Figure

text

As I write this review of solo guitar by improviser Philip Tomasic, I am listening not to it, but instead to a mid 90s live recording of the astonishing Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, which I was oddly reminded of by the record at hand. But then I turn to Figure's sleeve notes - a deserving eulogy written by improv drummer Gerry Hemingway (and he should know... ) - and find references to the music of such Hawaiian steel guitar virtuosi as Sol Hoopi (or, more accurately, "Ho'op'i"), Mike Hanapi and the Kalama Quartet. So perhaps I'm not far wide of the mark. Which is to say that while Philip Tomasic is a strictly non-genre-specific improviser, his playing resonates with the sound of music utterly rooted in tradition. I myself am new to Tomasic, and, as a keen follower of improv guitar, I feel a tad humbled. For Tomasic is a revelation. On Figure he turns in a set of pieces that run the gamut of approaches from freewheeling, atonal slide guitar to delicately plucked, and highly impressionistic, chording. As for as I can hear, it's pretty much direct-to-amp stuff; it seems that whatever comes out of the jack socket of Tomasic's guitar is what comes out of the amp. Thus making the range of weird and wonderful sounds he elicits from the thing even more remarkable. For those readers au fait with contemporary guitar players, I'll throw out a few ref points: Bailey, of course, and Mazzacane Connors, Henry Kaiser, Keith Rowe and, perhaps more than any of these, Japanese avant bluesman Taku Sugimoto. What Tomasic has in common with Sugimoto is a sense of restraint in the midst of what's plainly a ferociously anarchic sensibility - there's blues in there, and Feldman, too; phrases straight outta post-bop and yet moments where he's doing his best to emulate an entire damn gamelan orchestra. He can also - not to put things to finely - play like a motherfucker. He's using a range of extended techniques here that reminded me, just occasionally, of Eugene Chadbourne being put though his paces by John Zorn's Book of Heads score. Whatever, I look forward to hearing far more from this gifted and ambitious guitar player. (A final note: Figure is brought to you courtesy of Sachimay Records. a new label to me, it seems to be the brainchild of pianist Dan De Chellis, and largely features the work of fellow New England creative improvisers. Judging by this fine release, they're heading in very much the right direction.)