Luc Ex Assemblee

“Luc Ex Assemblee”

(Red Note RN19)

One of the highlights of the 2013 EFG London Jazz Festival was a triple bill of international improvisers at Café Oto as Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser led his trio featuring guitarist Marc Ducret, French saxophonist Guillaume Perret fronted his hard hitting band Electric Epic and bassist Luc Ex presented the music of his new quartet Assemblee.

The Assemblee was truly an international affair with Ex joined by his fellow Dutchman Ab Baars on tenor sax and clarinet, German born, UK nurtured, New York based saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, also on tenor and on drums the great Hamid Drake, one of the leading figures on Chicago’s jazz and experimental music scene.

Born Luc Klaasen Ex literally made his name through his membership (1983 -2002) of the still ongoing Dutch anarcho punk improvisers The Ex. Since leaving that band Ex has concentrated on the fields of jazz and improvised music in groups ranging in size from a duo with the late cellist Tom Cora to the sextet Sol 6 (which also included Laubrock). His collaborators have included cellists Hannah Marshall and Tristan Honsinger, pianist Veryan Weston, vocalist Phil Minton and drummers Michael Vatcher, and Tony Buck, the latter best known as a member of the cult Australian trio The Necks. 

This album found its way to me courtesy of Tony Dudley Evans of Jazzlines, Birmingham who had also been at the Assemblee’s Oto performance. Apparently Luc had sent Tony a number of albums for distribution to reviewers so my thanks to both of them.

Having very much enjoyed the Oto show I’m very glad that this album has found its way into my hands. A beguiling mix of composition and improvisation it’s every bit as good as I remember and was recorded live in November 2013 on the same tour at three dates in France (Strasbourg, Paris and Avignon).

The nine “songs” on the album are all credited to Luc Ex implying that there is a strong compositional element to all of them, something that the use of that word “songs” would appear to confirm. However this is a jazz record and although recorded on the same tour as the Oto date this recording differs substantially from the music we heard in London. The most obvious difference is that Baars played a significant amount of clarinet in London, in fact the blend of his clarinet and Laubrock’s tenor was my preferred front line configuration. Here he plays tenor almost throughout apart from a brief outing on shakuhachi (Japanese end blown flute), an instrument that didn’t figure at all at Oto. Meanwhile Laubrock is also featured on soprano sax. Proof, if any were needed, that no two true jazz shows are ever the same and that improvisation is a key part of the Assemblee aesthetic.

Opening track “L’Assemblage” is aptly titled, a coming together of the voices of the band as the two saxes buzz and spar above the patter of Drake’s hand drums. Eventually things coalesce above the groove created by the combination of Drake’s drums and Ex’s fretted semi acoustic bass guitar.

“The Unexpected Death Of A Fortune-Teller” again emerges from a freely structured intro but a recognisable tune soon emerges, the two reeds again dovetailing effectively above Drake’s fluid but authoritative drumming and the leader’s underpinning bass. The twin saxophone front line allied to the intelligent drumming may well remind UK listeners of Polar Bear, a band Laubrock has depped/guested with in the past. 

“Zajj Siht Si” (great title, see what he just did there?) opens with free form saxophonic squeaks, squeals and squawks but Ex quickly sets up a deeply rumbling bass groove that drags the music into more obviously song based territory. At Oto the sheer physicality of Ex on his low volume instrument was impressive, as was the way he combined with Drake’s fluid drumming to create a surging groove on which the saxophonists could base their improvisations. That is certainly the case here as Baars and Laubrock continue to honk and wail above the supple grooves, the whole thing drawing a particularly enthusiastic reaction from the French crowd. The selections on the album tend to be short and pithy, intense but shorn of flab, qualities that Ex has clearly brought with him to jazz from his punk days, although I have to say that at Oto they seemed to stretch things out more - the album has possibly been subjected to some judicious editing

The title of “Lost Sol” would appear to cross reference Ex’s sextet, although apparently there’s also a larger twelve piece version. This time the two horns engage with each other belligerently above Drake’s powerful drumming, the percussionist threatening to gatecrash the argument. The piece ends with a passage of reconciliatory dialogue for the horns only, a smattering of spontaneous audience applause greeting the segue into the simmering, sinuous, brooding “When The Demiurge Looks In The Mirror”.  The horn interplay continues to fascinate and Drake’s subtly colourful drumming is a delight throughout.

“Expanding For Aye” begins with a passage of unaccompanied saxophone and later develops into a loosely structured horn dialogue, periodically shadowed by bass and drums on what is the freest track on the album thus far, the saxophonists wringing some extraordinary sounds from their instruments on a piece that I’m assuming is some kind of a tribute to Albert Ayler.

“Primates Travel By Train” begins with more improvised dialogue, Baars and Laubrock again generating some remarkable noises on shakuhachi and saxophone respectively. Ex eventually sets up a trademark bass groove that continues to gather momentum as the track progresses as the drums lock in and Laubrock and Baars dance airily above. 

“The Road” was originally for another of Luc’s projects, the Exorkest, a large all Dutch (I think) ensemble. The quartet version features a freely improvised intro of extreme horn sounds (vocalisations, harmolodics etc.) and Drake’s reciprocal drums and percussion. Ex’s low register grooves eventually steer the piece into a more song orientated approach once more. As the horns coalesce above the rumbling bass groove it becomes positively anthemic.

The album concludes with the quirky “Mutated Square Dance” with long, gentle, folk inflected sax melody lines eventually supplanted by a mighty Ex bass groove as the leader spars with Drake before the horns return in a different guise. It’s obviously been severely edited/truncated which is a pity as I’m sure most listeners would have liked to have heard a lot more of this. It seems a shame to end such a fine album on such a disappointing note.

This final quibble aside the Assemblee’s début is an excellent recording and one that I’ve very much enjoyed hearing. Yes, it brings back fond memories of an excellent gig but it also represents a convincing artistic statement in its own right. Ex has contributed a set of strong tunes and the balance between composition and improvisation is excellent throughout, a finely judged blend of the accessible and experimental. The consistently imaginative interplay between the horns of Laubrock and Baars is a constant delight and Drake drums with great fluency and assurance, his playing colourful and inventive with a sharp eye for detail allied to a real feel for a groove. Ex’s work at the low end of the ensemble is just right for the group, his unusual choice of instrumentation, neither acoustic stand up bass or full on electric just works for this band. He also deserves credit as a composer, giving his colleagues plenty to get their improvisatory teeth into while keeping the music well within the realms of accessibility for the listener. A splendid effort all round. 
 

blog comments powered by Disqus