-Originally published in the NYC Jazz Record, December 2015-
CD review
by John Pietaro
Todd
Capp’s Mystery Train, Paris Frere. Noncept Records, 2015
Though
‘Paris Frere’ was recorded in Brooklyn, the sounds captured on this disc may
well have come through an artic passage by way of a lost culture. But the
assemblage doesn’t do “world music”; this release casts a secret night journey
into the avant heart of new music. And you’ll want to pay close attention to
the content lest it envelop you like an aural haunting.
Drummer-leader
Capp directs this brilliant ensemble securely from behind. His musicianship is
exported often times through what he does not
play. This has been written before about such rare drummers, but Capp creates
boiling points at pianissimo as needed, with marked tacits to increase tension.
Stinger accents via muted cymbals or atmospheric rim-shots allow the mind’s ear
to fill in the rest. Or not. Capp experimented early on with prime movers of
the AACM in Chicago before becoming embedded in his native NY’s downtown ‘80s
hotbed. In Mystery Train, Capp’s contrapuntal drumming works in startling
accord with Kurt Ralske’s yearning, adventurous cornet, Watson Jennison’s beautifully
pained reeds and flute (and drums on one track), Andrew Lafkas’ driving bass, and
the deep gray tapestries generated by Gao Jiafeng and Michael A Holmes, alternating
spots on electronics. Add the wonderfully other-worldly voice tracks of Jiafeng
and the music crosses into other places, other times.
Use of
modal phrases, pedal-centered basslines, echoey cornet and timp mallets rolling
across tom-toms offers this music something of an ECM vibe, yet there is an
urgency here that cuts to the core of free jazz: a revolutionary declaration of
sound. The restless foray of ‘Paris Frere’ may begin on the continent but
quickly disappears into the highlands of the East and out. This is visceral
music.
Capp and
company, through five bold pieces, would deny you the opportunity to ever
categorize Mystery Train.
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