Catatumbo - Catatumbo

[CraigP]

Babel Label

Ingrid Laubrock - Tenor Saxophone
Ollie Brice - Bass
Javier Carmona - Drums

Ingrid Laubrock is often seen in the musical company of Kris Davis, John Hebert and Tom Rainey, but on Catatumbo she fronts a trio with bassist Ollie Brice and drummer Javier Carmona. Laubrock plays tenor throughout the date, recorded in November of 2010 at the Vortex in London. It begins a little tentatively, with Laubrock’s horn getting into dog whistle territory, but that quickly morphs into a more frantic section that shows an Evan Parker influence, somewhat unavoidable one supposes in this context. The group does a good job of negotiating through several peaks and valleys of intensity in what sounds like a freely-improvised set. Much of Catatumbo is played at less than full throttle, but this gives the group time to really investigate what is being played and respond to each other.

Laubrock varies her sound between extended techniques and a full-bodied tone, an approach reminiscent of Ellery Eskelin. I wasn’t familiar with the bassist or drummer; Brice has a meaty tone and a lot of ideas, and Carmona is also impressive with an approach that marries free jazz drumming with a dash of the “kitchen sink” school of Lytton and Lovens.

Babel Label has done a nice job with the presentation; purchasers receive a gatefold album, CD, and download. There’s a download-only option available as well.

[bluenoter]

Babel Label has done a nice job with the presentation; purchasers receive a gatefold album, CD, and download. There’s a download-only option available as well.

And Babel Label has made five complete tracks from the album available for listening, free. The song titles in the embedded player below may not look like links, but they are---click on any of them:


Craig, thanks for the review and thanks for introducing me to Ingrid Laubrock
(et al.).

[CraigP]

You are welcome, Bluenoter. As I noted in my review, you need to listen past the first few minutes of the first track to get the true flavor of the set.

[olie brice]

In case anyone is reading this who's in London, we've got an album launch for this record on Monday (21/05/12). The launch is at the Vortex, 8.30pm.
http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/this-months-programme.html

unfortunately Javier had to cancel his trip over from Spain for the launch, so the gig will be a duo set from Ingrid and me, followed by a trio set with the great Mark Sanders joining us on drums

[Steve Reynolds]

Olie - maybe you can do me a favor....please tell Mark Sanders that a guy on the board (me!!) agrees with your description as him being the *great* Mark Sanders and that I was blessed to have seen him play live on May 16th, 2001 @ The Knitting Facory in NYC with Evan Parker, Tim Berne and Drew Gress and this listener wonders when me might ever be back behind a drum kit in NYC....

[olie brice]

Hi Steve,
I'll pass the message on. It's pretty tricky to make it work coming from Europe to play in the US both financially and in terms of visa's etc, that's why it doesn't happen more often... bet that was an incredible combination though, would love to hear that quartet together

[Kreilly]

And Babel Label has made five complete tracks from the album available for listening, free. The song titles in the embedded player below may not look like links, but they are---click on any of them:


Craig, thanks for the review and thanks for introducing me to Ingrid Laubrock
(et al.).

I have the LP, there are only 4 tracks on it "The Fabric of Air" is not on the LP.

[olie brice]

You're right, only 4 tracks would fit on the LP. All 5 are on the CD though, and there should be a CD included in your LP package

[Kreilly]

Yes, found the cd tucked inside the sleeve!

[QuickJazz]

You are welcome, Bluenoter. As I noted in my review, you Ashburnham Insurance to listen past the first few minutes of the first track to get the true flavor of the set.

Yeah definitely that is the case the first few minutes don't really show greatly what is to come but once you get through that!