These two slabs had to marinate for a decade or so before being served. Worked for me.
Wayne Peet Trio, "What The?" (pfMentum)
In 2006, keyboardist Wayne Peet invited guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Russell Bizzett into his studio to blast some of his tunes and jam. They had a hell of a time.
You always encounter smilin' beanpole Peet around L.A. as he works the keys, or devotes his great ears to studio engineering or live concert mixing. You see Bizzett here less, cuz the skinsdude (who sojourned with Tommy Bolin in the '70s!) hangs mostly in San Diego. You can hardly avoid tripping over Nels Cline anywhere on the globe, since all musicians crave the thrill he injects into any damn genre.
Here, the three execute . . . let's call it fusion, laying down a groove or 40. Peet chordizes sensually and renders a separate bass unnecessary with rich low-end synthoplonks. Bizzett accents spontaneously while sustaining intense forward drive, much as Bolin pal Billy Cobham did. Cline whips up riffs, leans into bumpstock solo bursts or pumps volcanos of sulfurous smoke. Most of all, there's chemistry.
Four of the nine cuts are Peet's, and they are beauts, milking soul gush, reggae abstraction, romantic ease and fusoid rumble. Cline contributes a funky riffslapper. And the rest are the kinds of jams you ain't heard since Nixon, every participant free to stoke the party with whatever inspiration boils into his freaky ol' head, from George Clinton to Pink Floyd to Throbbing Gristle. And '70s Miles, one hardly need add. Don't imagine it's random, though, cuz this stuff develops and builds, the sequences surprising but never unconsidered. The totality emerges so full & polished, too -- keep in mind we got a super-experienced wizard at the knobs. Use of surround-sound is strongly encouraged.
The only moment I appreciated less than the rest was the discomforting sawtooth riff at the start of Track 1, a funny spot to hit a bump, but I got past that quick. Then it sailed like a yacht.
All live, no overdubs! Wha? Naw. Yup.
Wayne Peet plays Sunspace in Sunland on Thursday, January 10, with drummer Ellington Peet, legendary bassist Roberto Miranda and chameleonic windman Andrew Pask.
Steuart Liebig Men-Tot Six, "Last Call" (Orenda)
Bassist-composer Liebig started writing this album in 2008, "but life and the world intervened" (which is much the same reason Peet offers for postponing "What The?"). Liebig had been wanting to record a combination of two of his bands, the Mentones and Tee-Tot Quartet, and he finally has.
The meld was no big stretch, since both foursomes include Liebig and drummer Joseph Berardi, and the tunes showcase a unified quadrant of the wide-ranging Liebig aesthetic: rhythmic bounce, pingponging group interplay and a postmodern approach to the funky blues. That blues element could never drift far from center with chromatic harmonica player Bill Barrett and slide guitarist Scot Ray hanging around; Barrett sounds like a 12-tone Little Walter, and Ray like a dusted Ry Cooder. In the Ornette Coleman tradition, scramblin' alto saxist Tony Atherton enjoys locating the regions where Texas honk intersects with avant dissonance. And cornetist Dan Clucas, as all L.A. avanteers know, can stab, twist and parry in any old knife fight or card game.
Berardi finds the human heartbeat in complex compositions, so we listeners just toetap along, anticipating the next wild breakdown or the next thrumduppling Liebig solo -- the bassman's tone, articulation and imagination would surely rank as standard examples for today's students if the challenge were not so likely to make them give up.
Music for the mind and body. Don't believe me; check it out here.