When Trevor Dunn first convened his Trio-Convulsant in the late ’90s, no one was calling a combo consisting of the bassist with< guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Ches Smith a supergroup. They weren’t even considered that the last time they made a record in 2004. But in the 18 years that followed, Trevor Dunn’s journey has taken him through notable fearless groups starting with Mr. Bungle and continuing on with The Nels Cline Singers, The Melvins, Wendy Eisenberg and various John Zorn projects, among other adventures. Readers of this space are pretty aware of what Halvorson and Smith had been up to over that period of time, it’s impossible to avoid them when surveying quality improv, experimental and avant-garde jazz these days.
That all said, Dunn didn’t reconvene his old trio with the thought of taking a victory lap; he had new ideas that justified dusting off his long-dormant ensemble and revitalize it. His original inspiration was to simply attach a string quartet to the trio but couldn’t quite make it work to his satisfaction. Eventually, he settled on a string-winds quartet addition, one that comprised of Carla Kihlstedt (violin/viola), Mariel Roberts (cello), Oscar Noriega (bass clarinet), and Anna Webber (flute). If that sounds like pushing the music into a chamber jazz direction, you’re only partially correct. What Dunn had in mind was pushing it into multiple directions, such as the chamber music, uber-progressive jazz, metal, altered blues and even medieval. The end result is the standout 2022 release Séances.
Band expansion enabled expansion into new areas for composing and arranging. “Secours Meurtriers” begins not with a bass, drums or guitar but rather with Anna Webber’s flute. The songs settles into an elusive 13/4 groove telepathically held together Dunn and Smith with Kihlstedt’s violin swirling about, leading to a Smith explosion and Dunn aside. All the while, Kihlstedt’s and Webber’s parts are creatively inserted; they combine with the trio to form an alchemy that shouldn’t work but it does.
Dunn found different ways for each song to meld the strings & winds quartet into the base trio. He devised a serpentine unison line for “Saint-Médard” – described by Dunn as a “country/blues tune” – and assigned it to viola and guitar before the song breaks out into layers rich with harmonic counterpoints undertaken by other members of the quartet. “Restore All Things” gets rolling with violin/cello figures floating about a staggered bass/drums path, and as the rest of the expanded band fill up the sonic space, Halvorson is doing trippy Halvorson things. Webber sees that and matches it with out-of-the-box, microtonal flute expressions.
The extra instruments enabled Dunn to work with layering to a degree that wouldn’t have been possible with just the trio. Complementing harmonies are piled on to each other on “1733” until the crescendo is reached and the proceedings devolve blissfully into managed chaos. But Dunn is not done: the band regroups and goes off into interesting new directions, cleverly integrating complex rhythms with harmony. Classical flourishes seep into the esoteric “The Asylum’s Guilt,” also made possible by the participation of two strings players.
An impossible rhythm that somehow still swings underpins “Eschatology,” where Noriega steps out of his supporting role to cut loose on his bass clarinet, followed by Halvorson’s roughly bop-based phrasings. “Thaumaturge” brings the often-convulsant music to a peaceful resolution, a relatively straightforward tune built up from a 9/4 signature bass line.
Getting it right instead of getting it sooner paid off handsomely for Trevor Dunn and his Trio-Convulsant. He successfully executed the trio+chamber quartet concept in spite of the challenges that come with innovation.
Séances is now out, and available through Pyroclastic Records.
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