Frode Gjerstad with William Parker & Hamid Drake - On Reade Street (2008) {FMR}

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Frode Gjerstad with William Parker & Hamid Drake - On Reade Street (2008) {FMR}

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Frode Gjerstad with William Parker & Hamid Drake - On Reade Street (2008) {FMR}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 352 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 136 Mb
Full Artwork @ 400 dpi (png) -> 39 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2008 FMR Records | FMRCD256-0208
Jazz / Free Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Hamid, William and I have made 3 records prior to this one.”Remember to forget” and “Ultima” were recorded during our first Scandinavian tour in October 1997. “The other side” was a studio recording from Chicago during our North-American tour in January 2000. And “On Reade Street” was recorded in New York, January 2006. Hamid and William are two very nice people who also play their music very well. I think my fascination for their art partly lies in the fact that they have played a lot together. They have a certain thing they bring to the table and it?s quite a challenge both to go with it and also to go against it because it?s a very strong thing and it?s very personal. They will sometimes invite me into territories that I normally stay away from – the jazz thing. To me, this is both frightening and exciting. I feel like walking on the edge with one foot in open air! Frode Gjerstad

It's been a while that I reviewed the great William Parker and Hamid Drake rhythm section, but it's as usual a great pleasure to hear them, for the fourth time together with Norwegian alto saxophonist/clarinetist Frode Gjerstad. Gjerstad is someone who can build a piece while improvising, moving it forward, slowing down, then intensifying again, playing short bursts or long phrases, but it remains focused, a real and unusual strength. And Parker and Drake are the perfect counterpart for this, broad-ranged in possibilities, flexible in their adaptative powers, creative in the use of their skills. Listen how Parker suddenly starts double-timing his bass-line on the first track, adding a totally different dimension to the piece, without rushing it on, then falling back into the tempo, yet when he double-times again at the end of the track, Drake follows suit, and it becomes a great intro to get his drum solo going. The second piece becomes a lot more emotional, yet also a little more abstract too in Gjerstad's phrasing on Bb clarinet, with Parker starting on arco, then shifting in and out of fixed rhythmic patterns, Drake just accentuating the solo's evolution, yet halfway the track Parker moves into one of his typical boppish vamps, which Drake can't resist, over which Gjerstad plays high-pitched notes, falling into the rhythmic pattern too, but not for long, moving back into abstract chaos, then playing back together, ending in total calm and warm restrained beauty, with Drake even using his brushes! The third track is the longest, the most jazzy too, and if I'm not mistaken Gjerstad even starts using one of Fred Anderson's typical phrases, something that Parker and Drake must have felt familiar with, yet just as with the previous tracks, they vary a lot, yet it stays interesting throughout, with sensitive moments, high intensity moments, playing on the border between free jazz and free improv, the US meeting Europe, but it all fits within the same coherent approach. They deliver on expectations.

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Frode Gjerstad with William Parker & Hamid Drake - On Reade Street (2008) {FMR}

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Frode Gjerstad with William Parker & Hamid Drake - On Reade Street (2008) {FMR}

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