Album Details

The Veil

RELEASE
June 07, 2011
LABEL
Mack Avenue
GENRES
Jazz, Modern Creative, Free Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazz Instrument

Album Review

This disc documents an hour-long set of collectively improvised music at John Zorn's New York performance space, The Stone. The players are guitarist Nels Cline, saxophonist Tim Berne, and drummer Jim Black; fans of these three, who have worked together in multiple contexts in the past, should know what to expect. The music is all sharp corners and hairpin turns, rhythms that clatter instead of swinging, with Berne's alto piercing through the storm of sound as Cline uses a variety of pedals to create effects ranging from pastoral Americana to rip-roaring, almost metallic skronk. There's a strong element of groove to it all, too, even without a bassist to anchor things. "Rescue Her" is like a cross between Ornette Coleman's harmolodic funk and John Zorn's "Two-Lane Highway," a composition he wrote as a showcase for guitarist Albert Collins. The blues feel continues throughout the disc, even evolving into something like metal on the two-part album closer "Tiny Moment," when Cline's guitar becomes a massive droning roar. This is a fierce, scorching CD that fans of each of these three musicians (and their fan bases have a great deal of overlap) will find highly enjoyable and exciting.
Phil Freeman, Rovi

Track Listing

  1. Railroaded
  2. Impairment Posse
  3. Momento
  4. The Barbarella Syndrome
  5. The Dawn of the Lawn
  6. Rescue Her
  7. The Veil
  8. Tiny Moment, Pt. I
  9. Tiny Moment, Pt. II