San Francisco jazz violinist John Ettinger releases superb sophomore CD, Kissinger In Space, featuring an all-star quartet of tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby, bassist Devin Hoff, drummer Scott Amendola
Album on Ettinger Music; available through CDBaby.com and indieJazz.com
While jazz violin has enjoyed a resurgence of interest in recent years
with the growing popularity of such artists as Regina Carter and Billy
Bang, its potential in improvised music has yet to be fully fathomed.
Meet San Francisco Bay Area violinist John Ettinger, who, based on his
debut CD, 2003’s August Rain, and his superb new sophomore effort,
Kissinger in Space, promises to be a key player to further explore the
instrument’s sonic depth.
Ettinger’s new CD, released on Ettinger Music
(catalog number je02), showcases his prowess as a composer and
improviser whose music is a compelling blend of the lyrical and the
free. The album also displays his talent as a fine bandleader whose
quartet comprises top-drawer sidemen tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby,
bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola.
Kissinger in Space proves to be a fitting follow-up to August Rain,
which All About Jazz lauded as being a "brilliant" album by "these
West Coasters [who] have a thing about music hovering between funk,
the jam, free jazz, and good solid swing, simultaneously doing it all
right." As for the leader, the review noted: "The secret in this case
is John Ettinger, violinist and looper/effects man.[who] has a way of
popping in and out at opportune times to build a melody out of a
groove, establish a specific mood, or carry on a burst of lyricism.
The loops swirl all the time."
Ettinger hastens to note that while the violin loops do play a role in
Kissinger in Space (prominently in the eerie, spacy title track), they
are scaled back. "I’ve been doing that kind of improvising for years,"
he says. "I love doing it, but this album is probably the least amount
I’ve done. I wanted to hear more violin on this CD."
Kissinger in Space features Ettinger and co. playing buoyant tunes
with spirited beats, reflective numbers with moving introspection and
songs where the meditative and the exuberant converge. What’s
particularly noteworthy is the sonic kinship of the violin and tenor
sax as Ettinger and Malaby play unison lines and sublime harmonies as
well as converse and echo. Even though they’re based on opposite
coasts (Malaby calls New York home), the two have a shared past,
meeting together in a 19th-century music theory class at Arizona State
University in the ’80s.
"We became friends, had a few other classes together, played on each
other’s senior recitals and then went different ways and to different
coasts," says Ettinger. Despite the miles, the two kept in touch. Last
December when Malaby was in the Bay Area playing with bassist Charlie
Haden, Ettinger enlisted the tenor saxist to guest on the current
project that was originally conceived as a trio date. It soon became
apparent with the chemistry so potent that, in Ettinger’s words, "the
trio record happily turned into a quartet recording."
Holding the rhythm section down are two Bay Area regulars: Hoff (who
plays in the Nels Cline Singers trio as well as fronts his own duo
project Good for Cows with drummer Ches Smith) and Amendola (the Bay
Area vet who in addition to fronting his own bands is also in Nels
Cline Singers, currently tours with Madeline Peyroux, has an
impressive resume with Charlie Hunter and the T.J. Kirk project, and
played drums on Ettinger’s first CD).
Ettinger’s intent in recording Kissinger in Space was to engage in a
musical roundtable discussion. "It was: Define the subject matter, put
up a couple of signposts, then generally let the players have at it
within the context of the subjects," he says. "I tend to write stuff
for one or two melody instruments and rhythm section, without regard
to style or genre, but with a floating relationship of improvisation
and composition. So you have to have musicians that can play, and LIKE
to play lots of styles to deal with the jazz and not-so-jazz
implications that crop up in many of the tunes. One of my greatest
musical pleasures is to hear guys at this level playing stuff I
wrote."
Ettinger notes that he tries to steer clear of around-the-horn
head-solo-head arrangements. "There's only one tune, ’Quaint,’ where
there’s one soloist over the rhythm section, followed by another
soloist over the rhythm section," he says. "The rest is a mix of group
solos, lots of me and Tony improvising at the same time. Throughout
the CD at any given moment, there is always at least one person
improvising and almost always at least one person playing something
written."
In Ettinger’s words, thumbnail-sketch overviews of three of the nine
tracks on "Kissinger in Space"–
–"Harper Lee"– "Beautiful bowed bass solo by Devin over Scott’s
electric mbira loop in the beginning. Features some of my favorite
Tony and Tony/John moments of the disc after Scott’s entrance on
cymbals about 3-4 minutes in."
–"Talking Leaves"–"Devin is a brilliantly flexible and
quick-thinking improviser, and yet it seems he can play a simple bass
line for hours and love it, and just get deeper with each repetition.
This happens repeatedly on the disc. Here it’s a repeating five-bar
bass line with a 65-bar unison melody over the top. Tony/John
improvise in the middle. Scott covers his drums with all kinds of
metal objects, then starts the tune. The title is a nod to my great
great great grandmother who was Cherokee. ’Talking Leaves’ is the
English name for the first written record of the Cherokee language."
–"The Doors Are Closing"–"This one features Scott’s electronics
improvisations over a quiet, lyrical trio. It was supposed to be a
departure-point kind of tune, a vehicle leading to a group improv.
But in this case Tony wanted to just keep repeating the written lines
so we did, and that had the effect of bringing out the chant-like
voice leading in the violin-sax-arco bass trio, which provided focus
on the other-world contrast between the trio and Scott’s sensitive use
of his electronics. Scott was the only improviser in this piece.
Beautiful playing by Tony on tenor, in that altissimo range."
Kissinger in Space (Ettinger Music je02) will be released September
26, 2006. It will be available on CDBaby and IndieJazz as well
as downloadable at iTunes. Retailers can order it through Super D, or contact the artist directly. For more information,
visit the Web site ettingermusic.com. For promotional copies, contact
john@ettingermusic.com.
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