VOTD 12/21/2024

 Josh Berman/Paul Lytton/Jason Roebke: Trio Discrepancies (Astral Spirits)

Purchased from Josh at a gig

Josh played at Bantha Tea House recently with an improv group of fellow Chicago players. I was there largely to hear a student of mine perform. The group played on the general tropes of acoustic free improv groups, which I don't mean to sound like a criticism. I've been there myself and will be there again. No groove, little periodicity at all, hints of melody which are just as quickly fragmented, scraping/blowing sounds. 

I decided to my part to support the artist and bought one of Josh's LPs. It's more money than he'll ever see from streaming, and I get an album out of it too.

I've probably already expressed my disdain for Spotify. I'm asked occasionally about my own recordings on the service, and I supposed there are some there. When I release new sessions, they'll wind up there too. But I'll never see a dime return on it all, even if a hundred people decide to put my albums on constant play overnight, night after night. Buying a single product, whether it's CD, LP, shirt, poster, even paying admission, does more for most artists than any streaming service. 

Josh plays cornet, an interesting choice in this day and age. I guess it's for the slightly darker, rounder sound than a trumpet. He's joined by bass and percussion, the latter played by Paul Lytton. His name I recognize from his work with Evan Parker. Faced with two choices for albums to buy, I guess I chose this one based on Paul's name. 

All sounds are improvised. The music is varying levels of activity/density, gradual crescendoes/decrescendoes. The cornet/bass/drums lineup suggests a sort of jazziness, it's something that's inescapable. It's hard to make anything played on the saxophone not refer to jazz too. Indeed, the end of the first side plays at a free walking bass and almost swing. The silences are longer, more significant in the second half. There's a welcome discipline to what they do, but at the same time I wish it would sometimes kick out loud and hard. I've heard too many new jazz and improv groups that rarely play above a mezzo-forte at best, and I just want them to make some NOISE sometimes. 

But I remind myself, I should comment on what this is about, not what I wish it was.

I'm okay with a free setting suggesting jazz or anything else. Derek Bailey's quest for "non-idiomatic" improvisation is an interesting goal but I find a sameness to determinately disjunct, European-style improv. 

I was thinking this is a music that is especially essential to experience in the room live. But isn't that always true? Isn't it better to be there to experience it and not just by record? At least there's a document of this group that is preserved.