Michael and Peter Formanek started making music and improvising together before Peter started school. Regular visits to their home from friends and colleagues like Tim Berne, Jim Black, Marty Ehrlich and many others only served to normalize this as being an essential part of human interaction. During much of their time living in Baltimore and as Peter began to study music formally (first on guitar then on saxophones and woodwinds), it was just part of daily life to have musicians come by to play, rehearse, or just hang out. This eventually turned into regular groups and collaborations that performed in local venues in and around Baltimore. For Peter’s eighteenth birthday they played a night of Michael’s music at the Cornelia Street Cafe with a lineup of Tim Berne and Peter Formanek on saxophones, Jacob Sacks on piano, Jim Black on drums, and Michael Formanek on bass. Peter went to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2013 to study with the great Andrew Bishop, and sometime after Peter’s graduation in 2017 he and Michael decided to perform as a duo. They embarked on their first tour together in November 2019 spanning the upper midwest, mid-Atlantic, and northeastern US, and soon after booked a studio date to record the music presented here as Dyads.
Dyads (OOYH 008) is the debut recording by Michael and Peter Formanek as a duo. That being said, there are likely very few (if any) debut recordings that were a lifetime in the making, and that showcase such a deep musical connection as this one. Both musicians contribute compositions, and listeners will recognize the rhythmic deceit and compelling melodic twists that are distinguishing features of the elder Formanek’s style. While the compositions are strong and engaging, the true marvel of the recording, and what Michael and Peter have spent decades developing, is in the improvising. They follow one another through an incredible range of sonic territory, often turning on a dime in nearly telepathic displays of musical intuition (one might say it is in the DNA). One Formanek may also stubbornly hold their ground as the other bounces, scrapes, and squeals around it, but in a way that only serves the music, and creates an array of textures in what could be a limiting instrumental combination in less inventive hands.
To anyone even casually aware of the modern jazz scene, Michael Formanek is an instantly recognizable name, not only as one of the most formidable bassists active today, but as a singular and prolific compositional voice. Immediately upon hearing him (either live or on recording) listeners are drawn to the deep, dark tone he produces on the bass, as well as a virtuosic technique and nimbleness that truly no other performer on the instrument can replicate. What is remarkable, and obvious just a few minutes into Dyads, is that at the young age of 25 Peter Formanek has already started to develop a similarly unique voice on reeds. There are the obvious influences of those prominent saxophonists (Berne, Ehrlich, etc) that were in his orbit at a very young age, and it is easy to make a comparison to Michael’s Bloodcount bandmate Chris Speed, as Peter has chosen to focus on the tenor saxophone and clarinet as Speed does. But what is clear from this recording is that Peter is forging his own path, and is already makng valuable contributions to the substantial output of the modern creative saxophonists that came before him. Without question we will be hearing much more from Michael and Peter Formanek for years to come, both as leaders and collaborators. The hope is that after such an exceptional debut as a duo on Dyads they won’t make us wait too long for a follow-up recording together.
BIOS:
Michael Formanek’s music is always “graceful in its subversions, often even sumptuous,” as The New York Times has aptly noted. Whether it’s for a small band or a large ensemble, the American bassist-composer creates modern jazz that is earthy yet atmospheric, always alive with dark-hued melody and bone-deep rhythms, rich in dynamic possibility and the sound of surprise. Even with decades of experience to his credit – he got his start as a Bay Area teenager playing with the likes of Joe Henderson and Tony Williams – Formanek has made some of his keenest creative leaps in recent years, documented on a sequence of justly lauded recordings. He managed an amazing hat trick with three consecutive ECM albums scoring rare five-star reviews in DownBeat. These included two discs—Small Places (2012) and The Rub and Spare Change—featuring a powerhouse quartet with saxophonist Tim Berne, pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver. The third was a magnificent record–-The Distance (2016)—that showcased his compositions for an all-star big band, playfully dubbed Ensemble Kolossus. Formanek’s first album for the Intakt label—Time Like This (2018)—saw him leading his new Elusion Quartet with saxophonist Tony Malaby, pianist Kris Davis and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith to “soul-stirring” effect, according to All About Jazz. He recorded and released another album on Intakt in October 2019 for his Very Practical Trio entitled Even Better, featuring the altoist Berne and guitar luminary Mary Halvorson. Thumbscrew, a collaborative trio also with Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, is one of Michael’s most active projects, having recently released The Anthony Braxton Project in June of 2020, and a new album of their originals, Never Is Enough, is due out in February 2021 on Cuneiform. In August of 2020 he exhumed a phenomenal 2014 live set of his ECM quartet that was released on Out Of Your Head Records’ digital-only Untamed series under the title Pre-Apocalyptic. His newest solo bass recording Imperfect Measures will be released in the April of 2021 on Intakt.
