-──────────────── ▄██▄ ──────── ▀█████▄ -── ███ ███ ─ ▄██▄ ▀█████▄ ──── ▐███ ███▌ ▀██▀ ▄██████▄ -─ ████ ████ ▄▄▄ ▄██████████▄ ▐█████████▌ ███▌▐████▀ ▀████▀ ███████████ ████ ██▀ ─── ▀▀ ▐█████ █████▌▐███ ▀ ██████ ██████ ▀██ ────────── ███████ ███████▄ █ -.2ooo.- ─────── ▄▄▄ ──────────────── "HiGH ▀ iNTELLiGeNCE tRoLLS" _______________________________________________________________________ a r t i s t : Ben Goldberg t i t l e : Twelve Minor d a t e : 1998 l a b e l : Avant #35 g e n r e : Jazz r l s. d a t e : Sep-2004 t r a c k s : 08 b i t r a t e : VBRkbps s i z e : 95,4 MB _______________________________________________________________________ Ben Goldberg - clarinet Rob Sudduth - saxophone Kenny Wollesen - drums Miya Masaoka - koto Carla Kihlstedt - violin Trevor Dunn - bass If there's anyone reading this review who can tell more more about the musicians who perform on this CD, please mail us; we'd love to hear more, if the music here's anything to go by. The seven pieces which make up clarinettist Ben Goldberg's Twelve Minor have all been written by the session's leader and are performed by a genuinely refined sextet: Goldberg himself on clarinet, bass clarinet and contra-alto clarinet; Miya Masaoka on koto; Carla Kihlstedt on violin; Rob Sudduth on tenor sax; Trevor Dunn on double bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums. The music - recorded in California in the Spring of '97 - is balanced between formal composition and free group improvisation. It can get pretty heated, but the atmosphere over all is one of intelligence, reserve and introspection. The quality of the playing is very high indeed, and there's a lot of serious listening and group interplay going on, but what helps Twelve Minor stand out is the imaginative instrumentation. Goldberg is fluent on each of his clarinets, to great effect, and I personally have always enjoyed the rare appearance of violin in this kind of context. And, of course, the Japanese koto's presence in the lineup is startling, while quite lovely. Deep listening stuff, then; close and repeated listening pays off. _______________________________________________________________________ 01-Statement Of Themes On Contra-Alto Clarinet [03:52] 02-The Horizon Exaggerates The Nearness Of The Horizon [08:16] 03-Twine: Harmony [07:07] 04-Half Silence [07:53] 05-Only Saved By Poetry [06:44] 06-The Assortment [06:06] 07-Lacuna [07:31] 08-Goodbye Rosario [07:34] ------- 55:03 min _______________________________________________________________________