Review of
Liberty Ellman "ORTHODOXY"
The
San Francisco Bay Guardian, October 1, 1997
Review of
Liberty Ellman "ORTHODOXY"
The
San Francisco Bay Guardian, October 1, 1997
| Don't let
the scratching turntables on the opening track fool you. This is a jazz
album, full of loose-limbed tempos and rhythms, melodic twists and turns,
and induvidual improvisations that take their time to unfold and circle
back around to their original themes. Of course, like most of the music
emanating from the Bay Area's so-called new jazz scene, the somewhat ironically
titled Orthodoxy confronts the question "What is jazz?" and comes
up with answers particular to the session leader and his collaborators.
The London-born and stateside-raised Ellman's concept of jazz seems to
expand outward from the influences of 1960s Blue Note guitarist Grant Green,
spiritual seeker John Coltrane, eccentric geometrician Thelonious Monk,
and contemporary genre-cruncher Steve Coleman.
Known for his work in pianist Vijay Iyer's Poisonous Prophets, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and a host of other Bay Area ensembles, Ellman composed seven pieces for his first recording and invited Iyer and saxophonist Eric Crystal to join him. Acoustic bassists Hillel Familant and Kevin Mingus and drummers Brad Hargreaves and E.W. Wainwright provide most of the pulsating underpinnings. Instead of adopting the fusion sound of such influential electric guitarists as Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, and John Scofield, Ellman assumes an even, moderately amplified tone more akin to that of Grant Green or Pat Martino, and it serves melody especially well. Ellman grants generous space to Crystal, a saxophonist with a robust sound and a fertile imagination beautifully realized on the title track, and even more to Iyer, who delivers typically thoughtful and harmonically intriguing piano solos. Nothing about this mature debut feels hurried or forced, and the denoument, an Ellman-Iyer duet reading of Billy Strayhorn's "Blood Count," is exquisite. - Derk Richardson |