"I have a basic mechanical knowledge of the operation of the instrument, and I got an imagination, and when the time comes up in the song to play... it's me against the laws of nature...it's a game, where you have a piece of time and you get to decorate it."
- Frank Zappa
Decorating Time is a product of North Carolina's fertile musical environment, reflecting the players’ roots in NC’s #BAM and free improvised music scenes. The group has a dark, rich sound with fantastic communication and togetherness. Indeed the ethos seems to be to prioritize the group sound throughout. Because of this, there is an abandon, an edge, and raw energy to the music. There is also, at times, a sweetness, and some surprising ear worms (‘The Drip’). There are ‘out’ sounds and some free-ish time (e.g. on the wave-like ‘Theme for Kassem’), but the rhythmic language is funk and post bop: Listeners should come away with the feeling of having gone through a few unexpected doors in the twisting passages of the jazz tradition. In Gilmore’s playing you can hear the work and effort to absorb the sounds that shaped his generation of guitarists, but the result has edges and always more than a tinge of the blues.
Gilmore’s use of effects, when he does use them, has a compositional dimension (e.g. on ‘The Soul Is A Lattice’ and ‘Theme for Kassem’), but for the most part, his tone is spare, natural, and clean, giving the music room to breath and allowing the compositions to speak for themselves. In navigating his own songs, Gilmore often seems to go out of his way to find angles in the music: He’s on his toes and he wants you to be as well. Amidst this stretching, his reach sometimes exceeds his grasp, but the result always compels.
Williams and Knowles equally shine. Williams’ nuanced, rich vocabulary is especially potent in the context of the tunes, bringing crispness and a sure grasp of the jazz language to Gilmore’s by turns eerie and sweet compositions. However, it’s on the free(er) tunes that Williams really shines. On the group’s reimagining of Willie Nelson’s ‘Crazy’ Williams swings completely free of Knowles’ and Gilmore’s together-but-not-together pulse with a glittering patter of cymbals and snare that one associates with Milford Graves or Andrew Cyrille.
Knowles, for his part, is possessed of a massive sound and never seems to run out of ideas, which makes his playing perfect for a trio album. Like Gilmore and Williams, Knowles is shaped by the central North Carolina musical ecosystem: To work, one must have ‘the goods’. But (as with Gilmore) listeners will recognize the unmistakable stamp of the 60’s avant-garde in Knowles’ playing, especially Richard Davis and Charles Mingus.
In both Knowles’ and Williams’ playing there is palpable seriousness and engagement, and a commitment to the music, qualities one often finds lacking in younger players with lots of technique.
1. Decorating Time
2. Ding, Dong
3. Mammal Female Mother Laws
4. The Drip
5. Stairs I
6. The Soul Is A Lattice
7. Stairs II
8. Vulture and Cockroach
9. Theme For Kassem
10. Crazy (Willie Nelson)
James Gilmore - guitar & compositions
Butler Knowles - bass
Kassem Williams - drums
All the songs are original compositions except for Gilmore and co’s re-imagining of Willie Nelson’s ‘Crazy’.
Recorded and Mixed by Kris Hilbert at Legitimate Business, Greensboro, NC
Mastered by Mell Dettmer at Studio Soli, Seattle WA
CD Jacket Design by Andrew Duke
Album design concept by James Gilmore and Andrew Duke
CD cover art: ‘Out to Pasture’ by Jenna Schwartz (beadwork)
Cover photo by Harrison Haynes
Interior Photos by Daniel White
