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Best known as a rock label, Tim/Kerr Records moonlights as an imprint dedicated to experimental or avant-jazz works. As incongruous as it may seem, the Portland company that released debuts by nationally prominent bands like Everclear and the Dandy Warhols is also home to a genre-defying didjeridu player named Michael Stirling and a group of sonic mercenaries that calls itself, unappealingly, Smegma. Though not as far-flung from the mainstream as the latter two acts, the latest beneficiaries of Tim/Kerr's open-mindedness take the jazz roads less traveled. The musicians behind Pigpen, Hughscore and Boodlers boast long and storied careers as avant-garde composers and players, and their latest endeavors attempt to broaden the boundaries of jazz, with varying degrees of success. The most accessible of the recent trio of releases, Pigpen's Daylight bridges conventional compositional structure with outré jams, making for a tantalizing set of complex yet digestible tunes. Keyboardist Wayne Horvitz, who established himself as a sideman to John Zorn in the New York band Naked City before moving to Seattle, works with bassist Fred Chalenor, saxophonist Briggan Krauss and drummer Mike Stone on Pigpen's third Tim/Kerr record (the band has also recorded for Portland's Cavity Search, as has Horvitz as a solo artist). The quartet's fearless excursions find it catapulting from jazz to rock to fusion, recalling the singsong melodicism of Chick Corea's '70s bands one moment and Miles Davis' ferocious electro-funk the next. Horvitz and Krauss' interplay on breezy workouts like "V as in Victim" and the whimsical "Mr. Rogers" is nothing short of extraordinary. Chalenor and Stone excel whether propelling the rhythm or providing a pleasant backdrop. Showing remarkable sensitivity, Horvitz moves from keyboard to piano, invoking a subtle melancholy on "Duet" and "Trio." gpen covers a lot of musical ground on Daylight, never overplaying to assert its stylistic segues as a lesser band might do. From its inception in the early '90s, Hughscore--which evolved from Caveman Shoestore and Caveman Hughscore--fused jazz, funk, rock and, awkwardly at times, vocals. Though she's a satisfactory singer, Elaine di Falco's dramatic style imbued the band with an aspect of cabaret that proved too unorthodox, even in avant-garde circles. With a smoother delivery, her vocal contributions to the new Highspotparadox are less jarring, and it's a better album overall than its three predecessors. The combination of bassists Chalenor and Hugh Hopper, who played in the early '70s British psychedelic prog-rock band Soft Machine, provides a rhythmically rich underpinning and is deft enough to execute a jazzy shuffle or even a klezmer-like romp. On Fender Rhodes, synthesizer and accordion, di Falco adds to Hughscore's diversity, as does a modest horn section. Still, the seesawing between vocal and non-vocal compositions makes Highspotparadox a confusing record, variously reminiscent of emotive '80s New Wave/rock bands like Hugo Largo and well-guided avant-jazz groups. Call it free jazz, skronk or whatever, but Boodlers' Counter Fit plays like one long King Crimson jam circa Three of a Perfect Pair or Beat. Multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp, who has released countless albums and collaborated with luminaries of art rock (Pere Ubu), world music (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Bachir Attar) and avant-jazz (William Hooker), leads this heavily percussive, clattering quartet through eight sonic maelstroms. Because Sharp plays saxophone, clarinet, guitar and piano as well as instruments of his own invention, and employs samplers and computer-generated noises, the apocalyptic music on Counter Fit holds more interest as a guessing game for listeners than as a musically appealing body of work. Compositions bounce from all-out improvisation to intensely mathematical progressions, befuddling all but the most dedicated adherents of free jazz. In this sense, Boodlers accomplish more than their labelmates. Sharp and company not only push the boundaries of jazz, but flail at them mercilessly. Portland postscripts: When Golden Delicious' Kevin Richey enters the studio to record his first solo album for Undercover later this month, he'll have a high-profile guest helping out. Cornershop's sitar player, Anthony Saffrey, will take a break from the band's tour supporting Oasis (except in Portland, where Cornershop headlines its own show) to play on several Richey tracks....Four musicians with Portland punk-rock pedigrees have teamed up to form Fuckpriest Fantastic, which makes its debut Wednesday, Jan. 14, at EJ's. The band features former members of Gern Blanston, Atomic 61, Dirtclodfight and Coldcocked. |
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