New Music: Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake, Opsvik & Jennings

Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake - For Brother Thompson (Thrill Jockey 2007)

Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake – From the River to the Ocean / Thrill Jockey

If you have absolutely any interest in jazz and have spent any significant time in Chicago in the last decade, chances are pretty damn good that you have experienced the fascinating one-two spiritual jazz punch of saxophonist Fred Anderson and percussionist Hamid Drake. Anderson, hunched over his tenor, utilizing every ounce of breath in his nearly 80-year-old lungs creates a thick, transcendent tone; and behind him, nearly hidden behind his array of percussive knicks and ringing knacks, Drake, usually with eyes closed and head passionately swaying, somehow finds an even, conclusive rhythm despite never relying on one drum or percussive toy for more than a minute or two. In the city that acted as the catalyst for the original evolution of jazz, Anderson and Drake keep the tradition alive and breathing for what seems like on a nightly basis, all the while incorporating practically every developmental step along the way: blues, swing, bop, modal, free, avant-garde and modern creative, all meshing into one spiritual sound.

Despite Anderson’s age and commitment to running The Velvet Lounge (of which he has now been keeping the open sign brightly lit for 25 years and running) and Drake’s dedication to a ridiculous amount of ensembles worldwide, they have found time to release at least one album a year working together since 1995. And even more remarkable, there has not been one lackluster or forgettable disc among them. Well 2007’s installment, From the River to the Ocean, is certainly not going to dispel this long-running tradition, and in fact is going to place itself near the top of the must-have list of Anderson-Drake partnerships. Recorded in John McEntire’s Soma Studios and featuring the instrumental prowess of fellow Chicagoans Harrison Bankhead (8 Bold Souls, Frequency), Jeff Parker (Tortoise, Isotope 217, Chicago Underground) and Josh Abrams (Town and Country, Sticks and Stones, Prefuse 73), From the River to the Ocean honestly approaches A Love Supreme territory. While it may be a clichéd parallel, it is nearly impossible not to have the thought at least briefly cross your mind with this mix of accessible free jazz, African instrumentation and spiritual resonance.

The centerpiece of this album, their second on Chicago’s Thrill Jockey, is undeniably “Strut Time.” The 20+ minute track shows off the talents of each performer involved by letting instrumental duals push the song along. After a brief defining solo from Anderson, the theme is stated and the first push-pull duet is between Anderson’s patient yet driving tenor and Bankhead on cello. They interweave tones with grace while Drake, Parker and Abrams lay down a subtle, grooving rhythm. After the halfway mark, everyone gets a moment in the spotlight, first Parker’s highly melodic electric guitar, then a scathing outburst from Bankhead, followed by a head-nodding bass line run from Abrams and finally Drake unleashes his rhythm-destroying arms for an all-too-short drum solo. The final few minutes returns to the song’s musical theme in a classic exhibition of jazz talent.

Opening the album is “Planet E,” a double-bass display of propulsive modern creative. Bankhead and Abrams sit on opposite sides of your speakers, each teasing and tantalizing your ears with somehow cohesive rhythmic interaction, while Drake continually builds up from light percussive momentum to a full drum onslaught before coming full-circle by song’s end. The melodic drive is first taken by Parker with the kind of guitar work that made Tortoise so hypnotizing, which is then quickly overshadowed by Anderson’s mature, exploring sax. He seems to be testing the waters to see if this group of young guns can keep up with his storied playing (p.s. they can).

The Love Supreme echo is most strongly heard on the album’s final three tracks, “For Brother Thompson,” “Sakti/Shiva” and the title track. The first of the trio, an ode to colleague and AACM trumpeter Malachi Thompson, opens with shimmering wind chimes, Bankhead providing deeply resonant, interjecting acoustic piano and Drake chanting in Arabic. The modal, heavily meditative track opens up further with Anderson’s aching tenor and the testing, seemingly improvised percussion that has defined Drake’s entire career. To say the very least, it is deeply soulful. Abrams moves to a guimbri for the final two tracks, a Moroccan instrument that while looking somewhat and played much like a guitar, provides a deep, percussive sound much like a pizzicato cello creating an ancient African vibe. To further instill this emotion, during the title track Drake also picks up a frame drum (pictured on the album’s cover), one of the oldest membranophones known today. After a brief, very primal sounding introduction, Parker reminds us that this is present day with his tantalizing electric guitar, which eventually gives way to Bankhead’s bowed bass and sax interjections all being played over rich tones of polyrhythm. The final track is left for Anderson, his exacting, full-throated sax heartily resonating over a subtle giumbri rhythm.

