THE WIRE

Issue 168, February 98

Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins/Jim Black
One Great Day...
HATOLOGY 502 CD


Hatology boss Werner Uehlinger's notes to his new series of releases make pragmatic if slightly melancholy reading. The discs are limited edition pressings, cast in the face of an increasingly impossible industry. So "in response to the rising costs and increased difficulty in selling back catalogue items through stores with shrinking floor space and little interest in long-term product", Werner has chosen small print runs and limited shelf life. The boutique connotations are inescapable, and maybe that's appropriate on the Blake/Braxton disc where...


The other record is something else. Eskelin continues to grow, with several very strong records already under his belt: he's a saxophonist who loves the sound of the horn, and when he warms up on a solo, you can hear a lot of greasy, gutbucket licks transmuted into an uncompromising PoMo awareness. He can cop any leftfield setting he wants, but when he plays Roland Kirk (as he does here on "The Inflated Tear") he sounds just as much at home. Parkins does wheezy electrified accordion and plays piano on her sampler, while Black is like a slightly nuttier Joey Baron. They are a great trio, and because they're serious about their humour, they can create some amazingly moving music next to a madcap episode. Yet the most impressive thing is arguably Eskelin's compositional sense: even when they're open-ended, he gives each of these pieces a cogent shape and substance. Limited to 2500 copies: get yours today.

RICHARD COOK