Pete Robbins – siLENT Z Live – Hate Laugh Music HLM 001, 59:44 ***1/2:
(Pete Robbins – alto saxophone; Jesse Neuman – cornet, pedals (tracks 1 – 4); Cory Smythe – piano (tracks 5 – 8); Mike Gamble – guitar, pedals; Thomas Morgan – bass; Tyshawn Sorey – drums)
New York alto saxophonist Pete Robbins believes in contrasts. On Robbins’ first concert recording, siLENT Z Live, he guides two different versions of his quintet siLENT Z for an hour’s worth of tonal disparities, adapting dissimilar genre elements and unexpected shifts in mood and texture. siLENT Z Live exhibits Robbins’ writing talent – he penned seven of the eight numbers – and was recorded at two separate gigs at New York’s Cornelia Street Café in late 2008 and early 2009, with Robbins, Mike Gamble on electric guitar and pedal effects, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Jesse Neuman adds cornet and effects pedals to the first four tracks, while pianist Cory Smythe replaces Neuman on the last four pieces.
The group initiates the show with the funkified “Edit/Revise.” Sorey’s concentrated back beat and rhythm leads the attack, fired up by Robbins’ soul-tinged sax and Neuman’s digitally processed cornet. It is a deceptive composition, since it starts out simply enough in 4/4 time but slips into a complex second part – jolted up and sideways by Sorey’s clicking groove – that skillfully echoes Robbins’ fondness for the UK electronica scene.
Gamble takes center stage on the set’s lengthiest number, the atmospheric “His Life, For All Its Waywardness.” Gamble’s unaccompanied solo intro has a hazy drift dilated with menacing reverb and a watery riff that binds together the rest of the long cut. Even when Robbins steps in with fairly straightforward sax runs, the group maintains a drone mood: at least on the surface. Down below where the beat is, though, Sorey is steadfastly mobile, fluctuating from lissome subtleties to fast-paced stick work. “Cankers and Medallions” also partakes of a deliberate intuition, undulating with an alternative rock stance, highlighted by delay-doused cornet and Gamble’s fusion-angled six strings.
The second set opens with the duskily dyed “Bugle Call,” which begins with Morgan’s hypnotic solo bass and then ebbs into a catchy melodic movement accented by Robbins’ escalating sax, which ascends from lyrically lucent to incendiary. The only weakness is Smythe’s piano: he tries to fit into the quintet’s thought patterns but just misses the mark: his keyboard is also mixed too low, which does not help. However, “Eliotsong,” named after Robbins’ frequent collaborator pianist Eliot Cardinaux, is a joy to hear: all five artists verify they can swing as one unit while they ably maneuver through multiple time signatures. Robbins’ Charlie Parker-esque mannerism and Gamble’s Scofield-ish fretboard alchemy prove both musicians can tangle and tumble through anything.
The program concludes and fades out with a five-way unscripted elucidation appropriately titled “Improvisation.” Robbins pulls out the stops with post-Ornette Coleman blasts sure to please most M-Base and/or Greg Osby fans while Sorey once again showcases his flexibility and percussive mastery and demonstrates why he is such an in-demand player.
siLENT Z Live is abstracted jazz readymade for the Radiohead generation: this is not mainstream standard jazz but rather the kind of odd-meter material that rock listeners who like jazz can appreciate or jazz heads who can also embrace math rock, prog rock or jam band styles.
TrackList:
1. Edit/Revise
2. His Life, for All Its Waywardness
3. Cankers and Medallions
4. Some Southern Anthem
5. Bugle Call
6. Eliotsong
7. But If It’s Empty
8. Improvisation
— Doug Simpson
