"Rocks in the Sea" by Mario Rechtern and Eric Zinman.

Good old Zinman just sent me an essay he wrote with Mario Rechtern as liner notes for Rocks in the Sea, a release Cadence has agreed to issue later in the year. They would like to dedicate the piece to Linda Sharrock, their friend, who is ailing and may be done as a singer and on the final leg of her journey. Let us all keep her in our thoughts.

ROCKS IN THE SEA

Mario Rechtern reeds
Eric Zinman piano
Didier Lasserre drums
Benjamin Duboc bass
Recorded in Paris, May 2009



"Rocks in the Sea" is like the classic stories we dream about: Jason and the Argonauts, Iliad, The Odyssey, Ovid's Metamorphosis etc.... There is no battle field, no competition.....only enthusiasm for our shared appetite and journey together.

There is an aspect of Benjamin and why Mario initially called him the 'rock in the sea', not all of us. He has this very firm way of making statements about anything that he says concerning his emotions or emotion evolved plans/projects, that does not allow contradiction or doubt.

Benjamin agreed and upon hearing the music he insisted it is "ROCKS in the SEA".

To some neither seems desirable..................neither the argonauts, who are led by Jason on a bootless journey, nor the sirens.........but if this "rocks in the sea" refers to our conviction and the way we yield and wield our interactive force by being clear in what we play and feeling the weight in the ocean as it moves around us then maybe I understand.

The sirens are a song that we hear after which we're never the same again. That's the way evolution goes and some people are damned afraid of growing ........ If the sirens are a consuming aspect of our desires as men are led to their death by this attraction, then like all journeys and investigations we develop strength and strategies against that which consumes us, filling us with more substance and weight of character in the struggles of life.

Men fear matriarchal power, perhaps this was the divide in civilization between the southern and northern Mediterranean."more sex than man can handle"is exactly the term written on patriarchal flags against matriarch powers embodied in the sirens and many nymphs, but can women handle this surplus of sexual power that they have?

Some describe the bodies of the sirens as faces of women with bodies of monsters with the bones of their prey at their feet while others describe the sirens as birds of paradise who sing with astonishing beauty and attraction. What is one's gold can be another's poison. .....The idea that when Orpheus sang his poetry, the trees and rocks bent and gathered closer to hear him .......shows that poetry once yielded great power.

That's where I want to go to.-- poetry has so much power that it can neutralize them fears about unknown powers of sexual sovereignty within these so called "scary" archaic women and neutralize means to give them a direction versus better and more subtle communication: the trees and rocks gathered closer to hear him!

That's what I call cooperation. And if the rocks gather closer it is rocks that open up. We musicians try to ply what is inside the rocks , not their outside shape. We try to get into the things and people. Inside the sirens are human as everyone else.

This fear of sirens by the Jason Argonauts has a racial and xenophobic quality: to trash them as bad and ugly and dangerous, what is unknown, strange and powerful and liquify it,"seduced by sirens or Circe or other nymphs to more sex than men can handle....."

These men might have been led to the need to control the sexual power of these archaic mythological female figures and their own paranoiac phantasms about womanhood of ancient matriarch systems reaching into the Mediterranean world having parted on the trip to patriarch modernity of the Iliad,the Odyssey and the whole Mediterranean ancient Greek colourful half god heroes mythology (half gods- legends like Hercules etc ).

And this incredible poetic output of these times which came to an end with the written text, originally only narrations traded from mouth to mouth, stand for,.....

Well it is not even that scary, as the "poor male" overwhelmed with so much sex he cannot handle, puts them to trash--these women-- to ugliness and insatiability: there is NOT MUCH SEX.

NOT MORE THAN MEN EVER COULD HANDLE, BUT AS MUCH AS these hopeless men without a solid centre are TRYING TO PUT into.Trying to grab for possession and being rejected/ eaten.Thats the clue of that story.

