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pitchfork media dot com The Month In: Out Music by Dominique Leone / Tue: 01-09-07

...Ellery Eskelin. His double-CD Quiet Music (featuring his trio with Jim Black and Andrea Parkins and occasionally adding vocalist Jessica Constable and organist Philippe Gelda) is another in an increasingly amazing discography for the tenor saxophonist. His music is ultra-modern, often sounding like a slide show of urban life; a playful, sing-songy tune here, chaos and beats there, but all seemingly arranged in a grid, like streets in a city. This is the first time I've ever heard vocals on an Eskelin record, though they fit in surprisingly well (as his compositional structures haven't changed), and stretching his ideas across two CDs gives the band a chance to play at a pace more suited to tuning in on fine details.

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TIME OUT NEW YORK Time Out New York / Issue 581: November 16­22, 2006

Album review / Ellery Eskelin / Quiet Music (Prime Source) / 4 stars

More than a decade into its collective existence, the trio of tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, accordionist-keyboardist Andrea Parkins and percussionist Jim Black shows no sign of settling into a predictable groove. Quiet Music, a new two-CD set issued on Eskelin's Prime Source label, picks up right where Ten, the last in an exceptional string of albums for Hatology, left off. Singer Jessica Constable, who guested on Ten, is now completely integrated into the group; her breathy, wordless voice murmurs and snakes alongside Eskelin's smoky horn, set against ever-changing panoramas created by Parkins, Black and occasional guest keyboardist Philippe Gelda. The music is elusive (if not always quiet), but the band's interplay is never less than taut and secure. - Steve Smith

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Signal to Noise Magazine / issue #46: summer 2007
Ellery Eskelin
Quiet Music
Prime Source CD x 2

For a decade the Swiss hatOLOGY label has provided critical support for tenor player Ellery Eskelin.  With eleven releases in almost as many years, Eskelin documented the growth of his group with Andrea Parkins and Jim Black from a bristling trio with quirky instrumentation to one of the most potent improvising units going.  At the group's foundation has always been the leader's writing, allowing for plenty of freedom while anchoring the music in an abstract sense of swing.  Along the way, Eskelin has continued to toy with his strategies by inviting guest collaborators and using open forms of improvisation to evolve the group dynamics. The release of Quiet Music, the debut offering by Eskelin's own prime source label, charts a continued evolution. Like Eskelin's release Ten, the core trio is augmented by vocalist Jessica Constable.  But here, Constable's freely improvised vocals play a more central role in the ensemble.  Using freely improvised lyrics delivered with a clear ringing tone, she phrases her flowing lines like an instrumentalist, using hints of electronics to process the sound.  She brings a delicate lyricism to the group and Eskelin, Parkins and Black respond by introducing more of a sense by space to their interactions.  Eskelin opens up his lines, placing his husky tone, bluesy motifs, muscular honks and percussive pops with laser focus.  Parkins moves between piano, organ, accordion, and sampler, layering in rich textures while always balancing the densities of the pieces.  Black displays a strong sense of dynamics, harnessing his hyper active drive without sounding cobbled in any way .  The first disc of the two-CD set is a more introspective affair.  Highlights include the soulful beauty of the opening "Coordinated Universal Time" which plays out like a free ballad.  On "Instant Counterpoint", the four musicians tag team with jump cut spontaneity, consistently breaking off into various sub-groupings.  On a few of the tracks, Philippe Gelda has also been added on piano and organ, like "Read My Mind", where his resonant chords provide a cushion for Parkins' crystalline piano shards, Constable's quavering vocals, and Eskelin poignantly keening tenor, and Black's sizzling drums.  The second disc displays more of the overt drive that the trio is known for.  It opens up with two trio pieces which careen along with the elastic sense of swing that these three can deliver so effortlessly.  "The Curve" starts out with a stunning extended reed solo leading into an improvisation propelled along by Parkins swirling organ and and skewed samples, Constable's breathlessly urgent  vocals and Black's skittering drums.  On "la Berceuse d'Angela" Constable and Gelda's richly harmonized, medieval-style vocals are placed over haunting tenor, sampled textures, and crinkling percussion. The set closes out with "Tomorrow is a New Day", a 20-minute-long quartet improvisation which builds with a morphing density and flow balancing pure spontaneous freedom with sections of lock-step, thundering grooves, Eskelin's skirling and honking horn blasting against a looping stomp.  
Michael Rosenstein

