La Place Demon

Chronique

Wilheim brothers Markus and Micha Acher have spent five years away from their Tied + Tickled Trio project, choosing instead to focus on endeavors with the Notwist and 13 & God. La Place Demon assembled a cast with their usual suspects -- that includes Andreas Gerth on electronics, percussionist Christoph Brander, bassist Milan Nikolic, Johannes Enders on winds and reeds, Stefan Schreiber on bass clarinet, and the Modern String Quartet, to mention just a few -- in order to collaborate with the legendary jazz drummer Billy Hart. At age 70, he has appeared on over 600 records and in ensembles led by Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz, and Miles Davis; he has played everything from hard bop to jazz-funk to modern and modal jazz. His drums open La Place Demon in an easy, sparse solo joined by reeds and winds, strings, muted brass, and Carl Oesterhelt's xylophone, before the entire ensemble explodes into the first part of "The Three Doors," a suite in as many movements that is spread out over the recording. Simple electronics, harmonium, standard jazz instruments, various percussion and hammer dulcimers adorn the set. The compositions, especially those that make up the "The Three Doors" (written by Micha) are informed as much by cinematic and television scoring as they are by 21st century jazz. That said, the discipline involved in arrangements and improvisation is concentrated and carefully executed. On part one, deliberately restrained harmonics employed by horns and winds are dimensionally added to by looser, more expansive timbres and string intervals by strings. Hart dances around and through it all, keeping a circular rhythm in each piece, even at his most ambitious. Enders' "Caslaca" utilizes Latin and Middle Eastern motifs together with an exaggerated Basil Kirchen-esque exotica to bring both tension and space into beautifully suggestive but imprecise melodic structures. The longest and most delightfully unusual work here is a gorgeous medley of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" and a two-part group improvisation of "Exit la Place Demon" and "The Electronic Family" which sets up the final, most adventurous, and trance-like part of the "Three Doors" suite. Even so, it only hints at the restrained Gil Evans-esque beauty in the closing "Ghosts Allaround." La Place Demon is a collaborative effort in the purest sense of the word: it showcases Hart at another creative peak, as well as Tied +Tickled Trio's obvious exponential growth. Look for this one on year's end critic's lists.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo