Search - Frank Kimbrough :: Noumena

Proves once again the merit of the Jazz Composers Collective

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 12/08/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This organization, which has been around for about 10 years, has produced some of the finest recorded improvised music during its lifetime. I have commented extensively on this site about wonderful albums by JCC members Ben Allison and Michael Blake. Somehow, shame on me, this one slipped by.Having a much different sensibility than offerings from Blake and Allison, who seem to share a lot in terms of compositional approach and musical universe of discourse--what I call downtown world jazz--Frank Kimbrough (pianist for both Blake and Allison) and Noumena stake out territory somewhere between, say, Nils Cline and Charles Lloyd. That is to say, there's lots of atmosphere (a la Cline) and lots of legato playing (a la Lloyd--and, remarkably, Scott Robinson even manages to evoke a Lloydian ethos without either really sounding that much like him or even working that much out of a similar concept). How does he do it? I don't know, but he does. Think ECM with bite.Especially noteworthy is Robinson's bass saxophone playing on "Nightscape" and "Over." This instrument, which veritably defines the word "unwieldy," in Robinson's hands takes on almost a quality of nimbleness. Also remarkable in "Over" is Tony Moreno's astounding drum solo, and some not-to-be-believed guitar pyrotechnics from the hugely underrated Ben Monder. Maybe not the place to start with the Jazz Composers Collective, but not a bad place to end up."

Music nobody should be without

I H8 Major 6 chords | Staten Island, NY United States | 10/08/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Frank Kimborugh's quartet Noumena has been one of the greatest musical projects to come out within the last few years, and this live performance CD confirms it. The selctions that run the course of this disc are beautifully selected, and when one listens to it, it sounds like it falls into place just like the a beautifully colored symphony. One of the most outstanding pieces on this album for me was the second track, 727. The piece only has about 6 bars of melody written out to it, but everything falls into place just as if it were thoroughly composed. Also, the personel of this group is of the highest caliber. Besides the always stunning Kimbrough, we have Tony Moreno on drums, whose always devoloping musical ideas seems to have more of a home here that in any other group I have heard him in. At first, I was weary of the idea of Scott Robinson on sax, having only seen him playing with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, yet put into this musical context, he plays completely opposite of anything I've ever seen him do, and seems to produce some of the most colorful and beatiful melodies I have ever heard. Lastly, we have Ben Monder on guitar of which there could be no better choice. Monder is defintely one of the best, if not the best, guitarist on the scene right now. His tone carries a certain thickness and weight to it, which is rarely heard of his contemporaries, and his musical ideas seem to flow and complment perfectly any genre which he is put into. Even though on this album, it seems like there is a lack of playing time for Ben, whenever he does play, it makes it that much more beautiful and fulfilling. This is an album that anyone concerned with true artistic music should not ne without."