Reviews

Freesome Best of Live '99 (Acme)

While local rock bands churn out CDs at a pace that rivals spawning salmon, it’s only fair that jazz groups can squeeze a few releases into the Bloomington pipeline.
Jazz trio Freesome - guitarist Peter Kienle (also of BeebleBrox), drummer Dan Deckard and bassist Jack Helsley (who replaced original member Dave Bruker) - have issued a live disc recorded at the Cellar Lounge, of all places, where not John Coltrane, but a sinister Waylon Jennings peers from a poster hung above the stage.
These seven songs were culled from several performances over five months. Yet, the disc hangs together well, in terms of sound, performance and vibe.
Best Of... includes three Bruker tunes, a Kienle composition, plus three arrangements of Miles Davis standards: “Solar”, originally released in 1954 on Miles Davis Quintet, “Nardis” and “Summer Night,” from the collaboration with Gil Evans, Quiet Nights.
The original version of “Summer Night“, an exotic, sultry piece from 1962, featured Davis and a quartet led by pianist Victor Feldman. But in this trio, the guitar, not a muted trumpet or piano, carries the number’s signature arching three-note riff.
From “Summer Night” Freesome deftly segues into Bruker-penned “Three Wishes,” whose snappy tempo contrasts well with the Davis piece’s laid-back stretch.
The two Bruker pieces are the best of Freesome’s originals: “Now, Then, Soon” and “Red Sky Morning/Eyes of the Innocent” are both sophisticated cuts, whose complex structures - guitar scales and rhythmic patterns that combust in spontaneous improv - appeal to the head and whose primal groove attracts the spirit.
Jazz guitar can be breath-taking, but it can also be butchered. And although at times Kienle’s playing can wander into noteland, overall his sensibilities are on target. He retains his expressive phrasing even when he’s racing up and down the neck, (“Solar” and “Now, Then, Soon”) and he can also strip down to a fluid bluesiness on the Bruker-penned “One For Big Bill” and his own piece “All Hail The Sco.”
Helsley’s performance also shines, wether he’s adding groove with long, elastic bass lines, (“Now, Then, Soon”) or urgency with scrambling runs (“Three Wishes”).
If Kienle is the brain and Helsley is the heart, then Deckard is the soul of the band. He’s incredibly versatile (he also performs with pop band Tea Cup), and sensitive to what a song needs: drive, space, power and touch.
He can propel a song with his supple snare rolls and a indefatigable kick drum, (“Red Sky Morning”) but Deckard provides more than rhythm. When he intuitively chooses well-placed cymbal splashes or a tap to the toms, he’s thinking in terms of tone; and he knows that the space between the beats is as important as the pulse itself.
This disc sounds warm and roomy, due to the Cellar Lounge’s cozy confines and intelligent mic placement. Although at times, the Cellar’s sound system has been known to lose a vocalist in the mixing mud, it can handle a three-piece instrumental trio. The drums don’t overpower the mix and the guitar and bass are nicely balanced.
Best Of... isn’t sold in stores, and no, it’s not available on TV; this is a “burn’em as they sell” project. Order the disc through Acme Records website (www.acmrecords.com) and Kienle will burn a CD for you.

Lisa Sorg, Bloomington Voice, May 18th, 2000