TONY MALABY — Tony Malaby's Tubacello : Scorpion Eater (review)

TONY MALABY — Tony Malaby's Tubacello : Scorpion Eater album cover Album · 2014 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
snobb
"Scorpion Eater" could be a great title for fiction book or art-crime movie.Using it for avant-garde jazz quartet's album is intriguing but does it has any sense? Sax player Tony Malaby who led two unusual trios few years ago - one with tuba and drums and another with cello and drums - just decided to combine them in more compact quartet,leaving just one drummer on board. "Scorpion Eater" is his second album as leader coming from 2014,this time recorded with exotic sax-tuba-cello-drums quartet Tubacello (first was released with Malaby's more traditional Tamarindo trio).

Album's opener "Buried" just blows the listener out - unusual tuba/cello low frequencies rhythmic duo instead of more traditional bass works surprisingly well in short(just two-minute+)attack,perfect fresh alternative to what could be a power trio's song.But right after things turns to unexpected direction. "Trout Shot",second longest album's composition, is nothing but free form percussive construction of rhythms and sounds but thanks to exceptionally creative drummer John Hollenbeck it is full of tension and changes.In a second half it explodes with almost tribal rhythms and silently-screaming sax,in whole it fits to be used as alternative scene horror movie's soundtrack. Two minutes long "Fur" coming after is a distant desert song,fragile and sounding from far away,with touch of Eastern motif in sax line.

"March" leads us to album's central composition,fifteen-minutes long "Bearded Braid". This meditative ambient piece slows things down telling Eastern fairy-tale which finishes with very short "Scorpion Eater" - full of tension and drama with no unambiguous final.

Far not very often jazz album's title means something or has relation with music it contains. "Scorpion Eater" is a rare exception,even more unique since music it contains is quite abstract and free.Great example how cinematic modern creative music can be.For those experienced in using their imagination Malaby's "Scorpion Eater" is as great as the book or movie of such title could be.
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