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Santa Fe New Mexican Newspaper
January 12, 2007

Prime Source
Tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, who comes out of Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins and Wayne Shorter but can also bellow as boldly as David Murray, is one of the strongest, most fertile and consistently satisfying players around. This double-disc studio outing was recorded in a French studio this past May, and it is a stunning achievement. The Baltimore-bred Eskelin and his usual associates - multi-instrumentalist Andrea Parkins and drummer Jim Black, joined here by vocalist Jessica Constable and, on several cuts, keyboardist Phillippe Gelda - create a swirling vortex of sounds at once wildly disparate yet absolutely logical. While many might argue the music here is anything but quiet, a more closely focused listening reveals a meditative calm at the center of the sonic storm. For example, at a point about 5 1\2 minutes into the piece entitled "Instant Counterpoint," the leader's tenor suddenly takes center-stage, soon joined by the others. The lines being played appear to jump and spin with apparent abandon, but they are all tethered to a reedy droning buzz generated by Parkins. Later, the title tune contains unison work by Eskelin and Constable that surveys the territory staked out by Steve Lacy and Irene Aebi, with more satisfying results. And Parkins' feature on acoustic piano, "Cuarenta y Neuve" (she also plays organ, accordion and sampler), crosses Monk's angular whimsy with Cecil Taylor's full-frontal assault. Turn down the lights, turn on the stereo and turn the clock face to the wall, because time itself fades away under the heavy sway of "Quiet Music". by David Prince

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Jazz Magazine - February 2007
Paris, France

Apres une passionnante série publie par hatology, c'est un peu comme si Ellery Eskelin nous invitait, quasiment chez lui (le lieu: le Studio La Buissonne, qu'on ne présente plus tant s'y sont multiples les enregistrements désormais historique), a un concert prive d'environ deux heures avec entracte. Une parenthèse dans la tournée européenne du saxophoniste au printemps dernier et une sorte d'inventaire-bilan, au terme de douze ans de travail avec Andrea Parkins et Jim Black, qui aboutit a quatorze compositions. Soit une halte qui n'a rien de "quiet" mais permet a Eskelin de déployer, en prenant tout son temps, le chaleureux éventail des formats (du trio au quintette avec voix et des claviers, Parkins et Philippe Gelda) climats et l'infinie diversité des rapports composition-improvisation, de l'ébullition la plus librement "groovy" a des solennités quasi liturgiques (soulignées par le chant de Gelda), de réitérations lentement ascendantes (diminuendo and crescendo) a des éruptions hypercoltraniennes, autant de tendances et le mouvements qu'on pouvait repérer, en germe, dans son inoubliable lamento de The Sun Died grave il y a tout juste dix ans.

Philippe Carles

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Dusted Reviews
Artist: Ellery Eskelin
Album: Quiet Music
Label: Prime Source
Review date: Mar. 7, 2007

It's not an inaccurate title, but I think Subtle Music might have worked better. But regardless, this latest Eskelin dispatch ­ a double-disc ­ is a corker. Following on the footsteps of Ten (which turns out to have been the last in a long line of Hatology releases, now that Eskelin has returned to his own Prime Source imprint), the tenor saxophonist's long-standing trio with Andrea Parkins (piano, organ, accordion, sampler) and percussionist Jim Black is supplemented by vocalist Jessica Constable.

Still using a working methodology of recording at the end of tours, when the music is well-lubricated, the band has shaken their sound up a bit (not least by augmenting the trio on recent releases). While some fans of this group - one of the best working bands of the last decade - have professed not to like the stylistic shifts, I find them admirable. And anyways, the change isn't global. All of Eskelin's music begins with tone, after all, that marvelous tenor voice that has so many characteristics - deep mahogany, a throaty quaver, a slight acidity during one of his trademark multi-register runs - but is so distinctly Eskelin. Just listen to him work the circular speed riff on which "The Curve" is built. Is there anyone else who can sound so out and yet so like Ben Webster in a single phrase? It's nice to hear so much unaccompanied Ellery on this track, by the way, and at the very end of "Tomorrow is a New Day," the pounding and intense 20-minute finale.

