The great Ornette Coleman never employed a
keyboard player in his band until he hired Dave Bryant for Prime Time,
over ten years ago. "The Eternal Hang" is Bryant's debut as a leader,
and shows a unique vision of jazz, somewhere between the sprawling
polyglot orchestra of Coleman's Prime Time and a more compact modern
free jazz unit.
Byant utilizes crystalline synthesizer
sounds and textures in a context where they are rarely heard. The
contrast between the natural sounding tenor sax, acoustic bass, drums
and percussion is striking, and creates a unique three-dimensionality to
the sound. "The Eternal Hang" unites Bryant with two pairs of longtime
collaborators tenor saxophonist George Garzone and drummer Bob Gullotti,
of Boston's most venerable jazz group, the Fringe, and bassist John
Turner and drummer Chris Bowman, who joined Bryant in the innovative
80's trio The Shock Exchange.
Bryant enlisted the services of the legendary Roger "The Immortal"
Nichols, who engineered the Steely Dan albums of Donald Fagen and
Walter Becker, and recorded at Coleman's Harmolodic Studios in Harlem.
The recorded sound yields a level of detail and clarity seldom heard in
avant-garde jazz, and gives the ear many ways into this dense
soundscape.
"The Eternal Hang" brings together two truly eccentric streams of
American music, Coleman's Harmolodics and Becker and Fagan's studio
perfectionism.
This music is demanding, intense, unique and rewarding.
