So many surnames congest the creative music ledger these days that it's easy for an individual to get lost in the shuffle. As a certain bigwig in the biz is often wont to say: "Welcome to obscurity". Saxophonist Patrick Brennan has been making music in a jazz vein since the early 1980s, but record dates beyond the occasional self-produced venture on his own Deep Dish imprint have been infrequent. Two recent discs slip additional bricks in the wall of his slim discography. Each is quite a different venture from his debut on the CIMP label, Saunters, Walks, Ambles with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis.

Both albums find Brennan's alto striking flinty sparks with a core trio referred to under the umbrella signifier Sonic Openings Under Pressure. The unctuous trombone of Steve Swell joins the lineup as second horn for The Drum is Honor Enough, stacking the deck further in Brennan's favor. Glimmers of Dolphy and Lyons are easily identifiable in the innards of Brennan's sound, but his method of articulating on his horn comes from a highly personalized place. Hilliard Greene and Newman Taylor Baker are hardly strangers to the scene, and they succeed in stitching a tight rhythmic weave for the horns to ricochet and converge across.

Rapt Circle, released on the sister (CIMP) label Cadence Jazz, turns the calendar back nearly two years to the summer of 2002. Two concert sets by Brennan's same core group yield just over an hour's worth of music. The disc's first three cuts come from a gig at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. This time out the guest voice is percussionist Juma Santos Ayantola, venerable alum of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew band and a loft jazz fixture in the 70s. His work on dun dun, congas and bell tree give the group an even earthier, funkier bent and fleshes out the rhythmic focus on what Brennan coins metagroove (a clever layering of juxtaposing meters) even further.

"Scissor Bump" opens with the trampoline beats of Ayantola's dun dun for a contemplative preface punctuated by rippling tonal washes from his bell tree. The entrance of the others, particularly Brennan, is a bit of a jolt, but the four quickly settle into a slippery synchronous formation. Greene's bass acts as tractable bridge between Baker's brambly syncopated patterns and Brennan's own needle-nosed phrases, alternating a strolling pulse with strumming stops. Ayantola palms his congas in commentary for the sideline, rolling out a percolating solo at track's close that would make conguero peer Big Black smile. "Spin" and "Which Way What" each register at significantly shorter durations, but the players pack in plenty of veering detours and twists. Clip-clop cadences and Brennan's choppy two-steps-forward-one-step-back style of advancing a line are front and center. Together they create the aural equivalent of a coffee pot slowly bubbling over on a hot stovetop.

The disc's last three tracks represent a half-hour show from the 2002 Vision Festival, with Brennan leading the trio sans guests. Their set list covers much of the same ground as the Montreal date, save for the substitution of a composition called "Covert", which builds from a finger-chaffing solo from Greene, in place of "Spin". The absence of Ayantola as a rhythmic buffer is noticeable, making the interplay between Brennan and Baker seem more brittle and roughhewn, but a healthy filament of funk still threads through. The fidelity feels blunter and more immediate too, with Baker's drums closely miked and Greene's bass a bit more rubbery in its amplification.

Overall, the concert stage seems to suit Brennan and his mates slightly better than the controlled environs of the studio (or Spirit Room as it were), but both of these discs have their fair share of charms. Brennan's talents are certainly worthy of the double-shot afforded them here—hopefully there's a sizeable audience out there listening and more record dates lie waiting in the wings.

Patrick Brennan
The Drum Is honor Enough + Rapt Circle
(CIMP + Cadence Jazz)

- Derek Taylor 10 September 2004
onefinalnote.com

BACK TO REVIEWS