Michael Formanek Elusion Quartet - As Things Do

May 17, 2023

Label: Intakt Records, 2023

Personnel - Tony Malaby: tenor and soprano saxophone; Kris Davis: piano; Michael Formanek: bass; Ches Smith: drums, vibes.

As Things Do, the sophomore album of the Elusion Quartet underscores the reputation as a masterful creative bassist and visionary composer of its leader, Michael Formanek. His group is made of excellent improvisers and bandleaders - saxophonist Tony Malaby, pianist Kris Davis and drummer Ches Smith - who commit to Formanek’s ideas across the music with optimal acuity.

The quartet’s openness to new genres is felt right from the start. “Bury the Lede” falls somewhere between a melodic doom-metal trait and an enlightened alternative rock song. Malaby begins his show with beseeching tenor growls over a tense piano-bass pedal. His dark pitches ascend for a grand improvisation that is also wide in range and emotionally strong. He expertly sequences his brainstorms into climaxes. With Davis giving it the right rich dimension while Formanek and Smith hold the foundation like impenetrable rocks, this first track pushes you with a strange force. You want to hear more at this point.

Contrasting with the outgoing postures of numbers such as “I Don’t Think So” - a playful piece with staccatos in the melody, lively snare activity, bowed bass, and exquisite piano chords and textures - and “Rockaway Beach”, whose hooky thematic melody looks good on top of this centered and propulsive funk-rock underpinning - we find numbers that explore ambiguity with a certain degree of comfort. They are “Rewind”, an elegant workout with dynamic tempos and swinging sections that blend the softness of Kenny Wheeler and the angularity of Herbie Nichols; “Entropy”, which is introduced by bass and drums before a 10-beat cycle phrase stipulates the groove; and “Gone Home”, an enchanting 3/4 ballad that peacefully concludes the recording with pleasant-sounding tones.

There’s also “In Turn”, which belongs to a different class and starts in improvisational mode. Whereas Smith remains on vibraphone for a while, Malaby pushes through a rise via occasional multiphonic fire and resonating pitches. The theme statement surfaces at the end.

Formanek’s recordings have been consistently successful, but this one is special. Everyone with a thirst for discovery in music should listen to this work.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Bury the Lede ► 03 - In Turn ► 04 - Rockaway Beach

Michael Formanek Drome Trio - Were We Where We Were

March 16, 2022

Label: Circular Fire Records, 2022

Personnel - Chet Doxas: reeds; Michael Formanek: bass; Vinnie Sperrazza: drums.

The super creative bassist Michael Formanek has a brand new trio with the saxophonist Chet Doxas and the drummer Vinnie Sperrazza, and their musical personalities gel with excellent results on Were We Where We Were, the group’s auspicious and compellingly assembled debut. The Drome Trio gained consistency with regular sessions in the bassist’s Brooklyn backyard during the 2020 lockdown, after which he started to devise graphic scores to be played forwards and then backwards. This type of approach creates palindromes (extensive to the titles) when transcribed to conventional music notation.

The tripped-out highlight “Tattarrattat” spins out for 26 minutes. It doesn’t cut right through but slowly builds something that sticks with you afterwards. Before anything else, we have soprano lines delineated with curves, bends and zigzagging trajectories. Bass and drums stealthily join, sculpting and painting with no discernible figure in mind (except for a snare ‘tattarrattat’) until Doxas circulates melodic ideas that end up in an eloquent, open-toned solo netted by rock-powered muscularity. Cymbal color becomes a recurrent element during Formanek's affirmative bass statement, which, reversing the process, points out the way to the sole soprano from where all had started. Doxas’ second solo is even more accented with wide intervals and fragmentation recalling Henry Threadgill's type of language.

