DAMAGED IN TRANSIT by Steve Swallow, Chris Potter, Adam Nussbaum (067 792-2)

text

Initially, it’s hard to figure out why this is such a terrific CD. After all, the instrumentation is standard stuff – tenor sax, electric bass and drums. No piano, but it has been years since the absence of a piano in a small jazz group was regarded as an innovation. The tunes, all written by bassist Steve Swallow, are conventional hard bop and post bop, with a few blues and ballads, and one calypso. Nobody plays “outside” (or at least stays outside), and there is no obvious experimentation of any sort. So this should just be a good solid trio date by three jazz pros, right? But instead, it commands the listener’s attention from the first track to the last. The abilities of the three musicians certainly have something to do with that. Tenor saxophonist Chris Potter is truly one of the best young players on the scene right now. He has the facility on tenor to toss off fluid hard bop lines worthy of altoist Charlie Parker, but most often he adopts the staccato swagger of the “other” giant of the tenor, Sonny Rollins (as opposed to much more widely imitated John Coltrane). The calypso, especially, brings Rollins to mind, as Rollins has had a special fondness for calypso tunes throughout his career. Swallow is his usual lyrical, elegant self, demonstrating why he is still one of the masters of the electric jazz bass, and drummer Adam Nussbaum is crisp, cool and self-contained throughout. Recorded live at several venues during a 2001 tour of France, the music comes across as traditional in its basic form, but the group continually purshes the tradition around, mixing styles, tempos and interactive strategies. Four pieces open with Swallow’s silky unaccompanied electric bass, two with Potter’s unaccompanied horn, one with Nussbaum’s drums and two with the full trio. Solos commence in unexpected places (or not at all), and one player sometimes drops out, which provides creative duet opportunities for the remaining two. Rather than “trading fours,” i.e., alternating with four-bar solos, Nussbaum and Potter “trade twelves” on one piece, i.e., alternating every twelve measures. Finally, even though Swallow doesn’t deign to honor his nine original compositions with real titles (they’re simply called “Item 1, D.I.T.,” Item 5, D.I.T.,” etc.), they are much more than basic riffs or chord progressions. In fact, Swallow displays the scores of each of the nine pieces in lieu of conventional liner notes, which makes one wonder why he didn’t bother naming them – especially when some of them (like “Item 3, D.I.T." and “Item 7, D.I.T."), have gorgeous melodies, and others (like "Item 4, D.I.T.," "Item 5, D.I.T." and "Item 9, D.I.T.") have a very satisfying complexity. Overall, Swallow has succeeded in tapping into some sort of timeless jazz essence on this CD, where the more superficial aspects of music culture (trends, personalities, gimmicks, etc.) are left far behind. And instead of marking time with a typically nostalgic glance at the jazz tradition, Swallow & company demonstrate the continuing viability of the older forms. Calling this one a bona fide contemporary classic wouldn’t be much of a stretch.