Split Personality

Artist: Mark Whitecage
Label: G.M. Recordings
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 781007303829
EAN: 0781007303829
ASIN: B000009R5D

Release Date: 1998-08-04

Related Categories:

Avant Garde & Free Jazz

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Listmania:

Anti-Smooth Jazz: Yikes! More Saxophonists! Part III

Tracks:

Five O'Clock Follies
Split Personality
Coda
Song For 1/2 Clarinet
Like A Spring Day
High Tech #7
City Islands
Katherine's Song
Rollin' Without The Rock
One-Armed Bandit
Slick Willie
Something About J.C.

Customer Reviews:

unheard.......2005-04-21

I was really moved by the other review...really moved. Lucky are the people who discover musicians as brilliant as Mark Whitecage. He's been around for some time and recorded great stuff along the way...which is why I occasionally check his name at amazon. I'm sure that this is a wonderful disc-even though I haven't heard it. I've heard him, over the years, play in a variety of contexts-from the Birth lp's to the chiarascuro...but I'm still waiting for Cadence to release U.F.O. onto cd. It's under bass player Saheb Sarbib's name...a pianoless quartet with two altos-Mark Whitecage and Daunik Lazro....and how those guys can play...I believe the drummer was Martin Bues...the rhythm section cooked and propelled the two altos to unbelieveable scorching solos...it's still burned into my memory from the 80's
way better than any hard bop of the time...too much melody for the avant guard....somebody should pair Mr. Whitecage with another alto player-maybe Rob Brown-and add Duval & Rosen or even William Parker & Hamid Drake....Well, I'll go on waiting and I'll go on dreaming....peace

Mea culpa, mea culpa........2004-12-31

One of my many failings as a human being has to do with my inadequacies as an advocate for the music I love more than any other: free jazz. This is especially galling an inadequacy when I see that no one else has reviewed anything by Mark Whitecage.
Let me start out by stating my thesis: Mr. Whitecage is one of the most original and intelligent reed players in the genre. If you want to get some idea of how respected he is by his peers, go to his web site and check out his discography as a sideman or co-leader. He has recorded with Gunter Hampel, Sahib Sarbib, Perry Robinson, Michael Jefry Stevens, Joe Fonda, Dominic Duval, Marshall Allen, Roy Campbell, Joe McPhee and Anthony Braxton among others.
This is a man in his late sixties who has been playing since he was six and who has played everything from Dixieland to his latest experiments with his "virtual combo" (electronic augmentation of his playing to the extent that he sounds like a full ensemble).
On Split Personality, all of Mr. Whitecage's gifts are displayed at full strength. He is playing alto sax, soprano sax, clarinet and alto clarinet in the company of Dominic Duval (bass) and Jay Rosen (drums). This is a democratic trio where any of the three is likely to be the lead voice and all three are deep listeners as well as powerful improvisers.
Mr. Whitecage has provided his bandmates with simple but definitive structures. He does not believe in chord progression as he does not want to be tied to that anything that definite. But he does believe in stong if unusual melodies. He is a complete improvisor capable of playing practically any way on his horn. His extended techniques get a work out on Slick Willie and High Tech #7, his "ballad" sensibilities get a work out on tunes like Something About J.C. and his freebop skills shine on tunes like Katherine's Song. Most of what impresses me is the sense I get from listening to him of how focused he is. Mr. Whitecage strikes me as someone who is completely present when he plays. The result with someone like that is that the possibilities are wide open. Mr. Whitecage simply eschews cliches.
As for Dominic Duval and Jay Rosen they comprise one of the greatest rhythm sections of the day. They are powerful, sensitive
and also deep in the moment. Try this experiment. Purchase this CD of Mark Whitecage's and then purchase another called Journey by Trio X which is Joe McPhee alongside Duval and Rosen. Play them both on the spiral function on your CD player and listen to how differently Rosen and Duval play when in the company of each of these two great saxophonists. And then write me and tell me what a great guy I am for turning you on to two such fine CDs.
And maybe, just maybe I will feel a little bit better about myself as an advocate for free jazz.

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