LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/ Cryptogramophone Records) - It's rare to find a group that has maintained a consistent line-up for as long as fifteen years. Violinist and producer Jeff Gauthier has been recording with ensembles featuring keyboardist
David Witham, and drummer/percussionist Alex Cline since his first recording as a leader, 1993's Internal Memo, on Left Coast legend
Vinny Golia's Nine Winds label. After the death of original bassist Eric von Essen in 1997, Gauthier recruited bassist Joel Hamilton, and Alex's twin brother, the chameleon-like guitarist Nels Cline, and The Jeff Gauthier Goatette was born.
Nels Cline may have been new to the Goatette, but he was no stranger to its members, with a shared past that included working with Alex, Jeff and Eric in Quartet Music, an acoustic ensemble formed in 1979. Von Essen's impact on the Left Coast scene continues to be felt to this day, and remains one of the pillars upon which the label Cryptogramophone was built.
House of Return is Gauthier's fifth release as a leader, and maintains a general conceptual design that began with 2001's Mask and continued with 2006's One and the Same: new compositions by Gauthier, one or more tunes from Von Essen's bottomless wellspring of songs; and new pieces by the Cline brothers. One of the most interesting evolutions of the ensemble in recent years has been the tasteful use of electronically affected instruments in real time, both in improvisations, and within the context of the compositions.
From the first notes of House of Return's opener, Von Essen's noir-ish ballad, "Biko's Blues" one can recognize the Goatette's distinctive sound. What's perhaps most remarkable about the Goatette is its ability to bring together a truly eclectic set of compositions and, through the encyclopedic reach of its members, produce an hour of music that, despite its stylistic diversity, possesses an underlying, pervasive and unmistakable group identity.
"Biko's Blues" swings amiably, with solos fitting comfortably within a mainstream context that may surprise fans of some of the Goatette's members' more extreme extracurricular work, but Gauthier's "Friends of the Animals" makes it clear that greater freedom, albeit couched in a more complex compositional form, lies just around the bend. So, too, is more expansive soundscaping, with electronics creating a modernistic aural landscape that allows for Nels Cline's more characteristically skronking solo - a style familiar to fans of his Cryptogramophone Nels Cline Singers releases, including 2007's outstanding Draw Breath - to set the pace for one of Gauthier's most memorable solos of the disc, propelled by Hamilton and Alex Cline's powerful groove. Hamilton's solo may be brief, but in less than half-a-minute demonstrates an unexpected virtuosity from a player whose full potential, it seems, is only beginning to be tapped.
Nels Cline's "I.O.A." may be more delicate, but once again it proves the Goatette's ability to mold itself to any context, in this case a lyrical setting that ultimately opens itself up for a middle section that, like '70s and '80s fusion supergroup Weather Report, is built on a premise where everyone solos and nobody solos. Alex Cline and Hamilton maintain a solid pulse of varying dynamics, while Witham, Nels Cline and Gauthier flex improvisational acumen as concerned with texture as it is tonality. As ever, Nels Cline's unparalleled versatility is all the more arresting for its never diluting the guitarist's singular voice.
Gauthier's episodic title track demonstrates the complexity that the Goatette can navigate with unerring ease. An opening improvised duet between Gauthier and Nels Cline incorporates elements of contemporary classicism and in-the-moment electronic wizardry, leading into a lengthy, idiosyncratic and percussively punctuated theme. A no-time, no-changes piano solo from Witham shifts into a modal section bolstered by Alex Cline's ever-intuitive kit work and a more centered, modal solo from Witham - the consummate sideman whose own Cryptogramophone debut, 2007's Spinning the Circle demonstrated the keyboardist's multifaceted ability that fans of the Goatette have known all along. Gauthier follows with a fiery solo that sits on the edge of abandon without ever quite falling over the precipice.
Alex Cline's sole contribution to House of Return is an atmospheric tone poem that would easily fit on his own Cryptogramophone releases like 2001's The Constant Flame. Cued melodies snake in and out of tumultuous free play and more electronic soundscaping, continuing the percussionist's evolving path of compositions that place unfettered improvisation within clearly directed excursions into places at once beautiful and foreboding.
In 2006 Nels Cline paid tribute to the late pianist Andrew Hill on New Monastery: A View Into the Music of Andrew Hill, refracting Hill's writing through the guitarist's own personal prism. Here, "Satellites and Sideburns" pays homage to another recently departed legend, Weather Report co-founder/keyboardist/composer Joe Zawinul. Cline manages to do what no other Zawinul or Weather Report tribute has done: combine the angular improvisational aspects of the group's early 1970s emergence with the propulsive, booty-shaking grooves of its latter days. Cline, Gauthier, and Witham apply their own electronic textures to give a new spin on Zawinul's orchestrated synth work. The references to Weather Report are many, including a serpentine unison line that, doubled by violin and bass, mirrors many of Zawinul's most memorable melodies.
Ending with another Von Essen composition, the relatively brief "Dissolution," Gauthier continues to champion the late bassist's underappreciated compositional depth. Contrasting the more lyrical ballad that opened House of Return, here Nels Cline is on acoustic 12-string guitar, for a rubato piece that harkens back to the days of Quartet Music. Dark passages contrast with poignant themes to create a deeply evocative ending to the Goatette's most inspired and stylistically uncategorizable album to date.
The Jeff Gauthier Goatette may be a group of leaders, each with their own predilections, but as with its earlier albums, House of Return proves that context drives the creation of a sound demonstrative of the players' styles while, at the same time, remaining patently unique. Despite the Goatette containing three-quarters of Quartet Music, and its commitment to bringing Von Essen's music to light, when combined with Witham and Hamilton it's an altogether different collective. Combining a rich electro/acoustic palette with compositions ranging from sketch-like to through-composed and a liberal approach to interpretation and collective improvisation, House of Return is, paradoxically, the Goatette's most profoundly lyrical and viscerally exciting record yet.
Gauthier and his Goatette will celebrate the release of House of Return on Thursday evening, June 26 at 8PM at The Palmer Room, 3387 Motor Ave. in West Los Angeles (behind Cucina Paradiso). Tickets will be $10 at the door. There will be two sets.
Jeff Gauthier was voted a "Rising Star" as both violinist and producer in the 2007 Down Beat Jazz Critics Poll. He has performed and recorded with Yusef Lateef & Adam Rudolph, The Alex Cline Ensemble, The Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, Bone Structure, Quartetto Stig, and has also performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, and Long Beach Symphony.
The Palmer Room is located behind Cucina Paradiso, twice named one of L.A.s best Italian Restaurants by the L.A. Times. There will be a full bar and a special bar menu for concertgoers. This concert will be recorded live to video by DiMarkco Chandler.
