Epitrochoidialisms

Spirograph Studies performed at Street Theatre on a very delayed tour for their post-Covid release of their pre-Covid  recorded album.  Thus is the way recently.  Also of the era, the album is available on vinyl and digital; no CD.  Ah, how things change.  I remember someone refusing to buy a record player because digital (=CDs) were coming.  Then I remember how easy were CDs: no clicks and pops; no religious cleaning routines.  But records do sound analog-good.  Like Spirograph Studies.  I was intrigued by this band.  It's a contemporary jazz style, improvised over regularly changing chord structures, although not obviously cycles, with heads that are also melded and shared and not too obviously divorced from solos that are not too obviously solos and not too obviously by one player as piano and guitar play off each other.  And all manner of rhythms and complex polyrhythms, mostly from drums, but also from bass, and also from guitar with slow upward and other strums and deliciously loose timings all around.  Nothing too obviously stated; this is not bop.  It's busy and rich, playful but serious; Tamara spoke of composed rules in Locked but they seemed to invite players to transgress.  The vibe was busy and involving and often loud and the definitions were fluid and diverse.  Sounds modern, really.  I asked Tamara about the compositions and it seems she writes them all, somewhat more recently on piano, but always a product of harmonic pursuits or trials.  If I understood correctly.  I've heard such chordal movements otherwise, still often enough in some form of repetition, perhaps ABA or whatever, or maybe just a descending pattern, but it worked a treat here with this responsive and interactive playing.  For this was not an individualistic pursuit, but a communal activity.  Whatever, I loved it.  BTW, Wikipedia says:"Spirograph is a geometric drawing device that produces mathematical roulette curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. The well-known toy version was developed by British engineer Denys Fisher and first sold in 1965".  I remember playing with one as a kid and this music just fits a treat.

Spirograph Studies performed at Street Theatre 2.  SS are Tamara Murphy (bass), Luke Howard (piano), Fran Swinn (guitar) and James McLean (drums).