Ches Smith - Laugh Ash

January 31, 2024

Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2024

Personnel - Ches Smith: electronics, programming, vives, drums, tubular bells, glockenspiel, timpani, tam tam, metal percussion; Shara Lunon: voice, vocal processing; Anna Webber: flute; Oscar Noriega: clarinets; James Brandon Lewis: tenor saxophone; Nate Wooley: trumpet; Jennifer Choi: violin; Kyle Armbrust: viola; Michael Nicolas: cello; Shahzad Ismaily: bass, keyboards.

Extraordinary drummer and composer Ches Smith brings his A-game to a progressive and eclectic new album, Laugh Ash, gathering a bevy of avant-gardists and improvisers to explore the art of sound and intricate textural layering. His compositional taste and innovative spirit are reflected in numerous instrumental juxtapositions that, at a first instance, are easier to admire than to love. The agitation of the drum machines, synthetic in nature, oppose to the varied chamber moods, and a sense of novelty invades the album, pumping the pieces into an out-of-the-box listening experience.

“Minimalism” shimmers like a soap bubble, taking shape as layered electronic music with a fantastic rhythm, punk-rock singing by Shara Lunon, and synth momentum. This is followed by “Remote Convivial”, which chimes and vibes with slightly glitchy pitches, compound meter patterns, drum machines, spellbinding bass lines, and an outgoing saxophone solo delivered by James Brandon Lewis. The avant-garde scenario is heightened as string players embrace dissonance, akin to gazing at a blurred painting that retains its fundamental meaning.

The 10-piece ensemble dishes out polyrhythmic energies on “Sweatered Webs (Hey Mom)”, where funky bass trajectories meet Haitian rhythms. Lewis contributes another superb inside/outside tenor improvisation, and ethereal chants add a special interest. “Shaken, Stirred Silence” showcases a playful blend of ideas with Eastern connotations, odd meter provocation, asymmetry, angularity, avant expression via Anna Webber’s remarkable flute playing, and swooning electronic sensations that serve as a conclusion. All rhythmically rooted in skittering boom beats.

Clarinetist Oscar Noriega and trumpeter Nate Wooley bring unpredictable melodic directions and steep angles to “Unyielding Daydream Welding”, pirouetting around a foreboding dark drone and lively backbeat. They keep up their interaction in “Disco Inferred”, a propulsive ride with throbbing rhythm and electric funk at the bottom. In the last section, Webber’s rambling flute occupies a center position. In the final piece, “Exit Shivers”, an atmospheric doom metal-inspired work unfolds with quiet eeriness before a startling eruption.

Laugh Ash offers thought-provoking themes and improvisations that may not be immediately accessible but grow in interest with each listen. It's an unclassifiable, gripping album that pushes the boundaries of creative music in an original and compelling way.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Remote Convivial ► 03 - Sweatered Webs (Hey Mom) ► 08 - Unyielding Daydream Welding

Ches Smith - Interpret it Well

May 2, 2022

Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2022

Personnel - Ches Smith: drums, vibraphone; Mat Maneri: viola; Craig Taborn: piano; Bill Frisell: guitar.

Drummer, vibraphonist and composer Ches Smith is a necessary voice in today’s creative music scene, regardless of the context he operates. After collecting critical acclaim last year with his Vodou-inspired project We All Break, he returns to the minimally written, impeccably structured pieces that marked his ECM debut album The Bell, which featured violist Mat Maneri and pianist Craig Taborn. For Interpret it Well, his sophomore release on Pyroclastic Records, this trio is augmented with the natural talents and textural vastness of the great guitarist Bill Frisell.

Patiently built, the title cut is patterned with relaxed ostinatos at the outset, evolving to a passage that echoes playful guitar, tearful viola and cymbal washes. This happens before an elaborate solo piano mosaic deftly adorned with electronics. Deliciously warped sequences of electrified guitar and viola navigate a stratum of cyclic harmonies and dynamically sculpted drum sounds. It grows steadily until the climax is reached right before the end.

Equally amazing is “Mixed Metaphor”, which, at 16:26 minutes, is the longest piece on the album. The self-possessed Frisell enters solo, describing idyllic landscapes with beauty. All the same, and almost furtively, an odd-metered groove forms in the background, supporting Maneri and Taborn's statements. There’s a change of groove in the final section that is well capable of surprising you with balanced flavors of avant-jazz, rock, and electronica.

