Thomson, Ken - It Would Be Easier
SKU
32-Intuition 710305
I know Ken as the stage-stalking saxophonist of the amazing Gutbucket (see them and you'll know exactly what I mean by that), but he works with other ensembles and this release features some of this other work.
"Ken Thomson, co-founder of the successful Gutbucket, has started a new project called Slow/Fast that features complex, extensive compositions that start out like chamber music, but then turn out to be jazz."
"This is a project I started to combine many elements of the music I make; it's 5 long-form compositions of mine infused with improvisation, played by an amazing quintet... I'm playing bass clarinet and alto saxophone with Russ Johnson, trumpet, Nir Felder, guitar, Adam Armstrong, bass, and Fred Kennedy, drums. The music probably sounds different than a lot of what you've heard from me; sure there are some pretty frenetic and loud moments, but there is also a lot of quiet, and a lot of patience. I'm quite proud of the record and hope you get a chance to check it out."-Ken Thomson.
"Like much of his work, the album is a combination of rock, jazz and modern chamber music, but whereas Asphalt [Orchestra] defies easy categorization and Gutbucket is overtly punk jazz, Slow/Fast leans towards composition-heavy chamber jazz..... [About the 3rd track:] Humor is an ongoing element in Thomson's music, but there is nothing funny about the elegant 'No No No.' This 11-minute gem is imbued with long tones that blend together like different colors on a painter's palette. Unlike Gutbucket's material, which tends toward spasmodic and to-the-point, 'Slow/Fast' methodically brings the song to a boil and then dissolves it into a Thomson solo that eventually fades out. While there is very little movement, Thomson and Co. create a taut piece that holds the listener's attention throughout." - AOL Spinner.com
"Between jazz and improvised music on one side and iridescent composed avant-garde and new music on the other hand, the five musicians search for new and different possibilities of musical expression. Shape and sound, dynamics and timbre are other parameters, sometimes over shimmering arpeggios of the guitar, then also rocking loud sounds; sometimes over a thick chordal carpet, then with entangled polyphonic phrases. That sounds more complex and intellectual than it is. One thing Thomson learned from Gutbucket: To grab your audience, you must be able to keep it."-JazzThing Germany