Open Loose Press KitL
MARK
HELIAS' OPEN LOOSE
Verbs of Will (Radio Legs 011)
There is a real art to making convincing, compelling small group music.
Throughout his career, despite a lack of much -deserved critical attention,
Mark Helias has practiced this art admirably. Along with a select handful
of bassists--John Lindberg, Dave Holland and Joe Fonda come to mind--
he’s consistently led memorable combos. Though his groups have
often featured his compositions. Open Loose generally trades in unfettered
improvisation in a manner similar to Tim Berne’s Paraphrase. Featuring
drummer Tom Rainey, tenor player Tony Malaby and Helias, this trio has
lived up to its name in a series of splendid recordings. This one, on
Helias’ own label, is the most focused I’ve heard, Many
of the pieces incorporate compositional nuggets--unison lines, rhythmic
patterns and so forth-- but these are generally springboards for freewheeling
playing. There’s plenty of muscle but it’s only used in
special circumstances; restraint and crystal-clear focus are more common.
Each player occupies one of several roles on his instrument, adept at
but not limited to the expected modes of performance. Rainey’s
linear drumming might almost be melodic, while Helias can attack his
bass with percussive force. And Malaby’s strong tenor sound gives
him great range and flexibility, most notably on the nasty blues “How
Bout it” or the heartfelt “Mistral Angel.” All across,
there’s a beautiful integration of form into freedom, telepathic
interplay between all three, and a real sense of the trio as an expansive
entity--either starting as three distinct parts and coalescing or the
reverse. Open Loose is one of those groups who sound as if they just
don’t care where they’re pigeon-holed: mainstream/outside,
tight/loose, flowing /disruptive, whatever--these guys play it all and
it rocks. Jason Bivins Signal To Noise
MARK
HELIAS' OPEN LOOSE - Verbs of Will (Radio Legs 011)
Featuring Tony Malaby on tenor sax, Tom Rainey on drums and Mr. Helias
on contrabass and compositions. Longtime downtown bassist supreme, Mark
Helias, has continually juggled a variety of bands as a leader as well
as a collaborator. Open Loose is his ongoing trio which have evolved
through the participation of Ellery Eskelin in the past to currently
with another fine tenor sax player - Tony Malaby. Their drummer is also
an integral part of this great trio, the remarkable Tom Rainey. This
trio seems to be very aptly titled since they balance between looseness
and tightness, they play around and have fun with the structure of each
piece. Often Tony will play the central written theme while Mark and
Tom swirl around each other maintaining perfect balance, occasional
these roles switch midstream as different connections interact. "How
'Bout It" is a sort of deconstructed blues with Tony's great greasy
tone swirling like smoke over the top of the swaggering rhythm team
below. "King Judas" starts with one of organic hands-on-drums
intros that Rainey does so well, before a few strong solo sections take
place and the trio finally take off for some hearty freer terrain, yet
peppered still with some written bits. I dig the way "AKA"
starts slowly and lyrically, but soon speeds up and dances more robustly.
"Anagram" shows that even with a minimum of notes, an elegant
spirit still flows in a song-like way. "Mistral Angel" soars
high, the rhythm team spinning furious as Tony's tenor sails atop the
flurry of activity, which glides back down to earth with Mark's superb
bass solo. "Let's Roll One" begins freely and tentatively,
but builds to quicker, denser conclusion. There is a wonderful balance
of all three players here, with a certain spaciousness due to close
listening, often with a calm center, yet restless at times.
Bruce Gallanter DTMG 7/03/03
Verbs
of Will
Mark Helias’ Open Loose
Helias has a long-standing relationship on records with Hemingway and
Anderson, and the open frameworks and quick pulsation that characterized
their music is present with Helias’ trio on Verbs of Will. The
bass player links with the tenor saxophonist Malaby and drummer Rainey
to form a trio playing spirited music with a bounce in its step. The
band acts mainly as a cooperative; they bond as a unit and soar skyward
on a dozen selections that become a collective experience. Still, there
is plenty of room for individual expression. Helias develops very personalized
solos. he combines a sense of melody with complex rhythms while making
his bass sing out in hearty voice. Helias’ thrusting style produces
volumes of congealing progressions to encase the trio sound in armor.
On “Mistral Angel” he generates a compelling solo that merges
deftly into the trio context, and this approach appears regularly on
the set..........Helias, Malaby and Rainey cook on this set. They punch
out a multiplicity of counter currents to keep the pot boiling through
numerous changes in tempo and mood. The program rolls on in unified
fashion resulting in improvised music that is consistently satisfying.
