Rogue States

Awesome piano and drums free jazz duet. The one-sheet mentions contemp. classical too – yeah some of the piano chords sound that way. The players are tight together, lots of squirrelly rhythms, delicate rhythms and sounds. Extreme attention to super minute details – the recording quality of the drums seems awesome to me, can hear all kinds of tiny details. A blast.

*1. My favorite track. Romping, frollicking, rocking. Some Cecil Taylor moments, some squirly piano, some fat chords, the piano and drums seamlessly melded together, wide range of dynamics (those changing on a dime in the drums), very solid.
2. Slower, impressionist/blues piano start, cymbal comes in slowly like a gong, mysterious atonal meanderings, free, gets more intense and grooving about 3 minutes in. I *love* how the piano is shimmering around free and the drums lay down a solid grooving beat – it’s like two totally different rhythms going on that gel perfectly.
*3. Playing directly on the piano strings, soft whispery/scratchy and gongy percussion. Also playing way high, slow but hard, on the piano keys. Last minute is lower, fuller, darker, heavier. Fucking beat you into the ground rhythm with one very high note.
4. Like jazzy Ligeti. Very short, cute/funny.
5. Scraping metal (or a bowed cymbal?) and delicate piano chords. Slightly eerie.
*6. Skittery, crisp recording, very percussive, off-kilter. Great. Ecstatic ending.
*7. Starts like 3, lots of atmospheric percussion, eerie distant piano, almost harpsichord-like, maybe he’s plucking the strings.
*8. Slow start, piano and perc trade-off, odd sounds, repeated notes. Almost a dub beat for a while, trancey, last 1/2 is denser.
9. Twirly high light piano, cymbal perc. Free bop kinda? Tight.
10. Clustery piano chords with dense muted percussion.
*11. Solid perc. beat and echoey somewhat random piano, piano adds some swirly chunky scales. Gorgeous track, my fav for drums.
12. Slow low spacey dark. I’d love to know what the percussion instruments are – sound like a bowed bass, a Harmon muted trumpet, and a slide whistle not fully blown into.
13. Upbeat jazz drums start, tinkly spacey piano joins. I almost wish this track was just solo drums.