August 10–17, 2000

disc quicks|jazz

Roswell Rudd

Broad Strokes

(Knitting Factory)

Woozier than the hometown inebriate, the sound of trombonist Roswell Rudd — first heard battling throughout the ’60s against avant-gardists Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Steve Lacy and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra — is still potent, aging like a rare cognac. His tone, like that of the late, lamented Lester Bowie, is a fizzy rounded wail that’s easily coaxed into a maelstrom of emotion rarely heard on his instrument (Steve Turre’s is too broad, Joe Bowie’s is too weird). There’s blues-drenched sorrow, as witnessed on "Change Of Season"; laughter, even in the face of slow chamber-esque cello noise on "Almost Blue"; and elephant braying madness with all of Sonic Youth making a crank case behind him while ruggedly trashing Saint-Saens’ Symphony No. 3. His creaky but elegant control over teary material is most astounding, adapting to the silken textures of "Sassy & Dolphy." Sorrow burns most brightly on Thelonious Monk’s slow-turn absurdist-angled "Coming On The Hudson." Together with soft drums (John Betsch) that run from tribal to timid and the twin towering snake charming saxophones of Elton Dean (alto) and old pal Lacy (soprano), Rudd blurs the tone of his trombone like a bleary eyed drunk. There are some bad bends (hokey vocals throughout, a lackluster take on Rudd’s famous "God Had a Girlfriend") but overall, Broad Strokes is as pointed as a fine Merlot with a great fucking nose.

—a.d. amorosi