Bassist Ben Allison founded the Jazz Composers Collective in New York City in 1992, and has been a centerpiece of that non-profit organization and the local jazz scene ever since. Allison leads his septet Medicine Wheel through nine shifty, modern jazz tunes on their third record Riding the Nuclear Tiger.
The non-traditional instrumentation of Medicine Wheel, with a cellist and a versatile horn section, creates a spicy sonic palette to present Allison's tunes, as one of the saxophonists also plays bass clarinet and the trumpeter plays some flugelhorn. These unusual timbres wind around the more conventional sounds of soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones, piano, upright bass, and drums.
Allison's angular and darkly melodic lines shine with a barely perceptible tinge of atonality that gives Medicine Wheel's sound a refreshing originality. The musicians in Medicine Wheel skillfully execute this vision, working the subtly atonal sound into their individual solos. The liner notes explain the inspiration or musical starting point for each tune, like the Charles Mingus idea for the moody groove of "Love Chant Remix," the exhilaration of clinging to something out of control that fuels "Riding the Nuclear Tiger," and the atonal opening head to "Charlie Brown's Psychedelic Christmas."
Riding the Nuclear Tiger celebrates traditional jazz ideas while breathing new life into them with modern tonality and a dark sound. Ben Allison shines as principal composer and leader of Medicine Wheel. - Scott Andrews
Ben Allison has done it again, expertly guiding his ensemble, Medicine Wheel, through the labyrinths of these strong new compositions. There's a multifaceted brilliance at work here: a stunning display of melodic gifts and sheer instrumental ability, a mastery of orchestrational detail, and an aesthetic of celebration amid the music's high seriousness. As he has in the past, Allison succeeds in never repeating himself. Each track is its own universe, with a host of distinguishing sonic features and moods. The most outwardly exciting tunes are "Riding the Nuclear Tiger," a drum'n'bass style romp that gets its title from an actual headline in The Economist, and "Swiss Cheese D," a comic-book funk explosion inspired by the play-by-play commentary of retired basketball great Walt Frazier. Allison's and Ballard's stop-time fills on the latter are dead-on and electrifying. But some of the subtlest orchestration can be heard on the mellower tracks. For instance, hear the way pianist Frank Kimbrough and trumpeter Ron Horton answer saxophonist Ted Nash's melody line in "Jazz Scene Voyeur." Or how Kimbrough's piano and Tomas Ulrich's cello blend on the unison melody of saxophonist Michael Blake's piece "Harlem River Line," the one track not written by Allison. For that matter, listen to the end of Blake's piece, when bass and drums drop out, leaving only the horns to state the theme while Kimbrough decorates it with subtle piano fills. This is a band that knows how to surprise listeners at every turn.
Other highlights include Blake's simultaneous tenor/soprano solo on the folksy waltz "Weazy," Ulrich's beautiful work on the polytonal ballad "Charlie Brown's Psychedelic Christmas," Allison's alternate-tuned bass vamp on "Tectonics," and drummer Jeff Ballard's injection of Elvin Jones into the Mingus-inspired "Love Chant Remix." The brief prelude to "Tectonics," titled "Mysterious Visitor," is another a refined touch that contributes to the seamless flow of the record.
Ben Allison is one of the few young players and composers to transcend the futile debate between jazz traditionalists and radicals. He is following his own instincts, meeting the demands of the tradition while developing his own increasingly recognizable sound. With this fine album, he ascends another rung on the ladder of greatness and validates the artistic vision that brought his organization, the Jazz Composers Collective, into being. - David R. Adler
Tracks
1. Riding The Nuclear Tiger
2. Jazz Scene Voyeur
3. Love Chant Remix
4. Swiss Cheese D
5. Weazy
6. Charlie Brown's Psychedelic Christmas
7. Harlem River Line (Michael Blake)
8. Mysterious Visitor
9. Tectonics
BEN ALLISON bass
TOMAS ULRICH cello
JEFF BALLARD drums
FRANK KIMBROUGH piano
TED NASH tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet
MICHAEL BLAKE tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
RON HORTON trumpet, flugelhorn
All compositions by Ben Allison, except (7) by Michael Blake
Recorded May 27-28, 2000 at Sorcerer Studios, NYC
Palmetto Records – PM 2067