Improv & Avant-Garde 2011: 10 Favourites

Page 10

Features Year In Review Dec 2011

Dead Cat Bounce Chance Episodes (Cuneiform)
Along with Paradoxical Frog, Dead Cat Bounce might be one of the best names of any band in jazz. Matt Steckler, the leader of this Boston-based sextet, writes in the liner notes to Chance Episodes that "the end result is less about establishing a particular 'sound' for the group and more about narrating through sound a timeline of human experience." But I think he's doing himself a disservice there. Dead Cat Bounce has four horn players ― Steckler, Jared Sims, Terry Goss, and Charlie Kohlhase ― and the wonderfully rich and layered voicings they produce, with a range of saxophones and clarinet and flute, make the album great. The group is like a little big band. I can see what Steckler means, though. These songs are episodic ― see "Silent Movie Russia, 1905" or "Salon Sound Journal" ― and "Far from the Matty Crowd" reminded me of the evolutionary symbolism in Pithecanthropus Erectus, a Charles Mingus album. But the sound of Dead Cat Bounce is unmistakably particular. Drummer Bill Carbone deserves special attention; he plays simple rock and funk beats without sounding glib, forming a sturdy connection with bassist Dave Ambrosio. He also uses a cowbell. And it's very refreshing when a horn solo happens. In "Tourvan Confessin'," a sultry track the speed of a dangerously slow heart beat, Jared Sims emerges out of the chorus, on tenor, with an earthy, gutbucket scream. All the grit and colour and steam of Sims's sound is so sharply delineated that, for me, it was like looking through a macro lens.
Matthew Kassel

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2Comments

Posted by Nameless Poseur On 2011-12-03 14:21:11What about the new FAUST record? 'Something Dirty' = nails on a chalkboard! Recommended.

Posted by Ranta On 2011-12-03 16:08:23I quite enjoyed the new Faust, but I don't think I would classify it as Improv & Avant-Garde, exactly, and certainly not nails on a chalkboard. "Herbststimmung" and "La Sole Dorée" are rather pretty.