photo from philadelphiaweekly.com
by S. Victor Aaron
One of Frank Zappa’s latter day live documents is called Make A Jazz Noise Here. Anyone who’s followed Zappa knows that while Zappa rarely really played jazz as we tend to think of jazz, a lot of his music adopted the exacting, open-ended construction of jazz, especially avant-garde jazz. When you peel away the heavy rock (and sometimes, humor) shell he wrapped his music with, you can find the jazz. More recently, some bands have made explicit attempts to combine the ferocity and bluntness of punk and/or metal rock with the free-wheeling improvisation and demanding musicianship of jazz. Philadelphia’s own Many Arms is one of those bands who seem to have this hybrid down pat.
The music of Many Arms has been characterized as a “Black Flag meets Ornette Coleman” and its combination of metal and free jazz approximates the hardened punk jazz of Last Exit, Power Tools and particularly Caspar Brötzmann Massaker. Featuring the ferocious but angular attack of its guitarist Nick Millevoi, Many Arms is a bit apart from its predecessors in this field, though.
As a guitarist, Millevoi’s style and interests have him habitating areas few dare to tread. In addition to co-leading Many Arms, he is one half of a new music duo Archer Spade (with Dan Blacksberg), a member of progressive chamber-pop collective Make A Rising and is in the Hassidic punk band Electric Simcha. He also makes time to teach music in his Philadelphia hometown, does some soundtrack composing and freelance writing, including serving as a contributor to AllAboutJazz. A true Renaissance Man.
Joining Millevoi on Many Arms is John DeBlase on electric bass and Ricardo Lagomasino on drums. Last November, the group released Missing Time, their followup to their Palabras Malas debut (2009). I haven’t heard the first record but from all accounts, including from band members themselves, Missing Time represents a noticeable leap forward in group cohesion, and that was on purpose.
“Thoughtscreen” demonstrates what tight group dynamics can do: Millevoi spins some demented jazz lines joined in by Lagomasino’s sympathetic syncopations, then DeBlase supplies the thunder and the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. A mathematical Millevoi/DeBlase unison line quickly rubs out the song. But the group highlight is the aptly named “No Valleys,” as the trio goes full bore through a series of relentless stages of composed sections and improvisations for eleven minutes, never being anything less than in complete congruence with each other. Millevoi pours out ideas with a mean streak, and at times, there’s a collective din as a consequence of everyone exploding at once. Millevoi’s shreds in a wonderfully abrasive tone on “Extraction,” but also works the spaces between the notes like a real jazzman does.
DeBlase’s bass is rangy, muscular and is often straddling the line between playing bass in the commonly known form and acting as second guitar. The first half of the ten minute long “Enfolded Within A Great Flow” features him improvising, first softly, and then more forcefully until the fuzz in his bass guitar become prominent to the point that is sounds more like a heavy metal guitar than a bass. His thoughtful articulations here points to one of the intricacies of Many Arms you won’t hear on a straight punk band. The title cut, referring to the experience of losing remembrance of a block of time due to some alien abduction. On the extended coda, Millevoi coaxes some eerie, celestial but richly textured drone out of his guitar, possibly from his electric 12-string.
The record was recorded in a single day for Engine Studios, and as is typical of Steven Walcott-produced records, the sound is analog warm and it’s as close as a studio record can get to being a live one. And for all the fury and heaviness, Many Arms made a jazz noise. A commanding jazz noise at that.
Missing Time went on sale November 9. Visit their MySpace page and sample their music here.
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