Some exciting rhythmic playing, particularly on a fast guitar/drum duet Desire which almost suspends time, and on Dance, which moves in and out of time most effectively. A nice drive too on Sorcery, the main section of which starts in 7/4 with triplet drumming, but changes to a 7/4 rock – 14/8 swing alternation.
But even this rhythm section fails to avoid the fundamental risk of unsymmetrical time signatures (as 5/4, 7/4, 15/8 etc), which is to monotonously accent the first beat of every bar: I count only about six bars which avoid this. Thus the intended excitement ol the irregular metre is, paradoxically, progressively replaced by rhythmic boredom.
And I do not find Abercrombie’s climaxes more than arbitrary devices: no musical argument seems to be involved. In contrast, Holland is continuously developing motives, and is particularly consistent on the melancholy duet Waiting. His own tune Jamala though, leads to a mixture of cliché and imagination. DeJohnette is excellent and varied on all tracks except Sorcery. Overall, slightly disappointing.
Discography
Back-Woods Song; Waiting; May Dance; Unshielded Desire; Jamala; Sorcery 1
Abercrombie (gtr); Dave Holland (bs); Jack DeJohnette (dm). Ludwigsburg, March 1975.
(ECM 1061 £3.50)
