Tyshawn Sorey - Pillars (2018)

Tyshawn Sorey is a prolific, powerful drummer, percussionist, and composer. Though highly regarded as a jazzman, this MacArthur Fellow's original work has slowly but surely evolved from jazz, leaving it behind -- at least for now -- to carve out a space of his own that bridges contemporary classical music and improvisation.

Pillars is a three-disc, four-hour work for nonet -- with Sorey as conductor, in the drum chair, on percussion, trombone, and dungchen (Tibetan horn); Stephen Haynes on trumpet, flügelhorn, and small percussion; Ben Gerstein on trombone and melodica; Todd Neufeld on electric and acoustic guitar, Joe Morris on guitar and double bass; and Carl Testa, Zach Rowden, and Mark Helias on double bass -- that erases boundaries not only between composition and improvisation, but timbre and sonority, space and dynamics, while exploring relationships between them and simultaneously questioning Western notions of harmony. These discs -- each comprised of a single numbered part of the Pillars suite -- showcase music composed and executed without a specific goal or arrival point in its M.O. The Space Studio acts as an arbiter among the players, who offer brief utterances, sometimes raucous statements, and fluid conversations as the score unfolds. The first section opens with four minutes of snare ruffs. A human voice and an acoustic guitar answer, accompanied by brushed cymbals. Tom-toms, bass drum, and drumsticks enter as the exchange becomes more frenetic. After a brief silence, bowed droning basses played in unison or slightly staggered answer and eventually introduce brass instruments directed by Sorey's canny conduction. Brass improvisation, a roaring dungchen, and electronics claim the center in drones. Solo bowed bass, rippling percussion, and more droning (albeit somewhat muted) and brass carry the section to a close at Part Two. Plucked, strummed, and arco bass are accompanied by dissonant electric guitars in sparse, conversant tones before restrained distortion and noise crack into the mix, introducing almost ritualistic percussion and muted brass. The entire center delivers a foreboding ambience before the dungchen underscores the ceremonial aspect of the earlier segment in various grayscales before bells, brass, and strings enter a reflective dialogue. Dirge-like bowed bass drones punctuated by carefully plucked and pulsed guitar accents introduce the final part. Trombone and trumpet offer direction in forceful conversation with bells, bass drum, and cymbals. The dungchen seemingly breathes in its low moans, announcing a long period of sometimes bellowing improv between the ensemble players before it all unravels in purposeful meditative reflection. Ultimately, shard-like electric guitars, fat, deep brass and a bell-like cymbal carry it off into the reverberations of silence. Pillars is masterfully executed. While its balance is admirable, it comes off as less nebulous and speculative than perhaps intended. Whether taken in parts or whole, it reveals something new each time it's encountered in understated grooves, melodic fragments, etc., painting a slightly different portrait as a result. Pillars is strange, artful music that is beguiling for its inward spaces and outward projections that are all imbued with emotion, empathy, and deep focus. Once heard, it's impossible to forget.