(Avant-Garde) Gerry Hemingway Quintet (Kermit Driscoll, Frank Gratkowski, Wolter Wierbos, Amit Sen) {Between The Lines BTLCHR 71202, Germany} - Double Blues Crossing - 2005, FLAC (tracks+.cue) lossless

EAC extraction logfile from 29. July 2006, 1:22 for CD
Gerry Hemingway Quintet / Double Blues Crossing
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REM GENRE Jazz
REM DATE 2005
REM DISCID 520DD708
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PERFORMER "Gerry Hemingway Quintet"
TITLE "Double Blues Crossing"
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4.0 out of 5 stars - The Quintet Returns, September 14, 2005
By: Troy Collins (Lancaster, PA United States)
Drummer, composer and bandleader Gerry Hemingway reformed his classic European Quintet for this session. Perhaps best known to casual jazz fans as Anthony Braxton's drummer in his 1980s quartet, Hemingway has a bountiful discography which his old European Quintet takes up a hefty chunk of. While now spending more time with his American quartet and other, smaller ensembles, Hemingway decided it was time to reform this classic group to tackle some new material with some new techniques. Although Hemingway has integrated sampling technology into his acoustic units in the past, perhaps most successfully on his "Perfect World" suite from 1996, (which also featured a similar quintet line-up) here he uses it with a newfound subtlety and nuance that borders on the sublime.
The album's self-titled centerpiece, a seven part suite, launches the album utilizing this technology. Beginning with the scratchy rhythm of an old vinyl record playing folksy fiddle tunes, this sample is embellished by loops and delays until Kermit Driscoll enters on electric bass with a line that complements the sampled phrase. The rest of the ensemble chimes in with a buoyant riff eventually leading into quiet improvisation, call and response sections and solo cadenzas. The suite features bluesy smeared trombone lines, frenzied cello work-outs, stately clarinet improvisations and the sort of written ensemble counterpoint that is typically reserved for advanced chamber music. The sampling makes a reprise at the close of the suite to conceptually bring it full circle.
"Night Town/Tent" is the most "classical" sounding piece on the record, its pointillistic classicism featuring delicate marimba playing and metered string responses. Frank Gratkowski's jaunty Dolphy-esque bass clarinet solo opens "Rallier" until the rest of the band gradually enters to build from soaring lines to a monstrous swinging riff. It is reminiscent of Hemingway's old quintet writing and a joy to hear again. Featuring an elastically modulated rhythm that veers from casual swing to manic flight, the piece is a tour de force for the ensemble including a phenomenal drum solo from the leader.
"Slowly Rising," closes the album on a pleasantly familiar note. A folksy African Highlife of sorts with a pleasantly laconic beat, poppy bass, simple cello ostinato counterpoint and gentle theme and variations soloing between the horns, it is becoming something of a tradition in Hemingway's discography. Both 1996s "Perfect World" and 2003s "Devil's Paradise" closed with similar pieces.
Hemingway's music is complex, but at its core, it is also heartfelt and truly beautiful. A welcome return and immediately enjoyable in a way that some advanced avant garde music is not, here's hoping that "Double Blues Crossing" finds the audience a talented artist like Hemingway deserves.