The resultant combination of sounds is awesome to behold, and comes to the fore during the colorful three-part suite “Clear Major”. Smith’s love for exquisite rhythm is mirrored here as the quartet explores thoughtful movements that fluctuate in tempo, texture and intensity. Taborn’s kinetic mesh plums and propels; Frisell’s harmonics have a huge dramatic impact; Maneri brings a lot of sentiment to the music; and Smith’s restless drum work is packed with energy. The narrative thrust of each player is simply remarkable.

“Morbid”, a gesture-driven piece, carries a doleful monochromatism at its core, whereas “I Need More” - playing with tempos that slide under our feet - denotes a credible affinity with the avant-garde while its theme slips over a defiant prog-rock-like tapestry. Subsequently, it dives into fluffy contemporary classical clouds. Labeling this music can be somewhat reductive of the wide open span of originality and stimulus proffered, but what’s important here is that Smith continues to expose his musical excellence with another exceptional and fully realized recording. And what a skilled instrumentalist and imaginative composer he is!

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Interpret it Well ► 03 - Mixed Metaphor ► 05 - Clear Major

Ches Smith and We All Break - Path of Seven Colors

June 10, 2021

Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2021

Personnel - Ches Smith: drums, percussion, vocals; Miguel Zenón: alto saxophone; Matt Mitchell: piano; Nick Dunston: bass; Sirene Dantor Rene: vocals; Daniel Brevil, Markus Schwartz and Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene: tanbou, vocals.

The singular drummer/percussionist and composer Ches Smith fell in love with the drumming rituals of Haitian vodou music in 2000 and, since then, has been exploring and maturing it. His We All Break project began as a quartet in 2015, but now has doubled its members into a perfect octet lineup that includes all the original co-conspirators - pianist Matt Mitchell and tanbou players/singers Daniel Brevil and Markus Schwartz - plus the valuable additions of alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Nick Dunston, Haitian singer Sirene Dantor Rene and percussionist/singer Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene. This expansion allowed Smith to work on a broader range of musical territory on Path of Seven Colors, in which he pushes the envelope by brewing a potent cauldron of Haitian vodou rhythms and contemporary jazz.

The singing gets even more exposure on this album and the lead-off track, “Woule Pou Mwen” points the way after a precursory piano figure that joins the intervallic and the limberness. If this piece is based on the Kongo rhythm, a secular form of social dancing, then “Here’s the Light” erupts in the classic Port-au-Prince style bas line, merging the Afro-Haitian rhythmic colors of the Yanvalou (a sacred dance) with jazz influences that range from Keith Jarrett’s post-bop to Ornette Coleman’s harmolodics.

The latter tune thrives with improvisations from Mitchell and Zenón, who share and alternate the spotlight with eminent sagacity. The pair also delivers in the cutting-edge three-section “Women of Iron”, a fantastically orchestrated instrumental, whose Napo rhythm (coming from the Nigerian Yoruba roots and associated with military conflict and liberation) is complex and encouraging. I simply marveled at the playing of Zenón here.

“Leaves Arrive” kicks off with extended chantings that incorporate Brevil’s lyrics as well as one traditional song, climaxing in polyrhythmic expression and contagious statements from bass and saxophone. Inversely, “Raw Urbane”, marked by the propulsive Djouba rhythm (associated with cultivation and farming) stresses counterpoint and spiky accents before shifting to the Abitan dance type, occasion when soulful vocals and Zenón’s folk decoration step to the fore.

The title cut has a strong presence for it starts off with more atmospheric mood and unfettered sense of space prior to affix a strangely hypnotic pulsation.

Confident as ever, Smith proves to be a drummer of categorical rhythmic detail. His thought-provoking explorations combine precise articulation and an inexhaustible eclectic vitality.

Favoriter Tracks:
04 - Women of Iron ► 06 - Raw Urbane ► 07 - Path of Seven Colors

Sun of Goldfinger - Congratulations to You

August 26, 2020

Label: Screwgun Records, 2020

Personnel - Tim Berne: alto and baritone saxophones; David Torn: guitars, loops, live samplings; Ches Smith: drums, electronics.

Containing three exciting tracks, Congratulations to You is the follow up to the acclaimed eponymous debut album of Sun of Goldfinger, the probing trio of saxophonist Tim Berne, guitarist David Torn and drummer Ches Smith. The musicians’ ability to conjure atmosphere while manipulating time and space is magical, and no contemporary jazz lover should be indifferent to the immensity and ruggedness of their sounds. The first two pieces were culled from their very first performance in Brooklyn in 2010, while the concluding title track was captured at the Vortex Club in London.

