Wadada Leo Smith, Jamie Saft, Joe Morris, Balazs Pandi - Red Hill (2014)

RareNoiseRecords: RNR044
http://www.rarenoiserecords.com/red-hill-cd
http://www.rarenoiserecords....-leo-smith-saft-morris-pandi
http://www.facebook.com/rarenoise



* Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet
* Jamie Saft: piano, Fender Rhodes
* Joe Morris: double bass
* Balázs Pándi: drums

http://www.wadadaleosmith.com/
http://www.jamiesaft.com/
http://www.joe-morris.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal%C3%A1zs_P%C3%A1ndi

Recorded by Vin Cin and Jamie Saft at Potterville International Sound, NY.


Reviews

By Thom Jurek
http://www.allmusic.com/album/red-hill-mw0002702620

London's RareNoise underscores its renegade, new-directions reputation as it
plays host to this collective of improvisers. Red Hill features trumpeter
Wadada Leo Smith, pianist Jamie Saft, bassist Joe Morris, and drummer Balázs
Pándi in a completely improvised setting. No one brought compositions -- or any
preconceived ideas -- to the studio; everything unfolded on the spot. Saft,
Morris, and Pándi have all worked together on RareNoise before in various
combinations -- most recently as three-fourths of Slobber Pup on 2013's
excellent Black Aces. Though Smith is the outlier, he is not the group's
leader. What is at work on Red Hill is the voice of a creative and surprisingly
unified anarchy. There is plenty of firepower, but this is no skronk
session. Pándi's drumming is all fluid motion. He employs the kit's tools
simultaneously, providing roiling force and rounded fragmentary pulses that are
melodic in nature; his playing is always busy yet never cluttered and recalls
Rashied Ali in his musicality. Morris, whether demonstrating fleet pizzicato
runs, arco swirls, or rapidly strummed chords, twins his dynamic and intricate
harmonic strengths as a front-line player. Smith's trademark multiphonics
blast, croon, sing, or whisper here; his lyric sensibility is used in service
to the process of this collective mutual discovery. Saft, with his vast
harmonic palette and deep rhythmic sensibility, allows his many musical
interests -- from classical and jazz to Caribbean, Jewish, and African musics
-- to inform his template of colors, timbres, and tones. He is often the
group's compass, hinting at a way forward in a spacious maelstrom of sounds and
textures. An example is three quarters of the way through "Janus Point." Smith
drops out momentarily as Morris' arco exchanges furiously in interplay with
Pándi. Saft's response is at first to drop a continuous series of single notes
before slipping lower-register chordal voicings inside that labyrinth. He
creates a reentry point for Smith -- this time with a mute -- to carve and
shape a different tonal direction before engaging with the pianist in a canny,
kinetic, and emotive new section as bass and drums fill and frame the
edges. The circular piano and drumming in "Tragic Wisdom" provide Morris an
opportunity to articulate a gorgeous harmonic pulse as Smith and Saft work from
different pointillistic ends of the spectrum. Pándi provides propulsion and
accented detail across the center. None of these five selections is under seven
and a half minutes, so the music is allowed to develop and unfold
unhurriedly. There are no duels, or teams engaging in competitive musical
athletics. These four highly individual voices all contribute to a vast
conversation that contains many multiple utterances inside what is revealed as
a bracing, new, but common language. Red Hill is avant-garde jazz at its best;
on the spot, its players continually reinvent themselves and the music.

--

By Ed Pettersen and Stefan Wood
http://www.freejazzblog.org/...h-joe-morris-jamie-saft.html

By Greg Buium
http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD49/PoD49MoreMoments5.html

By John Ephland
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/...s-review-by-john-ephland.php

Da Elfio Nicolosi (it)
http://www.traccedijazz.it/i...morris-balazs-pandi-red-hill

Por Álex Sánchez (es)
http://www.elestadomental.com/revistas/num6/paywall/discos