Aquifer

Aquifer

ASIN: B00005YD4C

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Mark Dresser is a remarkably innovative bassist who has few equals in the downtown jazz scene. He's carved out this reputation through his work in Anthony Braxton's great quartet from the '80s and early '90s and through countless sideman gigs with just about everyone. Dresser's own music usually lands on the more cerebral end of the downtown jazz scene, integrating more of a modern classical edge. But he can swing his way through arching melodies, and isn't afraid to look to other cultures for musical inspiration either. Also featuring talented flutist Matthias Ziegler and inventive hyperpianist Denman Maroney, Aquifer is a fluid three-way conversation of avant-garde chamber jazz where the melodies and arrangements are angular while remaining organic. The music's tone ranges from the chilling title track to the jubilant "FLAC" to the bluesy "Modern Pine." Beautiful and sophisticated, Aquifer is nice effort from a great bassist and his crew. --Tad Hendrickson

Tracks:

Dream in the Light
Nobody's Beauty
Not in Our Town
Only Love
Buddha Behind the Wheel
Weed
Roger & Phoebe
Reverie's End
Don't Take Moderation to Excess
Great Green Earth
My Roving Days

Customer Reviews:

Sensitive, suffering, socialistic singer-songwriter strummer.......2005-01-02

Or, for short, "6S." That's what some musicians I used to know called the likes of Fred Small. If you like painfully politically correct lyrics, barely any instrumental talent, and a gratingly earnest singing voice...well, whatever buckles your Birks, I guess. For my part, just listening to one Small song makes me want to go play Grand Theft Auto, watch "Pulp Fiction," or listen to Mr. Bungle to wash all the sensitive saccharine sweetness out of my brain with some vulgarity and violence...ahhhh, that's better.

I see from the previous review that Small used to be an environmental lawyer, and is now a "minister" for the Unitarians, the "church" that believes in nothing at all except "tolerance" and "diversity" and all the other postmodern mantras. What a surprise. I also recall him writing an enraged letter to the Globe when one of the "Batman" movies came out (the second, I think), greatly offended that the resident critic would *dare* to praise a movie that was mostly dark in nature, and exclaiming, "Well, I think I'm going to take a walk instead!"

Yep, that's Fred Small, the lefty-liberal equivalent of Ned Flanders. If any of your patchouli-doused acquaintances subject you to this CD, have a syringe full of insulin ready; you're gonna need it.

Top-notch as always.......2001-12-15

It's sad but true that Fred Small's new career as a Unitarian minister has cut into his time for writing and performing music. But this, his first album of (almost) all new material in a decade, is a welcome reminder that he hasn't left the folk music world behind. Although I didn't find it quite as flawless or immediately accessible as some of his 1980s classics (particularly "I Will Stand Fast," which is high on my list of all-time favorites of any genre), "Only Love" has plenty to recommend it.

Perhaps the secret to Small's success is sticking to what works. In this collection he sings of topics he's tackled brilliantly in the past - intolerance, lost love, new love, the environment, hope for a brighter future - but he never fails to put a new and compelling stamp on them. In keeping with his tradition of kicking off his albums with motivational songs, "A Dream in the Light" finds Small in as encouraging a mood as ever as he reminds us that "you can't stop this old world from turning/but a dream need not fade in the light." As always, it's a welcome respite-in-advance from some of the harsh, true stories he has addressed in song throughout his career.

On the topical side, "Not in Our Town" tells the true story of a spate of anti-Semitic violence in Billings, Montana, and the community's inspiring response to it. (Small has been performing this one in concert for years and I think it was previously available as a single, but this is its first appearance on a full-length CD.) Also, "The Great Green Earth" provides a nod to Small's former career as an environmental lawyer. But - uncharacteristically for Small - those two songs provide the full extent of the overtly political material here. His other favorite topic, relationships, takes front-and-center for the bulk of the album. "Reverie's End" is the requisite sad love song, and arguably this collection's finest moment, guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye to one and all who have loved and lost. At the other end of the spectrum, "Nobody's Beauty" is a joyous tale of overcoming superficiality in one's relationships. It's an adult look at an adolescent fixation with physical beauty which far too many of us don't grow out of - just the sort of thing I would have scoffed at as a teenager but have grown to appreciate. Later on in the album, "The Weed" offers a more abstract, and much, much darker, look at the same principle. Closing the album beautifully is "My Roving Days," an a capella singalong that sounds convincingly like a traditional Irish drinking song. This is one field in which I don't think Small has tried his hand in the past, but he nails it perfectly.