“Bat Tears” is not only a showcase for Berne’s echoing motifs and drifts on the alto - highly substantiated by Torn’s sampling and looping effects - but also to his grooving and popping baritone playing. The dance-like motion produced has the assistance of Torn’s rock-infested soloing and Smith’s krautrock-inspired rhythms. This initially raw and non-gratuitous chaotic incursion precedes a quieter second half, where uncompromising guitar noodling, loops and persistently ululating saxophone cries become trapped in a magnetic suspended form.

At more than 28-minutes, “Coco Tangle” is the longest ride on the album, carrying with it the possibility of dialogue and always providing us with something pleasurable to be discovered as the artists centralize their creative energies. The opening section brings out the fire within these artists, whose free expressions start to take a solid shape with the time. At some point, we have a cackling saxophone triggering digitally processed rhythmic figures, flickering flashes of powerful wah-wah guitar, and tremendous responses from Smith, who adds color and detail to every move - his actions can range from syncopated hip-hop-ish grooves to instinctive tribalistic flows to rock-infused rhythms. After delving into abstraction - a passage with some psychedelia in the mix - the trio outlines another kinetic, groove-centered concoction made of intense baritone sounds, galvanizing guitar procedures, and humanly ‘programmed’ trap-set maneuvers.

“Congratulations to You” is firstly presented as a partially blurred frame with inclinations toward experimental electronica before suddenly turn into a perfectly danceable number driven by a sparkling hip-hop beat. It reaches the climax when the trio breaks forth into a roar of sound.

Mastering texture, groove and free improv, Berne, Torn and Smith bring out the strengths in one another, and their unquestionable chemistry is on display from the very first track. Hail, Sun of Goldfinger!

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Bat Tears ► 02 - Coco Tangle

David Torn / Tim Berne / Ches Smith - Sun of Goldfinger

February 25, 2019

Label: ECM Records, 2019

Personnel – David Torn: guitar, live-looping, electronics; Tim Berne: alto saxophone; Ches Smith: drum set, percussion, tanbou.

Sun of Goldfinger is an outstanding, explorative trio composed of David Torn on guitar, live-looping, and electronics; Tim Berne on alto saxophone; and Ches Smith on drums, electronics, and tanbou. The group first played together in 2010 when Torn accepted Berne’s invitation to play a trio gig in Brooklyn, an event that got the guitarist very well impressed with the inventiveness of Smith.

Let me just start by telling you that the three-song album presented here is a must-have for fans of new music, allowing elements of jazz, rock, and avant-garde to blend under scrupulously burning arrangements and engrossing impromptu creations.

Torn’s “Spartan Before Hit It” is the central piece on the record, a modern symphonic marvel in every aspect that thrives with the addition of guitarists Ryan Ferreira and Mike Bagetta, super keyboardist Craig Taborn, and the strings of Scorchio Quartet, which contributes with two violins, a cello, and a viola. The song, tranquilly cinematic in its first minutes, has a rich piano underlying it and is ignited through a solid compound of saxophone-guitar exclamations, later turned into red-hot masses of sound, and a fancy rhythm that lies in-between the primitive African and the ecstatic Brazilian. The electronic effects are tastefully integrated and never feel as outsider elements. Surrounding, organic sounds penetrate deeply into our heads, extending emotions through a bright light before entering into a chilly, drone-dominant phase that paralyzes and bewilders. The autumnal landscapes are then reintegrated, with Torn’s folk gestures warming it up.

It’s phenomenal to see how the structural discipline and adventurous freedom work so well together, also prevailing on the two other spontaneous tracks. You’ll find three creative individuals speaking in their own languages and fusing different elements to conjure a unique collective atmosphere that unveils all their musical intelligence. They are master colorists working from different angles of time and space.

“Eye Meddle” combines guitar chords seasoned with beautifully atonal flavors, loops of several frequencies, odd percussion, and resilient grid-like sax lines that can sound furious and elastic. Halfway, look for the intoxicating psych-rock scenario mounted with a groovy hip-hop flavor running underneath. Hallucinating, this trip still offers a distorted guitar solo over a vibe-infused funky rhythm and cyclic buzzing drones emitted by guitar and saxophone. Nothing is out of place and the sound is fascinating.

Concluding the album, “Soften The Blow” starts off like poetry in motion, serenading us with passive dark tones. Wavy chordal twang and measured electronic fluxes are part of the game. The conversion to chaos happens when Torn inflames his guitar with a mix of distortion and delay in a rock-centric obsession, Berne dives into extravagant in-and-out work, and Smith uses nimble syncopation to produce a snarly pulsation.

Sun of Goldfinger is pure teamwork and nothing short of remarkable. Their unmissable debut album is powerful, it grabs you hard and you rise with it.