Airwalkers
| Airwalkers | ||||
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| Studio album by Roswell Rudd and Mark Dresser | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Clean Feed Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
9 |
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running time |
58:58 |
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Studio (s) |
Nevessa Studio in Saugerties, NY |
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Airwalkers is a jazz album by trombonist Roswell Rudd and bassist Mark Dresser , recorded on August 4, 2004 in Saugerties, Ulster County , and released in October 2006 on Clean Feed Records .
background
Bassist Mark Dresser had already recorded a duo album for trombone / bass three years earlier, Nine Songs Together ( CIMP ) with Ray Anderson . The music on the Airwalkers album contains both spontaneous improvisations and more structured themes based on dance forms, waltzes , rags or ballads . In the first track “Calypso Lite” Dresser works on his bass with jew's harp-like effects; In the title track "Airwalker", which is included in two versions on the album, Rudd plays with mute with borrowings from the Tailgate style. “Roz MD” contains harsh brass vocalises and Dresser's pizzicato playing , “Duality” Rudd's metallic-sounding vibrations next to Dresser's wandering keys on the bass. The short “burst” is similar, “saturated with tonal implosions”. Rudd borrows from Thelonious Monk in an elaboration of the standard “Don't Blame Me” by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields , while “Lovers Waltz” shows the duo in a rather atypical, sentimental setting in which Dresser uses the bow .
Track list
- Roswell Rudd & Mark Dresser: Airwalkers (Clean Feed CF066CD)
- Calypso Lite - 5:49
- Airwalker [Take Two] - 9:46
- Pregnant break - 3:42
- Roz MD - 0:23
- Duality - 4:55
- Burst - 1:36
- Don't Blame Me (Jimmy McHugh / Dorothy Fields) - 7:24
- Lovers Waltz - 3:25
- Airwalker [Take One] - 11:58
- All other compositions are by Roswell Rudd and Mark Dresser.
reception
The album received consistently positive reviews after its release; Derek Taylor said in Bagatelles , even if the results would require the patience of some listeners, that the ability of the two musicians in the abundance of these varied improvisations could hardly be denied. Tom Sekowski (2010) emphasized in his review for the Polish magazine Gaz-eta that the two musicians - freed from a rhythm section - had to find their own roles; Rudd's playing doesn't leave any percussionist missing in the band. Filled with waltz-like numbers, thoroughly vibrating material and gentle ballads, it is an understatement to say that this record is really great.
In his review for All About Jazz (2006), Troy Collins emphasized that Airwalkers Roswell Rudd and Mark Dresser not only bring two of the greatest improvisers on the contemporary jazz scene together for an informal session, but also rather atypical duo partners with trombone and double bass, but they formed a friendly and experimental couple here. Together, the two musicians would put on “a program of muted but contagious pieces” that obscures the simple setting. “Dresser plucks, strokes, bangs and hits his bass powerfully, while Rudd happily adds long singing tones and splinters of rough textures. Whether muted or open, its horn conveys a splendid, unpretentious sound, sometimes rough and humming, other times lovely and melancholy or melancholy. Dressers bass alternates between powerful resonance, damped harmonic fragments and spectral Arco - pedal points . "
The duo engages in “carefree dialogues in the uplifting 'Calypso Light', expressive blues meditations in the two versions of the title track and nostalgic memories in the intimate performance of 'Don't Blame Me'. In the turbulent 'Duality' and the noisy 'Burst' they stir up the avant-garde fire, and in 'Roz MD' they also do an extensive exploration of space and structures. "The author sums up that this" eclectic program is an impressive snapshot of two masterful improvisers "Offer," the fantastic combination of Dresser's avant-garde classicism and Rudd's earthbound expressionism form an atypical but fitting pair. "
Ken Dryden awarded the album four (out of five) stars in Allmusic and emphasized how rare trombone-bass duos have been in jazz up to now. Roswell Rudd and Mark Dresser are two veterans who took up the challenge of making things interesting; They played with the feeling that each piece was preceded by brief discussions and that they only chose very simple scales as a starting point. "This wonderful meeting of two virtuosos will satisfy every jazz fan with open ears."
Francis Davis said in 2007 in the Village Voice that for those who (after the trombonist's previous world jazz projects) want to listen to Roswell Rudd undisguised, Airwalkers (and also Early and Late , with Steve Lacy ) is right. The freely improvised duets in Airwalkers are “elementary, but not strict. [...] Rudd's tone is more beer-blessed than any trombonist since Jack Teagarden , and this also works well in 'Don't Blame Me', the album's only standard and a real heartbreaker. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ See liner notes of the album
- ↑ a b Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Roswell-Rudd-Mark-Dresser-Airwalkers/release/2428967
- ↑ http://bimhuis.com/gigs/roswell-rudd--mark-dresser
- ↑ http://www.gaz-eta.vivo.pl/gaz-eta/recenzje/gazeta.php?nr=50&id=s_8
- ^ Review of the album in All About Jazz
- ↑ Review of Ken Dryden's album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved May 13, 2015.
- ↑ http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-07-31/music/back-in-the-world/full/
