suspension |cs168

The creativity of Jean-Luc Cappozzo and Edward Perraud knows no boundaries on this extended improvisation. From eery sounds over blues to classical trumpet, these guys manage the whole spectrum and use it too, devoid of themes and structure. Cappozzo's trumpet is ususally voiced, with not too much use of extended techniques, which does not mean that his playing is conventional.

Like some of Wadada Leo Smith's trumpet-drums duets, this album also has its spiritual moments, when the notes slowly glide pass bell-like punctuation or dramatic drum rolls, then shift intensity for some bluesy wails of sadness.The duo setting allows for very intimate conversations, with crackling electricity in the air, giving energy to the other, yet without distance for the listener, as if you were part of the live audience that also seems to appreciate what's taking place in front of them.

The second piece is more pointillistic, with little notes and beats, Herb Robertson style, great fun and tongue-in-cheek, yet gradually expanding into raw powerplay. On the third piece, Perraud's treatment of his cymbals and Cappozzo's use of electronics drive you into the territory of madness, yet both emerge full of control and confidence, when rhythm picks up, from a boppish waltz. The last piece is an exercise in touching silence with a minimum of notes leading to a maximum of intensity.

True, I like the format, very much even, but regardless of my personal preferences, this is a strong albums by two stellar musicians, whose focus is fully on the interaction and common vision. Great stuff! stef (Free Jazz)

Suspension has undoubtedly been one of the listening I hugely appreciated in recent times. Recorded in the end of april 2009 during a live session at La Chapelle St.Anne, lasting almost one very intense hour, by the skilled trumpet player Jean-luc Cappozzo and the "magnifique" (fitted definition of his value according to the words of Monsieur Cappozzo during a short break of this performance) drummer Edward Perraud - one of the most impressive talent of the free jazz and improvisational jazz scene I had the pleasure of listening on the occasion of a concert with Michel Portal -, it's a breathtaking collage of musical sketches oscillating between stylistical bluffness, touching blues-veined moments, fuzzy experiments with vocal blows and length alterations into this legendary brass, enclosed tonal games with crammed valves, funny conversations between the brass and the drums and spotted quotations, the venomous fitting of trumpet tones in the intricate drumming web by Edward looking like the stinging invisible tentacles of suspended jellyfish! The final ovation after a sort of pointillist version of Summertime, the notorious standard by Gershwin, is the most trustful and varacious feedback for such an emotional recording. Brilliant! Vito Camarretta (Chain DLK)

These two make a fine pair of improvisers. They are both capable of extreme minutia and all-out fury. Trumpeter Cappozzo and drummer Perraud deliver a live 50-minute program. The funny thing is, despite the obvious presence of separate pieces (with applause and banter in between), Creative Sources lumped the whole thing into a single track. Oh well. A little jazzier than what I expected, but it’s no flaw, and the musicians clearly have fun playing together and communicate that easily. François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

C’est très simple : il y a deux fortes présences qui disent et qui discourent. L’un craint le silence, l’autre est maître des espaces, mais l’un et l’autre ont l’intelligence des écoutes.

Ils sécurisent d’abord le terrain, débusquent les sons, ripostent et s’amusent. L’objet n’est encore que gadget, le souffle creuse et varie l’effet. C’était la première improvisation avec ses presque hauts et ses presque bas. Et ils ne rejetteront pas la prise pour le CD puisque ce sont d’honnêtes hommes.

Et maintenant, tous deux libérés, puisent le naturel et s’en font un ami intime et fidèle. Plus rien n’est anecdotique, tout n’est que suave vibration : les tambours font ripaille, la trompette caquette et babille, les percées sont claires. Ils prennent le temps de développer, d’intercepter l’autre sans jamais le rendre orphelin. Et aussi de s’amuser puisque, visiblement, c’est dans leur nature. Luc Bouquet (Le Son du Grisli)

Suspensions de Jean-Luc Capozzo ct Edward Perraud est une magnifique rencontre trompette-percussions. On songe à Lester Bowie ct Phil WiIson (Duets! IAI ) ou à Olu Dara et le même Wilson, (Esoteric/ Hat Hut), des albums incontournables des annécs 70. Un concert à la chapelle Ste Anne de Tours. La quintessence de l'art afro-américain dans son versant libertaire. Les duettistes nous cntrainent dans un beau voyage. Cet enregistrement est sans nul doute la plus belle carte de visite pour chacun des deux artistes où ils donnent le meilleur d'eux mêmes. Superbe et à ne pas rater. Moi j'adore .... Jean-Michel van Schouwbourg

