Tashi Dorji / Tyler Damon, To Catch A Bird In A Net Of Wind

The bells. The bells! Trost continue their reliably out-there run of releases with To Catch A Bird In A Net Of Wind. That's a title and a half. Just two, very long, tracks, listening to the title track with its serene start I get the feeling that it …

Published: 28 Apr 2020. Updated: 4 years.

The bells. The bells! Trost continue their reliably out-there run of releases with To Catch A Bird In A Net Of Wind. That's a title and a half. Just two, very long, tracks, listening to the title track with its serene start I get the feeling that it is nonetheless just about to explode.

For now it's kind of zen in a way waiting for this to happen: Tashi Dorji noodling happily enough on guitar; while Tyler Damon gets jiggy with the bells. Problem is it goes on a little bit too long in the same vein and you kind of zone out after a while and start thinking about less profound things than catching a bird in a net of wind.

Maybe that explosion is not going to happen after all. There is a little bit of development when Dorji starts to pitch bend and the percussion starts to thicken out. (I think you need to be lying down flat to listen to this record.) Ah wait six and a half minutes in and that promised cacophony is about to happen, certainly the tension is rising. No, life's too short.

'Upon the Rim of the Well' begins with some multi-directional drumming and then lots of detuned guitar and extravagant thrashing about. I'm thinking Eugene Chadbourne a bit here and of course yes it's a complete racket. If you are feeling in a particularly destructive frame of mind then for sure this is the track for you. Otherwise ride it all out. SG

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Grant Stewart turns back the clock on Rise and Shine

Meat and potatoes straightahead jazz very finely steamed here from tenorist Grant Stewart. Tardo Hammer on piano stalks him relentlessly as he winds himself up and the heat reaches boiling point. Stewart has a scrabbling intensity that hooks you in …

Published: 28 Apr 2020. Updated: 3 years.

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Meat and potatoes straightahead jazz very finely steamed here from tenorist Grant Stewart. Tardo Hammer on piano stalks him relentlessly as he winds himself up and the heat reaches boiling point. Stewart has a scrabbling intensity that hooks you in and Hammer's solo when it comes is a tumble of ideas and suddenly you start listening to the drummer although he kicked things off right at the beginning.

At the kit it is Phil Stewart who is sprinting to keep up on 'Rise and Shine,' the title track, a Youmans and DeSylva song that Paul Whiteman introduced in the 1930s and John Coltrane more to the point included on Settin' The Pace' recording the number on 26 March 1958 at van Gelder's in Hackensack. Stewart chooses to begin in a higher key than Coltrane. This new Stewart record was made at Van Gelder's later studio in Englewood Cliffs. Inevitably a bass solo is going to show up given the nature of this type of jazz and Peter Washington again like Stewart has to keep his running shoes on.

The album, which features vocals on 'My Reverie', and such classic repertoire as Monk's 'Off Minor,' is out on Cellar Door in June. Photo of Grant Stewart, top, via Bandcamp.