Constable sounds fully at home with the group now. Part of this is surely because she's a fine, inventive improviser (and I'm pretty critical of a lot of vocal improvisers) but also because Eskelin writes so well for her. Listen to how they work subtly on the boundary of pure freedom and abstract composition on "Let's Change the Subject." Ironically, there's even more space in the band with this additional voice. Black still interpolates rhythmic idioms and Parkins is still a tone-mashing wild card, but there are vast open areas in tracks like "Coordinated Universal Time" and also in the hiccups and pauses of the title track, with Constable summoning ghosts. "I Should Have Known" is filled with gorgeous abstracted lyricism, fragments of melody that seem familiar, with Parkins' alien chord sequences provoking the whole time. The closest they get to actual song form is on the lovely (albeit elliptical) "Read My Mind" and the gently lolling "Like I Say" (where the group is joined by pianist Philippe Gelda, who also guests with organ and vocals on the liturgical sounding "La Berceuse d'Angela"). "48 A & B" not only has a Braxtonian title but also flashes with some Brax-like moments where Eskelin and Black shift on a dime from pitch-bending free play to a staggered pulse track. And for those craving some heat, cue up the straight-up improv-core propulsion of "Split the Difference" (one of only two tracks, along with the fractured jazz of "Cuarenta y Neueve," with the original trio).

To me, it's just not a satisfying musical year without a document from this band. Thankfully, they're as vital and idiosyncratic, as gorgeously strange as ever.

By Jason Bivins

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ELLERY ESKELIN
Quiet Music (Prime Source)
JazzTimes Magazine, March 2007

The gifted and convention-busting tenor saxist Ellery Eskelin has appeared regularly in irregular settings over the past 20-odd years, but one of the most ear-stretching (and thus ear-massaging) is this chamberesque jazz group. Eskelin is joined by longtime ally Jim Black on drums, Andrea Parkins on accordion (plus piano and sampler) and the conspicuously free-spirited and improvisation-fluent vocalist Jessica Constable. Added to the group's mix is Philippe Gelda on keyboards and voice, making for a variegated improv-plus-structured recorded performance, Quiet Music, a two-disc/two-hour set cut more or less live in France's respected French studio, Studio La Buissonne.

Quiet music? At times, maybe, but hardly soft and easy. Eskelin demonstrates his distinctive mélange of flavors and intensities throughout, and the band exudes intelligence without borders. The album is framed by two extended cuts-suites, if you will. On "Coordinated Universal Time" (11:22) and "Tomorrow is a New Day" (22:35), the project's stylistic stage is set, between free zones, scored sections and patchwork of planned and spontaneous text between the instrumental waves. "Quiet Music" mulls and lurks, abstractly, while the snaky postbop head on accordion and sax on "Split the Difference" manages to, well, split the difference between a tumbling swing feel and modernist musings. "Like I Say" starts with a steamy sax/drums tete-a-tete, and settles into a simple four-bar phrase, looping hypnotically over Black's driving-but-tricky groove.

Besides being an impressive and expansive statement of what this unusual band is all about, Quiet Music also marks the throwing of Eskelin's hat into the expanding ring of artist-run labels, in this case his new company Prime Source. Independence of spirit prevails on the musical and organizational fronts. It's a fine business-wise how-do-you-do from a veteran-in-training. -Josef Woodard

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All About Jazz
Quiet Music
Ellery Eskelin | Prime Source (2007)
By Glenn Astarita

Years on the road and numerous recording for Swiss-based Hatology Records have generated a distinguished musical persona for tenor sax titan Ellery Eskelin and his band. Here, drummer Jim Black and accordionist/sampler Andrea Parkins assist with moving the torch forward. But the addition of vocalist Jessica Constable and French vocalist/keyboardist Philippe Gelda rein in a new stylistic vamp on this two-CD set produced for Eskelin's Prime Source label.

Intact are Parkins' quirky accordion passages and Black's offbeat rhythmic maneuvers. With Eskelin's circuitous and power-packed tenor lines, the band maintains a rolling and tumbling gait chock full of asymmetrically-designed, free form encounters. Yet Constable's wordless vocalizing instills either a sense of harrowing urgency or a sublime sequence of musical events that augment the ensemble's intersecting components. And they inject free improvisation type meltdowns, where the band seamlessly morphs a potpourri of calming effects into a robust group sound, enamored by the artists' acutely-placed dynamics.

