Gameboard, Gwen Laster (independently
released, 2018)
CD review by John Pietaro
Violinist/violist Gwen Laster has a career spanning
New York’s creative tapestry, from Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Thurman
Barker, the Sun Ra Arkestra, the New Muse 4tet, and the Go: Organic Orchestra
to Alicia Keys, Nona Hendryx, Aretha Franklin, Rhianna and the Roots. A
presence at the Vision Festival and the AACM 50th Anniversary
Concert, Laster’s also been featured in chamber and orchestral music and on
stage for the 2008 Obama inauguration, yet remains new music’s best-kept
secret. With the release of Gameboard,
her third album as a leader, she’s hoping to change that.
The music herein serves as an aural component of
Laster’s metaphysical and creative inspirations, social activism and call for
compassion (sustenance to artists during these Trump years), threading global
sounds with improvisation and strains of pop. The ensemble pairs a world music
octet with a string section, boasting such downtown notables as bansuri flutist
Steve Gorn, violist Jason Kao Hwang and guitarist Marvin Sewell. However,
guitarist Freddie Bryant, a regular in the Laster ensemble, is also heard to
excellent effect, particularly when paired with Brahim Fribgane’s darkly
sparkling oud and the South Asian and Near Eastern percussion of Tripp Dudley
and Tim Keiper. Tabla, tar, dumbek and other hand drums, as well as an array of
small percussives, carry the rhythm with the whole-earth electric bass of Damon
Banks, the album’s producer. Banks too has had a varied career but exhibits a
special connection to this rather rootless music based in many traditions. And
while so much of Gameboard alternates
between the inner and the outer (atmosphere, tonality and consciousness), the
album also contains one vocal piece, “Maestro”, drawing on the crossover
pop/jazz genre. However, Hwang’s
presence here, in a whirling sound ballet with cellist Rufus Cappadacio,
assures a striking authenticity to the genre. Steve Gorn is also on this piece
and the next, “The Baju”, which features another powerful Laster segment.
While the leader cites the direct influence of Noel
Pointer and Jean-Luc Ponty, her solo statements reveal the deliciously
disparate echo of L. Shankar and Stuff Smith. Her bow doesn’t simply glide over
the strings but often seems to bite into them, adding an earthy, blue,
extra-rhythmical quality rare to bowed string instrumentalists. This texture is
downright compelling on “Yoga Gridlock”, another work that captures the ear
between first and third, so to speak, worlds. Listen here for interplay between
Laster and cellist Nokia Workman (yes, that would be Reggie’s daughter).
The opening and closing cuts are free works that fade
out prematurely, leaving the listener simply wanting more. But then maybe that
was the whole idea.
1.
Collective
Free (intro)
2.
Ahimsa
3.
Maestro
(intro)
4.
Maestro
5.
The
Baju
6.
Yoga
Gridlock
7.
Collective
Free (outro)
CREDITS
Gwen
Laster: violin, viola, vocal / Damon Banks: electric bass / Steve Gorn: bansuri
/
Brahim
Fribgane: oud, cahon / David Ellenbogen; gongs, lap steel guitar / Tripp
Dudley: tabla, percussion / Tim Keiper: percussion / Freddie Bryant: guitar /
Marvin Sewell: guitar / Manu Koch: keyboards
String
section:
violin-Duane
James; violas-Jason Kao Hwang, Aurora Mandel, Alva Anderson; cellos-Rufus
Cappadocia, Melvin Greenwich, Nioka Workman
Produced
by Damon Banks