There is temptation to EROS (not necessarily sex) by these women,which must NOT LEAD TO SEX since Eros is life energy that stands against the death bringing energy of these Argonauts, protagonists of the coming patriarch wartime machinery which did not end up to these days.

This hippy slogan make love not war says it clearly and also the mistake: it is not about making love it is about LIVING, where love -not making love- is a red thread going through.- the stimulus and fruity juice of life.- the alternative of power, (Pentesilea tried to stop this power war man business by denying any sex as long as there is this war business since this is the only language men do understand.

When I remember what we heard at Benjamin's place, there is this thing in my mind of this very excessive saxophone part while you were rolling in the ocean on piano and Benjamin was moving the beams of the ship and Didier was stirring the foams of the sea,threading its depth.... it sounded like the ship drowning any minute turning over and getting swallowed by the sea and its torments, breaking down,as the lines of the horn were going up and down and under but at the end coming out safely yet by surprise there where the sea suddenly calmed and straightened out, rescued by the sailors teamwork....the authentic Argonauts of the moments of the poetic dream....

So this is a perfect example of what I wrote already earlier on new language collaborative about drowning and rescued by drums cello piano and love . This is no program music , but these text visions are instant composition cryptics passing through my/our mind provoked by stories we tell each other before playing and which take possession of us, each one in a different way....

While playing and identifying with these energies we ride on or are possessed by being tuned in.- moments where i am so thankful of help and presence of you being companions sailing through the open music seas,to hold on me and hold me on with, for the vessel to pass its adventurous roll through the straits of sea (meeresenge) avoiding its rocks in the way by being the rock themselves made of hope and confidence in unison TOGETHERNESS ... etc etc the pirates still are onto these days to whatever the future may bring....". composed and edited by Mario Rechtern and Eric Zinman, additional editing by Lo Galluccio

Transcendence Quartet Rises Above.

Ras Moshe: Transcendence.KMB 007

Now I'm a dingbat for taking so long to finish this piece. I sort of promised Ras I'd be done a month ago but I'm old and dumb too so my handle on all the work done by the new cohort of label owners and concert makers is pretty crappy from 12 years of digging ditches in Seattle.

So, at the time I hadn't much of a clue about Erics label nor did I realize Transcendence is one of its issues as I got it in a simple burn form Ms. Dulberger and got Ras to send me the cut line up.I never managed to add 1 and 1 and let him know I'm writing about it. Whee! the joys of encroaching senescence.

In Transcendence Mr Moshe evinces a gauzy gossamer of textured tone solely his own with island breeze warmth. It seems to come from some deep wide kettle and among the old Masters long gone, it recalls Wardell Gray, Ben Webster or Hank Mobley. And it has a winning collectivity in a Moshe method of leadership without bossiness. It is about alert friends having fun at some elevated plane. The array of capabilities Mr Moshe brings to the table of playing and shaping compositions are also lush and full of promise well fulfilled.

Dave Ross is another of the growing cohort of guitarists who make the instrument an honest part of ensemble practice rather than an intrusive showboat mess as was common in the days of fusion. He likes legato phrasing of melody, evidently revels in the intrinsic beauty of chord voicing and makes intensity out of a mighty shaking of partials, microtones, micro percussive sonics unimpeded by tonality and a striking capacity for sound washes through frequency range shifts.

Shayna Dulberger owns a vast bass estate she roams with alacrity as if the sum total of all who have passed before found a home in her. More detailed descriptives may be found here.

Charles Downs has few peers but many colleagues who use their whole four limbed selves in the service of a drum kit. And he is one of the originals having been an astute participant since the 1970s.

Transcendence has melodic stepwise one up one down phrases on tenor open with demure ensemble assistance gradually rising. Ms Dulberger walks the back and forth waltz lilt with chord punctuation from Mr. Ross amid Mr. Downs impeccable evocation of the terrain.