On "Split The Difference" the musicians render a medium-tempo swing vibe, spiced with a few bump and grind motifs as Parkins' accordion comping provides a rhythmic enhancer for Eskelin's blustery solo. The scenario changes a bit during "La Berceuse d'Angela," featuring Constable and Gelda's operatic vocals that set an archetype for a solemn diversion.

In sum, this recent outing transmits Eskelin's music in a prismatic manner. Not totally unrelated or distanced from previous endeavors, but more of a foray that expounds upon many principles iterated in the recent past. It's a recording that conveys an attractively slanted musical viewpoint amid a bevy of subtle surprises.

Published: April 12, 2007

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All About Jazz Italy
Quiet Music
Ellery Eskelin | Autoprodotto
Vittorio Lo Conte

Ogni lavoro che coinvolge il sassofono tenore di Ellery Eskelin è un'esperienza di ascolto totale all'interno di un gioco di codici che hanno come riferimento tanto il jazz quanto ogni altro genere. Da tempo il sassofonista americano rifiuta le definizioni dei critici sul suo approccio allo strumento, certo utili per dare un'idea (Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins...) di quello che fa e che tuttavia non gli rendono giustizia perchè in fondo ha raggiunto una propria voce che gli permette di rendere sempre molto personale ogni progetto in cui è presente.

Il trio con Andrea Parkins e Jim Black ha ormai raggiunto degli standard artistici che lo mettono al livello delle migliori formazioni del passato. La via indicata, fra i suoni ed i campionatori della Parkins e la batteria dalle mille risorse di Jim Black, passa per tante indicazioni che allargano il jazz odierno dal punto di vista delle fonti di ispirazione e delle sonorità insolite aprendo una direzione per il jazz di domani.

Sul nuovo lavoro, un doppio CD stampato in proprio (chissà perché manca il coraggio alle label più importanti di fare propria una proposta così originale), è sorto durante il tour del trio in Francia, cui si sono aggiunti in studio la cantante Jessica Constable ed in alcuni brani le tastiere o il piano di Philippe Guelda. I due musicisti si fanno subito coinvolgere senza problemi e così i confini del trio, diventato quartetto o quintetto a seconda delle occasioni, si allargano assorbendo spunti musicali del passato che vengono smontati e riciclati, come quando, nel primo dei due CD, echi di rock progressivo emergono prepotenti, straniati dall'insolito sax di Eskelin, così tipicamente jazz, quasi un'impronta genetica che non viene mai via in nessuna occasione e che può trasportare i suoi compagni di avventura in situazioni in cui una semplice melodia spunta all'improvviso - "Like I Say" - a rendere l'ascolto piú facile, e poi proseguire con la dolce poesia, seppur in un linguaggio molto moderno, di "La Berceuse d'Angela", cantata in francese.

La cosa più interessante del disco sono i continui cambi di atmosfera, che lo rendono vario all'ascolto e che testimoniano la forza di questo trio, che reinventa il jazz odierno con un'inventiva strabiliante: non c'è un momento inutile, ripetitivo, soporifero, in queste due ore di musica. Fra i 14 brani vanno almeno citati quelli più lunghi: "Coordinated Universal Time" sul primo CD, ed il finale "Tomorrow Is a New Day" sul secondo, una sorta di suite che contiene tutto quello che la formazione sa fare: perfetti unisono, gli squittii free che emergono dal sassofono, i ritmi quadrati o swinganti di Jim Black che spostano l'accento e l'attenzione dell'ascoltatore sullo sfondo dell'esecuzione, e la fisarmonica di Andrea Parkins, che ha una gamma timbirca enorme a disposizione che usa in perfetta coordinazione con l'atmosfera circostante. Proprio su "Tomorrow Is a New Day" riesce a essere così forte con Eskelin e, superata la soglia dei dieci minuti, così delicata con la voce di Jessica Constable, prima che si cambi ancora direzione, verso mete poco prevedibili, come i minuti in completa solitudine di Eskelin verso la fine del brano, un omaggio al jazz ed al sassofono tenore.

