Bobby Zankel & the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound - Ceremonies of Forgiveness

Nate Dorward · June-17th-2006, 02:20 AM

Anyone else heard this one yet? Best thing to cross my mailbox in the past couple of months. This is actually the first time I've heard Zankel, & I was actually expecting something a little more avant-garde in orientation (judging from past associations with Marilyn Crispell &c). But this is a hard-rocking big-band date--if you're looking for post-Gil Evans tone colouring or gentle 1930s-era swing, it's definitely the wrong place to go, but it's great raise-the-roof stuff. Interesting band, too. Rhythm section is Tom Lawton (piano--cf his terrific Retrospective/Debut release on the same label), Rick Iannacone (guitar), Dylan Taylor (bass; he's lately been haunting CIMP's Spirit Room), and Craig McIver (drums, familiar from work with Odean Pope). The 14-piece band also includes the estimable Elliot Levin on tenor & flute (who's a familiar face in Cecil Taylor's large ensembles), Dan Scofield and Bryan Rodgers from Shot x Shot, & the mainstreamer John Swana on trumpet. -- The other nice thing about this band is that it's extremely tight--it's not a one-off band, in fact they've been playing as an ensemble since 2001 according to the liners. Only 4 long pieces, though some are broken into two parts, & the writing is sharp & doesn't make the mistake of letting too many people solo in each tune.

Anyway, one of my faves of the year so far. & I always have a great affection for labels like Dreambox Media that focus on documenting a particular scene (Philadelphia, in this case)--sounds like it's quite an interesting scene there, in fact.

Captain Hate · June-17th-2006, 11:42 AM

I'll have to check this out; I met Zankel at the '99 Knit Fest when I found myself sitting beside him and chatting things up before a CT quartet concert (he drove up to NYC to visit his father in the hospital and had to get back to conduct a clinic in a prison the next morning). Too bad I never heard him w/Crispell; he was shocked that she had played the night before with Hemingway & Dresser as part of an all-week Dresser performance in the basement, since she'd sworn never to play the Knit again previous to that.

His releases I've gotten on CIMP aren't quite as good as I wanted them to be but his playing is always at least interesting. I've been a bit surprised that he hasn't been included on some of the Philly aggregates on CIMP w/Pope, Lancaster & others but I guess that scene is large enough to allow for fragmentation into cliques. Or maybe they just aren't musically sympatico.

Nate Dorward · June-17th-2006, 06:50 PM

Odean Pope's on Zankel's disc Seeking Spirit, I believe, & a lot of the players on Ceremonies of Forgiveness do seem to be in Pope's orbit....

Captain Hate · July-9th-2006, 08:02 PM

Just gave this a first run-through and this is a lot of fun. The tunes are kind of sprawling but really don't wear out their welcome, in part because of Nate's comments on holding the solo features down; also for some reason not readily apparent the last three songs are broken up into two parts apiece. Maybe they just want to give me an easy way to get back to the middle of the song in case I'm interrupted

Of all the soloists, Zankel is featured the most, and he blows pretty damn hot on every opportunity. Elliot Levin's flute solo is nice but I would've *really* liked to have heard him on tenor, based on what I heard on the Cimp disc by his I have (does anybody know if any of his appearances with CT's big band have made it to disc?). Rick Iannacone on guitar kind of reminds me of Cary De Nigris, who used to play with Errol Parker.

Must be a lot of fun seeing these guys at their regular gig at Club Tritone in Philly; maybe a roadtrip is called for.

Nate Dorward · July-10th-2006, 02:35 AM

Yeah, I was kinda bummed that Levin didn't get to play a tenor solo somewhere on this -- he's great on flute, but the tenor.........

Captain Hate · July-18th-2006, 11:04 PM

I'm still listening to this sucker a lot. It's funny how Lawton leads off with a solo in 3 of the 4 songs (forget that Part 1 & 2 crap) which is a very effective way to get things off to a hot start. Levin's flute solo *is* nice with the little vocalizing he throws in there; too bad they cut it so abruptly into a bass solo since it almost sounds like a horribly bad tape splice. Sounds like he was ready for another excursion on it at the end of cut 2 when they fade it out. Anybody that doesn't smile listening to this disc is lacking a pulse.