Band of Fire, New Artists Records
Connie Crothers, piano
Richard Tabnik, alto saxophone
Roy Campbell, trumpet
Ken Filiano, bass
Roger Mancuso, drums
Grego Applegate Edwards
All About Jazz / Gapplegate Music Review
October 19, 2011
This is the third of a trilogy of recordings Connie Crothers made during her tenure at the famed NYC club The Stone in 2010. We've discussed the other two in earlier posts (see below). For this set Connie engages her long-lived regular group of Richard Tabnick on alto, Roger Mancuso on drums, and Ken Filiano on the bass, plus the addition of trumpet firebrand Roy Campbell.The Band of Fire (New Artists 1050) title well describes what was happening that night. They play three longish numbers, Connie's post-Lenniesque "Ontology" and two collective improvisations.And what happens is the band most definitely takes fire. Roy Campbell sounds beautiful, filled with a blazing kinetic energy that soars. Richard Tabnik, too, is hard hitting in his attack, sounding as good as I've heard him. Connie is a marvel as always, inspired here to let loose with barrages of notes, clusters, runs and glisses, in ways that make her one of the seminal pianistic forces active today. The rhythm section charges ahead and does much to keep it a four-way dialog with plenty of power and noted significance.This is what Connie's group can do so well. They turn up the heat more than usual though. It's another exemplary album for Connie. Great for showing the fire-y side of her artistry, great for showing the band in full flight, great for giving Roy Campbell a platform to launch to an outer place.It's great ultra-modern jazz improvisation, free and focused, musically dense but pivotally pointed forward. Music to quicken the pulse, enliven the spirit, energize the senses! So here's another one from Ms. Crothers that you really should not miss.
Stuart Broomer
Point of Departure
August 2011
The brilliance of (group) creation carries over to the collectivist dynamic of BAND OF FIRE, a 2010 quintet performance from the Stone with Tabnik on alto, Roy Campbell on trumpet, Ken Filiano on bass, and Roger Mancuso on drums. Crothers, Tabnik and Mancuso appeared together on 2007’s brilliant MUSIC IS A PLACE, perhaps Crothers’ masterpiece and a CD that demonstrated her special ability as a band pianist in free improvisation, a talent that’s further demonstrated here. She has the rare capacity to respond to, assemble and extend everything that’s going on in the band, composing and orchestrating on the fly in a way that can recall the swarming co-ordination of Cecil Taylor in his bands of the 1960s and ‘70s, however different Crothers’ approach and materials. The result is both an orchestral richness and a sense of continuing collective engagement. Crothers’ “Ontology” opens the set, a boppish theme that might have been composed in the 1950s but which soon shifts dynamics with Campbell’s splintered trumpet sounds. The group dialogue is hottest on “Cosmic Fire” with Crothers showing just how far she can go on the rhythmic data generated by Filiano and Mancuso, while the final “Song for Henry and Margaret” is taken at a dirge tempo, inspiring unusual sound-focused inquiries from Tabnik and Filiano and vivid splatters of keyboard color from Crothers. It’s an exciting band, one that creates wholly in the moment of the music.
Duck Baker
New York City Jazz Record
June 26, 2011
Alto saxophonist Richard Tabnik and drummer Roger Mancuso have both worked with Crothers for decades and it should surprise no one to hear trumpeter Roy Campbell and bassist Ken Filiano fitting in perfectly. There are three long tracks, starting with “Ontology”, which features a deliciously convoluted melody that nods toward Crothers’ teacher Lennie Tristano and a rough and ready ensemble sound reminiscent of Mingus. Having ignited, the ensemble lifts off with the appropriately titled “Cosmic Fire”. Tabnik is especially good here. The more sedate closer, “Song for Henry and Margaret”, may be the pièce de résistance - beautiful writing, beautiful playing.