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CG 136
Assemblage 1998-2008
Various Artists
Assemblage 1998-2008 is an attractive 2-CD, 1-DVD compilation featuring audio tracks from 18 Cryptogramophone artists including Scott Amendola, Nels Cline, Alex Cline, Erik Friedlander, Bennie Maupin, Myra Melford, Jenny Scheinman, and many others. Videos by Nels Cline and Friends playing the music of Andrew Hill, and The Bennie Maupin Quartet in Poland round out the DVD. 2 audio CDs and 1 video DVD for the price of 1 CD! Paintings by David Ivan Clark.
Reviews
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Now this is how it should be done! In ten short years, Jeff Gauthier's Cryptogramophone has become a major force for releasing state-of-the-art, world-class recordings by creative musicians from America and Europe in startlingly beautiful packages. Its roster of releases includes titles by Myra Melford, Bennie Maupin, Nels Cline, Jeff Gauthier, David Witham, Mark Dresser, Jenny Scheinman, Don Preston, Alex Cline, Scott Amendola, Alan Pasqua, and Erik Friedlander. And while looking at the names above you would rightly get an idea that Cryptogramophone issues some outside titles; they have done recordings that simply defy categorization and are very accessible in terms of their warmth, immediacy, and the sheer excellence their performances. To mark their first decade they've issued a stellar three-disc collection -- two CDs and one DVD -- that sells for the price of a single-CD called Assemblage 1998-2008. The two audio discs are chock-full of performances from their catalog. The listener is brought into the Crypto M.O. early on. The label was begun with the first of three volumes of compositions by the late bassist Eric Von Essen, a bandmate of Gauthier's and the Cline brothers. In other words, the label was created as a tribute to a friend to be sure, but also to showcase the music of an extremely gifted composer no one knew about outside of a very small circle. "Silvana" is simply gorgeous and a fitting entryway. Other highlights of the first disc include a reading of Carla Bley's "Walking Batteriewoman," by the Don Preston Trio, Alex Cline's "Sonnet 9,"and Gauthier's own "Solflicka." Disc two's highlights include "Escondido" from Maupin's Early Reflections album (which features a cast of all Polish musicians he'd been working with for a couple of years), Scott Amendola's "Buffalo Bird Woman," and Todd Sickafoose's "Future Flora," as well as work by Scheinman, Melford, and the Nels Cline Singers. This stuff is all top-flight. The liner notes by Gauthier offer a subjective but engaging history of the label as well. -by Thom Jurek-
The real treat here is the DVD. To begin, there is an hour-long program documenting the recording and performance of Nels Cline's brilliant New Monastery: A View Into the Music of Andrew Hill. This set, released in 2006, was recorded while Hill was still very much alive. The video contains documentary footage in the studio and interviews with Cline, trumpeter Bobby Bradford, and Andrea Parkins. In addition to the studio footage there is performance footage from the band in playing the album in New York and Los Angeles -- both gigs are just kinetic and wildly inspired. Next up is a 20-minute selection from Bennie Maupin in Poland featuring the quartet he recorded Early Reflections with during a live gig at a concert hall in 2007: pianist Michal Tokaj, bassist Michal Baransky, and drummer Lukasz Zyta offer a truly empathic understanding of all the spaces and subtleties in Maupin's music. They are joined for one selection by the wonderful vocalist Hania Chowaniec-Rybka, who also appears on the album. The last ten minutes of the DVD combine an artfully done video by Carole Kim and live-in-the-studio footage of Alex Cline, Gauthier, and guitarist G.E. Stinson while recording Cline's album, The Other Shore in 2002. The juxtaposition of her poetically arresting images and the studio footage is art in and of itself. The music? Alex Cline's records thus far have all been pure gold aesthetically. They may be overshadowed by the presence of his guitar-slinging brother who is everywhere at once, but his blend of fiery and restrained improvisation, jazz's innovation and discipline, rock dynamics, and Eastern modalities are singular. In sum, this is a dynamite package for the DVD alone, and you get a very generous look at one of the finer independent labels on the scene. Assemblage 1998-2008 cannot be recommended highly enough.