I am going to go ahead and chalk this up as an entry into my Top 10 of 2007 and dare to say it will probably go down as the best jazz album of the year. The bridging of generations both between the players and between jazz of the 60s/early 70s and today is wonderfully executed. Anderson, though quickly approaching his 80th birthday, sounds as youthful as ever through his soulful tenor and Drake continually amazes us with his highly detailed rhythms. From the River to the Ocean is a deeply spiritual jazz album that proves such music is still very much alive and effective. Though it may be a long shot, forty years down the line we very well may be talking about how this album has aged with grace and increasing emotional power in the same manner we speak of A Love Supreme today.






Opsvik & Jennings - Port Authority (Rune Grammofon 2007)

Opsvik & Jennings – Commuter Anthems / Rune Grammofon

The morning commute, your daily transition from homelife to worklife. It is a transition that we all experience but remains completely idiosyncratic and can be very different depending on your geographic locale. Growing up in South Carolina, commuting to work meant weaving highway traffic and Podunk country roads. Now living in Chicago’s bustling metropolis, it is quite different with considerably widened options ranging from the death-defying bicycle rides to packing in uncomfortably close to strangers on the El train to strolling the storefronts and alleyways. Any way you may experience it, the commute is a necessary transition that separates your two most significant life bubbles, work and home, and along with the physical separation, acts as an important mental detachment from each of your personal worlds. Here in the city, those omniscient white ear buds seem to be the entertainment of choice for the many commuters, which I have mixed feelings about. While soundtracking the trip with music can bring interesting new viewpoints to both your local surroundings and your tunes of choice, ipodders do lose the pleasure of the random ambient noise of life, which is the most interesting music we are subjected to, hands down. International duo Opsvik & Jennings look to bridge these two aural worlds with Commuter Anthems, creating an environmental soundtrack using acoustic and electronic instrumentation. It plucks and blips and bobbles seemingly paying homage to the random ambiance around us every weekday morning while also creating something melodious we can enjoy in that transitional process.

This is the second full-length release for Eivind Opsvik and Aaron Jennings, and they are pushing their sound in a more acoustical direction from their earlier work but still utilizing that skittering, stuttering laptop-pop aesthetic in the process. Both multi-instrumentalists are coming from a jazz background, so there is a definite underlying free jazz and modern creative ideal, but Commuter Anthems is much more accessible than either of those genre descriptions typically denote. Jennings (guitars, lap steel, banjo, concertina, vocals, software) is an experimental pop musician by way of a free jazz and electronica background. The Tulsa, Oklahoma native and software enthusiast relocated to New York City after his college career and began purveying a number of musical projects before hooking up with Opsvik. Hailing from Oslo, Norway (hence Commuter Anthems being released on Rune Grammafon, a genre-less label dedicated to creative Norwegian artists ranging from the arctic electronica of Biosphere to the Zappa-influenced avant-metal of Shining to the cinematic trumpet player Arve Henrisken), Opsvik (bass, drums, percussion, piano, organ, Theremin, vocals, software) also now calls New York home and has been a part of a number of experimental NYC groups in the last decade including Eivind Opsvik Overseas, Kris Davis Quartet and David Binney’s Out of Airplanes (with Bill Frisell) amongst others.

Together, Opsvik & Jennings come up with a sound that draws from their free jazz backgrounds while infusing hearty doses of rural genres like folk and country along with laptop-pop, ambient and Norwegian electronica. They take the commuter theme to heart and act as if they are soundtracking your daily window gazing by substituting all of the passing landscapes with warm acoustics. Sometimes it is more sparse, rural environments like on “Lorinda Sea” with meandering brass squiggles bridging streets of electronic piano teeters, lapsteel wisps, banjo plucking, cello sighs and light, free jazz percussion. And sometimes, as with “I’ll Scrounge Along,” it has a much more urban vibe with the loose cool jazz bass line and kit beat which continually layers up with hand claps, percussion and electronic tinges. Songs like “Silverlake” and “The Last Country Village” sound much more influenced by the Norwegian landscapes with the rolling hills and floral decoration of acoustic guitar, lap steel, glockenspiel and Theremin melodies. Think The Books elaborating on a Boats song as played by The Cinematic Orchestra: sparse, patient, melodious, buoyant and freewheeling.

I do not listen to music during my morning commute (I mean c’mon, I’m surrounded by it constantly and need at least a few moments to enjoy the natural sounds of the world), but if I did have a pair of those white earbuds, Commuter Anthems would be a charming and relaxing introduction to the day ahead.