Atavistic Records
2006
A Discontinuous Line
About This Album
Given the title and dedication of the Vandermark 5's 2006 issue A Discontinuous Line, with two of its pieces being dedicated to architects/filmmakers Charles and Ray Eames ("Convertible, Version One" and "Convertible, Version Two" respectively), and other discontinuous line musicians, architects, and artists such as the late Philip Wilson, Elliot Carter, Sergio Leone, Giorgio de Chirico, Walker Evans, and the great Santiago Calatrava, it is compelling to examine the music along these parameters. Ken Vandermark's writing has grown more formal in recent years, with the places for improvisation marked out. Here, the compositions themselves breathe more, the lines are looser and based on rhythmic ideas and feel rather than formalist notions. Thus, the first "Convertible" piece sounds, upon first hearing, like a loosely conceived improvisation, but the way lines come out of the rhythm section and then the horns, is remarkable because nothing could be further form the truth. Rhythm is the very place of generation; this is true on both "Convertibles," as it were, but that generation follows a harmonic idea from start to finish, and the edgy improvisation inside that idea has the capability of expanding it into another sonic universe heard only by the players as they make the music.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3 and 5)

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