With just fifteen -- no, make that FOURTEEN -- days to go before we double-drop our twin Crypto summer releases The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath and David Witham's Spinning the Circle, we're offering a little preview of each for your audiophilic interest.
Today, it's Spinning the Circle by pianist and longtime Crypto stalwart David Witham. For the last twentysome years, Witham has been the musical director for Grammy-winning guitarist George Benson. Technically, Spinning is David's first solo album (if you don't count On Line, which was self-released some twenty years ago), but "solo" is a somewhat relative term in this case. You'd be hard pressed to isolate one sublime performance amongst the septet Witham has assembled, all of them longtime friends and collaborators and chameleonlike musicians to boot: Nels Cline and Greg Leisz (guitars); Jon Crosse (woodwinds, brass); Jay Anderson (bass); Scott Amendola (drums, effects); Luis Conte (percussion) and of course Mr. Witham (piano, keyboards, accordion, effects).
In less pretentious terms, namely Mr. Witham's, "the ride for this record was to get some guys in a room and play some live music." Well, it took a year to get the guys in the room, but here's what they came up with in two days last December:
"THE NEON" David describes this double-time opener somewhat tongue-in-cheeky as his "Drum 'n' Bass track." Amendola's skittish drums and the warm tug of Anderson's bass propels Crosse's shining tenor sax, which smashes head-on into Cline's wall of sputtering, burbling effect's-laden guitar. Witham graces all of this with subtle touches on synthesizer and electric piano. Call it a collision of savory and sweet.
"WHO KNOWS" One might get air bubbles in the blood from this segue into a quiet, stately piano ballad. But this isn't piano music worthy of a Ramada Inn cocktail lounge or a Venice Pilates class. It shows Witham's deft hand with acoustic as well as electric keyboards, not to mention a mastery of setting an all-encompassing mood.
"N.O. RISING" Undoubtedly a standout -- a broken levee of emotional resonance in just seven minutes. "New Orleans has been on my mind a lot lately," says Witham about the tune. "I called it 'N.O. Rising' because that's what I wish for the people down there, to be able to rise above the chaos." "Rising" is true to its title: it begins slowly with Witham's delicate four chord melody, which is taken up by Amendola's lazy half-time pulse and Anderson's punchy bass (these two work together quite well). Then Witham's accordion and Crosse on soprano sax light into an airy duet. The song's triumph is how seamlessly Greg Leisz's woozy pedal steel comes into the mix, sounding as natural as a raft floating down a river. Amendola's sober coda even sounds like a New Orleans funeral procession disappearing down the street.
"MOMENTUUM" Another jarring segue, "Momentuum" is a twelve-tone row written by Jay Anderson that incorporates free and tonal improvisation in between the statement of the row. Witham's gypsy-flavored accordion and Crosse's clarinet follow their jagged path while Liesz overlays their tense lines with spooky, drunk-alien guitar flourishes.
"THE CIRCLE" One of the first tunes completed for the record, this is a propulsive latin-jazz flavored vamp and a showcase for Crosse's hi-frequency clarinet and Amendola's aggressive 6/4 timekeeping. "'The Circle' was inspired by a Latin jazz group that Luis Conte and I used to have some years ago, but it's never been played until this record," says Witham. "He's shown me so much about Afro-Cuban and other form of Latin music over the years, I'll always be thankful for that. This one's about the rhythm, specifically the superimposition of rhythm. Three against two, four against three, etc.and the straight eight ride cymbal against the triplet undercurrent. I improvised a chordal figure over that, and wrote it down later. You can hear a four-pulse pop out against the three at the peak of the bridge section before the sax solo. Luis' bata drums are the glue for the whole thing."
"LIGHT AND LIFE" A romantic twin of sorts to "Who Knows," this tune shows Bill Evan's influence on Witham's spare but expressive playing. David said that this tune, along with the opening track, was inspired by neon signs at night.
"AFROBEAT" The epic centerpiece of the record, this is Witham's ode to guys like Tony Allen and Fela Anikulapo Kuti. A twelve-minute dark cave filled with unsettling aural stalagtites and stalagmites: echo gongs, yawning bass lines, electronic squiggles, tremulous piano. The song takes its own sweet time to ease into the melody, but when it does it does it with a veangance: Anderson's impossibly meaty bass riff and Cline's percussive plucking. Witham weaves in some Joe Zaniwul-influenced magic on the electric piano.
"CON QUIEN" Witham describes this beguiling tune as "a combination of a lopsided tango and surf music for some reason unbeknownst to me." Again, it's grace through contrast, as Amendola's martial drums roll easily under Crosse's warm soprano sax. Mr. Leisz even returns for the send-off. "Greg ended up being the secret to this one," says Witham. "I tried to play this song before with a synth emulating a steel [guitar] and not playing -- or really hearing -- piano on it at all. I was trying to play a sound that had a different kind of attack and sustain than than piano did, because I thought it fit the song better. By letting Greg be the main comping instrument, I was able to let go of that notion and find a place for the piano to fit into the song."
David Witham is currently out on the road playing a June leg of the joint George Benson/Al Jarreau tour. For this and more info on currently touring Crypto artists and friends, check out our Tour Page.
And don't forget, next week we will feature a multi-part interview with David Witham on the new album and his life playing with...well, just about everybody.
IN OTHER CRYPTO NEWS. . . .Nels Cline has released "The Angel of Angels" -- the fourth pre-leaked song from The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath -- on his MySpace page.