Thom Jurek All Music Guide [April, 2008]
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It seems predictable that a jazz label with a dense, mysterious, barely pronounceable name like Cryptogramophone might travel under the radar. Widely respected, but largely unknown, Cryptogramophone has been producing albums of impressive quality and breadth since 1998. Their triumphant 2-CD retrospective, Assemblage 1998-2008 is highly listenable, accessible, and immensely engaging. What is the opposite of under the radar? Cryptogramophone is headed there.
Assemblage is 19 tracks and a bonus DVD showcasing 17 Cryptogramophone artists all hand-picked by founding label head Jeff Gauthier. Gauthier himself is an exceptionally lyrical jazz violinist who, as leader of Jeff Gauthier Goatette, is among the featured artists. Gauthier has also penned the compilation’s thoughtful liner notes. These liner notes reveal esteemed names from the worlds of both rock and jazz: Nels Cline (guitarist for a little band called Wilco), Andrew Bird, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, and Jeff Parker (Tortoise). Other Assemblage contributors have lesser-known monikers, but are part of well-known ensembles: Scott Amendola (Charlie Hunter, Madeleine Peyroux), Erik Friedlander (Masada String Trio), and Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco). Cryptogramophone allows the individual compositional talents of these artists to shine, very much independent of their day jobs.
I discovered this jazz label via violinist Jenny Scheinman, who had two of her own releases on Tzadik and played in the ensembles of Frisell, Norah Jones, and Lucinda Williams, before Cryptogramophone released her excellent 12 Songs. Assemblage reprises Scheinman’s pastoral, pacific “Song of the Open Road”. You’ll quickly understand why Gauthier added Scheinman to the label’s roster when you hear how similar this song’s thematic tone is to that of Jeff Gauthier Goatette’s “Solficka”. Two members of Gauthier’s band, brothers Alex and Nels Cline, also lead their own ensembles. While the Clines share the same blood, they offer two quite divergent depictions of jazz on this compilation. The Alex Cline Ensemble’s “Sonnet 9” is ten minutes of otherworldly serenity; the two tracks from the Nels Cline Singers display a penchant for angularity, noise, and dissonance.
I’ll soon seek out the full-length from percussionist Scott Amendola, who lankily underpins “Buffalo Bird Woman” while Scheinman and Nels Cline simultaneously navigate a treacherously tenuous tempo. The tune merges rock, jazz, and a desolate gravity, while projecting capital-B Blues. Cryptogramophone can also count on an up-tick in sales of Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors, whose textural “Future Flora” is featured here—six minutes of suspenseful delicacy enveloped in warm production and Andrew Bird’s violin. I’ve always been interested in cellist Erik Friedlander from his Masada work, and his adventurous “Consternation” on Assemblage pushes me even further towards Quake. And, as a Tin Hat (nee Trio) completist, I’ll have to pursue group member Ben Goldberg’s Quintet after hearing their Steve Lacy-inspired “Song and Dance”.
With full knowledge of their stunning back catalog, Cryptogramophone must view Assemblage as a loss leader: why else would they offer two delightful discs—did I yet mention the DVD? —for the price of a single CD? You are guaranteed to find new favorites. Perhaps it will be Bennie Maupin? He of both Headhunters and Bitches’ Brew opens the second of the two discs with the lovely “Escondido” and, on the DVD, headlines a 20-minute performance in Poland. It is a show of pronounced nuance, the camera subtly fading between the players of Maupin’s Quartet as they pass his tunes around.
A majority of the DVD is the hour-long feature “Nels Cline & Friends Play the Music of Andrew Hill”, complete with interviews exploring Hill’s legacy and footage from recording sessions for the tribute album New Monastery. The highlight here is scorching video from concerts in NY and LA, though the live sound could be slightly crisper. The DVD is worth the price of admission for Crypto completists, and will also undoubtedly draw fans of Nels’ work.
Cryptogramophone offered my review copy gratis, but will certainly get my financial support and sincere following in the future. Can I convince you to do the same? - By Mark W. Adams
Mark W. Adams Pop Matters [July 2008]
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