Michael Rosenstein, June 2008

It’s hard to believe that Ellery Eskelin, Andrea Parkins, and JimBlack have been together going on fifteenyears now. During that time, they’ve done one of those increasingly rare things in improvised music; held together a regularly working group and used it to define and continually refine a true ensemble sound. Eskelin has a penchant for forging long-term ensemble relationships. It’s something he’s done since he started out in the mid ’80s. Initially, there were various groups with Drew Gress and Phil Haynes (Joint Venture with Paul Smoker, the trio, and Four Horns & What.) There are also collaborations with musicians like David Liebman, Joey Baron, Mark Helias, and Gerry Hemingway; collaborations that have been maintained for going on two decades. But since the mid ’90s, this trio with Parkins and Black has been a constant thread in the wildly busy schedules of each of the
three players.

With this group in particular, their music is inextricably tied to the specific members. Of course, Eskelin is key in defining their sound. There’s his tough-tenor tone and coursing free phrasing filtered through a formalist sense of structure. He’s managed to internalize the gamut of the tenor tradition in Jazz and synthesize it into a distinctive personal voice. Andrea Parkins’ inventive approach to harmonic construction is just as formative as she moves between accordion, sampler, organ, and piano, balancing an ear for timbral colorations, a playful sense of spontaneous orchestration, and a skronking sense of groove. Then there is Jim Black, whose caterwauling vitality combines with a lithe, open swing to propel the music. That said, he’s equally adept at skittering across his kit, spattering percussive
hues across expansive sections of collective freedom.

Their empathetic amalgamations of visceral, simmering B3 organ trio, rollicking energy, and fiery improvisations were evident on Jazz Trash, their first recording from back in 1994. They’ve been building on that ever since. Eskelin explains, “I realized early on with this band that due to our somewhat skewed nature (instrumentation and backgrounds), anything we tried to put our finger on or emulate directly never quite came out exactly the way we intended… So I learned how to use this to our advantage and developed ways to communicate what I wanted by giving slightly oblique instructions to the band. I could never have achieved the same results by directly asking anyone to do what it is we actually wind up doing... I have to be willing to trust and let Andrea and Jim do what they hear. But I’m always in there pushing things one way or another, trying to set things up for the unexpected.”

The three have honed their specific view toward group interaction through an ongoing commitment to both live and studio projects. They’ve logged hours in the studio, recording ten sessions that have explored Eskelin’s ever-expanding book of compositions, a quirky choice of covers, as well as strategies for collective improvisation; occasionally bringing in other musicians to extend the core trio sound. Equally important are their annual tours which have taken them across most of North America and Europe. The studio sessions are often a distillation of the book of pieces they’ve been working through over the course of a tour, bringing the two threads together.

Oddly enough, though, the one thing they haven’t done along the way is to issue a live recording. Eskelin has written quite a bit about the difference between working in the studio and playing live. He explains some of the reasons that he’s stuck to studio recordings, “Perhaps because my music often subverts some of the basic assumptions in jazz it’s been a bit trickier to make a live recording that I feel is successful… Live concerts are rewarding, but they are all different and subject to varying conditions that may or may not work in one’s favor... In any band with drums and amplified instruments there is a balance issue for acoustic instruments like saxophone. The use of amplification (if any) can help or hinder and it’s not always something the band can control. The positive thing about all that is that with improvised music one is reacting to (or in spite of) conditions and the music is flexible enough to adapt.” strategies for collective improvisation; occasionally bringing in other musicians to extend the core trio sound.

But everything aligned for this live set at Towson University in Baltimore (Eskelin’s Alma Mater.) The trio had just come off of a European tour, and did a one-off gig in the US to close things out. The concert was in a recently built recital hall with great sound. The group had conducted a student workshop that afternoon. Eskelin recalls that the students were excited and discussions sparked a different sort of focus to the event. “The concert that evening seemed very easy and we felt as if we were communicating well to each other and to the audience. Having everything behind us in a way opened the door to new things happening that we didn’t even quite expect.”

Another unique thing about this recording is that all but one of the pieces has been recorded before. Eskelin had considered playing a tour of freely improvised pieces. But once on the road, the compositions from recent recordings kept getting pulled out. On the set captured here, four came from the release Quiet Music which featured the trio along with vocalist Jessica Constable and keyboard player Philippe Gelda and two are from Arcanum Moderne.

On pieces like “Instant Counterpoint“ or “I Should Have Known,” the versions
are stripped back a bit from the more orchestrated quintet recording. This seems to spark the trio. They edge the compositional structures to the point where they’re about to ratchet into total freedom. But then they snap them back with explosive subdivisions of time and meter. Then there is a tune like “For No Good Reason,” that starts with delicate, calligraphic tracers and slowly amps up through prickly parries to full-tilt groove. “Split The Difference” hits with a loose swagger and then takes off, culling from the fat tenor/B3 organ trio sound that Eskelin and crew can call up and subvert into their own free extensions. And the jump-cut energy of “Coordinated Universal Time” moves back and forth between volatile jagged exchanges and sultry lyricism.

Throughout this set, Eskelin, Parkins, and Black are completely at ease with the core material. But rather than fall back on formula or artifice, they use their experience to push the music, and each other. All three are able to seize upon the subtlest of signs and veer the music off in a new trajectory at any moment. What comes through on every piece is a sense of collective exploration.

Over the years these three have grown into a unit that can bristle and wail; pick up on a melody and swing; or stretch out to whispering textures and scrubbed flutters. The magic is how they string this all together as a seamless whole with careful listening and poised reflexes. That’s been one of the ongoing joys of listening to this trio. It’s all about hearing how they have worked together to forge an ensemble sound and then checking in during each ensuing tour or release to find out how they’ve built on that foundation. That dynamism is in full force here. We’re fortunate that the tapes were rolling this “one great evening…”


Ellery Eskelin
with Andrea Parkins and Jim Black
One Great Night...Live
Ellery Eskelin tenor saxophone
Andrea Parkins accordion, electric piano, organ, laptop sampler & grand piano
Jim Black drums & percussion

1 The Decider
2 For No Good Reason
3 Coordinated Universal Time
4 Split The Difference
5 Instant Counterpoint
6 I Should Have Known
7 Half A Chance

Total Time 69:13


All compositions by Ellery Eskelin / Tuhtah Publishing, Suisa Recorded live at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, December 9th, 2007 by Tempee Warmack; Mix by Jon Rosenberg in New York City, September 2008; CD-master by Peter Pfister; Cover photo by Ellery Eskelin; Graphic concept by fuhrer vienna; Liner notes by Michael Rosentstein; Produced by Ellery Eskelin; Executive production by Werner X. Uehlinger. Special thanks to Dave Ballou and Towson University for making this live concert possible.
2009, 1st edition
Printed by Gantenbein AG, CH 4127 Birsfelden
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File under: Jazz/Free Improvisation