Valutazione: 4.5 stelle

Data di pubblicazione: 19-02-2007

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The Student Insurgent, University of Oregon

Ellery Eskelin
Quiet Music
Prime Source, 2006

Ellery Eskelin's trio with accordion player and pianist Andrea Parkins and drummer Jim Black has often been likened to the Beatles in the realm of improvised jazz. What is meant by that comparison is that, like their erstwhile British counterparts, they employ deceptively simple strategies related to melody, timbre and song structure to near-universal acclaim. Since their first release some ten years ago, One Great Day (hatology), the group has combined metaphysics, be-bop and the avant garde more artfully and knowledgeably than any of their contemporaries. With Quiet Music, a two disc set released late last year on Eskelin's own Prime Source imprint, the trio has renewed the fruitful collaboration with vocalist Jessica Constable that began in 2005 with Ten (hatology).

My assumption with this writing is that this audience lacks a knowledge of the basic Eskelin/Parkins/Black template, so I shall explain. Compositions are either Eskelin originals or canonical jazz pieces (the writings of Thelonious Monk, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Steve Lacy have all appeared on previous releases), and the typical Eskelin piece combines the styles of all three. The quirky bop sensibilities of Monk, the impassioned playing of Kirk, and the quiet introspection of Lacy are all apparent in both the typical composition and the leader's tenor playing. Parkins, for her part, weaves shimmering counterpoint lines, interspersed with the occasional electronically contorted accordion solo for good measure. Black's role is to provide a type of loose-limbed propulsion, moving his two band mates forward with the gentlest of nudges. Any numbers of metaphorical rooms in the house of jazz, from sputtering, sparking Aylerisms to the straightest of straight ahead can be covered (and often are) within the space of a single composition.

What, then, does Constable bring to the table? It is this writer's opinion that Eskelin's choice to add her to the group as an equal sonic partner is among the best decisions of his musical career. Employing a wavering, multivalent sound not unlike an alto version of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Constable takes Eskelin's already complex compositions and shoots them through with yet another layer of counter-melody. It is easy to discern upon listening to Quiet Music that Eskelin, for his part, truly relishes the challenge of writing the human voice into his pieces and is at his best stretching his compositional muscles across the two discs. At this point, I wish to say that the record is perhaps best considered as a whole, but the standout tracks are the B-3-infused "Coordinated Universal Time" and the vaguely electronic "Read My Mind" from the first disc and the second's piano-driven "Cuarenta Y Nueve" and the Lacy-esque "The Curve." All told, Ellery Eskelin has once again demonstrated to his audiences the aptness of the Beatles metaphor. He has at once made something new and paid homage to the rich history of jazz, never an easy feat, but one which this quartet pulls off with remarkable aplomb.
- C. Eric Devin

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IMPROJAZZ
ELLERY ESKELIN
QUIET MUSIC
(Prime source)

"Quiet music"?...Mouais...Peut-être!
Ellery Eskelin et sa musique ont commencé de me passionner dès les débuts du saxophoniste sur Hatology, en 1996, et même un peu avant, lorsque est paru, chez Songlines, son album "Jazz trash". J'aimais d'abord ce son épais, plein d'âme et de mémoire, un son très humain, si proche de la voix et marqué par la vie. J'appréciais également cette fidélité qui le liait à l'accordéoniste et magicienne des samplers Andrea Parkins, ainsi qu'au percutant et crépitant batteur Jim Black. Le côté opiniâtre du bonhomme me plaisait bien aussi, qui le poussait à publier obstinément un disque tous les six mois, quitte à délaisser provisoirement le trio pour une rencontre avec Han Bennink un soir ou Dave Liebman le lendemain. Quand il m'avait été donné, une ou deux fois, de le croiser, j'avais découvert un personnage inquiet, maigre et vêtu sans recherche, qui traquait nerveusement ses propres enregistrements dans les bacs d'Improjazz ou, lors d'une pause, sondait anxieusement Daniel Humair sur un set joué en commun (avec Marc Ducret et Bruno Chevillon) quelques minutes auparavant. Aussi, lorsque est paru ce double album sur un nouveau label, avec ce titre et ces deux chanteurs invités en la personne de Jessica Constable et, sur un seul morceau, de Philippe Gelda, me suis-je hâté de l'écouter, un soupçon d'angoisse au fond des oreilles.

