Creative jazz will always retain its capacity to surprise as long as groups like saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock's Anti-House are performing and recording. Strong Place, the ensemble's 2013 sophomore album released by Intakt, is filled with unpredictable twists and turns that keep the listener guessing, while the music nonetheless coheres through recurring motifs and the bandmembers' intuitive grasp of Laubrock's compositional and improvisational language. "An Unfolding" is aptly titled and appropriately placed as the opening track, anticipatory at the start with drawn-out lines from the leader on soprano matched by John Hébert's arco bass, the piece's harmonic development embellished by Mary Halvorson's steady guitar picking, Kris Davis' inside-the-piano explorations, and drummer Tom Rainey's percussive commentary. Slowly building tension is broken by brief, playful interludes that are suggestive but but not quite revelatory, until Laubrock, Halvorson, and Rainey break into a freewheeling improvisation, soon interrupted by Davis' full chordal attack, twinned deeply by Hébert, providing a foundation over which Laubrock solos with assertiveness and vibrancy. "Der Deichgraf" begins with Davis' skittering pianism joined by Laubrock and Halvorson's Morse code-like notes while Rainey throws in precise accents until, after a brief pause, Hébert joins the drummer in a stop-start rhythmic tandem beneath Laubrock's tenor, poised between late-night vibrato-laden rumination and something more animated. The saxophonist's extemporizations flirt thematically with the full band's herky-jerky buildup, and the piece ends as Halvorson cuts loose with a roughly distorted solo over a striding marchlike rhythm from Laubrock and Davis, nearly -- but not quite -- pulled apart by Rainey and Hébert in a looser free jazz mode.
"Count 'Em" begins suggesting a fractured, disassembled dirge but, after a tenor-bass duo feature subtly and then pointedly joined by the other bandmembers supporting Laubrock's escalating urgency, the group segues into a genuinely jazzy -- though tightly composed -- frolic: bright, melodic, and filled with sprightly unison punctuations. "From Farm Girl to Fabulous, Vol. 1," like the preceding "Der Deichgraf," also pulses with repetitive notes suggesting both stasis and movement, with the tension released in a tenor-bass-drums jam enlivened by Laubrock's robust multiphonics. With buoyant soprano and guitar lines over insistent piano arpeggios, "Alley Zen" is followed by the title track, as Davis (back inside the piano) and Rainey provide rolling percussive undercurrents beneath deep, measured rubato themes from tenor, guitar, and arco bass. Revisiting the most engaging, uptempo jazziness of "Count 'Em," the spirited romp "Cup in a Teastorm" (for Henry Threadgill) displays Anti-House at their tightest, its angular arrangement in no way slowing down the band's brisk momentum -- or Davis' display of chops on a killer piano feature. "Here's to Love" is a probing and atmospheric closer, a slow and spacious coda with hints of melancholic lyricism, seemingly toasting the mystery of love as equally as love itself. With consistent avoidance of the obvious, Strong Place reveals new facets and pleasures with each listen, marking it as an album you will want to return to again and again. - Dave Lynch
With Strong Place, New York-based German saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock moves one step further in cementing her place at the heart of the Big Apple's fertile Brooklyn scene. Already on a roll with her plangent contributions to a series of stunning music including Sleepthief's Madness of Crowds (Intakt, 2011), drummer Tom Rainey's Camino Cielo Echo (Intakt, 2012), Paradoxical Frog's Union (Clean Feed, 2012), reed iconoclast Anthony Braxton's Falling River Music and pianist Kris Davis'CapricornClimber (Clean Feed, 2013), Laubrock lives up to the high standard she set herself with Anti-house's eponymous debut (Intakt, 2010). In that, she's aided by the same cast, but with Canadian pianist Davis now integrated full-time into the ensemble.
Typically the German's charts avoid the obvious. Her convoluted thematic materials arise following an inscrutable inner logic, often juxtaposed with improvised elements, whether solo or group, as they intimate a tangled web of feelings, often within the space of a single number. Having such a talented array of leaders dedicated to breathing life into her involved arrangements means that what in other hands might seem obscure and cerebral becomes effortless and compelling. Canny arrangements ensure minimal overlap between Davis and guitarist Mary Halvorson, assisted by the latter's avoidance of chordal sequences as a pronounced trait in her distinctive armory. Instead of crowding, it just adds another layer of intrigue to proceedings. Each cut is full of unexpected twists and turns. As just one case in point, the appropriately named opener, "An Unfolding," features a droney start which establishes an edgy calm before switching to out-of-step march cadences, and spates of impassioned activity, with Laubrock's fluid jabbering soprano saxophone prominent, until the piece culminates in an ascending convergence between soprano and piano.
Much of the credit for so assuredly navigating the switchbacks must go to Rainey's rhythmic wit and wisdom, which allows him to co-opt unusual textures into an organic flow that nonetheless resolutely avoids steady tempo. In this, he is expertly abetted by bassist John Hébert who stylishly supplies color and momentum. Extemporized introductions, such as the scratchy percussive guitar/piano exchange that opens the urgent Morse code of "From Farm Girl to Fabulous Vol. 1" or the sprightly guitar/bass duet at the outset of the tense uneasy title track shine the spotlight on the individual band members before they are subsumed in the leader's idiosyncratic conception. Even one of the most direct cuts, "Cup in a Teastorm," featuring a whistling- in-the-dark jauntiness and a Latin-tinged melody, drifts in and out of dissonance, befitting its dedicatee, saxophonist/composer Henry Threadgill. But it's unfair to pick out highlights as every nook and cranny on this wonderful record demands in depth appreciation and amply rewards the time spent. - John Sharpe
Tracks
1. An Unfolding
2. Der Deichgraf
3. Count 'Em (For Richard Foreman)
4. From Farm Girl To Fabulous Vol.1
5. A Lley Zen
6. Strong Place (For Emanuella)
7. Cup In A Teastorm (For Henry Threadgill)
8. Here's To Love
INGRID LAUBROCK saxophones
JOHN HÉBERT bass
TOM RAINEY drums
KRIS DAVIS piano
MARY HALVORSON guitar
All music composed by Ingrid Laubrock
Intakt Records – Intakt CD 208 (Switzerland)