There are weak points, such as "Buddha Behind the Wheel," a misguided attempt at hip-hop (don't ask!!), and "Roger and Phoebe," a humorous look at a new father and his baby daughter which Small apparently wrote for friends. It's well-intentioned, but a bit too cute for my tastes. But alongside the album's better entries, they don't really intrude. Like all of Small's albums, this is a thought provoking and touching ride. Let's hope it's not another ten years until the next one.

Aquifer
Average customer rating:

A playful, mercurial disc

Aquifer
Mark Dresser Trio
Manufacturer: Cryptogramophone
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | International | Styles | Music
Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Jazz | Styles | Music
Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Time Changes

ASIN: B00005YD4C
Release Date: 2002-02-19

Tracks:

FLBP
Digestivo
Threaded/Spin X
For Bradford
Sonomatopoeia
Pulse Field
Aquifer
FLAC
Modern Pine

Amazon.com

Mark Dresser is a remarkably innovative bassist who has few equals in the downtown jazz scene. He's carved out this reputation through his work in Anthony Braxton's great quartet from the '80s and early '90s and through countless sideman gigs with just about everyone. Dresser's own music usually lands on the more cerebral end of the downtown jazz scene, integrating more of a modern classical edge. But he can swing his way through arching melodies, and isn't afraid to look to other cultures for musical inspiration either. Also featuring talented flutist Matthias Ziegler and inventive hyperpianist Denman Maroney, Aquifer is a fluid three-way conversation of avant-garde chamber jazz where the melodies and arrangements are angular while remaining organic. The music's tone ranges from the chilling title track to the jubilant "FLAC" to the bluesy "Modern Pine." Beautiful and sophisticated, Aquifer is nice effort from a great bassist and his crew. --Tad Hendrickson

Customer Reviews:

A playful, mercurial disc.......2004-09-09

While I wouldn't say it's a "fun" record, Mark Dresser's Aquifer is certainly more playful and less claustrophobic than his duo disc, Sonomondo, with Frances-Marie Uitti. Out of nowhere, "hyperpiano" player Denman Maroney breaks into a stride piano solo in the middle of early highlight "Digestivo," and there's a bouncy, woozy vibe to "Threaded/Spin X" that suggests the trio (composed of Dresser, Maroney and flautist Mathias Ziegler) is coming down from a nitrous oxide high.

All three musicians are sonic alchemists, conjuring new sounds from their instruments and experimenting with their mixture. Dresser somehow evokes a swarm of bees in the opening section of the album centerpiece "Sonomatopoeia" while Maroney scrapes the inside of his prepared piano and Ziegler's flute becomes a gust of wind. The aquatic theme of the album is recalled on the opener "FLBP," as the combo moans and creaks like an old, leaky boat slowly sinking into the ocean.

There's a lot of spacious improv on this disc, but the composed pieces are pretty awesome, too. The pointillistic "Pulse Field" is more or less a dance piece, albeit totally perverted and thoroughly syncopated. And on "FLAC," Maroney pulls off the insanely difficult task of doubling Dresser's brainy line with his left hand and doubling Ziegler's equally brainy but completely unrelated line with his right hand. Simultaneously. The same trick that Brad Mehldau uses, without being abetted by the strictures of tonality...wow.

"Aquifer" can be listened to as compelling background music, but there is a whole lot to listen to. Buy this, pick up the 2000 disc "Sonomondo" on Cryptogramophone, then enroll in UC San Diego, where Dresser is replacing Bertram Turetzky as resident master bass teacher.

Jazz Music:

Jazz Music

Jazz Music