For more than twenty years, Walt Dickerson has been one of the true jazz marvels. Not only the swift abundance of his idea, and the unfailing accuracy with which he projects them, but also their quality. Dickerson is a continually unmistakeable original.
Yet, for all his distinctiveness, Dickerson has yet to be fully valued on his home grounds. It's true that American musicians recognize his stature, along with a sturdy nucleus of lay listeners; but by and large, it is in Europe where Walt is most appreciated. And that's why he spends much of his time there.
In this album, recorded in Milano, Dickerson set himself an exceptional challenge - doing a primarily improvised session with two musicians who, like Dickerson himself, keep stretching themselves, listening ahead, fingering the future.
Sirone, whose musical working history ranges from Sam Cooke to Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman, was also part of the Revolutionary Ensemble, a brilliantly cohesive unit whose passing I still mourn.
Andrew Cyrille's international renown is based in part, on his years of playing with Cecil Taylor. In addition he has headed his own units while also teaching and broadcasting. As you will hear, Cyrille is a listening drummer, thereby always engaging in conversation with his colleagues rather than only conjugating time.
I asked Cyrille to characterize Walt Dickerson's playing as someone who has worked with Walt in the past as well as more recently.
"He really has a sense of direction melodically and harmonically," Andrew began. At the same time, Walt has a truly unique technique, which allows him to play at twice the speed of any other vibist. His mallets, you see, are cut to half the length they normally would be. This let him play very, very close to the keyboard so he practically has the degree of speed he'd have if he were just using his fingers."
Dickerson confirmed that analysis of his speed, and added: "The mallets are stripped, and then I immerse them for twelve hours in a solution - with the result that there is a plushness of sound when they attack the keyboard. It's not a harsh and repelling sound."
Fundamentally, of course, what makes Dickerson's technique and sound so effective is the imagination with which he uses them.
As for Sirone, Andrew Cyrille points out that "he is in a sense, an abstract player, but listening to him, you become very conscious that he has his feet on the ground. Implicit in his abstract conception is the basic stuff.
Simultaneously he keeps finding new expressive ways by which his music can grow."
Concerning is own playing Andrew Cyrille says: "I keep being involved in forging new directions, but at the same time I feel that what I'm also doing is synthesizing a lot of things. By now I have a broad knowledge of the spectrum of jazz drumming, and I'm very selective in what I use from that spectrum. That is, I try to communicate by selecting from the vast resources of the history of jazz drumming plus African and European influences on jazz percussion."
The music on this album requires no particular written annotations because it's meant to be responded to on its own non-verbal terms. As John Coltrane used to tell me, "If the music doesn't speak for itself, then nobody's words are going to be able to help it speak."
Still, with regard to the music as a whole on this date, I'd suggest you listen closely to the dynamics of the three players - and the interplay of those dynamics. The same is true, of course, of the colors they spin and interweave. And also, the different - and yet ultimately, collective - ways in which they use space.
None of this inventive interplay would matter all that much - ingeniously provocative though it is - if there were not also powerful emotions at work here as well. And the history of all three of these musicians underscores the compelling intensity of their desire to have their feelings be known. Reverberatingly known as in this set. - Nat Hentoff
Tracks
1. No Ordinary Man
2. Good Relationship
3. Life Rays
4. It Ain't Necessarily So
WALT DICKERSON vibraphone
ANDREW CYRILLE drums
SIRONE bass
Recorded February 4 & 5, 1982 at Barigozzi Studios, Milano
Soul Note - 121028-2