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Nortonomy

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The Liner Notes from Nortonomy

Guitarist Tim Berens sets his music squarely on that apocryphal divide between the idioms of jazz and classical music. After all, throughout the history of jazz, many artists -- think Ellington or Gil Evans -- have provided their bands with meticulous charts, while Beethoven or Liszt were legendary for their impromptu cadenzas. Then there are the sagas of Benny and Lenny: Goodman crossing over to symphonic music and staying there, Bernstein unable to stay away from jazz.

So one of the real pleasures of this album is that its interplay of spontaneity with careful composition -- and the musicians -- are all fully informed from those simultaneous traditions. You don’t need to categorize anything -- the music is just all there. Right off the bat Tomba Romba features Stacey Woolley, a superb classical violinist, winding the group through dramatic Latin rhythms. There’s some real torque in the solos here, but Woolley’s classical style and the tightly scripted harmonies spin the atmosphere into a rich new axis.

Nortonomy is a smart piece of spooky blues, giving center-stage to Frank Proto’s silky and clever bass. The album’s sole vocals are somewhat less symphonic, provided as they are by "Winnie," friend of "Norton" -- a pair of pet pigs(!) Diminished Returns is lovely -- the kind of tune you think you’ve known all your life. Here Al Wittig’s saxophone comes on like velvet, cradled by especially gentle diminished chord progressions from vibraphonist Rusty Burge. Berens finally allows himself an extended solo on Dr. Now, and it was worth the wait. The standard 16 bars are extended to 18, and the rhythm and melody playing off the resulting mismatched 4 and 5 bar sets gives this cut terrific electricity, especially with Marc Wolfley holding it all together from his drum set. But Berens’ fruit never falls too far from the classical tree, and his arrangement of Faure’s familiar Pavane is something new and absorbing -- the perfect rejoinder to people who say "You can’t define jazz, but I know it when I hear it" -- bringing back Woolley’s violin with all its finesse and intensity.

The Waltz in Grandma’s honor is a charming piece of work, sitting especially sweet on the guitar when framed within the simple trio with Steve Barnes’ percussion giving its own seminar in subtlety and wit. The saxophone takes on a new driving edge in Statisculatin’, relentlessly propelling this composition forward. And here too you will find scripted treats such as Wittig and Berens restating the theme in unison to overlap their solos. Dot Deeyoh’s classically compact composition starts simply enough, but then you find yourself in some of the album’s most intricate and satisfying solo work. BB really jumps, taking the sophisticated ensemble playing to real heights with its climbing/descending figures echoed off by the lead trio. Finally there’s 11:11 Blues -- an (almost) straight 12-bar format that might have been an odd departure. But its sneaky blend of sophisticated charting with laid back last-set-of-the-night playing sends us home with a neat summary of the whole musical wedding: something old, something new, something borrowed and -- without a doubt -- something blue.

Tony van Seventer