Along with his activities as a leader, Formanek has always been an in-demand collaborator by a wide range of musicians across multiple generations. Born in San Francisco in 1958, Formanek has performed in myriad contexts since he was a precocious member of the Tony Williams Lifetime at just 18 years old. In addition to working early on with such figures as Joe Henderson, Eddie Henderson and Dave Liebman, the bassist went on to perform with masters from Gerry Mulligan and Stan Getz to Freddie Hubbard and Fred Hersch, his activities only broadening once he moved to New York City in 1978. Among his peers, Formanek has worked with Tim Berne as a kindred spirit over several decades, including making a duo album with the saxophonist—Ornery People—and performing extensively in Berne’s iconic Bloodcount band in the ’90s. The bassist also released a solo LP—Am I Bothering You?-–via Berne’s Screwgun label in 1998. Thumbscrew has released four lauded albums via Cuneiform, including companion discs of originals (Ours) and covers (Theirs), issued in 2018. Formanek’s early albums as a leader included a string of releases for Enja from 1990 to 1996: the quintet LPs Wide Open Spaces and Extended Animation, as well as the septet discs Low Profile and Nature of the Beast. As a sideman, Formanek has recorded with a who’s who in jazz and beyond: Fred Hersch, Uri Caine, Dave Burrell, Jane Ira Bloom, Gary Thomas, Jack Walrath, Joe Maneri, Harold Danko, Lee Konitz, Freddie Redd, Art Pepper, Chet Baker and even Elvis Costello, along with appearing on albums led by such frequent partners as Berne, Marty Ehrlich, Mary Halvorson, Tomas Fujiwara, Tony Malaby, trumpeter Dave Ballou, saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, drummer Devin Gray and pianist Angelica Sanchez. michaelformanek.com
Peter Formanek is an improvising multi-woodwind performer, composer, educator, and a lifelong student of music. Hailing from Baltimore, he recently graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Still, he's been studying music with a Ph.D.-level teacher his whole life: his father, Michael Formanek. His recent senior recital at Kerrytown Concert House drew a wide audience, but also proved he's a "musician's musician" with a number of projects featuring established Detroit area heroes Tim Flood, Andrew Bishop, and Piotr Michalowski, as well as up-and-coming musical collaborators Cory Tripathy, Tristan Cappel, Christopher Tabaczynski, Ben Willis, Jon Taylor, Kenji Lee, and more. Peter’s other projects include Galen Bundy’s Project 206 which released an EP, Volatile, in April 2020.
1. Two, Not One (7:18)
2. Wandering, Searching, Digging, Uncovering (3:44)
3. After You (4:27)
4. The Woods (4:40)
5. Push Comes To Shove (7:32)
6. How Was The Drive? (4:39)
7. There's No There There (4:14)
8. Hoarse Syrinx (4:39)
9. Wavy Lines (5:04)
10. Hurricane (5:16)
11. Ballad of the Weak (6:49)
12. DNA (7:58)
13. That Was Then (5:54)
Composer Credits:
Tracks 1 and 3 - Peter Formanek
Tracks 5, 7, 11 and 13 - Michael Formanek (Formtone Music - BMI)
Tracks 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 12 - Michael and Peter Formanek
Peter Formanek - tenor saxophone, clarinet
Michael Formanek - double bass
Recorded by David Amlen at Sound on Sound Studio, Montclair NJ on December 30, 2019
Mixed by Nathaniel Morgan at The Forest, Brooklyn NY in May 2020
Mastered by Nick Lloyd at Firehouse 12, New Haven CT in October 2020