Première constatation : le son du ténor est toujours là, aussi charnu que lyrique, entre plaisir gourmand et quête spirituelle. La dette envers Coltrane n'est toujours pas réglée et c'est très bien ainsi ! Deuxième certitude : Parkins et Black n'ont pas été remisés au placard du passé ni ne se sont eux-mêmes congédiés pour convenances personnelles. Ils jouent même de plus en plus et cela aussi est parfait ! Mais ce qui rompt vraiment avec les précédents opus, et cela est indéniable dès les premières plages, c'est la voix de Jessica Constable qui confère à l'ensemble une douceur apaisante justifiant, à elle seule, le titre de l'album. Par douceur, n'entendez pas "sucre" (aucun miel là-dedans) mais plutôt source claire et surface limpide, étale et sereine ! La Mer de la Tranquillité, en somme, sur laquelle, pourtant, quelques surfeurs téméraires tenteraient et réussiraient mille figures impossibles, solitaires ou groupées, libres ou imposées. Les cinq acrobates de ce curieux cirque flottant traversent ainsi tout l'enregistrement, prenant à chaque instant plus de risques et déclenchant finalement tant de vagues que, dès la deuxième heure, la paix n'est plus qu'un vague souvenir. Et quand arrive la dernière plage où, peut-être, on aurait pu souffler un peu, celle-ci se révèle falaise escarpée, hérissée de pièges complexes, et qu'il ne faut pas moins de vingt minutes pour, enfin, dépasser.

La "musique tranquille" d'Ellery Eskelin me semble, à l'image du personnage, tellement accidentée que son auteur lui-même s'avère incapable de donner le change bien longtemps. Et cela donne à ce très beau CD un double visage, entre calme et violence, assez semblable, finalement, au monde dans lequel il a été créé. Mais ne nous y trompons pas : ce qui, pour le saxophoniste, paraît le comble de la paix, serait, pour beaucoup d'entre nous, un effroyable chaos. Joël Pagier

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JAZZWISE, UK
Ellery Eskelin
Quiet Music
Prime Source CD 4010 ****

How far behind the beat can you be without the beat disappearing? More to the point, how far behind the beat can the drummer be? These are just a couple of the many questions that Eskelin, a reliably thought-provoking artist, asks here. Enjoying a cultish status with a certain strain of jazz fan, the kind of listener likely to buy a ticket to see Tim Berne, Craig Taborn or Marc Copland, Eskelin eschews the smooth certainties of convention. Indeed he has made a virtue of structural and conceptual friction. His compositions are like a house in which the rooms are strange shapes with beams and rafters set at odd angles, nothing matching up neatly and cleanly. Or maybe it's an engine in which pistons don't move slickly, hence the feeling of friction often conjured up by what sounds like the juxtaposition of two keys or the deployment of stark counterpoint in which themes don't so much diverge as hover on opposing ends of the harmonic spectrum. The resulting timbres have a kind of prickly sweetness.

All of which suggests an alignment to the aesthetic of Braxton and Threadgill yet at the same time Eskelin, consistently imaginative on work with Daniel Humair and Dave Liebman as well as his own solo recordings, has arguably more breathing space in his music than those two monuments. This is also because Black and Parkins continually play on, off and around the beat, tantalizing tempo, slowing in a bar and speeding up as if the former were a timbale player punctuating the work of a drummer and the latter a harmonica player putting in fills for a keyboardist. In other words their roles are subversively fluid, creating ambiguity of pulse, drawing funk from fragmentation, plucking a groove from an open sky of complex and simple themes. Here's a question: what if Weather Report had had an accordion and a pump organ instead of the Oberheims and Fenders and what if Braxton had replaced Shorter and Jeanne Lee had written lyrics for Zawinul? These and other conjectures are heartily explored by an ensemble with an unerring sense of individuality whose take on "quiet music" is not devoid of aggression and volume as well as tenderness and hush. Eskelin remains a reassuringly wild wild card.

Kevin Le Gendre

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All About Jazz New York
Quiet Music
Ellery Eskelin (Prime Source)
by Kurt Gottschalk

Saxophonist Ellery Eskelin's trio with Andrea Parkins and Jim Black is so tight, so dense, that it's hard to imagine another musician in the mix. But on his new double-disc set, he adds vocalist Jessica Constable and on three tracks augments the group up to a quintet with Phillippe Gelda on keyboards and vocals. The results are every bit as satisfying as the work of the trio he's led for a dozen years and every bit as dense and musical as well.

