Label: Intakt Records, 2019
Personnel: Michael Formanek: bass; Tim Berne: alto saxophone; Mary Halvorson: guitar.
The excellent bassist/composer Michael Formanek, whose musicality and metrical competence pair skillfully, puts together an exciting new trio with alto saxophonist Tim Berne and guitarist Mary Halvorson. The Very Practical Trio’s first album, Even Better, features 10 tunes devised with aligned symmetries and diffuse obliqueness, causing a vortex of emotional impulses on the listener.
On top of the song lineup, “Suckerpunch” shines with dazzling energy and a sweeping tone quality. It kicks off with bass and guitar agreeing on a phrase that will serve as a groove along the road. Halvorson leaves the groove-making task to Formanek and joins Berne in shaping the curves and angles of the melody. Each musician then departs from this settled practice to interpose their own musical elements, integrating them into an organic, polyrhythmic whole. If the album opens with mightiness, then it closes with the tempered magic of Scott LaFaro’s ballad “Jade Vision”, whose limpid melody, ethereal rhythm, and delicious harmonic progression lift you up to an unclouded sky.
In its pungent interplay, the trio often combines agility, resilience, and serenity. “Like Statues”, for example, fall into solemnity, even with Formanek hastening his pizzicato a little bit. The pace is negotiated when Berne starts improvising on top of Halvorson’s decaying harmonizations, which, moments later, morph into a sui generis avant folk jazz statement. Conversely, “Still Here” embraces a cacophonous state that quickly evolves from controlled to rambunctious. A methodical rocking bass pedal mitigates the tension and the atmosphere is polished. Yet, Berne’s pointy bursts, immune to any pace constraint, reveal as much body as elasticity.
In a similar way, the erudite rubato lament, “Shattered”, exquisitely introduced by scintillating guitar and stimulated by Berne’s Coltrane mannerisms in a later phase, contrasts with the itchy outcomes of “Bomb The Cactus”, whose animated wall of sound is built by Halvorson’s indie rock strumming, and “But Will It Float”, a contrapuntal avant-garde crusade motivated by a courageous guitar ostinato and a structured bass groove.
Another paragon of the trio’s polyvalence is “The Shifter”, whose title is sufficiently elucidative for us to anticipate clever twists in shape and rhythm. In addition to an incessant tension and release, the tune also thrives with auspicious parallel movements and intense improvisatory moments from guitar and sax.
Always knowing where they are and what they want, the Very Practical Trio escapes common places with mastery.
Grade A-
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Suckerpunch ► 05 - Shattered ► 10 - Jade Visions