1. Handsome Eddy
2. The Hop Bottom Hop
3. Shamokin
4. Dunkelbergers
5. Factoryville
6. Lover
7. Andover
8. Evans City
9. Baden
10. A Night in Tunisia.
PETER EVANS, Trumpet; JON IRABAGON, Alto saxophone;
MOPPA ELLIOT, double bass; KEVIN SHEA, drums.
Well ! At least all the players seem
to be having a whale of a time.
But alas, their exuberance and fun doesn’t
always infect the listener with the same level
of merriment.
As a live act, one can imagine this as a stomper,
but in the cold light of a CD it needs a very
good party to accompany it, - and the party
should start first to get everyone going.
The first track begins with a nice hollow
percussion sound, then a standard motif. Good
so far, but them the motif is split between
the sax and trumpet. Very clever, but not
clever enough, because the ‘splitting’ is
just that, - it lacks the seamless joints
required to push the business on and leaves
the top end parts fighting for a cohesion
which has to be supplied by the rhythm section.
To give out the theme with irregular pointillism
when melodic depth is required may be a brave
gesture but it is akin to having to peck the
corn before one can sample the chicken.
A lot of the notes from a trumpet sound like
squeaking an inflated latex item and are mirrored
by a saxophone that leaps out of the written
range into an orbit of fuzz and bubble.
The bass and drums fall into the same sort
of traps.
There is a lot of impressive thumping and
banging from the drums, and some energetic,
strumming from the bass player; who, when
he takes up his bow manages to combine just
about every string technique from col legno
to glissando multi stopping.
Nonetheless there is some good bowed sound
in track 8 which lives in the memory despite
the manic laugh that concludes the number.
The drummer doesn’t get much of a break until
the last track and it is a long solo, technically
competent, but in some respects one feels
the roots are in a marching band.
It’s a pity that the melody instruments so
often take refuge in repeated notes and squeaky
gimmicks when a bit of decent melodic improvisation
would give us all an interlude.
Exploratory noises are great fun, particularly
in a three dimensional gig but they soon pall
when they become the prop for some fairly
run-of-the-mill stuff on a disk
At track four, the mood changes and the sleeve
tells us that,
"It is a string of minor-key clichés
modelled on countless attempted sambas and
bossa-novas"
The clichés are in themselves quite
nice but the improvisation soon degenerates
into the usual technical exercises and repetitive
squawks.
Track 6, "Lover" starts out as a
nice smoochy tune and then after 8 bars the
sax can’t resist exploring quarter tones followed
by the trumpet in an atonal version that serves
only to make the other tuned instruments sound
wrong.
Suddenly an up-tempo signal lets everyone
have a go with the latex, burbles and whacks
which serve to remind us that it takes a good
jazzer to deliver a good slow, and an even
better one to make a decent improvised solo
on a slow.
It seems that for Shamokin the technique is
getting there but artistic invention is a
going to be a much longer journey.
If you are intent on having a noisy party
or simply annoying the neighbours, this is
an item for you.
Adrienne Fox
CD Reviews
Hot Cup 063