Frank Rubolino, Cadence Magazine
Mark
Helias & Open Loose New School (Enja)
The trio's name "Open Loose" refers not only to its musical
style, but also to it personnel, which has seen frequent changes. Mark
Helias' compositions are written with plenty of space in them, and are
designed to be interpreted openly and loosely. They allow for seamless
transitions between composed passages and improvisation, never easy
to achieve. This threesome fully exploits the creative possibilities
of the compositions, never opting for a clichéd theme-solos-theme
format. The group has the knack of starting with a rather loose - sometimes
even ramshackle - piece and slowly allowing it to evolve until it emerges
as a tight theme; for example, "Mapa" has a rather impressionistic
opening and builds to a tightly syncopated ensemble finale.
Last time out, on the fine album Come Ahead Back, Open Loose featured
Ellery Eskelin on tenor, plus Helias and Rainey. In this incarnation,
now together for some two years, Malaby replaces Eskelin. Malaby's star
has been rising in recent years, thanks to workwith Marty Ehrlich, Tim
Berne, Mark Dresser, and his own quartet. His playing here will further
advance that rise. In freely improvised passages, he displays a penchant
for melody and structure that gives them a sense of order. The trio's
time and experiencetogether is clearly evident from their interactions;
they know and understand each other's playing. No-one dominates because
no-one needs to; the three players seem to know and trust each other.
They play with great economy throughout - there are no grandstanding
gestures here, despite this being a live recording - and produce a dynamic
balance between written and improvised music. Reviewer: John Eyles BBC
Festival
keeps jazz close to the edge
Saturday was a crisper, cleaner day, beginning with Mark Helias”
Open Loose trio. In contrast to the thick frantic sounds of the night
before, Helias’ approach sought the space between notes, even
as he raced his fingers along the neck of his acoustic bass and led
the trio through compositions recalling Ornette Coleman. Tenor saxophonist
Tony Malaby was the dominant voice, breathing an easy, restrained tone
from his horn. His use of overtones - a common “avant” strategy
- was subtle and delightful, massaging the melody with heavy fingers.
Drummer Tom rainey kept the beat oustside the time, never overstating
or overpowering. Rarely does a trio jell as well as Open Loose.
Edgefest, Ann Arbor
Concert
Review
Jazz Composers Collective Concert Series: Mark Helias’s
Open Loose
New School Jazz Performance Space New York City September 2000
There are few jazz ensembles more aptly named than Mark Helias’s
Open Loose. The master bassist kicked off a new Jazz Composers Collective
concert series with the help of Tony Malaby on tenor sax and Tom Rainey
on drums. Dissolving all traditional jazz-trio boundaries, each player
helped bring about a combustible stew of sound in which any instrument
could take the lead, or recede into the background, at any time. Rainey’s
gangly, physical attack was as riveting as ever. Often staring straight
ahead as if to 
visualize
the infinite possibilities arrayed before him, the drummer grabbed alternately
for the sticks, brushes, and other implements that best expressed the
moment. Malaby played complex, ardent solos and effortlessly launched
into unpredictable unison passages on cue. Helias piloted the group
with an authority, wisdom, and selflessness that brought Dave Holland
to mind. His pizzicato and arco playing were equally strong, and his
rigorous compositions ("Startle," "Dominoes," "Mapa,"
"Gentle Ben," and "Pick and Roll") walked a tightrope
between stirring cacophony and wily precision.
By David R. Adler
Downbeat
Magazine
March 1999
Mark Helias, Open Loose: Come Ahead Back
****
Conceptual vigor and joie de vivre blend felicitously in Mark Helias’
music, qualities communicated to the max on Come Ahead Back... . Trio
mates Ellery Eskelin on tenor sax and Tom Rainey on drums are individualists
adept at thinking on their feet in sync, able to switch roles at a moment’s
notice, equally comfortable in the open field or working within a lane.
Helias presents a balanced six-course menu, opening with “Semaphore,”
a loose high-velocity aperitif that gets the juices flowing. That segues
to the lively blues-with-a-twist “Line Nine,” morphs into
open-form rubato with “The Other Brother,” hurtles into
free-bop with “Boppo,” decrescendos into nuanced three-way
improv on “Case Sensitive,” and concludes on a deep groove
with the African-inflected vamp-to-free “Last One In, First One
Out.” Helias imprints his personality on the flow with light touch;
secure in his virtuosity, he’s the music’s faithful liege.
