Search - Ethan Iverson Trio :: Construction Zone (Originals)

Extra dry...

jive rhapsodist | NYC, NY United States | 07/25/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Three and a half, actually...Maybe this CD shouldn't even be reviewed. Iverson has gone so far beyond this. But CD's exist as moments in time, edifices...If you're gonna put it out there, then there it sits, waiting - for love, critique,etc...



Ethan Iverson is one the most gifted pianists who has ever devoted him/herself to Jazz/Creative Improvised Music. He never uses technique to blow the listener away. But someone who knows the piano becomes quickly aware of Iverson's vast control of time, tone, rhythm, scalar vocabulary, etc. And he is a gifted musical thinker. I rarely find myself agreeing with his line of thought on his very interesting blog, Do The Math, but I always find his writing stimulating.



All this being said, I don't find this CD very engaging. It "swings" I guess...There are a bunch of strategies borrowed from the Tradition; the title New Chimes Blues is a nice shout-out to King Oliver and early Jazz. And Reid Anderson is a very strong, commanding bassist. But the compositions all seem like sketches - they don't have much feeling of arc. They have lots of notions about vocabulary, but those are not galvanized into real edifices. Take the piece Mystique: It starts out kind of like a piece from Bartok's Microcosmos. Gradually "Jazz Harmony" is inserted. Then we arrive at something which feels like a bridge, which leads to a kind of Bachian counterpoint, the Bartok thing comes back, this time more reminicent of one of the Concertos, then a harmonic cycle which reminds me of the Ellington-Strayhorn Tonk, which leads to some kind of Movie - Music Exotica - a scary ostinato. Then some blowing: very Bill Evans meets Brad Mehldau, with what sounds like an actual Chopin quote inside of it. Then back to the head. And then a well-orchestrated coda. All very interesting, but kind of arid and undigested. The next piece, Hullabaloo 2, has some really beautifully executed hybrid scale passages (Bartok again?). You can enjoy them for what they are, because when have you ever heard an improviser play such scales in such a non - "lick" oriented way? That is really refreshing. Too bad it all doesn't all lead to a more coherent statement. The coda brings us into the world of ironic bombast which would become The Bad Plus.



I think it's time for Iverson to make another CD like this one, without all of that Bad Plus-ian rhetoric. With the help of a Tough Love-ing producer kicking his butt to keep it all out of the realm of the manneristic and the sketchy, I'm sure it would be great."