Mr. Moshe then steps aside as Dave Ross builds to a blurry flurry hurry wringing rings of tiny bellish tones and partials whirring whirl welling. The ensemble subsides to Ms. Dulberger's plucky pluck of a singing solo before a chiming marks Mr. Downs entrance in the full regalia of free drum majesty of all limbs taking on a life of their own. Mr. Moshe then remakes the melody from its middle and leads to the close.

Far Sight finds Mr Moshe open opening straight out of the gate with ballad lushness as the ensemble rises around him closely accompanied by Mr Downs at first then a layering of Ms Dulberger and Mr Ross voicing bright plump chords and woven melody strum and pick in its answering ballad quietude. It is suite-ish and has a fine fanfare structure woven with balladry convened by a plucky plucked sing of a Dulberger solo attended by a gradual subtle rise of Mr Ross and Mr Downs to make an entrance entrancing of Ras Moshe horn sing to bring it home.

If You See Something,Say Something is a son of Sun ship memories. Tenor drum union opens with that readily notable seeking sense that is a central part of the music. Mr Moshe moves beyond the diatonic with a run of pulsed long tone smears before tha cathartic abandonment into sound flow before it stops on a dime.

Dave Ross contributed Sun Room . It answers old school contemplative jazz strummery in a way better fit to its day. He opens with reflective day boundary stillness, daybreak or eventide porches of summer. Before long the tempo picks up and the ensemble arises to build on the gospel choir climbing from Mr. Moshes tenor. Mr. Downs fits the moment to a tee from a tom and cymbal center.

Flute Peace For Charles Lloyd has atmospheric flute serenity rest in a quiet celestial made of chime and Cymbal textures. That's it. Other worldly feel of rain forest pre-storm calm is their gift to a listener.

All Flow offers a warm balladish feel with a fanfare opening. It is demure at onset and makes me think of longing. Ms. Dulberger is the leading solo past the opening and digs deep into the moment with Ross and Downs subtleties in attendence.

Much of it has the full ensemble. Mr Ross sings his part in duet in the latter part of gorgeous tone melody building to a miniature of complete array with a bowed bridge built by Ms Dulberger to carry the ensemble to its fully gathered conclusion.

Carol Not Christmas is the second Dave Ross contribution. A run of chords voice an opening with Mr Downs making a quiet framing of brush and cymbal. Long tone low end rises from Ms Dulbergers bow leading to Mr. Moshe to propel a small motif of a few tones into a flight of maximum texture with freedom from the diatonic with a fully revved ensemble before Ms Dulberger takes it home with a bow.

Interstellar Brooklyn is a companion piece to Flute Peace in that it is a duet of Mr. Moshe and Mr. Downs. The drums are alpha and omega. Mr. Moshe dives into melodic variation overdrive with texture darting out of the flow throughout.

Turtles All The Way Down is Shayna Dulbergers composition and opens with her, solo joined by Mr. Moshe after a moment in a still and quiet texture. Then a surprising eruption of the entire ensemble ensues of high density texture that washes away while Mr. Moshe begins with a slowed down longer tone ballad arc.

It is a stunning contrast like a serene Lester Young busker moment amid subway rush hour. Mr Moshe then steps on the gas and joins in the frenzy.

Koreana and the Zither Stream.

Korea has a very unusual array of sonic traditions and ways of thinking about sound. It has several systems for ceremonial court music. One is uniquely its own and could be a valuable resource for those who really seek to think outside of the sonic box.

The particular form which I ineptly remember involves metallic sounds and wood block sounds amid silences and a churning sense of surprise.

I had a Lyrichord cd of it but gave it away to Lola Danza as it is part of her heritage.

Now one hobby I have as an amateur ethnomusicologist is tracing phenotype patterns of instrument preference. Gongs are a big deal in the regions of Indonesia and the Phillipines moving up to Indochina where the Zither continuum begins.

In Vietnam the instrument is called a dan tranh. It becomes the guzheng in China, the koto in Japan and finally, the kayagum in Korea. More summer sounds, enjoy!.