Quiet Music is an apt enough name for the 14 tracks recorded over two days in 2002, but Jazz Music or Song Music would have been just as good, since it's not really those either. While the compositions are often midtempo or slower and are never quite loud, they're never subdued either. For most of the first half, Constable pairs with sax, piano or accordion lines, as if trying to find a place for herself within the taut trio. Rarely out front, she slides around through the pieces, wandering but not lost. Not having a fixed address in the band in fact probably helps her find her place. Parkins' keyboards and accordion have always contributed so much to the sound of the trio that when Gelda appears as a second keyboardist he's barely noticed. It's not until the final of the three tracks he contributes to, his only one on the looser second disc, that he leaps out. Olivier Mercaud's "Le berceuse d'Angela" becomes a sacred song with Gelda's soft, deep voice and is one of the few truly quiet moments on the disc. As if the song finally brought the session to quietude, it's followed up by a rich 20-minute exploration which closes the disc, reviving after the first five to a sort of pounding theme, but a quiet pounding.

It's impressive that Eskelin has kept the same instrumentation vital for so long and just as impressive that he's fit a couple more voices into the fold without changing the sound of the core group. Quiet Music adds to a considerable discography for his trio.


QUOTES

"Together, the three have taken jazz to previously unexplored areas; their string of hatOLOGY releases is without question one of the signal oevres of '90s improv.". Time Out New York, May 2004

"Taken as a whole, the seven records on which the trio performs constitute a body of work as consistent as any since the glory days of the Coltrane Quartet's run on the Impulse label..." Signal to Noise.

"...the listener should come to expect the unexpected. It's partly about Eskelin's blustery lines intermixed with Parkins' swirling accordion maneuvers and Black's odd-metered backbeats. At times, the trio moves forward with the semblances of a rumbling freight train, via driving pulses and moments of compositional deconstruction. Nevertheless, the musicians seem equally comfortable when either engaging in a bit of controlled mayhem or executing trance-like choruses and soul-searching lyricism. This is yet another superb effort by one of the best groups in the business". All Music Guide.

"...his group has made the virtually miraculous discovery of playing new jazz that isn't 1) hopelessly traditional or 2) hopelessly experimental...Arcanum Moderne is the eighth release by this trio, and, like its predecessors, is an excellent example of how vibrant jazz can be in a world where rock, hip-hop and electronic music are the dominant forms of artistic music expression." Pitchfork Media

"One of the truly great working bands out there, fast approaching the 10-year mark, this trio continues to create weird, bewitching music at the highest level. Equal parts brains and booty..this album raises the bar yet again." Cadence, October 2003

"The basis for this outing relates to tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin's references to "imaginary" musical works - the bulk of this material is centered upon the trio's improvisational acumen. Few would argue that this ensemble is perhaps one of the finest units in progressive jazz." Downbeat Magazine, July 2002

"Some people will probably criticize this "devious" album but, honestly, it feels like a breath of fresh air and reaffirms Eskelin's position as a true creator."
March, 2001, www.allmusic.com

"Their music has rarely sounded so effortless and straightforward...This is smart, complex music, but it never lacks heart." Down Beat Magazine, May 2001

"The three players have now traveled the same wavelength for so long that they have become part and parcel of the same advanced organism." SIGNAL TO NOISE #22, summer 2001

"Ellery Eskelin is a gifted tenor saxophonist whose bold, pungent tone, remarkable range and uncanny facility on the instrument should naturally rank him right up there with the leading lights of today's jazz scene. And yet, his experimental streak often places him well beyond the walls of the jazz establishment. Hence, Eskelin is an outcast, a Herculean player with an extremely fertile imagination who remains keen on collaborating with musical upstarts who also defy convention. On the adventurous The Secret Museum he has found some real kindred spirits indeed in keyboardist Andrea Parkins and the superb drummer/percussionist Jim Black. "
Jazz Times Magazine, May 2001

"This is some enjoyably organized madness which needs to be heard to be believed." Signal to Noise/issue#12 july aug 1999

"On tenor sax, Eskelin is The Man -- quite possibly one of the two or three best tenors on the scene." Motion - Interactive Services for New Music

