Label: Aqua Piazza Records, 2023
Personnel - Russ Lossing: piano, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer; Adam Kolker: tenor and sopranino saxophones, bass clarinet; Matt Pavolka: bass; Dayeon Seok: drums.
American pianist and composer Russ Lossing had a great idea while going through the process of alternate side parking (ASP) in his Manhattan neighborhood. This exasperating operation consists of removing your parked car from one side of the street to the other to allow street cleaning, and then realigning to park again. For this 10-track album, composed while seated in his car, Lossing assembled a flexible quartet featuring longtime collaborator Adam Kolker on saxophone and clarinet, and the new powerful rhythm section of Matt Pavolka and Dayeon Seok on bass and drums, respectively.
As usually occurs whenever Lossing puts his artistry to work, the music sidesteps the obvious in a way that leaves the listener searching and wanting more. The appropriately titled “Honk”, the album’s opener, has that pleasurable effect of taking us beyond the familiar as the theme blooms into staccato riffing glory. The piece is what Rossing calls ‘transparent composition’, which gives players freedom to choose what they want to do. This strange, engaging dance carries satirical humor and passes the idea of wanting to rush while being stuck. “Parallel Park” comes with more fluidity in the process and achieves a fantastic sense of intuition in its labyrinthine treatment of tempo.
The pianist has the ability to generate awesome rhythms by working with complex tempos and forms. Like the playful “Meter Made”, which includes a lucid funky passage with a ’70s feel; and the closer, “Turn”, which expands two beat cycles at every turn. Another example is “Double Park”, spiked with a snare-driven rudiment that inflates over time, a tense bass groove, and captivating solos from bass clarinet and electric piano, sometimes conjuring up Eastern fusion.
Some tunes alternate between sections while others tend to move along in a more linear way. “Cloned” relies on a punching low-pitched figure that composes the keyboarded wah-wah groove on the bottom. This figure, a melodic clone of a Schoenberg piano piece, is mimicked by everyone, before everything gets funkified in a contemporary fashion.
“Next 3 Km” denotes a more atmospheric disposition at the outset with Kolker on the bass clarinet, but becomes vividly skittish at some point, before returning to the churning theme. Also with arching improvisatory gestures, “Move it Over” feels more spasmodic and harmonically exposed.
Lossing’s new quartet dazzles in its ability to navigate new musical developments; they can be tight and focused one minute, exploratory and unconventional the next. To be savored at home, away from the alternate side parking nuisance.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Honk ► 02 - Cloned ► 06 - Double Park