Kris Davis
Diatom Ribbons: Live at the Village Vanguard
Pyroclastic Records
Let Kris Davis take you on a journey through time and space. Davis and her ensemble Diatom Ribbons convened at the hallowed cellar known as the Village Vanguard and proceeded to make music both traditional and futuristic. Davis is comfortable playing straight-ahead jazz like McCoy Tyner or outside improvisations like Cecil Taylor, sometimes in the same song. Her companions on this journey are equally adept at jumping from mellow introspection to wooly space jams in a heartbeat.
The two-disc set opens with Ronald Shannon Jackson’s “Alice in the Congo.” Trevor Dunn’s bass lays down a walking groove with Kris and guitarist Julian Lage laying our melodic solos. Cutting across all this are the abstract sounds of turntable scratching and electronic sampling by Val Jeanty. The song establishes the sonic range that the quintet will explore over the course of the program. “Nine Hats” uses elements of an Eric Dolphy composition to evoke droids playing jazz at the cantina in Star Wars.
A framing device Davis uses several times during this set is samples of interviews given by people she admires. On “VW,” we can hear Sun Ra talking about how music comes from another dimension. On her tribute to Charlie Parker, “Bird Suite,” we hear the voices of Paul Bley and Oliver Messiaen on “Part 2: Bird Call Blues.” “Bird Suite Part 3: Parasitic Hunter” features the voice of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen speaking about “intuitive music.” Davis has said that using the fragments of dialogue helps convey messages that resonate with her while also expressing her sense of humor.
Davis plays two versions of Wayne Shorter’s “Dolorous” on this album. “Dolorous, Take 1” appears on disc one as a somewhat free romp, giving the players plenty of room to explore. “Dolorous, Take 2” closes out disc two with a more traditional reading of the song and brings the set back to earth for a soft landing.
