Number Stations

CURTIS HASSELBRING: Number Stations
Cuneiform, 2013

WEIRDO JAZZ – Love this!! Trombonist/guitarist Hasselbring leads a septet full of unique voices in a strange avant/spy-jazz mashup. There’s a sense of paranoia and noir mystery throughout as these tunes chug, grind, and thump their way along. But there’s lots of sly humor too: this band can (and does) leap sideways into a slap-happy groove, a balls-out rock jam, or free-improv chaos at any time. Great stuff.

PS - I wasn't aware of it when I wrote the above review, but these tunes were inspired by a real phenomenon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

Curtis Hasselbring : trombone, guitar
Chris Speed : tenor sax, clarinet
Mary Halvorson : guitar
Matt Moran : vibraphone, marimba
Trevor Dunn : bass
Ches Smith : drums, marimba
Satoshi Takeishi : drums, percussion

All good! Fo’s Picks: 1, 2, 4, 6

1. 7:51 – clattering perc & tense patter breaks into a nervous, churning thump
2. 7:57 – low morse-code rhythm: spooky vibes, slow horns and jittery guitars
3. 6:53 – herky-jerky intro to goofy Caribbean-cruise glide, then dark & mopey
4. 4:21 – raucous, rockin’ groove; dives into free-jazz w/wild guitar, ends calm
5. 10:27 – pensive intro slips into an upbeat thump, a vibes/drum rush, extra-lumpy sax/guitar break, gently swaying ensemble, and drum duet
6. 4:32 – tentative improvisational sound, everybody pokes and prods at it
7. 1:52 – brash groove mixed with tightly-arranged parallel threads
8. 6:25 – great drums give way to a goofy-cutesy ditty, slides into weirdness

[ Fo ] - 12 May 2013