Trumpet-percussion duos are about as common as they are popular. The simple reason for this is that it takes invention and stamina for three valves and tubing to produce as varied and audible sounds as the noisemakers in a drummer’s complete kit.
As he attests on the nearly-one-hour, multi-sectioned improvisation that makes up Suspension, Jean-Luc Cappozzo hardly lets this sort of situation upset him. Not only has the Luzillé, France-based trumpeter and bugler worked over time with the likes of bassist Joëlle Léandre and pianist Sophia Domancich, but he learned his trade in a military brass band. Similarly Paris-based drummer Edward Perraud is no Buddy Rich-styled basher. If anything he’s the converse in that he’s best-known as a member of the minimalist quintet Hubbub.
Meanwhile the Rafale quartet goes to greater lengths to introduce additional textures to a brass-percussion duo of Lille-based trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins, both members of the Circum Grand Orchestra and La Pieuvre. This CD captures a Polish meeting between that Gallic duo and two Japanese innovators, fellow trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and pianist Satoko Fujii. Orins has played all sorts of improvised music with everyone from pianist Stefan Orins to dancers; Pruvost with everyone from pianist Benoît Delbecq to the all-brass collective Ziph. Moving between New York and Tokyo, Tamura and Fujii are some of the busiest musicians on the planet, participating in at least two Fujii-led big bands as well as playing in smaller groups with musicians such as bassist Mark Dresser, drummer Jim Black, pianist Myra Melford and many, many others.
Even though the pianist composed two tracks, the drummer three and Tamura one, there’s no attempt on Kaze to inflate the timbres to approximate large group interaction or large ensemble arrangements. Instead nearly every compositions leads into the next, with timbral inventions designed to bring out both the unusual instrument tinctures as well as harmonic intersections among the four sound sources.
From Tamura’s “Noise Chopin” at the top, the trumpets usually play parallel, but distinctive roles. Broken-octave smears characterize both, but as pieces develop braying cries forced through the mouthpiece characterize one trumpeter, while the other often outputs pinched triplets. Eventually the rubato pacing of one turns legato, around the same time as Fujii moves from internal string stops and strums to vibrating arpeggios and finally full-fledged, multiphonic cadenzas. Orins’ single clanks and rim-shot clangs are limited to syncopated underscoring, as the two horns alternately soar to narrowed grace notes or descend to plunger tones.
The drummer’s own “Marie-T”, which runs on almost without a pause from the pianist’s “The Thaw”, asks more of the brass men, as their tongue suction and inner buzzing provide a needed contrast to Fujii’s music-box-like patterning. As the tune further relaxes, her feints, jumps and slippery licks give way to gentle swing, with the drummer’s subsequent reverberations presaging choruses of warbling and chirping from the trumpets, and complete the circle as stacked, chromatic brassiness is contrasted with processional chords from the piano.
Eventually this double duo outpouring – or is it a meeting between a piano-drums duo and a brass section? – reaches a climax with “Polly”, another of the drummer’s compositions. Initially inchoate and divided among thinning and twisted grace notes, valve-pressurized rubato slurs, squeezed peeps from a child’s toy plus bell-ringing, it later harden into a dramatic exposition. As the drummer rocks, rumbles and rebounds and Fujii advances a tremolo rhythm, the staccato trumpet lines explode northwards, with fortissimo rodent chirps and equine whinnies. March-like kinetic chords from the pianist anchor the theme.
Recorded in Tours in more utilitarian surroundings than Rafale’s formal concert in Krakow, but with an appreciative audience on hand, Cappozzo’s and Perraud’s multi-part excursion is stripped to its essentials. With the brass man able to play different trumpets and bugle – sometimes simultaneously – and the drummer’s use of extended percussion, the two expose as many sound surfaces as are heard on the other CD.
With at least four pauses for applause and regrouping, the single track is unitarily linear, but features the percussionist more often twisting side bolts or scouring drum tops with harsh implements than playing metered beats. Plus low-frequency tremolo buzzes and bugle brays from the trumpeter take the place of mellow grace notes or linear lyricism. Although the improvisation’s final section returns the duet to more linear territory before the conclusion with a “Taps” variant from Cappozzo’s bugle and cymbal resonations, most of the sounds preceding this are spikier and grittier. For example the sequence directly before the finale encompasses Perraud bounding through his percussion extensions with triangle snaps, bass drum thuds, and detached cymbals vibrating on the ground. Meantime Cappozzo moves from rubato vibrations to crisp single notes, references Latin and Klezmer timbres and ends by sounding both bugle and trumpet simultaneously.
Throughout the duo improvisation hand pops, drags and clanks, drum skin rubs and jagged pulls along cymbal tops vie for aural prominence beside purrs and guffaws tongued through the trumpet’s iron pipe without depressing the valves; smacks on the wooden parts of the drum kit contrast with peeps and wah-wahs from the brass man; plus gourd-like timbres stroked from other percussion equipment face cataclysmic fortissimo brass tones. Eventually though, trumpet yelps and drum squeaks finally congeal into staccato counterpoint.
Each of these CDs proves that brass and percussion on their own are perfectly capable of painting an improvisational picture. Kaze may be a bit of cheat by doubling the brass output and adding a chordal instrument, while Suspension is pared to the bone. Still both offer memorable if adventurous listening. Ken Waxman (JazzWord)