The idea of a guitar, sax and drums + effects getting together to conjure up music from thin air might not be the newest concept for making experimental, improvised music. Sun of Goldfinger (David Torn, Tim Berne, Ches Smith) may have already invented that art form. But Dave Harrington (guitar), Max Jaffe (drums, percussion) and Patrick Shiroishi (saxophones, percussion) could have been the first to make music that way the very first time the three met.
That’s how Speak, Moment came together. In one afternoon these improvised music masters knocked out five jams that range from hypnotic to hyper-raucous, united by a shared sense of spiritual purpose and executed with the intuition of guys who’ve played together for years.
“Staring Into The Imagination (of Your Face)” floats on a rhythmless cloud, Shiroishi’s tenor reed quivering and slowly swerving as if it’s navigating the wind. Harrington’s psychedelic effects set a bed of gurgling warmth that stays right underneath the surface.
Indeed, Harrington has a Torn-ian knack for leveraging effects for coaxing the right measure of emotion from his axe. Take, for instance, “How To Draw Buildings,” where his slide resonates louder and louder until it’s an urgently distorted, overdriven mass. Shiroishi’s sax glides in during the apex to extinguish the fire. Jaffe’s tightly blended drums and effects work get the primary focus for “Dance of the White Shadow and Golden Kite” while Shiroishi puts together an extended dispatch tells a story that keeps the listener listening.
“Ship Rock” is by far the shortest track but also the most intense. Shedding all pretense of ambience, this free jazz piece features Harrington not only going alien on guitar but effectively soloing against himself through the nifty application of looping and sampling.
“Return in 100 Years, the Colors Will Be at Their Peak” is neither ambient nor shredding, but rather, an organic meditation. Even here they’re avoiding the same, tired sounds: Shiroishi’s tenor sax spars with Jaffe’s tumbling tom-toms and Harrington’s guitar buzzes intermittently like there’s a short in his amp cord, adding another, unexpected source of percussion.
Not knowing what to expect ahead of time, the sounds made by Dave Harrington, Max Jaffe and Patrick Shiroishi are the sounds of discovery, surprise and uncommon communion. It takes chops to pull that off, but it also requires a lot of open-mindedness. Their minds were wide open, like the music that resulted.
Speak, Moment is due out on March 8 2024, from AKP Recordings. Pre-order/order it from Bandcamp.
Purchase Dave Harrington – ‘Pure Imagination, No Country’
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