of time before she became unavoidable on record, and now’s that time. Ms. Davis’s style is wide, and dependent on its context: a kind of tour of post-free jazz and contemporary classical music, Keith Jarrett to Cecil Taylor to Morton Feldman. Her own work can be cerebral and darting and easy to grasp, as on the solid new record by the Kris Davis Trio, “Good Citizen” (Fresh Sound), with the bassist John Hebert and the drummer Tom Rainey. Somewhere in the middle of the scale, mildly experimental, is “Three” (Clean Feed), by the drummerless SKM Trio, with the saxophonist Stephen Gauci and bassist Michael Bisio. And on “Paradoxical Frog” (Clean Feed), in a trio with Ms. Laubrock and Mr. Sorey — a frequently stunning record, and so far one of this year’s best — she bounces among extremes of quiet and attack, changing her role drastically from track to track.
Feb 1, 2013
Kris Davis is one of my favourite pianist. I rank her right up there with Jason Moran and Keith Jarrett. Her compositions are compelling and inventive. Her newest release, Good Citizen is absolutely stellar. A vibrant and explosive trio session with regular collaborators John Herbert and Tom Rainey, Good Citizen is Davis’ third recorded output this year (Paradoxical Frog with Ingrid Laubrock and SKM Trio) with a fourth coming before years end. All containing the rich cerebral outlook that makes Kris Davis one of the best musicians deserving much much much wider recognition. Good Citizen opens with improvising title track smoothly sliding into point/counterpoint interplay of “Where Does That Tunnel Go”, a piece that really demonstrates Davis command and freedom with her trio. The album bounces with exuberance and experimentalisim. This is post modernism with quiet accessibility. Another favourite of mine which is very much in the downtown NYC realm is “Recession Special”– a pulsating piece that rips itself up and down the scale. Very much what you would expect to see late night in a dark, dingy, New York club setting. It’s follow up “Skinner Box” is more in he Cecil Taylor vein, quiet and minimal with Herbert and Rainey really coming to fore with Davis hold a delicate beautiful balance in the background. Probably the most accessible track is “B Side” an upbeat boppish piece with some fantastic solo work from the always terrific Tom Rainey. A Monkish, Davis leads the group through a nice journey that will definitely have your head and feet bobbing up and down. Great stuff. “Human Condition” is wonderful ballad could easily become your late night theme. It’s lovely and romantic but still has a sense of adventure that fits perfect with the rest of the surroundings. Good Citizen closes with a number that featured earlier this year on the quartet album Paradoxical Frog, “The Iron Spider.” This time without the rip current of Ingrid Laubrock’s saxophone. But as a trio piece, “The Iron Spider” still packs a huge avant garde punch. Kris Davis fills in the gap with the same verve and excitement. The two pieces aren’t drastically different, there’s a bit more detail from Herbert and Rainey in this newer recording but at the end of the day it is a stellar piece of work written by all three musicians. Good Citizen just might be the most varied session to date. It is by far, the must have for any one interested in the current crop of free jazz artists. Good Citizen is definitely in my best albums of the year category. And Kris Davis is one of the most important pianists working today and deserving of a wider audience. I hope after you listen to it, you agree.
JazzWrap
Feb 1, 2013
Paradoxical Frog The trio between saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, pianist Kris Davis and drummer Tyshawn Sorey was one of those very rare bands that can make you re-evaluate what music is and where it can go. Paradoxical Frog was both tamed and feral, both thoroughly composed and improvised, both microscopic and larger than life. The trio started off with one note, shared between Davis, Laubrock and Sorey on melodica, moving slowly and deliberately stirring up occasional intrigue with secondary notes. The trio moved into melodic territory in sympathetic vibration, Laubrock’s vocal sputters and little cells of melodies reacting with Davis’s low register and Sorey’s reverberating cymbal tones. The beginning part of the set was a commentary on space and sound; everything from the upper register of Davis’s piano, the whispers of Laubrock’s tenor and the startling melodic nature of Sorey’s cymbal creaks echoed and swirled in tandem. When it finally made it’s way to more aggressive territory, it was a whole different story. Laubrock’s warlike screeches soared above Davis’s thunderous plunks while Sorey exploded with lightning fast toms and rim-tapping paradiddles in an obscured meter. The band’s frighteningly original sound concept was nearly impossible to pin down, but most likely came from the diverse approaches the band holds and given the democratic nature of the trio, all the combined influences are shared by each trio member. The group’s sense of classical invention most likely came through the classically trained Davis. She encompassed each new section with the parental support of her low notes and left-right hand volleys, however Laubrock also played many laconic and searching melodies. Laubrock most likely engendered the presence of free and aggressive avant-garde jazz, but all members of the trio indulged Davis’s kinetic, spidery lines and Sorey’s rumbles, contributing to the forward charge. Sorey, in all probability, contributed more than a few attributes to the trio, such as a meditative story-like minimalism, indeterminacy and rhythmic ambiguity. Sorey’s enthusiasm for the works of thinkers like John Cage seemed to bring about the band’s quiet, natural atmosphere, tossing cymbals and sticks and letting them fall where they may. His rhythmic concept was his way of creating melodies on a secondary plane of existence, each implied meter or rhythmic mode a melody in and of itself. However, no amount of analysis can perfectly summate the mystery and wonder the trio was able to accomplish. When Laubrock used her mouthpiece to gurgle into a cup of water, it seemed amusing at first, until the compositional atmosphere took hold with Sorey accompanying the sounds using wood flute and blowing through a cymbal hole, captivating the audience with sonic capability. There’s no amount of listening that could have determined just how the band inserted grooving, complex modern jazz within the context of quiet pensiveness. There’s no way of truly knowing how Davis sews together the trio’s compositions with a patient composure or how Laubrock mediates melodicism and wolf-like aggression or how Sorey restlessly invents new colors. In the end, the band’s name is appropriate, a quandary that endlessly fascinates.
Daniel Lehner