Born in 1955, Gerry Hemingway already came into this world with an interest in music. His grandmother was a concert pianist, and his father studied composition with Paul Hindemith. He already became interested in drums when he was 10, and he was already a professional musician in the jazz and bebop areas at 17. In 2002, he celebrated the 25th anniversary of his Trio BassDrumBone.
He has already played with big names such as Oliver Lake, Jeanne Lee, Marilyn Crispell, John Purcell, Don Byron, Derek Bailey, Leo Smith, Kenny Wheeler, George Lewis, John Cale, Hank Roberts and others. Gerry became known as a solo-composer, improvisation genius and leader of several quintets and quartets, which played together for years. One of these ensembles is the “Euro-American” Gerry Hemingway Quintet with Frank Gratkowski, Wolter Wierbos, Amit Sen and Kermit Driscoll.
Frank Gratkowski (D) has played at almost every big German jazz festival as well as at numerous international festivals, including in Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Quebec and Les Mans. He has also taught at music colleges in Cologne, Hanover and Berlin. The Dutchman Wolter Wierbos is considered one of the best trombone players in the world and has received, Laren Jazzpodium Prijs, the Podiumprijs for Jazz and Improvised Music und Holland’s most important prize, the Boy Edgar Prijs, among others. Kermit Driscoll completed his studies at the renowned Berklee University and played in Buddy Rich’s Band (1981 to 1986) as well as with Bill Frisell, Joey Baron and Hank Roberts over the following 10 years. The Swedish cellist Amit Sen met Gerry Hemingway during a project in Sweden.
Now the quintet around the drummer Gerry Hemingway is presenting its new, promising album “Double Blues Crossing”. A one-hour trip through the spheres of Hemingway’s compositions promise a great listening experience.
“Hemingway’s quintet and quartet, on the other hand, are often high intensity affairs.” “Hemingway tends to percuss with well-defined strokes, skipping a beat and stroking again with different intensity in an off-meter way.” Signal To Noise magazine, Burlington, VT, Laurence Svirchev
Reviews:
JAZZPODIUM Juli/August 2005
"...Im Gerry Hemingway Quintet ergänzen sich divergierende Spielweisen - die heißen Vokalisierungen des Blues, die kühlen Linien des Cool Jazz, gediegenes Handwerk und moderne Technologie. Auch hört man hier wieder Hemingways Vorliebe für einfache Liedstrukturen heraus, die er schon auf seinem Album "Songs" vorführte. Das stolpernd swingende Schlagzeug kommt in der fünfteiligen Double-Blues-Crossing-Suite nur sparsam zum Einsatz. Bei "Rallier" treibt es dann die vier Mitstreiter umso druckvoller an. "Night town/Tent" erinnert in seiner rhythmischen und harmonischen Kompromisslosigkeit an das Anthony Braxton Quartett, dem Hemingway einige Jahre angehörte..."
JAZZTHING Juni-August 2005
"...Die entspannte Spielhaltung der Beteiligten entscheidet über improvisation und Grooves, alles scheint lässig und doch souverän aus dem Handgelenk geschüttelt. Zeitloser Free Jazz mit Bauch und Hirn."
www.junkmedia.org 26. April 2005/Troy Collins
"...Hemingway's music is complex, but at its core, it is also heartfelt and truly beautiful. A welcome return and immediately enjoyable in a way that some advanced avnt garde music is not, here's hoping that Double Blues Crossing finds the audience a talented artist like Hemingway deserves."

Gerry Hemingway Quintet: Double Blues Crossing (2006)
By JOHN EYLES, Published: February 5, 2006
If Gerry Hemingway's other 2005 release, The Whimbler—with his current quartet—presented a surprisingly straight-ahead facet of his music, this quintet album is far more intriguing and, well, strange. Opening to the (sampled) sounds of old-time fiddle-driven folk music, the seven-part title suite sounds like the soundtrack to some yet-to-be-made movie. In his sleeve notes, Hemingway even gives us an intriguing taster that reads like something from Steinbeck, with its characters Rosa Abigail, Buddy Luckett and Joe Cracklin.
Although the suite moves seamlessly between sections, like a soundtrack it is episodic, featuring frequent shifts of mood and tempo. It enhances its atmosphere by integrating sampled material seamlessly alongside composed and improvised music, most obviously bullfrogs and crickets (I think!). The written ensemble passages utilize all of the players to excellent effect, allowing space for their individual voices to be heard but never to dominate. Of the five, Hemingway himself is the least visible, never in the spotlight but always underpinning the band. At its best, as on "It Ain't Slippery But It's Wet, the band achieves the kind of loosely anarchic swing that is very difficult to achieve without becoming too rigid or too loose: the musical equivalent of tightrope walking.
Following the suite, the three remaining tracks present contrasting facets of the quintet. "Rallier allows solo space for individuals, featuring Frank Gratowski on bass clarinet, a barnstormer from Wolter Wiebos on trombone, plus an all too brief solo spot for Hemingway himself, before coming to a climax with a tasty ensemble riff. In complete contrast, "Night Town/Tent is a cool, impressionistic composition with marimba and strings well to the fore. The closer, "Slowly Rising, lives up to its title—with a loping rhythm reminiscent of township jazz and fine interplay between the horns, it smolders without ever quite catching fire.

Review
by Scott Yanow
Although the song titles make this look like a CD filled with ancient folk melodies, the music is actually unpredictable avant-garde jazz. The music ranges from swinging post-bop to sound explorations and always holds one's interest due to the highly expressive sounds of the musicians. The interplay between the trombone and clarinet on some pieces is a highlight, and the cello and bass work together very well too. With Gerry Hemingway contributing rhythmic support and commentary, this CD is consistently surprising and colorful, and well worth exploring.