Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Wake Oglaka, New American Musical Freedom

Wake Oglaka is the album title of a new Ayler Download recording. It features the chemically volatile combination of Mario Rechtern on reeds, Eric Zinman, piano, Jane Wang on bass and veteran new music drummer Laurence Cook. They proffer their own blend of old-school new thing music, free jazz if you insist on a label.

What distinguishes this from some of the many other releases out there of this sort is the specially sensitive drumming of Cook, a man who has spent years playing in and out of time, who is so familiar with his drum set up and the sounds he can coax out of it that he provides a reasoned virtuosity, a vertiable rainbow of sound colors. Pianist Zinman is appearing on recordings with increasing frequency. He is in the post-Cecil Taylor bag, loosely. He listens and he responds with chord clusters and lines that have nothing random about them; they show an expressive yet controlled musical consciousness. Mario Rechtern is a reedman with a human-volcano musicality. He is incandescent. Jane Wang plays a very appropriate bass complete with the rumblings and tumblings of early Gary Peacock and beyond, and the added bonus of some free vocalizations that fit the proceedings well.

It is the total group sound that predominates, however. If free blow-outs attract you, you'll find this one satisfies your need for exuberant chaos, but in ways that show the mastery of the artists and their own original take on the scene. And again, it's fabulous hearing Laurence Cook sounding so well. Ayler.com is where you'll find it.

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