cover pic you should not do this if you are in a hurry
Hess / Vincentz / Potter / Teepe
 
 
Stunt Records   STUCD 19913
Copenhagen -- July 13-14, 1999
 
Hear it!  98K WAV sample                       Unavailable Here - Others Have-it!
 
Mikkel Hess: drums
Niels Vincentz: saxophones; flute
Chris Potter: tenor saxophone; bass clarinet
Joris Teepe: bass
  1. Fela Boy
  2. Porto Alegre
  3. Pelog **
  4. 26-2
  5. Raw Fish
  6. Repetition
  7. Old Folks
  8. While U Wait **
  9. En 6-8 stykker
  10. Boys Birthday
Homegrown Review
 
Danes Hess and Vincentz manage to wrangle Chris and the redoubtable Mr. Teepe into a local studio to lay down some tracks while Chris is in the area [on one of his frequent European tours]. The resultant co-operative effort reveals something of all the players involved.
 
Apparently each one was asked to contribute two tracks, with two covers thrown in to flesh the disc out to ten. Hess’s songs Fela Boy and En 6-8 stykker both feature a simple, attractive theme which floats over percolating drum work, much like the effect of the original Lonely Woman. The emphasis is on polyrhythms, which seems apt for a drummer’s compositions.
 
Joris Teepe Teepe’s pieces Porto Alegre and Raw Fish have a gentle melodic sense and emphasize the lower frequencies [again, apt for a bassist!]. Porto Alegre is a strong feature for Chris’s bass clarinet, and shows how he continues to re-assert his mastery of that sometimes recalcitrant instrument. Especially impressive is his force and clarity of tone throughout the entire range of the horn, even in the highest register [as you can hear in the above clip].
 
Vincentz contributes Repetition and Boys Birthday, which show a certain formalism of theme which relaxes into floating tempo free-form excursions... a bit reminiscent of early Anthony Braxton perhaps, and probably the most demanding tracks on this disc.
 
Chris retrieves Pelog from Moving In, and this new version takes on a more playful air... possibly from the freedom of no chordal instrument combined with the “follow the leader” feeling of the dual reeds. Vincentz, a somewhat softer-edged player, complements Chris really well, here and throughout; and Hess’s solo work remains close to the song’s thematic contours, an impressive example of “drumming musicality”. Teepe, as always, does a sterling job of helping the group sound to cohere: he’s fast becoming one of my favorite bassists and a candidate for “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition”.
 
Chris’s new composition for this session is While U Wait, a deceptively simple mutated “bebop for the new century”. Angular, spiky, yet catchy, and a terrific vehicle for soloing, it’s one of his best songs of the past few years [IMHO].
 
Overall, this is a reasonably accessible helping of avant garde jazz [“free jazz” is nearly fifty years old and it’s still considered “avant garde” -- go figure!] with appealing material and performances from all parties involved. Worth hunting down, even if you have to import it from the eastern side of the Atlantic...