Dirty hands
| Dirty hands | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by John O'Gallagher | ||||
|
Publication |
||||
| Label (s) | Clean Feed Records | |||
|
Format (s) |
CD |
|||
|
Title (number) |
7th |
|||
|
running time |
49:24 |
|||
| occupation | ||||
|
Trem Azul, John O'Gallagher |
||||
|
Studio (s) |
Quinta Da Música Studios, Porto, Portugal |
|||
|
||||
Dirty Hands is a jazz album by John O'Gallagher that was recorded at Quinta Da Música Studios in Porto, Portugal in 2007 and released on Clean Feed Records in 2008 .
background
Alto saxophonist John O'Gallagher toured France and Portugal with his trio of Masa Kamaguchi (bass) and Jeff Williams (drums) before the recordings for the album were made in Porto. The music is a mixture of composed and freely improvised pieces.
Track list
- John O'Gallagher Trio: Dirty Hands (Clean Feed - CF132CD)
- Bed Bugs (O'Gallagher) - 2:53
- Orientations (O'Gallagher, Kamaguchi, Williams) - 5:37
- Time Finds Its Way (O'Gallagher) - 5:12
- Swelter (O'Gallagher, Kamaguchi, Williams) - 5:33
- Borderline (Williams) - 6:50
- F Line (O'Gallagher) - 7:23
- Lessons of History (O'Gallagher, Kamaguchi, Williams) - 15:54
reception
Mark Corroto wrote in All About Jazz that on Dirty Hands O'Gallagher presented the jazz equivalent of the power trio of rock music . It works the way he peeled off his compositions on saxophone, double bass and drums; "Fortunately, both his arrangement and his playing hold up extremely well in this open environment." Since O'Gallagher has a passion for dense compositions, certain and clever pieces emerge. With "Bed Bugs" there would be echoes of both Jackie McLean and Steve Coleman ; “Borderline”, on the other hand, is reminiscent of the early Ornette Coleman . “Three of the titles are completely improvised; yet they are not devoid of any structure. The bassist opens “Orientations”, and the interplay creates a coherent chamber music piece as a snapshot. ”Conversely, the longest piece“ Lessons of History ”is an almost 16-minute meandering improvisation. The composed pieces form the complex “F Line”, the muscular “Borderline” and the soulful “Time Finds Its Way”. O'Gallagher, Williams and Kamaguchi made a power trio statement that was as strong as any other working trio in jazz today, the author sums up.
Also in All About Jazz , David Adler points out the history of the recording session; John O'Gallagher and his bassist Masa Kamaguchi had "already shown their intense, thoughtful interaction in O'Gallagher's CIMP ( Rules of Invisibility ) session ", with Jay Rosen on drums. Dirty Hands continued the continuity of this development, this time with drummer Jeff Williams, who took over much of the textural sharpness from the formation Axiom , O'Gallagher's quartet with two saxophones.
While O'Gallagher had shown references to bebop and post-bop in Rules of Invisibility , the music of Dirty Hands is freer and less swing-based, even if Williams' trotting game in "Borderline" forms a clear tempo. “Bed Bugs”, “Time Finds Its Way” and “F Line” each start with short, well-composed ideas, which then develop in abstraction and dialogue. David Adler points to "the impressive weight" of Kamaguchi's playing; "An unmistakable mastery of the trio discipline, which can also be clearly seen in his work with Frank Kimbrough and Paul Motian ( Play , Palmetto, 2006)".
O'Gallagher equips his lively and stringent alto game with individuality, but also with a feeling for living history; Adler also recognizes "echoes of Ornette Coleman's Golden Circle (Blue Note, 1963), with traces of Steve Coleman's or Greg Osby's jagged articulation and perhaps also something of Tim Berne's freed roar."
Art Lange wrote in Point of Departure , Dirty Hands was indeed "no revelatory album, but a remarkable." As he vividly the middle ground between the "rhythmically certain liberal phrasing of Ornette Coleman and occasionally intense linear mazes of Lee Konitz go, realize Alto saxophonist John O'Gallagher a personal concept for a relaxed, lyrical improvisation that derives from the two, but does not sound like them ”.
The saxophonist and his partners Masa Kamaguchi and Jeff Williams kept the balance between individual spontaneity and ensemble empathy; “They respect each other's space, negotiate an instinctive course of action and subtly complement the prevailing direction - whether this results in surprising turns of the melody ('Swelter'), swelling rhythmic impulses ('F Line') or sparingly formed, almost transparent details ( in the first half of 'Lessons of History'). The group sound was determined by Kamaguchi's fragile, spider web-shaped pattern and Williams' Chiaroscuro work with the broom. But as the primary leader, O'Gallagher keeps things moving by continuously adjusting the character of the melodic line. He begins, for example, by connecting some angular intervals. However, Art Lange sums up that it is not music of extremes; compact gestures and attentive care would provide enough character. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Liner Notes of the album
- ↑ Discographic information at Discogs
- ↑ Mark Corroto: John O'Gallagher: Dirty Hands . All About Jazz, February 1, 2009, accessed February 1, 2018 .
- ↑ David Adler: John O'Gallagher: Dirty Hands . All About Jazz, September 5, 2009, accessed February 1, 2018 .
- ^ Art Lange: Point of Departure review by Art Lange. Clean Feed Records, February 9, 2009, accessed February 1, 2018 .