JUNE News 2005 Reviews by Clifford Allen, Nate Dorward, Stephen Griffith, Walter Horn, Vid Jeraj, Massimo Ricci, Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Wayne Spencer, Dan Warburton:



Akio Suzuki
Taku Sugimoto
On Mode: George Crumb / John Cage / Morton Feldman / Iannis Xenakis
In print: Jazz In Search Of Itself
On Creative Sources: Fages, Costa Monteiro, Barberan / Pocket Progressive / Wade Matthews / Akiyama, Kahn, Kawasaki / Kinoshita, Okura, Ezaki / Stefan Keune / Davies, Hayward, Eckhardt, Capecce
On Clean Feed: Jumala Quintet / Charles Gayle / James Finn
POST ROCK: David Sylvian
JAZZ: Orchestrova / Ribot, Grimes, Campbell, Taylor / Scott Rosenberg / Eugene Chadbourne / Respect Sextet / Mezei Szilard
IMPROV: Brötzmann & Bennink / Chen & Beresford / Civil War / Grubbs & Veliotis / Weston, Edwards & Sanders / Louis Moholo-Moholo & Roger Smith / Benat Achiary
CONTEMPORARY: John Zorn / Eliane Radigue / Kasper Toeplitz / Rick Cox / Jim Fox / Kyle Gann
ELECTRONICA: Elliott Sharp & Merzbow / Lawrence English / Daniel Menche / Sébastien Roux / Nicolas Collins / JARL
Last month

 
James Finn
PLAZA DE TOROS
Clean Feed CF 034
After just a handful of releases, the first of which was eloquently chronicled by own Nate Dorward, tenor saxophonist James Finn has rapidly established himself as a player to watch, or rather listen to. On the strength of Plaza de Toros alone, his trio with bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Warren Smith is one of the most exciting working units in contemporary jazz. Recorded by Finn at his own studio (and very well too – there's definition and depth and just the right tiny dose of reverb), these nine tracks provide ample evidence of enormous talent and great sensitivity: those who rail about free jazz being nasty, brutish and never short enough can go eat their words. Not that there's any lack of passion here – far from it: just check out Finn's command of the stratospheric registers of his horn on the title track and "El Tercio de Varas" – but there's plenty of room in his compositions for intelligent craftsmanship and deft interplay, both melodically and rhythmically. Finn studied, among others, with the late and lamentably under-recorded Arthur Rhames, and tapped in to the deep vein of Coltrane that ran through his work (well documented on Rhames' double CD The Dynamic Duo with Rashied Ali on Ayler). Like Rhames, and Trane before him, Finn likes to take a musical motive and give it a monster workout, building huge spans of music from tiny melodic cells, but he's equally at home taking off into Aylerian flights of fancy. Dominic Duval's virtuoso plucking and bowing has rarely been captured as well as it is here; the superb recording picks up each nuance, and the interplay between bassist and saxophonist, notably on "The Phantom Bull of Seville", is quite exceptional (and given the string of fine performances Duval has turned out with Joe McPhee, that's saying something). For his part, Smith is a revelation, his busy brushwork counterpoint his partners to perfection while never overwhelming them. The impeccable precision and delicacy of John Stevens' work come to mind on several occasions. Even if you refuse to accept that bullfighting isn't as elegant and poetic as it is thrilling and dangerous you should treat yourself to a seat in this particular Plaza de Toros at the earliest opportunity.—DW


 





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