Ted Pankin
Request Magazine
September 1998
Mark Helias can rock a bass line like few other jazz bassists. On Come
Ahead Back (Koch), his Open Loose band excites right out of the gate
in a program of tunes with tight time and plenty of leeway: it gets
close to free jazz, but never loses rhythmic tautness. Ben Ratliff
Mark Helias’ Open Loose
Come Ahead Back
Koch
Open Loose is one of New York’s best live jazz groups. This trio
led by Mark Helias (b) also contains Ellery Eskelin (ts) and Tom Rainey
(d). I can’t say enough great things about this group, both as
individuals and collectively. Mark Helias is a truly great bass player
who has the capacity to use the instrument in many different ways, exploring
all of its possibilities. Equally comfortable with the index finger
and bow, he doesn’t leave intonation behind when extracting noisy
feats or harmonics from the strings. Ellery Eskelin is the strongest
of today’s horn players. Sticking exclusively to tenor saxophone,
his sound is strong and vibrant. The notes he picks are beautiful and
exciting, drawing the listener in with his unique combination of introversion
and extroversion. Tom Rainey often threatens to steal the show, no matter
with whom he plays. He is visually exciting, flailing his arms about
spastically to whop everything in sight, including music stands and
walls. Yet despite his “wild” physicality, there is a pervasive
precision in everything that he does.
Collectively and individually, these three are some of the best listeners
in the business. A lot of the trio’s synergy comes from their
ability to perform astoundingly well on their own instruments while
constantly responding to and supporting each other.
One of the great things about an Open Loose performance is that an audience
member is never sure when compositions end and begin, and what was written
beforehand and what was composed right on stage. Unfortunately, that
feature of Open Loose is lost on “Come Ahead Back,” and
it is clearly demarked both musically and visually in the booklet as
to what was “written” and what was “improvised”,
with separate tracks for each. Though there are some hits here, including
Helias’ “Boppo” and the improvised “Case Sensitive”,
The trio wounds like it’s on an off night. The sterile ambiance
of a studio setting may account for some of this. However, some of what
is lacking in this CD may also be in the recording itself. Though the
recording quality of the CD sounds fine on the surface, the microphones
managed not to catch the full force of the trio. Ellery’s powerful
sound is muffled. Mark’s beautiful bass sounds not as inimitable
as it does in real life. And Tom Sounds restrained an distant.
If I hadn’t seen this trio live so many times, I might not be
so critical of this disc. It’ s still good music. For those who
may not get a chance to see the trio or who are waiting to do so, it’s
a good introduction. And it allowed Helias to record some of his compositions
-- I’ve been waiting for a recorded version of “Last One
In, First One Out” for a while; it’s one of the trios anthems.
So, as I await another studio record of Jacky Terrasson(see above),
I await a live record from Open Loose.
Ken Thomson “On Air” WKCR Radio Guide
CD Now (Internet)
``Come Ahead Back ... ,'' Open Loose (Koch Jazz). Bassist Mark Helias,
saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and drummer Tom Rainey turn themselves loose
on a collection of fascinating themes - some transfixingly twisted,
others surprisingly straight-ahead. Intense, involving music in the
post-Coltrane mode.
IAJRC
Journal (Spring 1999)
Come Ahead Back... is new from bassist Mark Helias and his Open Loose
trio with tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and drummer Tom Rainey. the
name really describes this band’s stripped-down sound, refreshingly
open and airy, whether they’re playing in tempo (the loping Helias
original “Line Nine” for example) or reacting to one another
out of tempo (as in the collective improvisation they call “The
Other brother”). The sparse setting of this line-up is a perfect
showcase for the richness of Eskelin’s tone, full-bodied or slightly
pinched as the music demands. Helias has one of the sweetest bass sounds
on the scene. Listen to “Last One In, First One Out” where
the bass part drives the rhythm and establishes the feel for another
of his altered blues. Rainey’s popping snare and emphasis on rudiments
serve the music well, making this a keenly balanced trio, with a focus
on “interactive collective musical creation” (Helias’
words). Definitely a trip worth taking.
b.jpg)
Open Loose
Come Ahead Back
Mark Helias, a musically gifted jack-of-all-trades, always seems to
be searching for new ways to express himself, from solo performance
to his own quartet. Open Loose is a trio with a revolving door policy
as concerns the other two members. His collaborators have included Gerry
Hemmingway or Pheeroan AkLaff on drums, Chris Speed on tenor and Herb
Robertson on trumpet. On this CD, we're delighted to find Ellery Eskelin
on tenor, a prominent voice on the scene and someone who will be a force
to be reckoned with for years to come. Tom Rainey, perhaps better known
for his work in more conventional settings, proves himself here to be
a master improviser. Listen to this CD, and particularly Case Sensitive,
if you want to know what musical interaction is all about. While's there
is no apparent "leader" on that tune, the effect is nonetheless
one of unity and coherence. "Free" music, or as Helias might
put it, open and loose? A very successful effort.
[ALR]Magic at Coutances Jazz Festival, France
One must, in the end, cite the trio Open Loose of Mark Helias, music
with a beauty, all in all, abrupt and tender, impacting on the listener
with serenity or unbridled energy.
Jazz Magazine en Direct.
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