Label: RogueArt, 2023
Personnel - Myra Melford: piano; Ingrid Laubrock: tenor and soprano saxophone; Mary Halvorson: guitar; Tomeka Reid: cello; Lesley Mok: drums.
Pianist and composer Myra Milford, a longtime standard-bearer for the avant-garde and new-jazz movements, reunites her synergistic all-female quintet Fire and Water for their second outing. Connecting improvised and through-composed movements, these five new ‘insertions’, written to highlight the musicians’ qualities, subvert expectations as the group members stretch their instruments from familiar environments without feeling too experimental. The ensemble, featuring saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, cellist Tomeka Reid, and guitarist Mary Halvorson, welcomes Brooklyn-based drummer Lesley Mok, who replaces Susie Ibarra on the kit.
"Insertion One" launches the album with assertiveness and expansiveness, featuring intricate piano work with contrapuntal glides and striking ostinatos. Boasting a strong and sinuous lead melody, the piece has the group speak to their open-mindedness, mirrored in effusive solos by Laubrock, who emphasizes the rhythmic temperament of her phrases, and Halvorson, who, as usual, creates quirky guitar moods with the help of peculiar effects.
Melford’s penchant for complex meter signatures is evident in “Insertion Four” and “Insertion Five”. The former, beautifully layered by Halvorson at the outset, unfolds sluggishly with a pulsating arpeggiated piano cadence in 7/4 time, while the latter delves into a joyous, to-the-point rhythm in nine, creating a wince of powerful emotion. If, for some reason, these wonderfully sinuous melodies don’t claim your attention, the outstanding rhythms will.
Carrying a balladic intonation, “Insertion Two” has prayerful cello considerations over smooth piano accompaniment, a cyclic progression in five by Halvorson, who also delivers a whimsically atonal solo, and a tenor saxophone improvisation. "Insertion Three A+B" is a more liberal and expansive 18-and-a-half-minute journey, initially marked by noise rock and avant-garde abstraction. Working together, Melford and Laubrock ramble in improvised spirals, later joined by Halvorson’s queasy guitar overdrive. Then, it’s Mok who booms and throbs unaccompanied, building up phrases with timbral sophistication. The next movement is rendered with gorgeous staccato guitar articulation before the reappearance of thematic unisons.
Still inspired by American painter Cy Twombly's drawings, the composed material feels like a conjuring of spontaneous collective spirit. The supple musicians understand the strength and place of their sounds within the whole, creating an album that, much like their debut, is highly recommended for its delightful specifics to be discovered with each listen.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Insertion One ► 04 - Insertion Four ► 05 - Insertion Five