Craig Taborn

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Review of Avenging Angel



Samples here

at the Vortex 25th May

i'll get the album meself ... but wish i had the dosh and time to go see this guy ... one of the most consistently interesting artists of the newer generation in jazz

[Serial_Apologist]

This does look good, and it's great to find the latest generation of young Americans really revitalising the jazz tradition, as much pointed out especially by Ian and your good self, after so many decades of retrofied retreads. It's happening over here too, btw, judging by the huge numbers of young musicians sporing onto the London scene, many with interesting and exciting things to say. The Oxford in Kentish Town does its best to keep me abreast; I just can't keep up with 'em all! Unfortunately in this instance I won't be making the Vortex gig being almost by duty committed to another taking place at our local Hideaway in Streatham, on account of the place being so dolefully under-attended weekday evenings - Londonders (especially sarf londoners, p l e a s e take note - places close with much less reason!).

S-A

[hackneyvi]

This is great music (though, there's just a hint of Nancarrow about some of it - an almost automata-like ramble to some of the faster sound). I couldn't place my reaction to one of the streaming slower pieces but the Vortex website names Joni Mitchell and more than one section of his slow pianism/melody resembles hers from Blue.

I was going to ask - hearing the faster music, certainly - 'why?' this is jazz. But it's so lovely and vigourous, 'why' is irrelevant.

[hackneyvi]

but the Vortex website names Joni Mitchell and more than one section of his slow pianism/melody resembles hers from Blue.

Boy, I got that wrong. The Mitchell reference is to another musician altogether. But I still thought I heard her melody in his music.

PS (late in the day): I meant Nancarrow not Cardew.

Not my day.

[Serial_Apologist]

Boy, I got that wrong. The Mitchell reference is to another musician altogether. But I still thought I heard her melody in his music.

Whatever, welcome to the jazz board, hackneyvi. But where have you been, all these years??

[Tenor Freak]

If you can see Craig Taborn, do so, because he really is excellent. I've already mentioned before the last time I went to see Jezzer's live show at Cheltenham (the one with Iain Ballamy and the "In the saxophonist's chair" shtick which died on its arse). CT was there as a sideman with Tim Berne, and he was easily the most compelling of the musicians in that group and of the whole show (including Brotzmann).

[Flyposter]

If you can see Craig Taborn, do so, because he really is excellent. I've already mentioned before the last time I went to see Jezzer's live show at Cheltenham (the one with Iain Ballamy and the "In the saxophonist's chair" shtick which died on its arse). CT was there as a sideman with Tim Berne, and he was easily the most compelling of the musicians in that group and of the whole show (including Brotzmann).

Agreed. A fascinating pianist to hear live. Heard him a few weeks ago in the Michael Formanek/Tim Berne/Taborn/Gerald Cleaver quartet. I find Tim Berne rather heavy going but a marvellous concert.
Also heard Taborn’s trio a couple of years ago here, and was rather surprised how little impact he seemed to make locally because I thought how special it was to hear such an original pianist.

I know Calum is a follower of NPR radio, but others may be interested in the following: some music with Craig Taborn for the mp3 player.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2010/06/16/127893350/craig-taborn-concert

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128985830

Craig Taborn makes a couple of appearances in the near future here in Holland which I shall try to get to. He plays a trio date with William Parker and Gerald Cleaver at the Bimhuis and there looks to be a real “supergroup” at the North Sea festival:

http://www.northseajazz.com/en/program/2011/sunday-10-july/14845_lee-konitz-tomasz-stanko-group

By the way, has anybody heard Craig’s usual drummer, Gerald Cleaver. A class act IMHO.

And I see there is an interview with CT about the new CD in the June Jazzwise magazine

[hackneyvi]

Whatever, welcome to the jazz board, hackneyvi. But where have you been, all these years??

