Abrams' guimbri (a plucked, three-stringed skin-covered bass lute of the Gnawa heritage) offers a six-note, single-tone vamp. He's joined in the theme by Mikel Patrick Avery's hypnotic drumming and Jason Stein's bass clarinet. Lisa Alvarado's harmonium adds a breath-like pulse before Parker's snaky soprano wades in. The repetition is constant, but thanks to his horn, there is subtle variation from line to line, both harmonically and tonally. There is rippling energy just under the surface as Parker begins to pour out resonant skeins of circular notes, opening his lines to the rhythms then countering them. The clarinet and harmonium remain on the theme as Abrams and Avery play double time. Six minutes in, Stein responds directly to Parker's fire breathing with counter melodies and polyrhythmic breath control. The pace quickens and dynamic tension ensues as the entire ensemble lifts off. Over the next 70 minutes, what transpires is a serpentine celebration of rhythm, polytonality, and multivalent modalities as NIS circle one another, and Parker, in turn, revolves around them. The interplay between Stein and Parker is almost jaw-dropping given its locked-on intensity; it alternately traverses across distinctive solo statements, call-and-response, and resonant unison playing while Alvarado and Avery push and pull at the fabric of sound between them. Abrams' guimbri drives from underneath and the ensemble approaches funk; Avery's four-beat rhythm approximates dance music as Alvarado expands her attack with reverb and delay. The constant presence of the vamp-like theme recalls at once the harmolodic groove of Ornette Coleman's Dancing in Your Head and the wheezing, evolutionary development of Manuel Gottsching's proto-techno E2E4. About two-thirds of the way in, the cadence shifts, and the band responds empathically with single clarinet and soprano tones offered in singsong response. Abrams, Alvarado, and Avery alight around one another, outlining the reeds' interlocking groove. The rhythm players develop and release tension; they spiral and retreat to express intimacy, joy, and catharsis. By the time Descension reaches its nadir, all that's left are gossamer notes, subtly refracted rhythms, and softly uttered, undulant whole tones, whispering to and caressing one another as they approach silence and the resounding, yet astonished approval of the crowd. Descension is a collaboration for the ages: It is ecstatic, improvised jazz that reverberates inside the human body like a heartbeat.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1 Descension I 17:29
Joshua Abrams
2 Descension II 19:35
Joshua Abrams
3 Descension III 17:09
Joshua Abrams
4 Descension IV 20:13
Joshua Abrams
Credits :
Bass Clarinet – Jason Stein
Drums – Mikel Patrick Avery
Guimbri, Music By – Joshua Abrams
Harmonium, Effects, Painting – Lisa Alvarado
Soprano Saxophone – Evan Parker
