Kingston Tone Roads, Deep Listening Institute
Connie Crothers, piano
Kevin Norton, percussion & vibraphone
Richard Tabnik, alto saxophone
Massimo Ricci
Touching Extremes
September 9, 2011
Certain improvisers manage to sound clueless even at the highest heights of their technique, others act as militants but their wheels are perennially stuck in the mud of commonplace. Then there is a rank of experienced players who seem just happy to deliver solid music, elaborating eventual incidents and unexpected ramifications in the meantime. The Crothers/Norton duo – here recorded in a performance dated September 2006 in Kingston, NY downloadable from the label’s website – furnishes the listener with equal quantities of complexity and clarity inside four episodes characterized by a type of interplay that does not permit compromise in spite of a relative accessibility. The acoustic properties of Norton’s vibes – metallic luminescence often sliced into cynically dissonant segments of glimmering resonance – are nicely engraved within Crothers’ convincingly rational pianism, a style that excludes romantic escapades without appearing icy. Discovering subplots in the instrumental dialogue is always interesting – and when alto saxophonist Tabnik joins in during the final track “One Earth”, the voices fuse in a no-nonsense collective jargon equidistant from categorizations and styles.
Robert Iannapollo
The New York City Jazz Record
September 2011
Percussionist / vibraphonist Kevin Norton can always be depended on to come up with something interesting. His earliest affiliations with Anthony Braxton and Fred Frith marked him as an adventurous collaborator. As comfortable with free improvisation as he is with writing and interpreting compositional material, Norton imbues his music with drive and rhythmic acuity. Recent stress on his vibes playing has further emphasized his artful use of color and shade as well as his stature as a contemporary improviser. The ensembles he’s helmed through the past decade have always dealt in music that prodded at the edges while allowing the players maximum amount of freedom.
Kingston Tone Roads finds Norton in a duet with pianist Connie Crothers. The pair have been playing together around New York for a number of years and it’s good this release (from a 2006 concert in Kingston, NY) is finally seeing the light of day. Although she’s tagged a as a pianist in the Lennie Tristano tradition, Crothers had long shorn that influence and developed a personal style that, while still virtuosic, also makes her an excellent improvising partner. She is a good match for Norton and the two are in sync in this set of three free improvs along with a fourth track that adds alto saxophonist Richard Tabnik. Norton plays both trap drums and vibes but there are always small percussion instruments around as well as a cymbal or two. This allows him to fill out the space so that at times the duets sound like a trio. But no matter how expansive these duets are (one is 25 minutes long), there’s never a flagging moment. They are continually listening to each other, commenting on each other’s phrases, each pulling the other along into uncharted territory. The addition of Tabnik on the last track at first seems almost intrusive. However, he is an interesting player with a dry, brittle sound that gives the music an added dimension. But ultimately this is a fascinating duo document and a good addition to both Crothers and Norton’s discography.
Stuart Broomer
Point of Departure
2011
On KINGSTON TONE ROADS, a series of duets with vibraphonist/percussionist Kevin Norton, the etude-like brevity and traditional coherence of the pieces with Payne give way to more expansive explorations that mutate into unusual layered rhythms and clusters. Norton’s glittering vibraphone lines are close to Crothers’ own conception and the particular density of sound and line they achieve (Norton sometimes plays cymbals along with vibraphone) teems with detail, whether it’s rapid-fire or emerging within a warm haze of atmospheric sound. Saxophonist Richard Tabnik joins the two on the concluding “One Earth,” expanding the contrapuntal impulse at the heart of Crothers’ music.