Andrew Cyrille Quartet – The Declaration Of Musical Independence (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/48 kHz | Time – 45:36 minutes | 815 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Artwork: Digital booklet | © ECM
The great avant-jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille whose associations have ranged from a long, vintage collaboration with Cecil Taylor to co-leading current all-star collective Trio 3 with Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman makes his ECM debut as bandleader on The Declaration Of Musical Independence and what a band it is! Guitarist Bill Frisell, keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum and double bassist Ben Street are perfectly in synch with Cyrille throughout this set that opens with a Coltrane cover (Coltrane Time) but is otherwise all-original, including three pieces composed by the entire quartet in the studio.
A portentous title for an unself-consciously inquisitive, selflessly collective quartet nominally led by the great drummer Andrew Cyrille, an elderly master of unpredictable yet flowing free-jazz momentum, steered by the kind of patience that drummers aren’t always famous for. His very classy partners here are Bill Frisell (guitar), jazz/classical synth pioneer Richard Teitelbaum (a long-time Cyrille collaborator) and Ben Street (double bass). A version of John Coltrane’s Coltrane Time kicks things off with a snare pattern Cyrille learned from Coltrane drummer Rashied Ali – which he sustains while the others float rhythmically and arrhythmically around him. Frisell’s melancholy Kaddish rings quietly on over Cyrille’s far-distant mallets, Street’s Say resembles a slow pop ballad, and Dazzling (Perchordally Yours) is built around alternations of single chord-hits and silences, the players reacting to the resonances. It all swings without regular swing, sounding fluently melodic, though much of it is cell-like and episodic. It might be too wrapped up in itself for some, but its close-listening musicality grows on you.
Tracklist:
01 – Coltrane Time
02 – Kaddish
03 – Sanctuary
04 – Say…
05 – Dazzling (Perchordially Yours)
06 – Herky Jerky
07 – Begin
08 – Manfred
09 – Song For Andrew No.1
Produced by Sun Chung. Engineered by Rick Kwan.
Recorded in July 2014 at Brooklyn Recording, New York.
Musicians:
Andrew Cyrille – drums, percussion
Bill Frisell – guitar
Richard Teitelbaum – synthesizer, piano
Ben Street – double bass
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