COMPOSERS: Mark Dresser,Susie Ibarra
LABELS: Wobbly Rail
PERFORMER: Susie Ibarra & Mark Dresser
CATALOGUE NO: WOB014
That adage about jazz being ‘the sound of surprise’ is often heard when there are grumbles about the music becoming increasingly tied to its many once-honourable routines. But surprise – or, at least, a tickle of the unconventional – is never that far away, as this disparate batch of new discs demonstrates.
Take the pretty rare instrumentation in Tone Time: just bass and drums – no horns, no frills, no ‘prepared’ instruments. Almost every track is short and contained – the exception, the eight minutes of ‘The Weaver’, is cleverly explored – and bassist dresser and drummer ibarra often create an entire, whirling world in the space of three or four minutes, which is then swiftly terminated. And then they’re on to the next one.