Cadence Magazine
September 2002, page 121
ELLERY ESKELIN
12 (+1) IMAGINARY VIEWS,
HATOLOGY 584
Opener / Four chords / Low(ly) / Plastiche / Grafik / Hüm / Modular / Naked eye / Combulatory / Kicks / Middle C / Magnets / Oska T. 60:48
Eskelin, ts; Andrea Parkins, acc, p, sampler; Jim Black, d. 4/1/01 NYC, NY.
Who would have thought that Ellery Eskelin's trio with Jim Black and Andrea Parkins would become one of the great, long-lasting ensembles of the last decade? Since Jazz Trash, recorded almost ten years ago, Eskelin and crew have put out a series of consistently compelling releases that completely demolish the lines between Jazz, skronked-out free stomps, and collective improvisation. For their sixth release, Eskelin has put together a series of twelve short frameworks (or "imaginary views") that are used as the basis for an extended suite-like improvisation, capped by a romp through Monk's "Oska-T". His thematic sketches provide the barest of compositional structures. Velocity, timbral colors, and ensemble density play as much part as intensely repeated rifts, throbbing grooves, and sections of turbulent freedom. While there is always a sense of overarching form, the three invest the music with a propulsive collective spontaneity. The music flows from brash, caterwauling thunder to delicate, detailed counterpoint; from melody-driven interpolations to propulsive free abstraction. Though the pieces stand on their own as individual statements, they have a cumulative effect that sets this session apart.
After all these years together, Eskelin, Black and Parkins have formed an almost telepathic relationship. Eskelin's full throated tenor comes straight out of the tough-tenor tradition by way of the late '70s Loft scene. He can swing like mad; toss off dulcet, probing melodies; and then take off into scorching free playing while making it all seem effortless. Black is the perfect fit behind the kit. His flowing sense of phrasing allows him to start from a crackling groove, stretch the music out toward freedom and then snap back to a wailing, post-rock tinged stomp with hair-trigger timing. But Parkins continues to be the secret weapon here. Her accordion can take on the coursing drive of an organ combo, and then wig out into wheezing abstraction. And she uses her sampler to spice things with squiggles and smears that avoid any sense of fey post-modern heavy-handedness all too common these days. Hatology continues to show a long-standing commitment to Eskelin and a release like this is a just reward.
Michael Rosenstein
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