Ches Smith
Album Title: The Bell
Record Label: ECM
Review by John Noyd
(2307) Page Views
Ches Smith - The Bell
A skittish persistence pitting meditative minimalism brimming in tentative collisions against fragile beauty infused with evaporating grooves, “The Bell,” plays with vacant space through mindful silence; dormant hand-crafted organics yielding a heightened sense of looming danger and eerie calm. Bringing a placid mastery to the sessions, pianist Craig Taborn, violist Mat Maneri and leader, composer, drummer and vibraphonist Ches Smith exude a stellar delicacy whose suspicious decisions erupt in sumptuous rumpus and cataclysmic synergy. A cinematic assault on the senses, each player’s shady chamber-jazz improvisations drizzle, dribble and sizzle in haunted autonomy to author an art-film murder mystery packed in intense suspense and peaceful release. Ches and company play February 21st at Madison’s intimate Gates of Heaven along with the Lundberg, Packard and Pireh Trio.
Ches Smith Online
• Website • Facebook • Wiki