Michael Bisio - MBefore

Label: TAO Forms, 2022

Personnel - Mat Maneri: viola; Karl Berger: vibraphone; Michael Bisio: bass; Whit Dickey: drums.

This musical hook-up between American bassist Michael Bisio and long-time collaborators - violist Mat Maneri, vibraphonist Karl Berger, and drummer Whit Dickey - boasts eight finely arranged tracks that sputter in different directions plus one collective improvisation. The bassist has flashed a developed command of the bass throughout decades playing alongside pianist Matthew Shipp, saxophonist Joe McPhee, and more recently trumpeter/cornetist Kirk Knuffke, among others. 

MBefore starts off with Bisio’s “AC 2.0 (revised)”, an open-ended freeway in which viola and vibraphone hang loose. Are they competing for a specific place or just rambling over the rhythmic net? Arco bass incisions probe high and low pitches within an atmosphere that also include hushed moments. Maneri reiterates a question-and-answer-like phrase at the end.

Some explorations feel monochromatic, denoting some more ambivalence in the direction. Among them are two Bisio numbers: “Intravenous Voice”, which is imbued with a strange lyricism; and “r.henri”, whose wistful, fuzzy tones deviate from the realistic portraiture of painter Robert Henri, to whom the song is dedicated. The peaceful melodicism and minimalistic approach in Berger’s ballad “Still” also fit here, never allowing that sense of uncertainty to fade. 

Bisio’s “Sea V 4 WD” is a showcase for Dickey’s explorative treatment of skins and cymbals on the drum kit, while Berger’s “Crystal Fire” swings unabashedly after a theme statement that copes with sharpness. The vibraphonist navigates the walking bass trajectories with true melodic intention, and then is Bisio who improvises before the return of the main theme. Although displaying an increase of brilliant flashes that prove the quartet as cohesive, the latter piece doesn’t reach the warmth of the ballad standard “I Fall in Love Too Easily”, which works here as a true balm in times of trouble. Maneri’s weeping viola is beautiful, and the comping consists of brushed drums, harmonically defined bass progressions, and sparse vibes. Even if only selected tracks transcend, MBefore not only demonstrates Bisio’s rhythmic skills and love for explorative avant-jazz, but also the rapport he enjoys with these solid peers. 

Favorite Tracks:
01 - AC 2.0 (revised) ► 03 - Crystal Fire ► 04 - I Fall in Love Too Easily

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Michael Bisio / Kirk Knuffke / Fred Lonberg-Holm - The Art Spirit

Label: ESP-Disk, 2021

Personnel - Michael Bisio: acoustic bass; Kirk Knuffke: cornet; Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello, electronics.

Bassist Michael Bisio, cornetist Kirk Knuffke and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm anchor a trio project that lives from improvisation. The Art Spirit, now out on the ESP-Disk label, is the follow up to Requiem For A New York Slice (Iluso Records, 2019). The music was inspired by the American painter Robert Henri, one of the organizers of a landmark show called ‘The Eight’, and consists of three Bisio compositions and five collective improvisations.

Besides leading their own groups, the members of this trio have been essential to many other groups and projects. The New York bassist has been working alongside Joe McPhee, Matthew Shipp and Ivo Perelman; the Colorado-born cornetist enriches the sound of Michael Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus, Matt Wilson Quartet and, more recently, James Brandon Lewis’ Red Lily Quintet; while the Chicagoan cellist worked with Peter Brötzmann, Steve Swell and the amazing avant-jazz unit Vandermark 5.

“Not a Souvenir of Yesterday”, the opening track and first improvisation to appear on the album, has weighty bass lines meshing with incisive cello threads, creating a perfectly audible convolution that swings while letting the cornetist loose on it. 

Other improvised phenomenons that caught my ear are “Both Keys Belong to You” and “Like Your Work As Much As”. On the former, the trio sculpts and paints with impressionistic ostinatos, free rambles and buzzing drones, with the ending sounding much like a written theme statement in which Knuffke has the word. The latter tune, on the other hand, plunges straight into a swinging flow that inspires not only Knuffke - who boasts exact phrasing, snappy articulations and extended technique - but also a fantastic integration of electronics devised by Lonberg-Holm.

Bisio’s compositions encompass several moods, and if “R.henri” combines bowed strings and cornet cries to express a flow of mournful vulnerability, then “Orange Moon Yellow Field” gives the impression of amorphousness through an offbeat interlocking of the instruments. “Things Hum” presents a pizzicato dance of bass and cello for a start, and then, on a constant drive, finds space for a chamber section twisted by bowed strings and muted cornet.

Some invocations are catchier than others, but in this bubbling modern creative stew there’s a lot of abstraction and clarification as well as tension and release to keep you tuned.

Grade B

Favorite Tracks:
01- Not a Souvenir of Yesterday ► 06 - Things Hum ► 07 - Like Your Work As Much As

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Michael Bisio & Kirk Knuffke - Row For William O.

Michael Bisio: acoustic bass; Kirk Knuffke: trumpet.

Bassist Michael Bisio and trumpeter Kirk Knuffke, two relevant contributors in the improvised jazz panorama, got together at Park West Studios in Brooklyn to shape the six tunes that would be included in Row For William O.
Bisio dedicates this album to William O. Smith (better known as Bill Smith), a clarinetist, composer, and educator who occasionally recorded with Dave Brubeck and had a hand in Shelly Manne’s Concerto for Clarinet & Combo. 

The constructive duo opens with one of the honoree’s compositions entitled “Drago”, which exposes the theme’s melody in a gorgeous unison and is designed with absorbing grooves and stimulating swinging sections.
The title track gets a classical chamber feeling during its four-minute introductory section, in which we can appreciate the distinctive bowing bass of Bisio and fill our ears with the intuitive language of Knuffke. Throughout the subsequent section, the tune seems to veer into a ballad but the idea never took practical effect. At this phase, Bisio enjoys a great solo moment while Knuffke, showing an enviable control of the trumpet, explores different sounds.

Exaggerating in the title’s length but not in the focal daintiness of its intonations, Bisio’s “I Want To Do To You What Spring Does to Cherry Trees” is a more intimate journey gradually expands.
Resorting to a tight complicity and wistful abstraction, “December”, composed by the duo, often moves within complex textures created by Bisio's asynchronous plucking of strings. 

“To Birds…”, the closing tune is the opposite, a question-and-answer ritual that stands at the crossroads of classical and chamber jazz.
But the most appealing track on this recording is Bisio’s “Oh See O.C.”, a wonderful model in the art of improvising. A persistent and unusual swinging bass groove finds existential purpose in the impulsive contortions of the trumpet phrases.

Bisio and Knuffke take advantage of their elevated technique to better complement each other. 
Although in need of some mood changes, Row For William O. provides us with contrasting pitches and timbres that assure a fun ride.

         Grade B+

Favorite Tracks:
01 – Drago ► 02 – Row For William O. ► 05 – Oh See O.C.

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