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The Convergence Quartet Live in Oxford
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| "The Convergence Quartet consists of two North Americans and two Brits. The musicians seem to be taking the band name seriously, as the music is clearly informed by the intersections of methodologies; even though the pieces are shaped by free improvisation, each of the five tracks credits a single composer. The first piece, Bynum's Miscellaneous, nicely recapitulates the textural history of jazz, whether it wants to or not, beginning with the cornetist's fine averaging of Bubber Miley and Tricky Sam Nanton with the big beat, Sonny Greer-style orchestral drumming of Eisenstadt. Before the theme is recapitulated, Hawkins' solo has some of the animation of Cecil Taylor: it's a short and circular history. Lash's Goad is then the sonic inverse, initially a collection of wisps and stutters that maintains that level until a piano solo creates strong linear continuity and animation, triggering a rhythmic figure from the cornet that might be a composed bridge to another passage of improvisation, dynamic sostenuto piano scurry leading to a final angular trumpet part consisting of sturdy and pointed blasts. A bass solo introduces Eisenstadt's Convergence, gradually gaining in rhythmic specificity to introduce something that Henry Mancini would recognize as a theme, with bass and drums working in close tandem. While Hawkins gradually takes it out with Tippett-ing flurries, segments might be described as "in the pocket," by those who actually use that phrase. There's a wonderful moment here in which Bynum plays call and response with himself at the same time that he's interacting closely with Eisenstadt. Hawkins' Goodbye, Sir is more obscure in its underpinnings, beginning with sound-play solos from Bynum and Eisenstadt before thematic materials emerge with a group passage that leads to free (jazz) improvisation that's a highlight of the performance. The final and brief Bynum piece, mm(pf), reasserts a pattern here, strong tonal agreement arising out of apparently random activity. What this music means in relationship to how it's assembled will be determined in each individual listening, but its ambiguities of construction form a particular invitation to inquire into the time and manner of its making. One of its characteristic gestures is a movement from improvisation to pre-structured material, thus structuring material in advance of our hearing, changing our temporal relationship to its construction while suggesting a fundamental reassertion of composition within improvised music. It also thematizes the idea of free improvisation as a prelude to something else that has already conditioned it, turning improvisation into something the music is about rather than a method of making it. The liner essay by Simon H. Fell is a useful inquiry into the issues posed by this music." Stuart Broomer POINT OF DEPARTURE |
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ARTISTS
Convergence Quartet: Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet, flugelhorn); Harris Eisenstadt (drums); Alexander Hawkins (piano, small instruments); Dominic Lash (double bass) |
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