Free, improvised music tends to get lumped into jazz, rock or something else. That kind of goes against the whole point of the music, which to make sounds that aren’t constricted to any predetermined formula or style that defines a genre. Mako Sica is a trio out of Chicago that’s often labeled as experimental rock, owing probably to there being rock instruments like electric guitar, electric bass and electric keyboards in the band. And then you have Hamid Drake, a veteran of the Chicago’s avant-garde jazz scene going back to the late 70s. But the two acts share a lot more than just being from the same hometown. They are two sides of the same, free-form coin.
That’s why it was plenty sensible for them to join forces for Mako Sica’s sprawling Ronda album in 2018. The collaboration continues for Balancing Tear, set for release April 17, 2020 jointly by Astral Spirits and Feeding Tube Records.
Balancing Tear is a mixture of studio and live recordings and the track presented here, “Trapeze / Maku (Live),” is a live one. The first part “Trapeze” is the second appearance of this song on the upcoming album, the other edition was recorded in the studio. Joining Hamid Drake for the song are Przemyslaw Krys Drazek on trumpet and guitar, Brent Fuscaldo on electric bass and vocal chants, and Chaeten Newel on acoustic piano and electronic keyboards.
Both versions float in a celestial haze, but are very musical in a vaguely spiritual Middle-Eastern way, and really shifts into gear once Fuscaldo introduces his circular bass figure around three minutes in. That’s the signal for Hamid Drake to move from coloration to groove time, and on the live version, he’s got it going with more gusto. There’s even about a minute where Mako Sica withers away to let the old master do his thing without anybody getting in the way. When the trio returns, so do those exotic touches, and eventually they launch a vamp similar to “Trapeze” but this is the “Maku” part of the song.
It’s not just a performance of some song, it’s feel rather like a transcendental experience.
Pre-order your copy of Balancing Tear from Bandcamp.
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