First posted on Mark Is Cranky:
There's this notion in the world of sculpture that the artist is merely freeing the shape locked within the raw source material. This always seemed like a great way to describe the mystery of a particular piece of abstract art. The artist begins with a big chunk of rock and starts to chisel, saw, chip, buff and sweat away at it until..well, the piece is done.
But what about music? Does this somewhat artificial construct shed any light on a free-leaning jazz composition?
Think about it for a while.
David S. Ware has just released one giant pile of music. Live In The World is an ambitious 3-CD set of live recordings. The lineup of Matthew Shipp (piano) and William Parker (bass) is complemented by a different drummer on each disc. Disc one, recorded in Chiasso, Switzerland, features Susie Ibarra. Disc two (Terni, Italy): Hamid Drake. Guillermo E. Brown takes the chair on disc three (from Milano, Italy).
Ware has been on the jazz scene for over thirty year and is, to these ears, one of the most powerful and compelling saxophone voices of modern jazz. His sound has the 'air' of Sonny Rollins right alongside the spiritual howl of an Albert Ayler or even the great John Coltrane. While you can definitely hear Ware's reverence for the masters of jazz, he's not content to just revisit and polish the past.
Now, back to the unlocked inner secrets of sculpture. If we think of music as sculpted air (something I've got to admit to thinking about often), the improvised segments of a piece make an attempt (in real time) to construct a 'sound object'. Yes, you're saying...but the sculptor is creating art by subtraction. Fair enough, but: if you think of the initial theme of a tune as the raw material, the improvisation can then mold and chip away at it until it bears very little resemblance to its former self. Through the improvisation, the art moves closer to what it wants to be.
Take Ware's famous deconstruction of "The Way We Were". We all know the curves of that pretty melody...until Matthew Shipp's brutally percussive piano chords signal the beginning of the group's metamorphosis effort. A minute or so later and Ware's horn restates that theme before shifting into pull-the-melody-apart mode. The 'mystery art' that emerges is shattering. The set-closing "Mikuro's Blues" starts off with a quick series of awkward & angular phrases before getting into the main theme of ascending chords, which is then used as a jumping-off point to some muscular sax runs. Only the slinky precision and 'weight' of the rhythm section keeps Ware connected to the earth as his improvisations get to glowin' with intensity.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
Damn, I forgot this was coming out this week. I ran out yesterday at lunch after reading this, hoping to find it locally, but of course no one stocks new jazz titles around here, so I had to order up a copy. Boo on local music stores.
I need more Ware, that's for sure. I loaded Flight of I, Go See The World, and Threads onto the Ipod last night. It's been a while since I listened to DSW, actually, as he's in that nether region of my collection that sits piled up on my floor due to lack of rack-space - everything U-Z sits there, and I unfortunately have to actively remember to dig stuff out to listen to. Regardless, I'm re-aware of Ware and definitely need more: suggestions?
2 - Mark Saleski
definitely start with Go See The World.
there's some incredibly cool stuff on there, especially "Lexicon" and "Logistic"
3 - Tom Johnson
Sorry, Mark, I meant outside of the three I have (and the live one coming to me.)
4 - Mark Saleski
oh yea...duh.
i think Cryptology is pretty good too.
i've also heard that Flight of I is good.
hmmm, i can't remember exactly what i have at the moment.