|
|
|
Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 10:00
PM
MICHAEL FORMANEK QUARTET
featuring Tim Berne (saxophones),
Jacob Sacks (piano), Michael Formanek (bass) and Gerald Cleaver
(drums)
"The
Rub And Spare Change" is the remarkable ECM debut of Michael Formanek, creative improvising bassist, resourceful jazz
composer, and bandleader able to bring forth inspired performances from his
cohorts. The album features a new band which nonetheless draws upon years of
shared experiences. When Formanek assembled his quartet for a set at New York
City club The Stone in August 2008, the forceful spirit of the performance
convinced him that this was an ensemble that needed to be documented on disc.
The quartet was duly recorded in June 2009 in Hampton, New Jersey, and the music
then mixed with Manfred Eicher at New York's Avatar Studios, spirit very much
intact.
An enormously experienced artist, Michael Formanek (born in 1958
in San Francisco) has played with innumerable musicians in the course of his 35
year career. At 19, he was a member of Tony Wiliams' Lifetime.
Since he has collaborated with Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Marty
Ehrlich, Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Mark Isham,
Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band, Terumasa Hino, Cedar Walton, George
Coleman, Jane Ira Bloom, Bob Moses, Peter Erskine, Joe and Mat Maneri, Gary
Thomas, Harold Danko, Dave Burrell, Evan Parker, Elvis Costello, and many
others. He has been valued in these contexts for the completeness of his bass
work. He combines highly adventurous playing with the traditional jazz
functions of rhythmic and harmonic understanding...as did the late, great
Charles Mingus. (And indeed, Formanek has also played bass with the Mingus Big
Band.)
Michael Formanek has played with altoist Tim Berne on many
occasions over the last two decades. They first joined forces in the bassist's
project Wide Open Spaces in 1991, and shortly thereafter collaborated in
Berne's Bloodcount band.
©
2011 Gowanus Jazz Fest. All Rights
Reserved.