If this is the most exciting piece on the album in terms of energy, the one that follows, “Never Odd or Even”, is the most beautifully designed. Introduced by Formanek's syncopated pizzicato signature, this number carries an Eastern feel that emphasizes the spiritual rather than the material. Spellbinding tenor chants, deep arco bass, and understated drumming converge into a calibrated Braxton-esque section with a strong underpinning. The recording closes off with the aptly titled “Is It What It Is”, a charismatic moment of hard swinging handoff. This is an engrossing piece of work with an organized structure and inspired rhythmic developments.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Tattarrattat ► 02 - Never Odd or Even

Michael Formanek - Imperfect Measures

March 30, 2021

Label: Intakt Records, 2021

Personnel - Michael Formanek: double bass.

Michael Formanek is a a peerless genius of the rhythm, whose incredible technique and sublime ears made him one of the most respected bass players in the avant-garde jazz scene. Although he has played in all group formats, Imperfect Measures is just his second solo effort, succeeding to Am I Bothering You? (Screwgun, 1999).

Having structured this work cannily, the bassist enjoys all the freedom he wants, allowing the natural flow of his musical expression to move from track to track with inner logic. The artist/illustrator Warren Linn joined him in the recording session, creating sketches that evolved into collages/paintings that are partly featured in the CD package.

“Quickdraw” initiates this sonic journey with Formanek roaming through a fast, muscular pizzicato imbued with a thrilling melodic sense; this number is followed by “On the Skin”, which, easing up the pace, adds a dark and bluesy poignancy to the melody. The bassist completes the scenario with occasional intervals that help us situate within the harmonic context.

The excellent bowing skills brought to light on “A Maze” echo a sort of chant that becomes more ritualistic as it moves forward. Another conspicuous arco statement occurs in “Airborne”, where Formanek shows off a wide range of action and probes a multiphonic approach that intensifies the enigmatic nature of the moment.

Percussive and reverberating, “Full Frontal” is projected with crisp attacks and sonorous timbre, with some parts of the rhythm denoting rock influences that go perfectly well with the Eastern and folk impressions in the melody. Eastern undertones are also detected with plenty of chromatic wriggling on “Notice Moments”, a rhythmically interesting lament expressed with an instinctive sense of groove.

Formanek finishes off the album with “The Stand”, where a palpable riff becomes the object at the center, around which everything else revolves.

In its essence, it’s beside the point whether the inspiration comes from dance-rock or groove-centered jazz. Some dedication from the listeners will unlock any initial resistance involved in a solo bass storytelling of this nature. And the rewards will come.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - On the Skin ► 05 - Airborne ► 07 - Notice Moments

Michael Formanek - Pre-Apocalyptic

October 22, 2020

Label: Out of Your Head Records, 2020

Personnel - Tim Berne: alto saxophone; Craig Taborn: piano; Michael Formanek: acoustic bass; Gerald Cleaver: drums

Immensely talented, the American bassist Michael Formanek, besides coloring the modern creative and avant-garde jazz genres with intelligent lower grooves and quirky pulses for more than three decades, is hailed as an amazing composer. The music on the digital-only album, Pre-Apocalyptic, was captured live in 2014, being now released as part of the Untamed series presented by the Out of Your Head Records. Here, Formanek surfaces with his quartet of extraordinary gifted players - Tim Berne on alto saxophone, Craig Taborn on piano and Gerald Cleaver on drums - to present seven outstanding compositions.

The unique personalities of the musicians fill the compelling compositional frameworks with peculiarities, and “Pong” opens the record like a soft carpet that soon reveals ripples and shading as its thematic riff becomes rhythmically accentuated. Berne works the dynamics of his solo with expressionistic flair and sharp hooks, while Formanek employs briefly the bow, revolving around the main rhythmic figure.

