Can there really have been eight volumes of The Fensters since their
stimulating Vol. 1, recorded for Art in 1992? No, it turns out that
the X in the title is not the Roman numeral ten, but the letter between
W and Z. That’s Fenster humor, which also manifests itself in
their music. The humor is dark in “Lions, Tigers and Bears,”
with its gleefully perverse vocal warning about predator consumption.
It is lighthearted as they sing and play Fats Waller’s “The
Joint is Jumpin’”. It is subtle throughout, in rhythm
patterns, intervals, relationships between instruments and the attitude
that there’s fun in making serious music.
In Vol. 1, The Fensters demonstrate their allegiance to the jazz
tradition, but also explore its outer edges. The last time out, they
ranged back only as far as Sonny Rollins’ “The Bridge.”
Here In Vol. X, saxophonists Francois Theberge and Andy Middleton,
bassist Paul Imm and drummer Alan Jones revisit Duke Ellington’s
“Dancers In Love” as well as the Waller piece. While observing
the imperative to swing, the music has the airiness of freedom within
wide bounds of harmonic choices in improvisation.
All four Fensters compose and arrange. The variety of the writing
avoids the sound-alike boredom that plagues so many albums of originals
by young musicians. Imm’s mysterious “It’s A longer
Walk Home Than You Think,” Jones’ “The Shower of
Heraclitus,” and Middleton’s “Frankly” (with
its echoes of “Dancers In Love”) are standouts, but there’s
not a dull composition among the eight. Most important, the playing
by all hands is superb.
In line with The Fensters’ unorthodoxy, the CD package contains
only one endorsement blurb - from a pair of wine merchants. I’ll
drink to that, and to this stimulating album.
- Doug Ramsey
Jazz Times
(mp3)