Down Beat
May 2001, p. 74-75

Ellery Eskelin
with Andrea Parkins
and Jim Black

The Secret Museum
hatOLOGY 552

Saxophonist Ellery Eskelin's activities over the last couple of years have been well documented through a series of CDs featuring him with his working trio and in other settings. Recorded on a 1999 European tour, The Secret Museum shows how this unusual trio continues to evolve.

Their music has rarely sounded so effortless and straightforward. Eskelin retains his interest in shifting musical settings for an almost cinematic effect. As always, he displays a beautiful sound on the tenor, though the balance has shifted away from knotty melodies toward a more open, heartfelt sound. "You'll Know When You Get There..." establishes a "noir" atmosphere by setting Eskelin's moody lines against Andrea Parkins' sampled organ textures. By contrast, he swings through a playful deconstruction of Thelonious Monk's "We See."

The trio's odd configuration contributes to it's distinctive sound. Along with the accordion, Parkins uses the sampler primarily for an "organ" voice. On "Prelude", this voice generates an eerily tense environment. On two versions of "Sequence/Consequence," her brittle piano lines heighten the tension of the piece. Drummer Jim Black rarely settles into a groove, emphasizing color over timekeeping. The combination of keyboard textures with percussive commentary leaves a cushion of open space around the saxophone, causing a floating effect. There's a sense of give-and-take within the trio, as Parkins and Black seem to build and demolish structures around Eskelin. This is smart, complex music, but it never lacks heart.
-Jon Andrews

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