The Windup
| The Windup | ||||
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| Live album by Dave Ballou & BeepHonk | ||||
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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) |
3 |
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running time |
51:14 |
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| occupation |
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Pedro Costa, BeepHonk |
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Location (s) |
Windup Space, Baltimore, MD |
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The Windup is a jazz album by Dave Ballou and his band BeepHonk . The recordings, made on March 27, 2017 at a concert in Windup Space , Baltimore, were released on Clean Feed Records in 2018 .
background
Dave Ballou dealt with jazz as well as classical and baroque music. In the context of his band project BeepHonk , his work has shifted its coordinates and has moved from the modern mainstream to the sound of free improvisation and open composition, noted Giuseppe Segala. In the period after 2000, Ballou had released numerous albums for the SteepleChase Records label, representing the traditionalist line of modern jazz , but with some attention for some great experimenters, including Paul Bley , to whom he dedicated a number of albums. Since the mid-2010s he has been systematically experimenting with abstract and improvised music with Solo Trumpet , published in 2015 on the Clean Feed label, and Quadrants for Solo Trumpet (pfMENTUM, 2017).
The BeepHonk quartet around Ballou has been active since 2011; Studio recordings were made in 2015, but since the results did not correspond to the live performances, they were not published. Trumpeter Dave Ballou and his band BeepHonk (with guitarist Anthony Pirog , bassist Adam Hopkins and drummer Mike Kuhl ) recorded the album live at The Windup Space in Baltimore, where bassist Adam Hopkins has been organizing weekly concerts since 2011. On their debut album, the quartet combines structural components with improvisations, noted Glenn Astarita.
Track list
- Dave Ballou & BeepHonk: The Windup (Clean Feed CF489CD)
- Fluffer Nutter (Ballou) 9:23
- BeepHonk (Hopkins, Pirog, Ballou, Kuhl) 15:23
- Nice Spot - Another Fool (Ballou) 26:28
reception
According to Glenn Astarita, who reviewed the album in All About Jazz , the use of loops and other effects allows pirog contrapuntal reactions and metallic structural additions to the acoustic element.
Giuseppe Segala wrote in the Italian edition of All About Jazz that the three long tracks that make up the album show a very well coordinated quartet that is ready to react as a single organism to the stimuli of individuals, with a special harmony in the dribbling between Anthony Pirog's electric guitar and Ballou's trumpet. The latter reveals his class without frugality, which consists of an approach that combines sound precision and phrase acrobatics: an abstraction that is often based on clear lines and control, but which does not despise the creation of brittle and rough sounds in the manner of Herb Robertson . “Two tracks develop their adventures with material written by Ballou and underscore the quartet's ability to work on fragmenting and reconstructing rhythmic-melodic cells with authentic narrative oomph, also through the remarkable contribution of Mike Kuhl's articulated drums. The fifteen minutes of "BeepHonk", completely improvised, come from an intensive introduction to the double bass and still show how effectively the training manages to create significant scenarios that are rich in timbre stimuli, actions and deviations. "
Derek Stone wrote on the Free Jazz Blog that The Windup had wild passages as well as “hazy sections of silence and many in between”; The album combines acoustic, electrical and occasionally insane effects (like Pirog's guitar effects) and is a unique addition to Ballou's catalog and a good start to BeepHonk's career. The album is “a varied and fascinating mix of improvisation, composition and sound design, with each of these elements being just the right amount to ensure that all types of listeners will appreciate something. Ballou and Pirog in particular brought an endlessly fascinating sense of adventure into the action and not only explored a wide range of melodic paths, but (especially in Pirog's case) also the limits of what they can do with their respective instruments. "
Web links
- Listing of the album on Allmusic (English). Accessed January 1, 2020.
- Information about the album at Clean Feed
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Giuseppe Segala: Dave Ballou & BeepHonk: The Windup. February 15, 2019, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Glenn Astarita: Dave Ballou & BeepHonk: The Windup. All About Jazz, October 3, 2018, accessed May 27, 2020 .
- ↑ Dave Ballou & BeepHonk: The Windup at Discogs
- ↑ Derek Stone: Dave Ballou & BeepHonk: The Windup. Free Jazz Blog, September 8, 2019, accessed May 27, 2020 .