GRATKOWSKI/GRAEWE/LINDBERG
Arrears
Red Toucan
RT 9320
A reunion of sorts, this CD not only matches woodwind player Frank Gratkowski
with pianist Georg Graewe, with whom he has had a decade-long collaboration,
but features his second ever concert with American bassist John Lindberg,
with whom Graewe first played with 15 years ago.
The resulting more than 57 minutes of restrained chamber jazz recorded
last year at Cologne's Loft by these two Germans and one Yank, succinctly
demonstrates how complimentary stylists can fit together like ball-and-socket
despite differences of geography and time.
Restrained doesn't mean subdued, artless or unskilled though. All three
musicians have many years of experience to contribute. Furthermore, while
the breakdown may be Old World-2, New World 1, both Germans have enough
American experience -- especially in bands with drummer Gerry Hemingway
and among Chicago musicians -- that natural boundaries don't figure here
at all.
Still, to float a cliché, Gratkowski and Graewe seem most concerned
with technical and compositional competence here, whereas Lindberg, especially
during those times when his bull fiddle takes on the percussion function,
adds an uninterrupted version of what musicians call New York energy to
the proceedings. After all, the bassist, best known as one-third of The
String Trio of New York, has also spent time playing opposite such unrestrained
sax blowers as Jimmy Lyons and Larry Ochs.
So when Gratkowski begins investigating odd nooks and crannies of his
clarinet by overblowing and extending his vibrato, Lindberg manages to
shadow him every step of the way. Often drumming on his bass strings for
emphasis or creating protracted rumble and thumps in the lower register,
the bassist sounds as if he's utilizing the sort of unselected percussion
favored by European improvisers like Paul Lovens and Fritz Hauser. Elsewhere,
as Lindberg solos in the highest register of his string set, it's the
reedman's contrabass clarinet that provides the basso ostinato underpinning
the music
Interestingly enough, Gratkowski's improvising on alto is often much smoother
than what he plays on the legit woodwinds. There are also times though,
that his split tones mesh with Lindberg's arco work to such an extent,
that you're not sure to which instrument any note should be ascribed.
Free here of the scholastic fussiness that has sometimes infected his
work in the past, Graewe more than holds his own with either hand and
on either side of the keyboard. However there are points such as the mid-tempo
"Arrears III" -- at nearly 15 minutes the longest track -- where
Graewe's single-note pianisms and Gratkowski's mid-register clarinet tone
operate at such a languid pace that the result seems about to sink into
contemporary chamber music. Contrast that with the brisk mid section of
"Arrears I" where each of the musicians introduce dissonant
elements -- reed squeaks from Gratkowski, cello-like sawing from Lindberg
and a bit of rubato freedom from Graewe -- without losing the (instant)
compositional thread. With the trio members combining to bring the music
back to the theme, the pianist's asides demonstrate that time spent in
the company of speed demons like American clarinetist Ken Vandermark and
Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger have been beneficiary.
Admirers of any of these musicians will no doubt appreciate this session,
as will many others. But don't look to it for exaggerated virtuosity.
It's a trio record above all.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing: 1. Arrears I; 2. Arrears II; 3. Arrears III; 4. Arrears
IV; 5. Arrears V
Personnel: Frank Gratkowski, alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet and
contrabass clarinet; Georg Graewe, piano; John Lindberg, bass