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by Dean keller
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 cubist Music |
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Personnel: Edsel Gomez – piano
Don Byron – clarinet
David Sanchez – tenor sax
Miguel Zenon – alto sax
Steve Wilson – alto sax, flute
Gregory Tardy – tenor sax, flute, bass clarinet
Drew Gress – bass
Bruce Cox – drum
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Edsel Gomez
Cubist Music
Edsel Gomez presents a strong first CD as a leader in the US. Cubist Music is a fine collection of interesting compositions by Gomez, strong ensemble performances and engaging improvisations. With an impressive cast of musicians to bring his colorful compositions to life, this disc is well worth the time to take a listen.
Gomez takes the piano’s inclusion in the percussion family to heart on many of the disc’s tunes including “NYC Taxi Ride”, an angular and syncopated melody in 7/4, and “Ladybug” with his aggressive use of extended technique. His powerful chords and rhythms drive the compositions and push the soloists to reach deeply energetic improvisations. Witness the inspired clarinet solo by Don Byron on “Ladybug”.
The title of the disc comes from an improvisation concept developed by Gomez. In essence it involves taking small melodic motifs and building solos with them by manipulating them and playing one against the other to create a solo much in the same way cubist painters would build paintings with cube ideas. All the soloists on this record date were asked to think about improvising in this way and the results make for a very interesting record. Not only does each soloist give interesting treatment to this idea, it also lends to the sharing if ideas between soloists. Two great examples would be the interaction between Gomez and Byron on “Coqui Serenade” and the dual solo featuring Byron and Sanchez on “The Minetta Triangle”.
Also on display on this recording is the masterful touch of Gomez as he draws out beautiful deep colors from the piano especially on the smaller group tunes like “Wolfville” (trio), “Empty House” (duo with a beautiful bowed bass melody by Drew Gress), and “The Adoracon Variations” (solo piano).
Also of note on this recording are the compositions themselves. The use of clarinet lead over a small ensemble of woodwinds with wide angular melodies and driving rhythms is a lot of fun to listen to and the intimate singable melodies of the slower tunes like “Empty House” and “Wolfville” give further evidence of Gomez’s strength as a writer as well as a performer.
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