So many surnames congest the creative music ledger these days that it's easy for an individual to get lost in the shuffle. As a certain bigwig in the biz is often wont to say: "Welcome to obscurity". Saxophonist Patrick Brennan has been making music in a jazz vein since the early 1980s, but record dates beyond the occasional self-produced venture on his own Deep Dish imprint have been infrequent. Two recent discs slip additional bricks in the wall of his slim discography. Each is quite a different venture from his debut on the CIMP label, Saunters, Walks, Ambles with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis.

Both albums find Brennan's alto striking flinty sparks with a core trio referred to under the umbrella signifier Sonic Openings Under Pressure. The unctuous trombone of Steve Swell joins the lineup as second horn for The Drum is Honor Enough, stacking the deck further in Brennan's favor. Glimmers of Dolphy and Lyons are easily identifiable in the innards of Brennan's sound, but his method of articulating on his horn comes from a highly personalized place. Hilliard Greene and Newman Taylor Baker are hardly strangers to the scene, and they succeed in stitching a tight rhythmic weave for the horns to ricochet and converge across.

The program is cleanly divided into two easily discernable episodes on the traycard. The first four cuts are freestanding compositions, while the final four align in an overarching suite with oddly Indian overtones, "Permeations Gumvindaboloo". These later pieces feel slightly rickety in spite of Baker's tight tension-ramping traps play.

"Drums not Bombs" starts the set off somewhat taciturnly as Baker's tumbling tom beats form a crux around which the horns and Greene revolve and diverge. Fractured spates of funk surface and sink in the ensuing stew, leaving the whole track feeling a bit forced and overly repetitive in cast. The snail's pace funeral drag of "Hot Red'" feels better suited to the application of similar principles and gives Swell the opportunity to show off the stockpile of sliding glottal slurs at his disposal. Greene enters the discussion as an equal melodic partner with the horns plucking counterpoint patterns that float luminously in from stereo left. Later he bows a seesawing jig flanked by Baker's delicate chopstick patters. The action feeds directly into "Rough Hue", a busy honeycombed piece that makes incisive use of extended temporal space, despite some lull-laden patches.

Overall, the concert stage seems to suit Brennan and his mates slightly better than the controlled environs of the studio (or Spirit Room as it were), but both of these discs have their fair share of charms. Brennan's talents are certainly worthy of the double-shot afforded them here—hopefully there's a sizeable audience out there listening and more record dates lie waiting in the wings.

Patrick Brennan
The Drum Is honor Enough + Rapt Circle
(CIMP + Cadence Jazz)

- Derek Taylor 10 September 2004
onefinalnote.com

BACK TO REVIEWS