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Linda Oh Trio | Entry

Linda Oh Trio (2009)
By JON GARELICK  |  September 28, 2009
4.0 4.0 Stars

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Chinese-Australian bassist Linda Oh (now living in NYC) favors a spare setting on this debut: trumpet, bass, and drums. Oh, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, and drummer Obed Calvaire tackle these nine pieces with such a combination of looseness and aggression that at first you might not notice the delicacy of the arrangements, the dramatic use of space, the sensitivity to narrative shape and resolution.

What comes across instead is the constant rhythmic and melodic counterpoint, a unified three-way tug-of-war. Oh's steady drone and Calvaire's furious patterns will churn underneath Akinmusire's long-toned thematic lines, everyone obeying the same gravitational force. Oh likes the bass-ness of her instrument; she'll dig into big thwangy low notes, jump among registers, favor alternating currents of rhythm.

Unlike the fluid, "tasteful" guitar-like lines of modern phenoms like Christian McBride and even Esperanza Spalding, she's a throwback to a kind of '80s jazz bass associated with Fred Hopkins, Malachi Favors, John Lindberg, and Ed Schuller. This isn't "free jazz," but it's as fierce, raw, and risky as "written" jazz can get. And it ends with a cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Soul To Squeeze."

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  Topics: CD Reviews , Red Hot Chili Peppers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Esperanza Spalding,  More more >
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2 Comments / Add Comment

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This CD proves what I wrote two years ago was true, she is a powerful creative artist. There are solos on this CD that are so moving and beautiful that I imagine that Mingus, Garrison and Pettiford are dancing in heaven. The msuical conversation between Oh and Akinmusire for some reason of the musical conversations of Tamura and Fujii.

Here is what I wrote about Linda Oh about two years ago when I first heard her:

Last night I saw the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall. The first half of the program was mostly Gil Evans and Miles Davis with a smattering of other composers/arrangers. The second half was Evans and Davis’s Arrangement of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

The original recording is with Miles Davis is something I have been listening to for years, this was one of the few times that I have listened to an orchestra play jazz. Its different; few solos not much improvisation. Dave Liebman did well and it was interesting to listen a non-trumpet play the lead. At a couple points he soared.

I suddenly realized that in my mind I was listening to a quartet: Lieberman on saxphone, the orchestra, Will Clark on drums and Linda Oh on double bass. Linda and Will were impressive. I was very impressed and moved with Oh’s playing; she has got a commanding sound, so much so that sometimes it was a duet. I would love to see her in a smaller setting, a trio or quartet, where she could let herself fly on long improvised solos.
Posted: February 02 2010 at 10:18 AM

fb1544905071

Your comment system is not the greatest. I only wanted to post that once. Sorry.
Posted: February 02 2010 at 10:19 AM
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