Spontaneous Music Tribune
patrick brennan | s0nic 0penings
tilting curvaceous (Clean Feed Records, CD 2023)
Andrzej Nowak
April 28, 2023
A rare opportunity in our pages to delve into creative American music not invented by those already way too familiar legends of the genre. The quintet of altoist patrick brennan is a solid example of well-constructed open jazz, scarcely lacking in the freedom of “free,” that builds drama through notably original methods. As the composer himself testifies, the fourteen tracks on the album are not so much compositions in the usual sense, but rather elaborate variations on a given rhythmic structure. So, aside from melodic themes, this orientation is always specifically concrete and unspoken, with a constantly present rhythmic complexity and a large amount of free space for improvisation. And finally, there’s a taste of effusive, nearly flamboyant, Colemanesque free jazz trumpet and saxophone phrases.
Even the opening track, built from wind dialogues broken by the rhythm of propulsive drumming and double bass, gives us a foretaste of emotion. In the following movements, the artists serve us a swinging post-ballad, which quickly gains steam with agile syncopation flowing on a bass groove, and finally a post-ragtime piano teaser without the horns. In the fifth movement, the bowed double bass carries the trumpet and saxophone almost to the very sky itself. In the album’s subsequent installments, the winds, whose astute exchanges often provide a measure of each song’s character, lead the way. Each story starts differently here with each musician coming to the heart of the narrative by means of varying approaches. Against the background of the whole, the tenth part, the longest on the album, stands out. It begins with saxophone accompanied by a minimalist rhythm section. There’s throughout, on the one hand, jazz tradition, on the other hand, Coleman’s freedom, and finally the compact, forward moving array of stories. One may enjoy the extended bass solo in the twelfth movement and the quavering dance-breaks (without alto) in the next. And finally there’s the finale, a lone alto solo as a very neat summary.
See original review (in Polish) at Spontaneous Music Tribune