Man with the Golden Arm Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 Sounds like it might be some pretty heavy stuff and from the AMG review it sounds like it's the second coming of the greatest record of all time (I'd like to buy into this review but it's like a Dusty Groove blurb in tome form and I just can't get into another Love Supreme riff-lift): Since the beginning of the 21st century, David S. Ware's recordings have moved more toward the notion of composition than free-blowing improvisation. The album Threads is the most fully realized of his scoring attempts yet, and stands out from his catalog as a work of great innovation and emotional power. The David S. Ware String Ensemble is comprised of his quartet with William Parker, Guillermo Brown, and Matthew Shipp, and is augmented by microtonal violist Mat Maneri and classical maestro Daniel Bernard Roumain on violin. Ware's compositions are not subtle by jazz standards. They involve stridently stated rhythmic arrangements, such as those found on "Sufic Passages," which inverts and extends part of the line from John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," and is eerily reminiscent of the intro statement of the 1960s Ramsey Lewis Trio with Maurice White in live settings — check out "Hang on Sloopy," "Wade in the Water," or "Dancing in the Street" from Cadet Records for reference. Ware sounds nothing like Lewis, of course, particularly with this instrumentation. Shipp uses a Korg synthesizer on the entire album, and the rhythmic patterns but forth by Brown and Parker are mere jump-off points for explorations in tone, color, and texture. Ware's melodic sensibility is never quite revealed, though it is never absent, either. Here, once a pattern is stated and developed, it is extrapolated upon first by the string players creating modal passages in the middle. Ware and Shipp function either as soloists or contrapuntal rhythmic foils on the track. On "Ananda Rotation," co-written with Shipp, Ware delves into the sonority of Parker's bowed bass as the entry point into minor-key journeys around a noir-ish thematic. The other strings join in, droning across the background and Shipp colors the entire proceeding with washes of unidentifiable sonics. Brown hovers over the cymbals and tom-toms like a ghost as Ware delves into the heart of these different tonalities and opens them onto a new sonic landscape where Maneri moves across the drone to improvise alongside him. The album is broken up in the middle by a stomping blowout entitled "Weave I," where the strings never make an appearance; in fact it is a duet between Ware and Brown, taking an Afro-Cuban rhythm and turning it inside out on a theme created by Ware, who also roils through its variations until it returns toward the end. The same thing happens at the album's close. But it is on the title cut and the shimmering, melodic restraint of "Carousel of Lightness" that Ware makes his true sensibilities most plain. His acceptance of sonic ambiguity and harmonic opaqueness are brought under the command of dynamic on these tracks, and from the crack in the tension comes some of the most beautiful, intuitive, and forward-thinking ensemble playing in a decade by any American jazz group. Threads is easily Ware's classic thus far in that it showcases the musician at the height of all of his powers: improvisational, compositional, and as an arranger and bandleader. This is Ware's masterpiece and the first really new compositional statement in jazz in years; if this record isn't — at least — nominated for a Grammy as 2003's best jazz record, then the entire category deserves to be struck from the ballot. — Thom Jurek All Music Guide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest akanalog Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 at another bulletin board which i do not use too often i see there is a thread on this album and said AMG review. the people who have heard it at the other board say it is awful and mock jurek's review. i know in the past i have strongly disagreed with mr. jurek's enthusiasm for various albums. but the general feeling was this album is horrible. i would like to add that i have he new tim berne which is also in the thirsty ear blue series and do not like it at all. it is a live set with the same band as on "the shell game" plus marc ducret, who to me, was a needless addition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Berger Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 It seems like Jurek's reviews fall into either the "sort of gushing" category or the "extremely gushing" category. Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 A much more reasonable review of this disc, IMHO: http://bagatellen.com/archives/reviews/000156.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Dolphin Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Hadn't come across Jurek's reviews before,is he usually that excited-what was his grammy pick for last year?Just ordered the disc today-it'll be interesting at least.I must admit when I heard Shipp was on the Korg only for "Corridors & Parallels" my heart sank-but I was pleasantly surprised,so maybe it's time to be unpleasantly disappointed this time.For my money "Godspellized" is his masterpiece...so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Christmas Posted October 11, 2003 Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 Hey Vint. Can't say I'm too interested in hearing this one. I've been burned out on Ware for a while and I've heard nothing really positive about Threads, aside from Jurek's slobber at AMG. The new Tim Berne on Thirsty Ear, on the other hand, SMOKES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Dolphin Posted October 14, 2003 Report Share Posted October 14, 2003 Hmmmmm....it turned up and...strange record.The first cut reminded me of Courtney Pine on the Angel Heart soundtrack(was that what Jurek was thinking about re.noirish)The tracks without Ware brought to mind Terje Rypdal's stuff with strings(the lovely "If Mountains Could Sing").I could've done with more of that big tenor on it,but all in all an "interesting" set,that no doubt will come down off the shelf for another whirl,would be interesting to see him take this approach out on the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Wood Posted October 16, 2003 Report Share Posted October 16, 2003 I just received this disc yesterday. It is by NO means Ware's best work, though it is interesting. It just seems unfocused -- some of the tunes are like movie soundtracks, others more jazz or classical oriented. The William Parker string date that came out this past summer blows this away, in compositions and playing. The Parker is one of my favorite releases this year -- but not the Ware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Dorward Posted October 17, 2003 Report Share Posted October 17, 2003 Yeah, I like Walter's review on Bagatellen. The Jurek is a complete fraud. There's room for debate on whether the disc is merely underwhelming or downright awful (my vote is for the latter) but Jurek's review is perfectly insane. For what it's worth here's my zap of the disc-- www.squidco.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=259 & here's Dan Warburton's pan of the disc-- www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/monthly2003/10oct_text.html#8 Incidentally I gather that Jurek's pre-publication review was excerpted & incorporated into the packaging of Threads--suggests an awfully cozy relation between Jurek & Thirsty Ear.... On the other hand Tim Berne's The Sublime And is a darn good date, even if a bit relentless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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