I lost interest in music in my late 20s and only lately found music that really interested me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgPPzhSJD7Q&feature=related

This aspect of Taborn is harder to swallow than some of the samples from Calum's link. I can hear a lurching ramble of staccato, a persistent rhythm but at times the likeness to Nancarrow seems appropriate.

Can anyone give me a perspective on this that can communicate its virtues beyond its virtuosity? The energy seems to be of frustration; the sounds of conversation so rapid that it can't be comprehended. I can barely begin to imagine the magnificent intensity for the performer but what other feeling does this remarkable pianism yield for other listeners?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

hi hackneyvi and welcome ...

your Taborn clip is a remarkable performance ... what i hear is not Nancarrow .. it is not that mechanical and there is something remarkable about the rhythms and pulse of the playing .... it sounds like he is skimming across a set of abstracted implications from someone like Tristano .. some of the spaces he leaves are heavy with the notes he doesn't play and it also feels to me that as you say he is talking, whether frustrated i am less sure .... his voicing is dry and tight in the chord figures near the end and the tension is palpable throughout ... i find it compelling and convincing ... if somewhat menacing either as an untitled impression of an American Landscape or as an expression in relation to such a place ...

[hackneyvi]

hi hackneyvi and welcome ...

your Taborn clip is a remarkable performance ... what i hear is not Nancarrow .. it is not that mechanical and there is something remarkable about the rhythms and pulse of the playing .... it sounds like he is skimming across a set of abstracted implications from someone like Tristano .. some of the spaces he leaves are heavy with the notes he doesn't play and it also feels to me that as you say he is talking, whether frustrated i am less sure .... his voicing is dry and tight in the chord figures near the end and the tension is palpable throughout ... i find it compelling and convincing ... if somewhat menacing either as an untitled impression of an American Landscape or as an expression in relation to such a place ...

And listening again, I 'got' it!! Thanks SO much! I needed a perspective on the music, to know there was something to be heard. I take your points about dryness/tightness/tension (which last did remit a little in the short sections with chords). It can be difficult sometimes not to reject music because one begins by expecting something from it rather than approaching from the more humble position of waiting to hear what it (generously) has to offer. Or perhaps also I simply bring associations to the sound which aren't there in its intensions.

Closed my eyes this time and just listened and got it. Concentrated on the generally simpler left hand which gave an anchor in the music. Then began to see a structure in the piece; even if I'm imposing one on it, sensing some form within this torrential playing allowed me experience something more than a storm of notes. There's much more variety in it than I initially appreciated. He does broadly seem to alternate the bubbling, sometimes boiling counterpoint with chords, short relaxations of harmony which, when they came and despite their (probable) discordance, were soothing to me after such riot. Then near the end the two musics merge before expiring.

I often find I refer back to Michael Tippett who was my means of entry to 'new' music 20 years ago. I hear a parallel with his third symphony's opening with alternating musics - stamping brass chords then rushing strings - which repeat and elaborate before combining at the climax. I'm also reminded - for some reason - of his quotation of Blake in relation to his own first quartet, "Damn braces; Bless relaxes"; perhaps because the alternation in the music between yesterday and today, but also within itself, somewhat echoes the phrase.

Thanks again.

PS: 10.30 pm - Listening a third time, 8 hours later, it does again suggest a sort of human music machine. Near the end there's the long repetition of the same pattern for half a minute before a last, erupt profusion as if the music machine's almost lost its wits but then the chords break in again and stamp the music out.

[hackneyvi]

Did anyone else go?

It was like music from another universe with Craig Taborn providing simultaneous translation; I'm not even always sure that the music I heard was the music played. But it was sometimes a warm song flecked with blues, sometimes remorseless counterpoint, then the hands and arms damning the keyboard, smashing out long lumps of chords. The fragrance of lullabies, dance orchestras, torch songs, bossa nova, 'But not for me', even grandiose, almost Liberace strikes.

After it was over, it began to become physical, as if music was medicine, dissolved in the body.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

alas no i live too far away from London to go to gigs ... it reads as if it were truly wonderful hackneyvi