Songlines
1997
Yeah No
About This Album
After making able contributions to ensembles led by the likes of Tim Berne, Myra Melford, and Dave Douglas, clarinetist/tenor saxophonist Chris Speed stepped out for the first time as leader of his own band on this 1997 Songlines release. Yeah No is the name of the CD, and it's also the name of the quartet -- including drummer Jim Black, trumpeter Cuong Vu, and bassist Skuli Sverrisson -- that made its recorded debut here. Unlike many fire-breathing tenors of the free jazz school, Speed is passionate but avoids histrionics, while his clarinet (featured only on the track "Finale") is plaintive and delicate yet can break into rough squeals and dissonance as appropriate to the musical surroundings. Overall, Yeah No is darker in mood than the comparatively sprightly releases of the Pachora quartet and less rockish than Jim Black's AlasNoAxis debut. (The Pachora and Black CDs also feature Speed, Black, and Sverrisson.) Structured thematic material is sometimes juxtaposed against abstract soundscapes that form an unsettling backdrop to scored passages and can even become dominant, replacing the parts of tunes where -- if this were conventional jazz -- one might expect solos to occur.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4 and 5)

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