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  • Out Trios Volume Two

    ALP147

    Artist: Jeff Parker / Kevin Drumm / Michael Zerang

    Label: Atavistic

    The first thing to make clear here is that this recording is not for a general jazz audience. Those readers who get more than their fair share of white noise when the TV can't get a signal are not going to find a great deal to please their ears within the three quarters of an hour of "music" making up this CD. I put "music" in quotes not to question the quality of what is on offer here, but rather to make the point that the majority of this recording is made up of "sound" rather than the more conventional constructive elements of music such as melody, harmony or rhythm.

    This on its own is no bad thing. Other artists have recorded under similar constraints and created sonic landscapes of surprising and refreshing beauty, such as the stunning Some Other Season by Philipp Wachsmann and Paul Lytton (ECM). The work of the three Chicago-based musicians on this recording is for the most part more aggressive, though, and many listeners will find it inaccessible. It could nonetheless prove a treasure-trove for many way-out free-jazz aficionados.

    The role of each of the three players can be best distinguished on the third of the four improvisations, "Onslaught" (a very suitable name). Drumm is responsible for the majority of the "noise," whilst Parker weaves distorted lines in and out over this and Zerang scurries around his range of percussive instruments. The three improvisers are at their most inventive at this point and the range of textures is slightly more varied and int...