{"id":724,"date":"2012-02-12T20:18:07","date_gmt":"2012-02-12T08:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/?p=724"},"modified":"2013-01-30T23:06:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T07:06:31","slug":"cddvd-review-%e2%80%a8ellery-eskelin-ten-hatology-611-%e2%80%a8and-on-the-road-with-andrea-parkins-jim-black%e2%80%a8-prime-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/?p=724","title":{"rendered":"cd\/dvd review: \u2028Ellery Eskelin “Ten” (hatOlogy 611) \u2028and “On The Road With Andrea Parkins & Jim Black”\u2028 (Prime Source)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Ten<\/em> celebrates the 10th anniversary of Eskelin\u2019s trio with Jim Black (drums) and Andrea Parkins (accordion, sampler, piano) with a variation on the theme: Eskelin re-jigged the band into a series of alter-units by inviting three guests (Marc Ribot, guitar, Melvin Gibbs, electric bass, and Jessica Constable, voice) to participate in the recording.<\/p>\n

Eskelin calls his new CD an \u201cimprov party\u201d since there was no pre-composed material. There\u2019s irony in his words, however, for to my ears Eskelin\u2019s compositions often take on the air of instant composition. I don\u2019t hear an essential difference in approach to music between, say, \u201cYou\u2019ll Know When You Get There\u2026\u201d on the 2000 Secret Museum<\/em> and \u201cAnyone\u2019s Guess\u201d on the current CD. They both seem free of pre-intent, and have the resolute character of musicians whose goal is to reveal what has not been heard before.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless Ten<\/em> manifests an increase in intensity over Eskelin\u2019s previous ten CDs on the hat<\/em> label. Parallel with this intensity he appears to play less, artfully insinuating himself into the patterns woven by his longtime band mates and guests. Eskelin\u2019s body of work keeps growing like his solos: there is always a story line counterbalanced by an air of mystery. You can never predict where he and band mates are going to end up. That makes him not an iconoclast. He rather one of the most creative and interesting of contemporary composers and tenor players.<\/p>\n

The DVD \u201cOn the Road with..,\u201d is a self-produced companion piece to Ten<\/em>. It\u2019s a diary-like portrait of Eskelin\u2019s trio 2003 tour of Europe: clips of rehearsals, train stations, wondering about the next meal, and backstage tomfoolery. Its most-complete music sequences are individual improvisations by Eskelin, Parkins, and Black. Parkins\u2019 solo is required viewing\/listening. She builds layers of music from her sampling abstractions, creating dense musical statements that contain both drama and passion. This solo demonstrates why she is one of the great electronicists.<\/p>\n

Overall, the DVD is a wild video ride composed of off-kilter angles, reflections from mirrors, and bouncing unsteadiness, a charming visual reflection of Eskelin\u2019s idiosyncratic musical view of the world. The music\u2019s sound quality is not high fidelity, but that does not detract from the fun of the tour. Formatting is in both NTSC and PAL, a nice touch that allows North Americans the ability to enjoy the DVD along with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

(For DVD ordering, see http:\/\/home.earthlink.net\/~eskelin\/<\/strong><\/a>)<\/p>\n

Originally published in 2004,\u00a0adapted from a review originally appearing in Coda, The Journal of Jazz and Improvised Music, March\/April 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten celebrates the 10th anniversary of Eskelin\u2019s trio with Jim Black (drums) and Andrea Parkins (accordion, sampler, piano) with a variation on the theme: Eskelin re-jigged the band into a series of alter-units by inviting three guests (Marc Ribot, guitar, Melvin Gibbs, electric bass, and Jessica Constable, voice) to participate in the recording.<\/p>\n

. . . → Read More: cd\/dvd review: \u2028Ellery Eskelin “Ten” (hatOlogy 611) \u2028and “On The Road With Andrea Parkins & Jim Black”\u2028 (Prime Source)<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","category-reviews","odd"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1241,"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/misterioso.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}