Safe-Crackers

Vancouver pianist Paul Plimley and his comrades, bassist Lisle Ellis and drummer Scott Amendola, have issued a tough little gem of a recording in Safe-Crackers. Plimley's pianism ranges in voice from fierce avant-garde improvisation to the modal melodic freedom pioneered by Ornette Coleman to neo-classicism's great jazz proponents like George Shearing to the open tonal architectures first sung by his mentor and fellow Canadian, Paul Bley; he has never allowed himself to be pinned stylistically or improvisationally to any one format. Safe-Crackers is a wonderfully diverse album that offers advanced studies in jazz counterpoint: ("Many People" and "Safe-Crackers"), expansive modal tone poems ("Shards of Surmountability"), vanguard microtonal improvisation, and humor ("After Boulez, a Doorbell With a Perfect Pitch" and "We Got Noh Rhythm"), and inspired renderings of jazz classics (Shearing's "Snowfall" played from memory, not a chart), and virtually everything in between, from blowing to whispering. The easy, fluid rapport between all three members of this trio is remarkably seamless and easy — particularly since Amendola has been with the group for only a short time. Ellis seems to know exactly where Plimley wants to go and Amendola assures them both that it's possible. Indeed, in advanced-harmonic studies like "Teleparallelogram," Plimley sets out from C (augmented seventh) and moves through all the notes between there and E flat, creating new scalar models in interval, and Ellis calls up the root chords from each mode and places them rhythmically at Amendola's feet — it's not supposed to happen like that — who in turn offers sharp or rounded accents on the one or three depending on the dynamics created by Plimley, and there it comes round again. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this album is its absolute lack of tension no matter how hard the blowing gets: everything comes off free and easy, whether it's a chromatic series of advanced arpeggios being underlined by snare and an upper-register pizzicato bassline, or a slow, shivering set of chords, brushed lightly by a harmonic counterpoint before being whispered in rhythm; all are treated with the same ease and generosity, giving the music itself the absolute maximum space to make itself heard. A wonderful introduction to Plimley's original voice and compositional frame for newcomers; and an essential listen for fans.