Tomasz Stanko Quintet: Dark Eyes (ECM CD)

John Surman: Brewster?s Rooster (ECM CD)

The ECM label had a strong presence at the 2009 London Jazz festival, at which it’s artists all had strong new product to promote. I?ve already reviewed for this site the concerts by Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani. I?ve also reviewed Rava?s latest CD, as well as Fly?s terrific Sky & Country album. Fly’s LJF show at Charlie Wrights in Hoxton was a triumph; a packed, sweaty gig that put real muscle onto their lean melodies. But I want to focus here on the studio debuts of two terrific bands by ECM stalwarts, the ?Nordic Quintet? led by Tomasz Stanko and John Surman?s Brewster?s Rooster, in the light of their individual headlining performances.

Brewster?s Rooster marks, in Surman?s 65th year, Surman?s first ?straight? Jazz release since 1993?s Stranger Than Fiction, also on ECM, after six sui generis ?new music? offerings. On first sight the Brewster?s Rooster roster of John Abercrombie (guitar), Jack DeJohnette (drums), and Drew Gress (double bass) is, with the exception of Gress, both rather predictable and a solid proposition. Gress? appearance amid these old muckers seems nicely judged, and promises to inject some of the edge with which Paul Bley, Gary Peacock and Tony Oxley imbued Surman?s classic 1991 recording, Adventure Playground, which for me is a touchstone release.

Whereas Adventure Playground was produced and engineered in-house by ECM?s Manfred Eicher and Jan Erik Kongshaug, Brewster?s Rooster was recorded and engineered at a New York studio, with Surman and DeJohnette assisting in it’s mix. Everything sounds clear and each instrument is clearly differentiated, to the extent that the sound has been rendered rather bloodless. The best approach for the listener is to focus on individual lines and attempt to grasp the dynamics of individual contributions. In this way the music comes to life, and the ebb and flow of tension can be appreciated. Without such close attention the album has an anaesthetising quality, with playback leaving only a soft-focus suggestion, an ambient after-taste, of the music-making that it attempts to capture. This is a real pity, because the music-making is superb.

In concert at the 2009 London Jazz Festival (Queen Elizabeth Hall, 14/11/2009) the same material was enlivened by the full-blooded muscularity rippling beneath Gress?s incisive basslines, Abercrombie?s ductile guitar, DeJohnette?s crisp cymbals, and the throbbing low-end undertow of Surman. The surging power of DeJohnette when he?s given free rein and the tensile power not always held in check by Abercrombe are here barely hinted at. I was once told that the Mayan night sky was so full of starlight that they named not the constellations but the areas of surrounding darkness, and whether that?s true or not it?s an appropriate metaphor for the qualitative differences of Adventure Playground and the Brewster?s Rooster CD. On the former the playing of Surman, Bley, Peacock and Oxley seems to radiate marvellously from a palpable, profound darkness. The music of Brewster?s Rooster is, by contrast, cruelly over-exposed. With familiarity, however (and as any recollection of the live incarnation recedes), I?ve warmed to the recording, which slowly reveals itself as a collection of considerable latent power. Billy Strayhorn?s Chelsea Bridge is an exception; a rendition of this lovely song is seldom unwelcome but here, sequenced at the album?s core, it further damps the embers of a recording that merely glows tastefully where it ought to blaze. It?s nice to have Surman back with his Jazz hat on, and the group?s gigs are highly recommended, but Brewster?s Rooster the recording is sadly a missed opportunity.

The new ECM offering from Tomasz Stanko, Dark Eyes, on which Manfred Eicher bestows a characterfully rich production, is more successfully realised. (These two new ECM CDs, incidentally, have prompted me to reassess any reservations I?ve ever held regarding Eicher?s ECM productions). Stanko?s Nordic quintet (two Finns, two Danes) features a lineup that?s mostly new to me: I obviously haven?t been paying attention. Guitarist Jakob Bro?s 2009 CD, Balladeering, featured Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Ben Street, and a guest spot for Lee Konitz. Anders Christensen should be familiar to some as bassist with Paul Motian?s Electric Bebop group (he also has his own trio with Motian and Aaron Parks), with Oriole, or perhaps with indie rockers Ravonettes. Pianist Tuomarila maintains his own quartet, and has been praised by Brad Mehldau. Olavi Louhivuori founded a group called Oddarrang that sounds interesting; he has (I read on the web) played with Anthony Braxton and Kenny Wheeler, and more recently recorded a solo percussion album. If they were a football team they?d be starting the season at a club with cash to spend.

Stanko has a brassy, resonant, rasping tone that runs the gamut from smoky to abrasive. Comparisons to Miles Davis would, for once, not go amiss, as Stanko has the same insouciant swagger, a similar predilection for feeling over technical nicety, and directness facilitated by subtle felicities; in all, a formidable technique. His devastatingly elegiac Leosia (1997) was followed by Litania, a masterful tribute to composer Krzystof Komeda. Since those peaks he has attempted to reach a wider audience with the lyrical, folk-inflected On The Green Hill (which incidentally featured Surman as a co-composer and performer) and a trio of more straightforward jazz trio recordings. This new band successfully synthesizes some of the threads that run throughout this expansive and consistently rewarding discography (though On The Green Hill didn?t quite gel satisfyingly, and the trio recordings, though excellent, are a tad too comfortable), and it?s a beauty. As ever there are titles by Komeda, but eight of the ten titles are Stanko?s own. The LJF show (Queen Elizabeth Hall, 18/11/2009) provided ample evidence of a quality of ensemble sound that could only emanate from the warp and weft of the unity of various singular talents. Dark Eyes captures that perfectly. Only Tuomarila?s playing didn?t strike me as particularly interesting on the night, but his presence on Dark Eyes suggests that my attention simply gravitated elsewhere; his complimentary paralleling of Stanko?s lines is sympathetic but single-minded. Bro?s limpid exactness perhaps exceeds even that of Johns Abercrombie or Paricelli. From the autumnal delicacy of May Sun to the lissom sway of Samba Nova (note how precise Stanko?s titles are), this is utterly compelling, sensual music with a balancing earthiness. Christensen?s bass playing is notably essential in lubricating its many deceptively subtle mood twists. Where the production of Brewster?s Rooster sells a great band short, Dark Eyes is essential Stanko.

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