Sirone Bang Ensemble - Configuration (2005)

Silkheart has consistently given drummers pride of place in our CD productions because a band without a good drummer seldom became a good band. We have cultivated many good drummers at Silkheart; Alvin Fielder, Andrew Cyrille, Denis Charles, Reggie Nicholson, Marc Edwards, Avreeayl Ra, Michael Wimberly, Susie Ibarra, Kahil El Zabar, among others. The Sirone Bang Ensemble (SHCD155, "Configuration") features the debut of a really dynamic new drummer from New Jersey, Tayshawn Sorey, who at the age of 22 is rapidly making a name for himself. On this session, Tayshawn Sorey inspires the old men in the band to swing like hell - Charles Gayle making his recorded debut on alto sax, the wily Billy Bang on violin and Sirone, the rock of ages on bass.

The texture of bass and violin in tandem is, even now, relatively uncommon to most jazz listeners. The two instruments matched against saxophone and drums can seem a conflict, an irreconcilable intersection. Will it be quiet and delicate? Will the horn and drum throttle their wooden companions? Don’t worry about Sirone and Bang though...they easily match wits with saxophonist Charles Gayle and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Questions of how can this work are quickly dispelled with how well it does.
On some level, the Sirone/Bang Ensemble invites comparison to the Revolutionary Ensemble, but, in 2004, it has its own significance. Though now accepted into the jazz canon through the efforts of musicians like Leroy Jenkins and Bang, the violin still suffers in reputation against its metal counterparts. Bang is a tireless innovator and has, particularly after his award-winning Vietnam: The Aftermath album (Just in Time, 2002), continued to delve into the violin’s possibilities in an improvised context. Moreover, Sirone’s dialogues with the violin are not limited to his work with Jenkins. In his half-the-year home of Berlin, Sirone’s latest group includes a young European violinist far different than Jenkins or Bang. Sirone plays with other violinists not because that is what listeners have come to expect of him, but because he wishes to change what listeners expect.
As a recorded concert released to the public, vulnerability and brashness run in parallel. The opening track, Bang’s Jupiter ’s Future, essentially is solos by all four musicians loosely linked by a perky melodic line. Rather than bombard immediately with a group voice, the various shades can be presented discretely. The listener eagerly awaits seeing how a swinging drummer will fare against a shrill saxophonist, how soul-drenched violin will complement thick frantic bass.
Bang’s Freedom Flexibility then comes as a shock. Instead of the four musicians, having introduced themselves, congealing into an amorphous soup, a hard bop exploration appears. Sorey is the catalyst,rejoicing in the rhythms that so many avant garde drummers eschew, letting the wonderful head bubble and pop. Already the three veterans, Sirone, Bang and Gayle, have been infected by the young drummer’s exuberance and he by their advanced thinking.
The two opening Bang pieces are then followed by two of Sirone’s. Despite Sirone’s playing background (stints with Noah Howard, Marion Brown, Dave Burrell, Pharoah Sanders, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman and others), he believes strongly in firm compositions. Improvisation and freedom are never far behind but there is never the sense of musicians running blindly, bumping into each other or into walls. We Are Not Alone, But We Are Few, according to jazz conventions, would be the set’s ballad and I Remember Albert would be its barnstormer. Throughout both, Bang’s emotive playing striated with Gayle’s plaintive wails creates remarkable emotional tension.
For the last two pieces, Bang and Sirone reverse roles, or perhaps show a greater breadth to their composing. Bang’s Notre Dame De La Garde is an abstract melancholy excursion featuring a discomforting duet between Bang and Gayle. Sirone’s Configuration is the bookend to the opening track. The vivacious jaunt gives Sorey another opportunity to drive the proceedings and the ensemble to realize the heavy funk of which they are capable.
This hour-long set, recorded in a blustery November has a cohesion that comes from knowing it was recorded for potential release. Often times though, the best musical intentions can go awry. This is a new group and they may have not been able to come together successfully. But since it is not another gummy freejazz record that has little relevance to anybody but the crowd witnessing its creation/destruction, the inclusion of the word ensemble in the band name is apt and hopefully indicates a future.