Kiwijahzz presents Volume 9 in the catalogue of extraordinary music recorded live in the dark basement clubs of Aotearoa. Label house band Trioglodyte continue their collaborative journey with a particularly cinematic collection of gems sourced from the rich mines of improvisation, film scores, wild street party music and honkin' melodicism brought to life with the exceptional multi-instrumental talents of Riki Gooch and Sean Martin-Buss.
From the delicately unfurling 'Horus' to Latin American styled 'Los Cholitos' through a tribute to Ennio Morricone to the raucous carnival march of 'Raving Raven' to the free jazz explorations of 'Blowness' this collection presents more New Zealand music rooted in local traditions with an ear to the past, present and future.
"‘Horus’ opens with high-freq missives from the bird-world (or perhaps from a more human world analogous to the new instrument freaktopia of Mauricio Kagel’s ‘Acustica’) and unfolds a surreal sonic landscape simultaneously primal/guttural and electrical.
‘Los Cholitos’ – adding a punchy contemporary twist to the unfairly unheralded sub-tradition of free-jazz crossing into Latinate melodic and rhythmic territory (see for example Ornette Coleman ‘Una Muy Bonita, Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman ‘The Good Life’…) this is a lurching parade, Henderson’s throaty sax and Buss’s bouncy trumpet weaving manual transmission maneuvers around and through the major arpeggiations and party exhortations of stream of consciousness Latinate thematic bric-a-brac, a-top of O’Connor and Gooch’s punk-mariachi wheel house.
‘Ennio’s House’ – the album’s Morricone tribute, an absurdist tableau in which kooky slide whistle and occasional harmonica figures groove with the dual percussion and bowed bass bed to provide a cartoon base against which Martin-Buss’s trumpet and Henderson’s clarinet quizzically doodle.
‘Raving Raven’ – this one leaps out at you with Gooch/O’Connor tom action roiling up the energy levels considerably while Buss’s glitch-out pick tremolo frenzy alternately adds darkly hallucinogenic atmosphere or additional NRG hits, as context demands. Henderson wails here, tearing out front in an ensemble all racing to get not just ahead but clear of “the one”. In it’s later throes, a dissonant repeated figure of Buss’s kicks off like an industrial alarm, coaxing manic afro-inflected grooves from the twin engine drum room.
‘Blowness’ – unstable shades of atonal counterpoint melt into microtonal bends and skewed cluster chords in Buss’s electric guitar texturings. Henderson’s sax is initially expressive, stately, subdued, gradually evolving towards elegant loop-like weaves and screes of virtuoso squall, and space is kept in reserve for some lovely rich and dark melodic ideas from Edmundsen-Wells. Tuned percussion twinkles the spatial rhythm of an warped starry sky through this slow-burn construction. Look out for the artful twist as clarinet and trumpet re-emerge late in the day (no spoilers.)"
Alex Wolken -
wolkenwords.wordpress.com/2022/10/06/album-review-jazz-from-the-underground-nightclubs-of-aotearoa-volume-9-by-trioglodyte-w-riki-gooch-and-sean-martin-buss/
released October 6, 2022
Trioglodyte
Jeff Henderson - alto, c melody saxophones, clarinet, duck callers, slide whistle, horns
Eamon Edmundsen-Wells - double bass & horn
Chris O'Connor - drums & percussion
with
Sean Martin-Buss - tenor saxophone, trumpet, electric guitar
Riki Gooch - drums & percussion
Recorded at The Wine Cellar, Tāmaki Makaurau on 5 May 2022 by Rohan Evans. Mixed & Mastered by Jeff Henderson.
Artwork by Julien Dyne
For the last couple of years, Jeff Henderson’s KiwiJahzz label has been awash with exciting live recordings collated as the ‘Jazz From The Underground Nightclubs of Aotearoa’ series. Most so far feature Henderson’s sax-bass-drums free-jazz trio Trioglodyte (Henderson, Edmunssen-Wells, Chris O’Connor) alongside guests pulled from a rotating cast of NZ free jazz, free improvisation and otherwise-experimental jazz luminaries. Number 9, the latest in the series, features deft contributions from guests Riki Gooch (drums, percussion) and Sean Marin-Buss (tenor sax, trumpet, guitar) and incorporates some interesting stylistic digressions, rendering it easily one of their strongest releases in my estimation.
‘Horus’ opens with high-freq missives from the bird-world (or perhaps from a more human world analogous to the new instrument freaktopia of Mauricio Kagel’s ‘Acustica’) and unfolds a surreal sonic landscape simultaneously primal/guttural and electrical.
‘Los Cholitos’ – adding a punchy contemporary twist to the unfairly unheralded sub-tradition of free-jazz crossing into Latinate melodic and rhythmic territory (see for example Ornette Coleman ‘Una Muy Bonita, Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman ‘The Good Life’…) this is a lurching parade, Henderson’s throaty sax and Buss’s bouncy trumpet weaving manual transmission manuevers around and through the major arpeggiations and party exhortations of stream of consciousness Latinate thematic bric-a-brac, a-top of O’Connor and Gooch’s punk-mariachi wheel house.
‘Ennio’s House’ – the album’s Morricone tribute, an absurdist tableau in which kooky slide whistle and occasional harmonica figures groove with the dual percussion and bowed bass bed to provide a cartoon base against which Martin-Buss’s trumpet and Henderson’s clarinet quizzically doodle.
‘Raving Raven’ – this one leaps out at you with Gooch/O’Connor tom action roiling up the energy levels considerably while Buss’s glitch-out pick tremolo frenzy alternately adds darkly hallucinogenic atmosphere or additional NRG hits, as context demands. Henderson wails here, tearing out front in an ensemble all racing to get not just ahead but clear of “the one”. In it’s later throes, a dissonant repeated figure of Buss’s kicks off like an industrial alarm, coaxing manic afro-inflected grooves from the twin engine drum room.
‘Blowness’ – unstable shades of atonal counterpoint melt into microtonal bends and skewed cluster chords in Buss’s electric guitar texturings. Henderson’s sax is initially expressive, stately, subdued, gradually evolving towards elegant loop-like weaves and screes of virtuoso squall, and space is kept in reserve for some lovely rich and dark melodic ideas from Edmundsen-Wells. Tuned percussion twinkles the spatial rhythm of an warped starry sky through this slow-burn construction. Look out for the artful twist as clarinet and trumpet re-emerge late in the day (no spoilers.)
An excellent addition to this highly worthwhile series. Recommended. Available on Bandcamp (
kiwijahzz.bandcamp.com/album/jazz-from-the-underground-nightclubs-of-aotearoa-vol-9) as streaming for free, or in multiple formats for real cheap.
For a detailed take on Trioglodyte’s origins, see Jake Baxendale’s piece ‘Jazz in the Cracks Part 1’ at SOUNZ (
news.sounz.org.nz/jazz-in-the-cracks-part-1/)
– Alex Wolken
