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Ingrid Laubrock — The Last Quiet Place
(Bandcamp Pyroclastic Records PR 24, 2023, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2024-08-03

The Last Quiet Place Cover art

The Last Quiet Place is the first time we’ve reviewed a release with Ingrid Laubrock as leader, though she’s showed up on quite a few albums by others. Most notably, there was GGRIL’s Plays Ingrid Laubrock, where the Canadian ensemble interpreted a number of Laubrock’s compositions. This album sees her leading a sextet consisting of herself on tenor and soprano saxophones, Mazz Swift on violin, Tomeka Reid on cello, Brandon Seabrook on guitar, Michael Formanek on double bass, and Tom Rainey on drums. This company puts her firmly in the top echelon of New York jazz musicians, many of whom she has worked with frequently over the last decade or so — she and Mary Halvorson have had a standing trio with Rainey since around 2010, and she’s worked with the others in projects including Living by Lanterns and various Mary Halvorson, Anthony Braxton, and Kris Davis groups. This talented group tackles a set of six compositions that have roots in both jazz and modern chamber music while presenting a lot of room for personal expression. “Afterglow” prominently features the trio of violin, cello, and bass playing bowed, along with a free-form section for drums, tenor sax, and swelling dissonant chords from the guitar. Seabrook’s stabbing chords on “Grammy Season” might remind a listener of John McLaughlin’s work with Miles Davis, but the setting is far different, with a busy bass part and drums that defy conventions, be they jazz, funk, Latin, or anything else. And the piece is punctuated by composed sections that set the instruments off each other in jerky counterpoint. “Delusions” takes that counterpoint even further, coordinating six musicians going in seemingly divergent directions into a fascinating tapestry of sounds that never quite coalesce, but never fall apart entirely either. The Last Quiet place is continually surprising and steadfastly creative, easily one of my favorite jazz releases of the year. Listeners who have enjoyed albums by Janel Leppin, Tomeka Reid, and Thumbscrew would do well to check this out.

Filed under: New releases, 2023 releases

Related artist(s): Tom Rainey, Tomeka Reid, Michael Formanek, Brandon Seabrook, Ingrid Laubrock

More info
http://ingrid-laubrock.bandcamp.com/album/the-last-quiet-place

 

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