A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same forwards and backwards. Bassist, composer and bandleader Michael Formanek had this idea: how about composing musical pieces that are played the same in either direction? In order to notate these extended forms, Formanek first had to create graphic scores for them, creating his own notation system since the usual five-linen staff method doesn’t adequately account for what he sought to achieve.
Were We Where We Were – a title that itself is a palindrome – is the product of this involved process that also included months of rehearsals with drummer Vinnie Sperrazza and reed specialist Chet Doxas. The notion of playing music backwards is so easy when it merely involves playing a tape in the reverse direction but to conceive, transcribe and manually play it that way with such fine-grained music is another endeavor entirely. As result, the music flows non-linearly, which is actually one of the things that Formanek sought to achieve with this approach.
Doxas on soprano saxophone kicks off “Tattarrattat” alone, so you know that the performance will end with him alone. His bandmates quietly enter and in unhurried fashion, with Formanek clearly delineating the wandering melody and Sperrazza modulating the pulse with understated discretion. The midpoint, where you expect the mirror imaging to be most apparent, is a Formanek bass solo, and based on my rather unscientific method seems to be about as long after midpoint of the song as it does before it, with a construction that plays in reverse on the back end of it.
Since that initial track runs twenty-seven minutes long, an abridged version of “Tattarrattat” is tacked on the end of the digital version, as this is the edit used to fit on the vinyl format.
“Never Odd Or Even” begins with a bass figure or a sort of a étude, a mirror image which is played at the end with clarinet and drums. In between, the differing approaches between the front end versus the back end of the composition (for instance, Doxas plays tenor sax going forward and clarinet most of the time when going in reverse) give the illusion that the song is moving forward the whole way.
“Is It What It Is” is a limber swing with Sperrazza keeping it loose as Formanek walks his bass with machine-like precision while being deep in the groove. Meanwhile, Doxas on tenor is negotiating nimbly over the changes. I don’t even care that this is played as a palindrome, it’s just good sax trio jazz.
Indeed, playing a song one way for the first half and in reverse for the second half is a clever composing device but ultimately, it needs to be a gratifying listening experience. Michael Formanek Drome Trio’s Were We Where We Were provides that, whether the person beholding it realizes that these songs are musical palindromes or not.
Were We Where We Were will be released on March 18, 2022 through Michael Formanek’s Circular File Records. Get the album from Bandcamp.
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