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Sued / Nandayapa / Bergmann / Saunders: Mad Dream
ByThe band's previous release, While It Lasts (Ropeadope Sur, 2022), was, as they wincingly worded it in the press materials, "somehow completely crafted" during the Covid lockdown, via distance recording and email threads. Mad Dream finds them again able to partake in the pleasures of live performance andthe sine qua non of jazz practiceto improvise together. All members of the group are strong players, but the project emphasizes the ensemble, the collective rather than the individual. A palpable sense of release permeates the program, which was recorded on the road during a tour across Texas in 2022. The album opens with a free improvisation leading into Nandayapa's "El Alsalto." The head, an atonal rubato unison melody with no fixed harmonic structure, played by saxophone and guitar, floats above an independently churning ametric rhythmic foundation supplied by bass and drums. Liberation is imprinted at the outset.
The musical language is predominantly post-tonal and post-bop. In Sued's "Mad Dream," the album's standout title cut, the structures seem to press onward rather than turning around, an effect that is amplified in the travelogue-style official video which accompanies the tune (see the YouTube at the bottom of this page). The journey begins with a melancholic melody and chord changes in a slow metrical time, followed by a saxophone solo over its 15-bar form. Time and tune begin to fragment and fall apart toward the end of the saxophone solo and the bass interlude that follows, while drums almost seamlessly introduce a faster tempo and saxophone re-enters under the invigorated groove. By the third segment, when all parts are fully invested in the new feel, a second melodya denser cousin of the opening line and its changescomes in solidly. By the time the guitar takes flight over the 16-bar form, the mood has lightened appreciably and there is no turning back.
Like "El Asalto," Sued's "Green Glass"another album highlightemerges out of the anarchy of a free improvisation, moving through a phase in which the pitches of the melodic lines to follow are revealed, albeit out of time. When the composition finally jumps into focus, with all parts fully formed and interacting in their rhythmic setting, the effect is freeing, and that liberation makes the music dance. Mad Dream is a lively offering from an excellent ensemble of resourceful, inventive and compatible musicians. Well worth a listen.
Track Listing
El Asalto; Mad Dream; Dorme Bebê; Green Glass; Dottore.
Personnel
Album information
Title: Mad Dream | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Ropeadope
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Sued Nandayapa Bergmann Saunders
Album Review
Katchie Cartwright
Mad Dream
Ropeadope Sur
Natalio Sued
Andrew Bergmann
Gustavo Nandayapa
Bruce Saunders
San Antonio