Feb 24 2015
Recommended: Whahay Trio – “Whahay”
An intriguing album released at the tail-end of 2014 is Whahay, the self-titled recording from the Whahay trio of bassist Paul Rogers, drummer Fabien Duscombs and multi-reedist Robin Fincker. The trio digs into the songbook of Charles Mingus, using the original compositions as the foundation from which to leap into a series of improvisations.
Much to the album’s benefit, the trio tethers their renditions tightly to Mingus’s original melodies rather than offer up some pro-forma statement as an excuse to just to do whatever the hell they wanted to do in the first place. “Better Git It In Your Soul” works the melody like a charm, both in its pristine form and also with slight variations for extra flavoring. The tempo isn’t the hyperactive burner of the original, possessing, instead, more of a choppy motion. Plenty of free association going on within that framework, but the occasional returns to melody keep the song centered and easily located. This is an approach typical throughout the album.
“Jump Monk” comes right out with the tension, a sense of being one spark away from complete combustion. A huge bass solo… the kind that reminds how powerfully lyrical the instrument can be all by its lonesome. It’s another strong bass solo that opens the rendition of “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” before the trio slowly rolls out the wistful melody.
There’s plenty of intensity throughout the recording; it’s just a question of how much the trio choose to modulate it. Their take on “Pithecantropus Erectus” builds up to a firestorm. On the other hand, “Canon” works it more like a strong undertow. And then there’s the unadulterated power on the thrashing “Bird Call.”
There’s some compelling displays of bass arco. Rogers’ furious extended opening to “Work Song” is just as captivating as the lovely harmonics between his arco and Fincker’s clarinet on “Ecclusiastics.”
A very cool album. The trio brings some serious intelligence to accompany the music’s emotional punch.
Your album personnel: Paul Rogers (7-string double bass), Fabien Duscombs (drums) and Robin Fincker (clarinet, tenor sax).
Released in 2014 on the Mr Morezon label.
Jazz from the Toulouse, France scene.
Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.
Sep 13 2018
I like how the Bedmakers strip down a folk song
Saxophonist Robin Fincker, violinist Mathieu Werchowski, bassist Pascal Niggenkemper and drummer Fabien Discombs take variations on tunes by John Fahey, Bert Jansch, and traditional works from Scotland and Ireland, and turn them into something strangely familiar and yet profoundly new. The saying is that everyone has a twin; applied to the album Tribute To An Imaginary Folk Band, the twins of the original compositions are aliens visiting from a planet very far away. Waves of dissonance come crashing down on fragments of the original melodies, and they remain out of sight until long divergences run their course. Sweetly fond reminiscences upon the spirit of songs will suddenly metamorphose into beastly abnormalities that, oddly, retain a trace of their essential tunefulness. And no less compelling are those passages when the foot-tapping characteristics of the original work are ratcheted up, but with a groove rather than via a catch melody.
The quartet takes their name from a John Fahey song title, and their music also adopts the spirit of his creative arc. In that same way Fahey began to incorporate other folk music influences into his American blues and, later, veered into avant-garde territories, the Bedmakers exhibit that same attitude of boundless wandering… even if it’s just to circle back to where they started and begin a new beginning.
A very fun and exciting album.
Your album personnel: Robin Fincker (tenor sax, clarinet), Mathieu Werchowski (violin), Pascal Niggenkemper (double bass) and Fabien Duscombs (drums).
Released on the Freddy Morezon label.
Listen to more of the album on the label’s Bandcamp page.
Available at: Bandcamp
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2018 • 1 • Tags: Bedmakers, Fabien Duscombs, Freddy Morezon, Mathieu Werchowski, Pascal Niggenkemper, Robin Fincker