& Cheese

The cheese to the earlier chalk was Max Alduca’s rich and detailed and beautifully exposed compositions with his quintet touring his studio album.  I expected subtlety and training and musical intelligence and we got them in spades with understated presentation and beautiful, complex melody and pure solos, spelt variously simply or expansively or even ecstatically.  For me a bassist, sitting in the final available seats in the front row, literally sometimes resting beer or feet on stage, I could watch Max’s understated playing that could blast into a lovely quick mobile line or his bow that would play long notes then bounce below the bridge, or even bow a tone from the tailpiece.  I’ve been exercising this morning with long intervals and regular patterns that underlined one composition, but there were tons of fascinating harmonic concepts.  I didn’t think to ask Max but there must be piano in these composition and Hilary mentions his chats with pianist Luke.  Bassists work with chords but we don’t hear them like pianists do.  As I am wont to say, piano is an orchestra in a box.  Saxist Michael was understated and true to melody, just so nicely stated, but he could drop in devastating lines that were still just fitting rather than exclamatory.  Hillary provided tons of colour but did let go a few times with exciting guitar, dirty, driving and unrelenting.  That was a blast.  Luke could let go at times, too, but never without solo development so it was totally fitting.  James just got one solo that I remember, on the last tune before the break, short, plenty syncopated and snap-sharp but again not showy while wonderfully expressive.  The whole was like that  and the tunes were similarly so.  Rich melodies merging with restrained but authoritative solos throughout.

Max Alduca (bass, compositions) led a quintet with Hilary Geddes (guitar), Michael Avgenicos (tenor sax), Luke Sweeting (piano), and James Waples (drums) at Smiths.  They were touring their new album Monastery / Max Alduca.