Label: Impulse! Records, 2020
Personnel - Ted Poor: drums; Andrew D’Angelo: saxophone; Andrew Bird: violin; Blake Mills: guitar.
Seattle-based drummer Ted Poor possesses a clear, detailed language that makes him a singular voice among fellow instrumentalists. He achieved wider notoriety after joining trumpeter Cuong Vu in his trio and 4-tet projects, embracing once more the leadership with this brand new outing, You Already Know. Comprising nine pieces that favor smartly arranged forms of interplay, the album features the gifted saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo, as well as violinist Andrew Bird and guitarist Blake Mills on one of the tracks.
One doesn't have to wait long to witness the group’s constructive chemistry. “Emilia” opens the album with an intelligible conversational drum cycle that keeps going. Poor deals with each part of the drum kit with astuteness, extracting beautiful, contrasting tones that are not averse to scintillation. D’Angelo’s prayerful melodies rest over the effective piano comping that further brightens the Americana-suggested scenario. Everything seems so simple, detached of unnecessary complexities, that makes hard to believe how remarkably good it sounds.
Poor’s “Only You” marches along with a hot rhythm, grooving with a nearly trip-hop feel. There’s a two-note saxophone ostinato that shifts in key, gaining further emphasis in the presence of the piano. The sax-over-drums improvisation that follows imply folk and avant-jazz intonations, which are transported into D’Angelo’s “New Wonder”. As you can guess by know, genre boundaries are bent in a spontaneous way.
The hymnal “United” substantiates a nuanced rhythmic flux at the base that confers it a lively vibe. Rob Moose’s overdubbed string section adds passion to a number, whose melodic conduction is unsurprisingly entrusted to the saxophonist. The musicians easily find a compelling common ground here, but it’s “Push Pull”, professed at a fast lope, that has the liveliest vibe, diving headfirst in a sort of danceable psychedelia. Its effusive progression carries an intensity almost worthy of an electronic music hit.
The lyricism that comes out of D’Angelo’s effect-drenched saxophone broadens the sense of space on “Kasia”. I feel this piece as a ritualistic chant put in practice with mantric discipline and opportune electronic reverberations. Apart from this latter factor, this is quite similar to what we hear on the balladic “Reminder”, the quiet and stable contemplation that finishes off the album. In turn, “To Rome” is a curiously orchestrated blues ripen through violin laments, guitar plucks and subtle piano. Still, it’s the explicit tom-tom drumming that speaks to me more than anything else.
I wish Poor were more prolific as a leader since his formidable aesthetics and minimalistic compositional adroitness make him one of the most diligent rhythmic colorists of our times.
Grade A-
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Only You ► 04 - To Rome ► 08 - Push Pull