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| "Meet the Curlews!" |
| Curlew |
| első megjelenés éve: 2002 |
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| (2002)
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CD |
| 3.801 Ft
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| 1. | Space Flight Cat
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| 2. | Late December
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| 3. | Meet the Curlews
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| 4. | Cold Ride
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| 5. | ARM (For Ann Rupel)
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| 6. | Hated
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| 7. | Sensible Shoes/Proper Fit
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| 8. | Barn Door
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| 9. | Lemon Bitter
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| 10. | Late December (Reprise)
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| 11. | Middle and Fall
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Jazz / Rock, Jazz-Rock, Experimental Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Avant-Garde Jazz
Bruce Golden Drums
Chris Parker Piano, Wurlitzer
Davey Williams Guitar (12 String Electric), Guitar (Electric)
Fred Chalenor Bass
George Cartwright Producer, Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor), Sax (Soprano)
Jason Orris Mixing, Engineer
Mike Decapite Liner Notes
Steven Feigenbaum Executive Producer
Troy Zaushny Design
Meet the Curlews features long-time members Cartwright and guitarist Davey Williams as well as new members bassist Fred Chalenor (Hughscore), drummer Bruce Golden and pianist Chris Parker, whose contributions swing the genre-busting band more firmly into the realm of jazz. The eighth brilliant album by the band that The Wire called "...one hell of a group", and who Option referred to as "...the best and most obstinately commited band to emerge from New York's Knitting Factory based alternative music scene."
Four years after the group's last release, Fabulous Drop, this new edition of Curlew retains only leader and saxophonist George Cartwright and guitarist Davey Williams. Pianist Chris Parker has replaced second guitarist Chris Cochrane -- the first regular use of keyboards in a Curlew group since pianist Wayne Horvitz was a bandmember, briefly, back in 1986. Having a piano in the group (especially an acoustic piano) represents a fairly substantial change in Curlew's focus and direction. It pushes the music into a more mainstream jazz configuration, rather than the sometimes chaotic electric funk of the earlier groups. Williams still assaults musical convention occasionally on this CD, with bursts of machine metal shredding and howling but, collectively, the band seems headed in another direction. Cartwright himself is in a more thoughtful mood, playing less overall and generating only a comfortable amount of heat. In past performances, he has demonstrated a willingness (even eagerness) to duke it out with guitarists Cochrane and Williams, but on Meet the Curlews he often adopts a broad and breathy tone that owes only a little to Coltrane and Albert Ayler, and much more to jazz traditionalists such as Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, especially on ballads such as "Sensible Shoes/Proper Fit." The pianist's own composition, "Cold Ride," shows a decided McCoy Tyner influence and encourages Cartwright's most vigorous modal blowing in the manner of Coltrane, but pieces such as "HATED" and the two versions of "Late December" (the latter for solo piano) almost qualify as chamber jazz, and could have come from the ECM label catalog -- not something that could have been said about any previous Curlew composition or release. Perhaps as a consequence of the new band members (not just Parker on piano, but a new bassist and drummer as well), this Curlew group doesn't always project a distinct collective sound, and the exploration of various styles and modes (gospel, funk, chamber, modal, mainstream post-bop) sometimes comes across as slightly unfocused. Nonetheless, there is some very good music on this CD, and it is to be hoped that Cartwright can keep the group together long enough for some further seasoning and a second recording in a year or two. ~ Bill Tilland, All Music Guide
Credits
Curlew
Active Decades: '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: 1979
Genre: Rock
Styles: Modern Creative, Prog-Rock, Experimental, Jazz-Rock, Experimental Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Avant-Garde Jazz, Avant-Prog
Curlew were formed in 1979 by George Cartwright, who has served as the group's leader, saxophonist, and main composer for nearly three decades. Although Curlew have been viewed as pioneers of New York City's so-called "downtown scene," Cartwright was born in Mississippi and has consistently brought a roadhouse R&B swagger -- not to mention the influence of early hero Ornette Coleman -- to the band's sound. Throughout the '80s and '90s, Curlew served as something of an incubator and showcase for N.Y.C. avant jazz and rock talent. The group's eponymous first album, recorded in 1980, featured Cartwright on alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones along with cellist Tom Cora, guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, bassist Bill Laswell, and drummer Bill Bacon. (In 2008 the album was re-released by Downtown Music Gallery paired with a live disc recorded at CBGB [also in 1980] and featuring Denardo Coleman on drums.)
By the mid-'80s and the release of North America on the European Moers label (later re-released by Cuneiform with live bonus tracks), the bandmembers included guitarists Fred Frith and Mark Howell along with drummer Pippin Barnett. Barnett was a founding member of the Orthotonics and later performed with Cora in the Swiss group Nimal; Cora was also a founding member of Skeleton Crew with Frith and played with many downtown artists of the era, including Eugene Chadbourne and John Zorn. Maverick keyboardist Wayne Horvitz played on Curlew's third album, Live in Berlin, a release that also saw the arrival of guitarist Davey Williams, who -- along with Barnett (and of course Cartwright) -- would remain a mainstay of the band for a number of years.
Curlew's first album of the 1990s (a studio recording released by Cuneiform) was Bee, and marked the first appearance of bassist (and vocalist on a fine rendition of Cream's "As You Said") Ann Rupel, who also played in the group No Safety. One of Curlew's more experimental releases, the 1993 A Beautiful Western Saddle, featured singer Amy Denio and lyrics by poet Paul Haines. By 1996's Paradise, drummer Barnett had been replaced by Samm Bennett, also a member of Third Person, a trio that included Cora. Bennett was also leader of the N.Y.C. jazz-rock band Chunk. In addition, Paradise featured Chris Cochrane, another member of No Safety, on second guitar. By 1998's Fabulous Drop, Bennett was gone from the drummer's chair, replaced by Kenny Wollesen, one of the most prolific drummers in New York creative jazz.
By the new millennium, most vestiges of the downtown scene had moved from the geographic center of Lower Manhattan, with punky CBGB and the late-arriving avant jazz-centered Tonic soon to disappear and the Knitting Factory long having hitched its wagon to more mainstream rock (the Stone remaining one of the few venues consistently serving up adventurous creative fare on the Lower East Side). While Brooklyn (where a lot of "downtowners" lived anyway) in many ways took over as the locus for what might have been termed downtown music in earlier decades, by then George Cartwright had moved to -- somewhat surprisingly -- the Twin Cities of Minnesota, while still fully immersed in avant jazz and keeping the Curlew story alive and ongoing.
The ironically titled Meet the Curlews (released in 2002, again on Cuneiform) featured Cartwright and Williams with a band whose members lived in places that would make the prospect of weekly rehearsals exceedingly difficult: drummer Bruce Golden (who Cartwright says is his "oldest [and] longest...musical pal") is a lifelong Mississippean, keyboardist Chris Parker lives in Memphis, and bassist Fred Chalenor (Wayne Horvitz, Hughscore) is from Seattle. In 2003 this lineup, with Minnesota guitarist Dean Granros replacing Davey Williams, appeared on Mercury, the eighth Curlew album to be released by Cuneiform. Regarding Williams, Cartwright vowed "he'll be back," suggesting the possibility of a two-guitar lineup with both Williams and Granros at some point in the future. The diverse energy of Curlew's various bandmembers has kept the group continually on the creative cutting edge throughout its history, and any particular version of the band is filled with surprises and dynamic musical interactions.
---Bill Tilland & Dave Lynch, Rovi |
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