Double bassist Michael Formanek’s main endeavor during the front end of the 2010s was his star-studded Michael Formanek Quartet, which boasted Tim Berne (alto sax), Craig Taborn (piano) and Gerald Cleaver (drums) helping the leader carry out his adventurous original compositions. This resulted in some stellar releases for the ECM label,The Rub and Spare Change and Small Places.
For a while, that looked to be the total recorded output from this extraordinary quartet until in 2020 came forth a live document of a gig performed near the end of their run, Pre-Apocalyptic.
Now there is a fourth release from Formanek’s Quartet. Other Zones isn’t live, it was recorded in the studio. But what makes this special is that instead of this collection being vehicles for Formanek charts as with those prior three albums, this one is studio recordings of group improvisations, making this essentially a record co-led by all four of the musicians on it. Hearing these premier improvisors make up music on the fly reveals yet another side of the Quartet we hadn’t previously heard fully on record while they were still active. Moreover, there’s in excess of seventy minutes of these newly-revealed sessions to ponder.
These nine tracks have widely divergent running times, indicating they went only for as long as it felt right. Players dived in and bowed out as instincts dictated. Vague notions crystallized into fully-formed motifs. This is clearly the work of musicians who know how to navigate their way around the unknown.
Every selection is its own trove of ideas.
“Solid Bones” launches as a trio with Cleaver pattering around his drums. When Berne enters, the chord progression introduced at the start solidifies into a definable form; it even feels more like a twisty Berne creation (Berne’s compositions leaves a lot of room for improv, anyway). Cleaver pushes the song into a strident march, devising a unique beat for it.
“Skipping Stones” commences as a Cleaver/Berne duet, but Formanek soon centers it and Taborn selectively fills out tonal gaps. Cleaver again invents a pulse around Formenek’s up-and-down bass line and Taborn launches a fully chorded attack before making way for Berne’s return and the other three soon afterwards harden into an impenetrable groove machine.
“Speaker Cones” opens with Cleaver, Formanek and Berne running loosely free, then slowing down to regroup and formulate their next move, which is essentially a tightly-bound, Berne/Formanek/Cleaver interaction. Formanek’s sawed bass combine with Berne’s muted sax on “Porcelain Thrones” to create a disquiet that sure enough uncoils into a brief outburst before retreating again into a dark ferment.
The seeking nature of Formanek’s bass lines set against Taborn’s tactful piano establishes the initial character of “Vibrant Tones,” racing off at a rapid tempo for the second half that unspools free at first before settling into a two chord pattern. “Metal Drones” feels like a preconceived piece, a carefully constructed one at that, but it’s just four musicians well connected to each other and jointly controlling the flow with syncopated perfection.
The closer “Dying Phones” doesn’t have Cleaver on it but it’s very rhythmically-oriented as the remaining three share the load equally on maintaining the ticking pulse even as they create a melody out of thin air.
Michael Formanek’s composing prowess had set a high standard for this ensemble. Sometimes, though, you just gotta let guys run off the leash. And, as we now know, he did.
Other Zones (Circular File Records) is coming out on September 2, 2022. and you’ll be able to get it from Bandcamp.
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