Tony Malaby Quartet: 7/25/14 NYC

[Steve Reynolds]

With Ben Monder on guitar, John Hebert on bass and Jeff Williams on drums

No sheet music, first set starts off rocky as they try to find their way into something with this listener having no idea what the hell they might be looking for. Tony's soprano is somewhat melodic but who knows. The drummer seems tentative and Monder can be very difficult to locate despite intermittent volume increases.

About 25 minutes in they hit an odd anti-groove and it works for a bit.

Second piece starts after first 35 minute piece and really the music starting happening once the band came down to Hebert playing a few very very soft notes on the bass gathering the audience's attention. A mode of this band seems to be both Monder and Malaby playing loud often at the same time and it only works some if the time. It worked the last ten to fifteen minutes of the first set and it ends to a nice applause but I'm still confused. No typical technically awesome Malaby tenor, his playing seems a cross between Coleman Hawkins and Albert Ayler with his almost obscene overtones and squeals seemingly thrown in.as is his wont the last thing he is up there is to impress anyone and it can be damn exasperating as if I know what he knows and as if I know what he and the band is capable of. So often lately his music can be confusing as it is all about the interplay, space, noise and feel. Very little is about soloing over any groove or playing the freebop tenor that he is untouchable at playing.

So nothing here to connect deeply to or concert any non Malaby fan but I always stay for the second set.

I'll continue later

Edited July 26, 2014 by Steve Reynolds

[Steve Reynolds]

So I figured that I was tired, my wife somehow liked the first set more than me, I think. So maybe I violate my rule which is to never miss the second set, especially when it is free improvisation, and most especially when it seems that everything hasn't quite gelled. I ingot my brain and I follow my mantra.

We stay for the second set. Thank Jah as an old friend used to say - I'm thinking of you, Sisco - I always do when I'm @ live music.

The guy's wife next to us seemed to have disappeared for a bit during the first set and she couldn't wait to pay the bill. He was glad they came but she is no free improv fan and this was not music to make any converts from straight ahead jazz.

So I go outside to get some air and I notice lots of young guys were there for the show and they seemed to like it, I think - and a few of them might have hung around for a second set that would start at about 10:50.

Second set happily it seems the drummer has given up on the mostly unsuccessful brushes and mallet for sticks at least at the beginning. He ended up mostly sticking with sticks and it was a smart decision.

Tony again starts on the straight horn and the music is more energetic, focused and crisp right from the start. He switches to tenor quicker, maybe under 10 minutes in and within about 5 minutes they are into something seemingly out of nowhere that is this doom metal drone with this guy Jeff Williams playing what I could only describe as an amped up Sunny Murray style free jazz crossed with something rock orientated but safe to say, I never heard anything like it from a drummer - and the next 15 minutes or so exploded into music that has no label, no definition and no peer.

Beyond possible. Best piece of improvisation I've heard in over a year.

Last 2 pieces superb ending with more traditional free energetic drumming with the Malaby/Monder dual improvisational machine in high gear. Still no post bop/free bop Tony - nothing to put himself in the forefront - no see me, hear me solos from anyone, just what I now realize is another aspect of his diverse musical vision.

Fwiw, Hebert was superb throughout and by the second set, he was the glue that held it all together as despite playing very free and switching often between the bow and not, played the role of not allowing the whole to self destruct. And maybe it almost did implode during the mid portion of the first set, but it sure didn't in the second set. After that first piece, they were laughing and smiling as they knew they went somewhere that wasn't thought possible.

True music with no fall back point, as it would be easy to just get in a groove and wail as they all could do, everyone would cheer after the solos, and one would be happy to again. This sort of improvisation is of a different sort. Cliches dropped, something else happened, doom metal free improv??? I dunno, just another version of the true vital sound of surprise.

blood and guts, baby

Edited July 27, 2014 by Steve Reynolds

[Leeway]

Nice write-up Steve. Tony can be a bit variable (inspiration of the moment), and also a slow starter, so sticking around for the 2nd set is a good idea (as you know). I always do; they are usually better too. I've never seen Monder live; should probably check him out. Some of his recordings didn't work for me, but that was some time ago.

[Steve Reynolds]

Nice write-up Steve. Tony can be a bit variable (inspiration of the moment), and also a slow starter, so sticking around for the 2nd set is a good idea (as you know). I always do; they are usually better too. I've never seen Monder live; should probably check him out. Some of his recordings didn't work for me, but that was some time ago.

Odd aspect is that if the quartet played again and if they "tried" to go where they went last night, it inevitably would fail, I think. I don't even really think they even knew how the magic happened. But maybe there is some hidden formula or track to get there, but I doubt it as why does it take time and sometimes never happen at all.

Plus it is almost as if Malaby eschewed more standard playing to get the music to some different place. I guess in his mind maybe if nothing attempted, what's the point? I agree although sometimes I yearn for a good old elbows cranking Malaby tenor solo - until I hear the magic happen!!

Fwiw most of the small crew of regulars went to the Jazz Gallery for Ingrid with Berne, Gerstein, Peck and Rainey. A few of them are not fans of Monder as his playing is really almost the polar opposite of their favorite current guitarist, Mary Halvorsen who I am also a big fan of.

Monder takes the music to a drone place that is close to rock - more so than Mary who despite those crunchy rock like chords - does not take the overall music of a trio like the one I saw last week anywhere near the places the quartet reached. Not a value judgement, just a reality. And Monder is a guy with a much more straight reputation, and his actual sound isn't gritty or rough at all, it is ethereal and often sensuous and laden with unknown effects that I'm sure off putting to many. For sure, a very outside the box guitarist.

[Leeway]

IIRC, Monder's playing has lots of "washes" to it, Frisell-ian, except more chord-based, plus I think he sang on one of his discs, which didn't really appeal to me. At first blush, he would seem to be an odd fit for Malaby's group.

[Steve Reynolds]

IIRC, Monder's playing has lots of "washes" to it, Frisell-ian, except more chord-based, plus I think he sang on one of his discs, which didn't really appeal to me. At first blush, he would seem to be an odd fit for Malaby's group.

Seemingly makes zero sense and I was going there again in my head until it all worked.

Fwiw much different than Paloma Recio which also has Monder as that is based on composition and has a southwest flavor. The dual improvisations of the saxophone and guitar have some similarity but I never heard that band "rock" out like the quartet did at times last night.

Almost contradictory than Monder has that kind of sound and yet the band rocked out. The drummer's approach had something to do with it and I wonder if the smart decision to take the brushes out of the equation for the second set was a concious or unconsciouse decision.