Search - Mario Pavone :: Ancestors

One of the best of 2008

greg taylor | Portland, Oregon United States | 01/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If I was to put together a Best of 2008 Creative Improv list, this CD would have to be on it.

For some reason, I have ignored the work of Mario Pavone even though I am a big fan of Thomas Chapin with whom Pavone worked for many years. Since Chapin's death, I have not listened to any of the CDs released under Pavone's name. All that changes as of now.

This CD is very well thought out in all its aspects. The compositions are Pavone's but he arranges only two of the eight tunes. Two each are arranged by Steven Bernstein, Dave Ballou and Michael Musillami.

Then there is the group itself. The Double Tenor quintet is just that. The ever-growing Tony Malaby and the new-to-me Jimmy Greene are the tenor titans in question although they both put in some soprano work. Peter Madsen is all over the possibilities of his piano, Gerald Cleaver is powerful on the drums set, and Pavone is the equal of them all on his bass. If you ever get a chance to see these guys live, I would bet a large sum of President Bush's personal wealth that they are a great live band. Together they have power, passion, intelligence and they inspire each other.

The combination of Greene and Malaby is a great one. I think I can tell them apart based on my knowledge of Malaby's playing. He is more outre, more willing to go passionately outside while Greene is a perfect counterfoil. His solos are more controlled but very very smart. I really need to hear what his own CDs sound like.

And what a treat for those two to get to work out their ideas on top of a rhythm section like this one. Pavone has a huge woody sound and he and Cleaver are a maelstrom of ideas, polyrhythms and they push everybody. Whenever either one of them or both emerge from the group sound to make a brief solo or duet statement, it is exhiliarating.

Finally, it is even fun to listen to the different arranger's work. It is fairly obvious what they contribute. For example, Bernstein's two songs feature what I like to call mechanical toy counterpoint. There are these wonderful competing melodies that rhythmically mismatch and sort of clank along merrily. I am not doing a very good job explaining what I mean. If you buy the CD, listen to them (Bernstein did the arranging on Ancestors and Arc for Puppy) and then write me and explain it better for me.

This is fairly straightforward hard to post bop jazz. It is just extremely well done. In fact, I am not sure it could be much improved. I don't make that statement very often. Give this music a listen."