"The album's production and sound quality are superb, bringing the organic percussion and saxophone tones together with Parkins' more modern keyboards in a way that, despite sounding a little unusual at first, is ultimately coherent and tastefully done. All in all, Kulak 29 & 20 is an excellent album from one of the more groundbreaking jazz trios of the late '90s." All Music Guide

"...recorded live at Kulak, Berikon, Switzerland, on October 29 and 30, 1997, by the innovative trio... This bravura track shows this trio at their best - both in their imaginative reconstructions and recombinations of generic material, and in their tremendous instrumental ability and appeal...Kulak, 29 & 30 is a fascinating document of one of today's top trios at work. Don't miss it." www.allaboutjazz.com

"Saxophonist Eskelin's longtime working band, which includes accordionist Andrea Parkins and drummer Jim Black , is among the most intensely creative in jazz." San Jose Mercury News, April 2005

"As their numerous Hatology CDs have demonstrated, this is a heady trio, one of the best working groups in improvised music, blending influences from across the contemporary spectrum..." The Village Voice, NYC April 2005

****1/2 stars
"...he's come up with a startlingly new concept, a new approach to structuring jazz work and stimulating improvisations..." DownBeat, January 1997

"Eskelin could get away with murder. That tone is all the alibi he'd need...incarnating the horn's romantic tradition while inking fresh initials on it's tattooed heart." Jazziz, January 1997

"A perfect example of a band that knows how to play simultaneously from the head and the heart, and for whom musical risk-taking has become a way of life." Saturday June 7, 2003 / The Guardian, UK

"Harsh one moment, hushed the next, the unusually configured outfitÐaccordion/sampler, drums, tenorÐhas an elastic attitude that seldom belies its distinct personality. Their collective rapport is phenomenal." Village Voice November 2004

"Coming from Baltimore, Eskelin's compositions have much in common with fellow Baltimorean John Waters' films. They mine the tradition for its contradictions and use those as a place to build something new that can only be marked with an individual signature...This is one of America's truly great offerings to the music of the world."
All Music Guide

"Eskelin's work is completely of the moment: a gorgeous, rocking, diffuse current of improvised sound that is unique even in the progressive jazz world. " Seattle Weekly, October 25, 2000

"...outstanding sets led by Tim Berne and Ellery Eskelin featured those two saxophonists colluding with the keyboard experimentalists Craig Taborn and Andrea Parkins. The sets were some of the festival's most rewardingly brain-teasing music, especially a lengthy piece by Eskelin's trio, featuring the American debut of the delicately visceral English singer Jessica Constable." Tuning In to the Brain Waves of Avant-Garde Jazz - THE NEW YORK TIMES June 6, 2001 - By ANN POWERS

"The singer Jessica Constable--one of three guests--is a revelation. On the second cut, she sings a quiet line of wordless, atonal plainsong. Unfettered from the burden of a text, her voice becomes an abstract sound sculpture that is disquieting, compelling--and slightly unhinged. Eskelin's tenor dances delicately around the voice...he slowly creates a pulse around which Constable--whose voice has the huskiness of Beth Gibbons and the crystalline ring of Björk--winds down her improvisation". The New Republic (on-line) March 2005

"Jessica Constable makes the most frequent appearance and her ethereal poly-tonal vocalise perfectly compliments the trio's more abstract leanings." Troy Collins JUNKMEDIA

"Let us note that on the other pieces where she intervenes, the singer also occupies the space in this manner, completely original, while being integrated perfectly into the dramaturgy of the unit." Mwanji Ezana CITIZEN JAZZ/FRANCE

DISCOGRAPHY

on the prime source label

"QUIET MUSIC"
recorded 2006

DVD Tour Video Diary
"ON THE ROAD WITH ELLERY ESKELIN W/ANDREA PARKINS & JIM BLACK"
filmed 2003

on the hatOLOGY label

"TEN"
recorded in 2004

"ARCANUM MODERNE"
recorded in 2002

"12 (+1) IMAGINARY VIEWS"
recorded 2001

"THE SECRET MUSEUM"
recorded 1999

"RAMIFICATIONS"
recorded 1999

"FIVE OTHER PIECES (+2)"
recorded 1998

"KULAK 29 & 30"
recorded 1997

"ONE GREAT DAY..."
recorded 1996

on the Songlines label

"JAZZ TRASH"
recorded 1995








quiet music

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