Demon Chaser

chronology
Demon Chaser
Live album by Gerry Hemingway
Publication ; (s)	1993
Label (s)	HatHut Records
Format (s)	CD
Genre (s)	jazz
Title (number)	6th
running time	53:58
occupation	Drums , Steel Drums : Gerry Hemingway ; Trumpet : Wolter Wierbos ; Alto saxophone , clarinet , bass clarinet : Michael Moore ; Cello : Ernst Reijseger ; Bass : Mark Dresser ;
production	Ulrich Kurth and Werner X. Uehlinger
Studio (s)	Ottenbrucher train station , Wuppertal - Elberfeld

Gerry Hemingway and Wolter Wierbos, Loft (Cologne) 2013

Demon Chaser is a jazz album by the Gerry Hemingway Quintet. It was recorded live on March 2nd, 1993 at Ottenbrucher Bahnhof in Wuppertal - Elberfeld and was released in 1993 by HatHut Records . After the album had been out of print for over ten years , it was reissued in 2009 with a different design.

The album

Following his collaborations with Anthony Braxton , Earl Howard , Reggie Workman , Marilyn Crispell and Georg Graewe , Demon Chase was the drummer's first release as head of the transatlantic Gerry Hemingway Quintet , having sustained the two quartet albums Special Detail (with Don Byron , 1991) and Down to the Wire (with the same line-up as the present album, but without Ernst Reijseger, 1992).

The quintet included the Americans Hemingway, Mark Dresser (bass) and Michael Moore (woodwind instruments), the Dutch Ernst Reijseger (cello) and Wolter Wierbos (trombone). At the time of the recording, the quintet, which existed for a total of eight years, was a regularly touring ensemble.

According to Brian Morton , this band project is oriented more towards ensemble playing than towards individual playing attitudes. The concert recording begins with Hemingway's composition Slamadam , a "stormy, angular number that highlights Hemingway's abilities as a percussionist and the rough-expressive potential of the ensemble." At the beginning the ensemble improvises freely before the bass and cello introduce a tonal shift.

Dizzy Gillespie's jazz classic A Night in Tunisia undergoes a complete “reinvention” (Morton) and an extensive, swirling deconstruction, which “allows a great deal of freedom with the original form of the title, abstracting it while maintaining basic elements of melody, harmony and rhythm ". In the tightrope walk between new jazz and bop, Reijseger and Dresser set the contrapuntal framework in which Moore and Wierbos improvise freely. As an arranger, Hemingway sets "his accents in the introspective tone poem Buoys ."

The "seething" title track Demon Chaser - in which Hemingway can be heard on the steel drums - works with a dramatic increase in tension, especially through Moore's vocalizing cadences on the alto saxophone, by spraying "a sparkling mosaic of powerful harmonies."

The “swinging lyricism” of the quintet is demonstrated by the titles Holler Up and More Struttin 'With Mutton ; "A pair of warbling melodies, supported by melodious improvisations, in which Wierbos 'slide play, Moore's penetrating cadences and Reijseger's sonorous arco-play deserve special attention." Hemingway had more Struttin' With Mutton in the 1980s in the formation BassDrumBone with Ray Anderson and Mark Helias recorded.

Reception of the album

Michael Moore in 2004 in Boston

In his review at Allmusic , Thom Jurek rated the album with the second highest grade (4 stars) and described the entire recording as “remarkable: the interplay between the musicians” was “not just intuitive, but completely kinetic, which also applies to the three-piece rhythm section can be traced back. Hemingway does not draw attention to himself - except as a composer and arranger - but to layers of sounds that are in rhythmic proportion to the front line . ”Ultimately, Hemingway established himself as an impressive composer and arranger with Demon Chaser .

Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave the album the highest rating; In their opinion, Gerry Hemingway succeeded with (the previous album) Down to the Wire and Demon Chaser "the final breakthrough in the first division". The latter album is "a captivating masterpiece;" his playing in the title track is "wonderful."

Troy Collins describes the album "in Gerry Hemingway's discography as one of the greatest achievements of his acclaimed transatlantic quintet;" "a stellar snapshot of one of the best working bands of the mid-nineties."

Ernst Reijseger, Moers Festival 2007

The pieces of the album

HatHut Records (hatART 6137, HatOLOGY 673)

Slamadam - 5:41
A Night in Tunisia ( Dizzy Gillespie ) - 12:34
Buoys - 8:55
Holler Up - 7:19
Demon Chase - 10:05
More Struttin 'With Mutton - 9:26

All compositions (unless otherwise stated) are by Gerry Hemingway.

Web links

Review of Thom Jurek's Demon Chaser album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved April 10, 2011.
Review of Troy Collins album on All About Jazz (2008)
Picture of the original cover

swell

Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP and Cassette. 2nd Edition. Penguin, London 1994, ISBN 0-14-017949-6 .
Brian Morton: Liner Notes from the Album (1993)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Review of the Troy Collins album on All About Jazz (2008)
^ ^A ^b Brian Morton, Liner Notes (1993)
↑ ^a ^b ^c Review of the Demon Chaser album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved April 10, 2011.

↑ Discographic information on Gerry Hemingway's website

^ Cit. Cook & Morton, Penguin Guide "to Jazz", 1993,.

[collins-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Review of the Troy Collins album on All About Jazz (2008)

[morton-2] A ^b Brian Morton, Liner Notes (1993)

[all-3] Review of the Demon Chaser album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved April 10, 2011.

[hem-4] Discographic information on Gerry Hemingway's website

[5] Cit. Cook & Morton, Penguin Guide "to Jazz", 1993,.