Feature photo: John Rogers/ECM Records
During the first half of the 2010s, bassist Michael Formanek led a very formidable quartet after emerging from a long period as a director of a jazz orchestra in his Baltimore hometown. The Michael Formanek Quartet wasn’t just great because it included pianist Craig Taborn, drummer Gerald Cleaver and longtime partner Tim Berne (alto sax), but it was also the vehicle for a nice burst of Formanek’s advanced composing, a part of his art that I think gets overlooked.
Out of this jazz supergroup came forth two, very fine studio releases under the vaunted ECM banner, The Rub and Spare Change (2010) and Small Places (2012). After those pair of albums, Formanek’s recording activities focused on other endeavors, such as Thumbscrew.
Pre-Apocalyptic is probably best viewed as the long-overdue last part of a Michael Formanek Quartet trilogy, the one that captures them in a live setting. It’s a chance to hear them outside the sterile confines of Manfred Eicher’s studio and hear them as the master improvisors on stage that they are all well-known for being. As this was recorded in 2014 shortly before Formanek turned his attention toward other projects, the fare here is heavily weighted toward the then-recent Small Places release, with a song a piece for the immediately preceding and succeeding records. But all tunes are Formanek’s, and it comes out of a particularly fertile period of his.
“Pong” is one of Formanek’s masterful compositions, built like a classical piece in how each member works in perfect accordance, and Formanek seems to have built each part especially for each musician. Berne is cut loose to improvise on the bridge portion and the rest of the band is pushing harder against restraints, and later, the leader saws his own solo with finesse.
Formanek is a bassist who composes with the whole ensemble in mind but that doesn’t mean “Rising Tensions and Awesome Light” can’t be positioned on a clever, cat-like bass line that he makes appear as an offshoot of his lone, solo bass opening. With Cleaver staying nimble on the cymbals, Taborn and Berne read out the elongated theme together and Taborn peels away to turn his piano into a runaway freight train. That precedes a five minute tour-de-force by Berne.
“The Distance” was a preview of Formanek’s 2016 album of the same name, one he would soon record after this version with a nineteen-piece orchestra. With his small combo, there is still an Ellingtonian aura about it largely thanks to Taborn and Berne unfurls a deeply soulful saxophone not often heard on his own projects but so appropriate for this song.
“Small Places” is played much as it was in the studio but sounds more immediate here. Tricky, extended lead lines bracket furious bouts of free expression by Taborn and Berne.
The final song is the only one taken from The Rub and Spare Change. “Twenty Three Neo” is set up with a tense ostinato that ingeniously transmutes over time into pure minimalism.
Whatever band Michael Formanek, Tim Berne, Craig Taborn or Gerald Cleaver are in is almost assuredly a very good band. When they are all in the same band, it’s more than very good, it’s special. Is it still too early to miss the early 2010s?
Pre-Apocalyptic will go on sale August 7, 2020 via Out Of Your Head Records. Order it from Bandcamp here.
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