Besides the opener, three other pieces appeared on the 2012 ECM album Small Places, with the title cut bursting at the seams with the energy, endurance, tenacity and perspicuity of the quartet. The other two are “Soft Reality”, a treacle-slow, dark-hued rubato meditation, and “Rising Tensions and Awesome Light”. The latter kicks off with Formanek navigating the tonal range of his instrument with a fleet-fingered pizzicato, before laying down an awesome groove in eleven. Pairing down with Cleaver as a locomotion rhythmic engine with an aptitude to naturally convey and shift odd-meter groove, Formanek also has in Taborn a fantastic collaborator. The pianist mesmerizes on this particular piece with the incredible speed, control and ease that he manages his entangling pianism.

One of the most beautiful pieces here is “The Distance”, a fully laid-back, lyrical ballad where Berne shows a tender, more melodious side and cleaner tone, Cleaver brushes with sensitivity, and Formanek exhibits his soloing facility. The piece, written for the 18-piece Ensemble Kolossus, was subjected to a successful adaptation for the quartet format.

The 14-minute “Intro and Real Action” is the only unreleased piece on the album, featuring Cleaver in an exciting action/reaction dialogue with himself right after the circular trajectories of the head, delivered in seven, come into effect. The record concludes with “Twenty Three Neo”, whose relaxed flow is carried by another ground bass figure.

Formanek and his associates draw lyrical intensity from these modern sonic sculptures. Even when playing live, their deeply explorative musical sense remains effortless.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Rising Tensions and Awesome Light ► 05 - The Distance ► 06 - Small Places

Michael Formanek Very Practical Trio - Even Better

December 11, 2019

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.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Suckerpunch ► 05 - Shattered ► 10 - Jade Visions

Michael Formanek Elusion Quartet - Time Like This

November 20, 2018

Label: Intakt Records, 2018

Personnel – Tony Malaby: tenor and soprano saxophones; Kris Davis: piano; Michael Formanek: double bass; Ches Smith: drums, vibraphone, Haitian tanbou.

Michael Formanek surfs avant-garde waves with the freedom and astuteness that always characterized his playing, either statically open-toned or changeably groove-laden. The bassist/composer/bandleader built his new CD, Time Like This, with the help of respected figures in the New York’s modern creative current: saxophonist Tony Malaby, pianist Kris Davis (a member of his Ensemble Kolossus), and drummer Ches Smith, who doubles on the vibraphone. As excellent improvisers and adepts of acoustic elasticity, we find them concentrating efforts in texturizing with logic and maintaining the ears wide open to promptly react to one another’s moves.

“Down 8 Up 5” bursts forth on the opening track, with the title disclosing Davis’ repetitive movement of thirteen notes, eight ascending and five descending. Malaby divagates independently, supported by timely bass plucks, cymbal colors, and piano voicings conjuring up intriguing dreams and mystery. The excellence of Smith on vibraphone increases this sense of sinking into a subliminal dream. It’s a tremendous composition indeed.

If bass and percussion initiate a strange dance together on “Culture of None”, a piece propelled by a consistent groove and marked by the strong, creative presences of Davis and Malaby, then bass and sax do the same as a point of departure on “The New Normal”, which has Malaby reeling off swinging lines adapted to his own style. Smith is also on focus here transitioning from vibraphone to drums with dexterity. The portentous young drummer creates whirlwinds of rhythm on “The Soul Goodbye”, joining forces with the bandleader to form a well-oiled rhythmic gear. Within a free jazz environment, Malaby’s extemporization evokes a beseeching Coltrane and a fervent David S.Ware through a spiritual parade of notes and rhythmic figures. Cathartic, this tune contrasts with the following number, “That Was Then”, whose lighter nature encompasses the rhythmic tenacity of rock and the sinuous harmonization of jazz.

“A Fine Mess” is actually a very neat song uttered with passionate expression, while “This May Get Ugly” feels loose and vibrant, painting assorted landscapes that can range from compactly urban to spaciously idyllic.

Time Like This is a worthy effort from a gifted bassist who deserves all our respect and admiration, not just for this particular great outing but for all the work done so far.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Down 8 Up 5 ► 05 - The Soul Goodbye ► 06 - That Was Then