Strange Liberation
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| Studio album by Dave Douglas | ||||
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| Label (s) | Bluebird Records | |||
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CD |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
57:47 |
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Studio (s) |
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Strange Liberation is a jazz album by Dave Douglas that was recorded in New York City in January 2003 and released on Bluebird Records in January 2004 .
The album
The 21st album by jazz trumpeter and band leader Dave Douglas contains original compositions that he recorded with his regular quintet and a guest musician, guitarist Bill Frisell . The Douglas band consisted of Chris Potter on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, Uri Caine on Fender Rhodes , James Genus on bass and Clarence Penn on drums.It was Douglas' first collaboration with Frisell, having intended to make an album with him since 1987 record.
The first two tracks on the album recall the music of Miles Davis ' music in the phase around Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968). Douglas wrote several compositions for his guest, including the title The Frisell Dream , which was based on a trumpeter's dream of the music of the Frisell trio. and which he presented before the album was released in 2003 at the Monterey Jazz Festival . The title Just Say This refers to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and their aftermath in the United States. Douglas stated in the liner notes that he was titled Skeeter-Ism in response to an eight-year-old boy attempting to play Thelonious Monks Blue Monk . The title of the album refers to a comment made by Martin Luther King, Jr. regarding America's involvement in the Vietnam War ; the Vietnamese must have viewed the Americans as strange liberators .
The Fender Rhodes player Uri Caine is reminiscent of the two keyboard players of the Miles Davis band at the end of the 1960s, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, and forms "a merging bridge between the winds, the guitar and the rhythm section ". The group sound is not dominated by a single instrument, according to Thomas Conrad in his review, it is “collective, dramatically determining”. Ben Ratliff mentions the influence of Wayne Shorter's compositions on the "mysterious melodic lines that are countered by strong harmonic movement", as in the titles Strange Liberation and The Frisell Dream . Chris Dahlen points out that Dave Douglas' play brings back memories of Booker Little in some of the titles .
The album opens with A Single Sky , a barren melodic figure that embraces modal jazz ; "The title track uses a blues frame that allows Caine to play a skeletal funk improvisation, then put Douglas and Potter in the foreground, to whom Frisell paints the background before he begins his solo himself." In the jazz act Just Say This "Douglas' muffled trumpet lines full of sadness and awe in the air, for which there are no words, while Frisell's guitar cuts dark, isolated chords." The subsequent Seventeen "is an energetic and complex construction in which the Improvisers have to cope with a series of rhythmic [...] changes. "
Frisell's Dream and Mountains from the Train are very reminiscent of Frisell's own recordings; The latter title is a “lovely pastoral sound surface, with guitars playing back and forth and free-flowing harmonies that surround the melody, flowing into the solo spaces - a lazy, leisurely line full of colors, space and textures played by the Brass. ”In Frisell's Dream “ an elegant jazz classicism is conjured up in which blues, swing and Aaron Copland's spirit are exhibited in a tricky little melodic figure, leaving room for open-chord Americana , which is now Frisell's trademark ”. In contrast, Rock of Billy goes from rhythm and blues to a 4/4 swing; in Catalyst , James Genus brings a funk-fusion atmosphere with his play on the electric bass .
Track list
- Dave Douglas: Strange Liberation (Bluebird 82876-50818-2)
- A Single Sky - 2:05
- The Jones - 4:24
- Catalyst - 5:08
- Strange Liberation - 8:04
- Skeeter-ism - 5:58
- Just Say This - 6:29
- Seventeen - 8:39
- Mountains from the Train - 5:15
- Rock of Billy - 5:55
- The Frisell Dream - 3:54
- Passing Through - 1:36
All compositions are by Dave Douglas
Awards and reception
Strange Liberation received consistently positive feedback in the jazz press; it received the Dutch Edison Jazz Award in 2004 .
Thom Jurek gave the album 4½ stars in Allmusic and described it "in its wealth of ideas and abundance [as] one of the highlights of Douglas' career so far" . It goes on to say: "Strange Liberation is a laid-back record in terms of its dynamics, but in its imagination and depth it is one of the high marks of Douglas' thus far prolific career. Compositionally it is head and shoulders above most of the stuff out there, and in terms of the taste in its performance and elocution it is virtually untouchable ".
In the book Essential Jazz: the First 100 Years , the album is described as "a fascinating mixture of 4/4 [bar] swing grooves and rock- based electrical textures reminiscent of Miles Davis ' electrical music in the late 1960s". John Kelman expressed in All About Jazz the opinion that compared to the previous album The Infinite , which was still in the Miles Davis music of the late 1960s, this release was "completely in safe Douglas territory" . The album is another fine entry in a body of work that strives to break down barriers by eliminating preconceptions as to what music should or shouldn't be .
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Dylan Hicks described the album in the City Pages as Douglas' most impressive accomplishment since signing with Bluebird; Chris Dahlen commented similarly on Pitchfork that the album was a set of music that's simply one of the best written, paced and performed works in his catalog , in The New York Times Ben Ratliff called it “for the best album by Dave Douglas in a few years Years ".
Marc Myers reviewed the album in All About Jazz ; it "literally explodes in a tumult of [sound] colors, moods, modes of expression and rhythms" . He particularly praised the game Chris Potters ( is playing so well these days it's almost frightening ); his solo in Catalyst showed fiery aggression and a buzz-saw tone, while in Just Say This he played appropriately sad. Frisell “ shines unreservedly; he loves to play and he brings the feeling into this album of indulging in the versatility and challenge of this music ”. The rhythm section is " closed, almost telepathic, and incidentally brilliantly recorded ". On the Billboard Dan Ouellette called it a reflective, whimsical and driving quintet date . The collaboration between Douglas and Bill Frisell works like a perfect tonal match . Thomas Conrad wrote in JazzTimes that the album “has the quality of an immediacy that is essential for jazz” .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Ben Ratliff: New CD's; Following Improv Bread Crumbs January 27, 2004 in The New York Times
- ↑ a b c d e f Marc Myers: Dave Douglas: Strange Liberation at All About Jazz
- ↑ a b Liner Notes
- ^ Eastwood McLaughlin, Memorable Monterey Moments 2003 on Billboard
- ^ Strange Liberation at Allmusic
- ↑ a b Dylan Hicks: Dave Douglas: Strange Liberation (2004) in City Pages ( memento of the original from September 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Review of Thom Jurek's album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved August 3, 2012.
- ↑ a b c Thomas Conrad: Review of the album in JazzTimes April 2004
- ↑ a b c Chris Dahlen: Dave Douglas: Strange Liberation at Pitchfork Media 2004
- ↑ Benjamin Herman: Jazz Profiles (2011)
- ↑ 2008 Essential Jazz: the First 100 Years, Cengage Learning, p. 265
- ^ John Kelman: Dave Douglas: Strange Liberation (2004) in All About Jazz
