Label: ECM
The Distance represents a grand creative leap for
bassist-composer Michael Formanek, following two widely lauded ECM
releases featuring his quartet with Tim Berne, Craig Taborn and Gerald
Cleaver. The new album showcases his texturally rich compositions for
the dynamic 18-piece big band he has playfully dubbed Ensemble
Kolossus. The project saw some of the most distinctive musicians on the
New York scene bonding to realize Formanek’s epic design, as he
re-imagined what a big band can be. Channeling sounds from the classic
to the modern, he also composed for individually expressive soloists in
the Ellingtonian tradition. Along with the dark-hued romanticism of
the title track,
The Distance features the “Exoskeleton” suite –
a kaleidoscopic musical experience in which Formanek’s bold, beautiful
vision for 21st-century large-ensemble jazz comes vibrantly to life.
Both
The Rub and Spare Change (2010) and
Small Places (2012), Formanek’s two previous ECM albums, received rare five-star reviews in
DownBeat magazine. In conceiving
The Distance,
Formanek was inspired sonically by such far-flung sources as the
massively resonant chords in Messiaen’s organ works and the expansive
jazz orchestrations of Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton and
Henry Threadgill. As
The New York Times described it, Formanek’s music is “graceful in its subversions, even sumptuous.”
Despite having great respect for the craft of big-band writing,
Formanek admits that he has never been especially interested in the
traditional style, “because it’s just been done so well so many times
before,” he says. “But I wanted a large, rich, chewy sound with this
music – and the ensemble’s rhythm section is particularly big, with
piano, marimba, guitar, bass and drums. I also wanted a lot of
different colors and textures, with some sharp edges occasionally. With
the way this group works, there’s a lot of written material but also a
lot of freedom in how we get from one point to the next. Things are
riskier than with the usual big band.”
Formanek has long histories with many of the players in Ensemble
Kolossus, having played alongside Berne not only in his recent small
bands but also in the saxophonist’s ’90s ensemble Blood Count (which
also included reed man Chris Speed). The bassist plays with guitarist
Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara in the cooperative trio
Thumbscrew, while trumpeter Dave Ballou is a fellow Baltimore resident
and occasional band mate. Among Formanek’s other connections, Ensemble
Kolossus conductor Mark Helias is a longtime instrumental peer. The
fellow virtuoso bassists have known each other since the late ’70s and
have recently paired onstage for rare bass duets. “Mark was such a
positive force on this record,” Formanek explains. “It was wonderful to
have a musical mind like his to help keep the music on track while I
concentrated on playing bass in the rhythm section.”
Knowing the sounds and sensibilities of all the players, Formanek conceived the music of
The Distance not so much for instruments as for instrumentalists. For example, Halvorson’s guitar helps color
The Distance
distinctively, with her shape-shifting chords and cubist solos a key
attraction of such pieces as “Without Regrets” in the “Exoskeleton”
suite. “This really is an incredible collection of musicians, players
with such individual voices,” Formanek says. “Someone like Chris Speed
plays chord changes on tenor sax in a way that’s so personal, fresh and
full of ideas. Writing for players like these, I was obviously open to
being surprised, although I was surprised by how much I was surprised.
Trombonist Ben Gerstein is one of those musicians who always plays the
unexpected, even when you know his palette of sounds.”
Most of the band’s players are drawn from the teeming New York
scene, a fact that lent a certain energy but also a generosity to the
Brooklyn recording sessions, according to Formanek. “More than ever,
there are great jazz players everywhere across the U.S. and the world,”
he says. “But the intensity of living and working in New York City
means that not only is the level of everything these New York
improvisers do is of such high quality; it’s the quickness with which
they grasp where the music is going, their focus and concentration.
They’re great people, too, and even though the scale of the band and
music was challenging, things were relaxed. It felt like we were kindred
spirits, with a common purpose.
“Everyone united behind this music – and I’m thrilled with how it
all came out,” Formanek concludes. “This album feels like a high point
in my body of work.”
1 The Distance
2 Exoskeleton (Prelude)
3 Exoskeleton Parts I-III (Impenetrable / Beneath The Shell / @Heart)
4 Exoskeleton Parts IV-V (Echoes / Without Regrets)
5 Exoskeleton Parts VI-VII (Shucking While Jiving / A Reptile Dysfunction)
6 Exoskeleton Part VIII (Metamorphic)
Saxophones/Woodwinds: Loren Stillman (alto sax); Oscar Noriega (alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet); Chris Speed (tenor sax, clarinet); Brian Settles (tenor sax, flute); Tim Berne (baritone sax)
Trumpets: Dave Ballou, Ralph Alessi, Shane Endsley, Kirk Knuffke (cornet)
Trombones: Alan Ferber, Jacob Garchik, Ben Gerstein, Jeff Nelson (bass trombone, contrabass trombone)
Marimba: Patricia Brennan; Guitar: Mary Halvorson; Piano: Kris Davis
Double-bass: Michael Formanek; Drums: Tomas Fujiwara
Conductor: Mark Helias
