Does 50 minutes of heady and chaotic free jazz appeal to you? Good. James McKain, Damon Smith, and Weasel Walter are here to help.
Recorded late last year, …seeing the way the mole tunnels… consists of wailing and screeching sax from McKain, scrapes, harmonics, and percussive strikes on the double bass from Smith, and Walter’s signature punk / prog improv. The trio moves at such a frenetic pace that even the downtempo passages are restless, textural, and full of ideas.
McKain extracts gritty textures and flutters from the lower register saxes, which couples well with Walter’s mix of blast beats, rolls, and fills. Indeed, all three musicians could be thought of as soloing collectively in a fashion that is curiously complementary. Harmonic and melodic…
Tag Archive: Damon Smith
Given Marilyn Crispell’s moody, evocative albums on the ECM label with Joe Lovano and under her own name, and her two subdued albums from last year (one with guitarist Jakob Bro and the other with Danish drummer Michala Østergaard-Nielsen), you’d be forgiven for forgetting her noisier roots. The pianist came to prominence in the ‘80s, playing with avant-garde titan Anthony Braxton, and her first album as a leader, 1983’s Spirit Music, features free violinist Billy Bang. Crispell may have worked mellower territory in the ensuing years, but Live at the Hungry Brain, documenting a Chicago record-store performance from 2023, proves that she hasn’t left the fire behind.
Working with the trio of Jason Stein on bass clarinet, bassist Damon Smith and drummer…