Marty Ehrlich & Ben Goldberg - Light at the Crossroads (1997)

The opening number on this intriguing set, "Texas," almost sounds like a tribute to Eric Dolphy, with Marty Ehrlichand Ben Goldberg both on bass clarinets battling it out for a time. However, Dolphy's influence on the two reed players (who double on clarinet) is much less than one would expect. Much of the music could be considered "freebop," with a pulse generated by bassist Trevor Dunn often serving as the main foundation for the pieces. Dunn is a powerful and sometimes thunderous player who is also expert at using space in the pianoless quartet. While drummer Kenny Wollesen plays quietly and with subtlety, the focus is mostly on the co-leaders.Ehrlich and Goldberg contributed four originals apiece, all but Wayne Horvitz's "Ask Me Later."

The music covers a wide variety of moods, is sometimes melancholic (as on "What I Lost") and at other times heated. Highlights include Ehrlich's haunting "Twos" (the most memorable melody on the date), the unaccompanied bass clarinet duet on "April 4," and the surprisingly upbeat "Hopeless." This date mixes improvising with inventive arrangements and is well worth hearing several times, since a lot of creative ideas are expressed throughout the session. Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

We're in the midst, perhaps nearing the apex, of a jazz clarinet boom or, if you're sufficiently jaundiced, boomlet. Clarinet players are even gracing the cover of JT - hey, Woody Allen has to be good for something, if only for stretching a point. Really, there's an abundance of lively clarinet and bass clarinet music currently being made, and Marty Ehrlich and Ben Goldberg are in the thick of it. Though Ehrlich is known to many as primarily a saxophonist, he is no mere doubler; arguably, his most adventurous work, particularly with his Dark Woods Ensemble, is on clarinet. Ben Goldberg is not only active in the thriving Bay Area improvised music scene, he is also leads the well-received New Klezmer Trio.

Ehrlich and Goldberg prove to be very complimentary talents, both as players and writers, on Light At The Crossroads, a strong quartet album with bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Both Ehrlich and Goldberg contribute four compositions to the set, which is rounded out by Wayne Horvitz's flowing, lyrical "Ask Me Later." Of the four Ehrlich compositions, only the sinuous blues "Dark Sestina," has been recorded before; the sing-songy "Twos" is not a recycled version of "The Terrible Twos" from Ehrlich's '88-9 duo disc with bassist Anthony Cox, Falling Man (Muse). While Ehrlich's title piece smartly turns swirling lines inside out without creases or snags, it is his "I Don't Know This World Without Don Cherry" that best showcases his compositional finesse, as it seamlessly melds groove-mining vamps, a bouncy Ornettish themes, and a short soul-plumbing plaint.

Goldberg's "Hopeless" taps Ornette's gift for letting an effervescent theme temporarily lapse into lament; "Texas" evokes the harder-edged contours of the late Atlantic period. While Goldberg's boldest composition is the stark bass clarinet duo, "April 4," his most affecting work is the poignant requiem "What I Lost."However, Light At The Crossroads is as much a forum for Ehrlich and Goldberg's improvisational prowess. Their fluency in a variety of contexts, their tag team-like interplay, and their ability to muscle the music into overdrive, are consistently impressive. Bill Shoemaker, jazztimes.com

1. Texas

2. I Don't Know This World Without Don Cherry

3. What I Lost

4. Ask me Later

5. Dark Sestina

6. Hopeless

7. Twos

8. April 4

9. Light at the Crossroads

Marty Ehrlich - clarinet, bass clarinet

Ben Goldberg - clarinet, bass clarinet

Trevor Dunn - bass

Kenny Wollesen - drums, bug

Recorded Jan 20-21, 1996

Released by Songlines in 1997

link@320

Peter Herbert - B-A-C-H: A Chromatic Universe (2001)

With B-A-C-H: A Chromatic Universe, Austrian bass maestro Peter Herbert, serenades Johann Sebastian Bach while basing his schema upon the four-note-motive of the letters B-A-C-H and the chromatic transpositions. Basically, Herbert’s novel intentions allude to melding elements of classicism with softly rendered rhythmic structures and the band’s modern jazz style interplay as the leader penned all but three of these works.

Herbert’s employment of semitones and non harmonic tones within daintily performed motifs presents a curious proposition. However on the opener, “Fuga” pianist Marc Copeland’s wonderfully articulated phraseology and often magical thematic developments offer some respite from a nondescript theme brimming with extended note choruses by trumpeter/flugelhornist Ingrid Jensen and bass clarinetist Carol Robinson. The piece titled, “Stauber” features an underlying Afro-Cuban pulse amid a few diversions and sullen overtones, whereas Herbert, Jensen, Copeland and Robinson perform brief solo interludes on their respective works, “B-A-C-H bass”, B-A-C-H trumpet,” “B-A-C-H piano” and B-A-C-H bass-clarinet”. The band executes subtle alterations in pitch, sans a strong reference point on the composition, “Divi Blasii”. On this piece, Copeland elevates the somewhat ambling or meandering proceedings to fairly lofty heights via his imaginative embellishments and sweet tempered musings. Glenn Astarita

******************************************************************************************
There is a striking balance achieved in this unusual Johann Sebastian Bach-inspired set of original compositions performed by a quintet organized by leader and bassist Peter Herbert. There are also a number of enigmas to this intriguing recording that draw the listener's attention. While four of the shorter feature pieces use the letters of Bach's name as a four-note "motive" (Bb/A/C/B), elsewhere the connection to the great classical composer is a tad nebulous. The influence of trumpeter Franz Koglmann, artistic director for the label, is more pervasive. The choice of Marc Copland on piano and particularly Ingrid Jensen on trumpet and flugelhorn for a fairly free style meeting might seem strange, but they both acquit themselves splendidly. In fact, Jensen is so impressive and convincing that this is one of her best sessions to date. As for the music, it is strikingly original: soft, and chamber-like; and it winds, curves, and peers about with a graceful elegance that belies its improvisational input. Steven Loewy

1. Fuga
2. Stauber
3 B-A-C-H bass
4. Stadtpfeifer
5. B-A-C-H trumpet
6. Divi Blasii
7. B-A-C-H piano
8. Hausmann
9. B-A-C-H bass clarinet
10. Actus Tragicus
11. Heavy Snow

Carol Robinson: bass-clarinet
Ingrid Jensen: flugelhorn, trumpet
Marc Copland: piano
Kenny Wollesen: drums, percussion, "bug"
Peter Herbert: bass

Recorded & mixed by Bob Ward, 25-26/9/2000
Released by Between the Lines in 2001.

link@320

New Klezmer Trio - Masks and Faces (1996)

"Ben Goldberg was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. In 1991, long before the downtown jewish music revival, Goldberg’s group New Klezmer Trio took a slightly different view of the klezmer tradition and expanded it through a jazz-improv idiom. Their CD Masks and Faces was listed as one of the ten best recordings of 1992 by Cadence magazine, and as The San Francisco Chronicle noted, it "kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music". John Zorn, in creating his Masada projects, was heavily influenced by the recordings of New Klezmer Trio and therefore re-released this record in 1996". (An assortment of internet reviews)

"A recording the Ewings can't get enough of" (The Dallas Review)

Ben Goldberg - clarinet
Dan Seamans - bass
Kenny Wollesen - drums

link@320