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LISLE ELLIS & PATRICK BRENNAN
SAUNTERS, WALKS, AMBLES (CIMP)
CD Cover

And skips, and leaps and broods. But, what really distinguishes this duet session isn't legs as much as ears. The British Columbia-born, San Francisco-based bassist Lisle Ellis is one of the most ferocious listeners around, and this duet date with altoist Patrick Brennan shows off his formidable ears. The material covered is a shout out to Brennan's influences, leading off with an affectionate "Crepuscule with Nellie". Monk is also represented with two versions of "Misterioso" and Roscoe Mitchell is invoked with a reverent reading of "Nonaah" that has much of it's composer's ear for nuances of sound and gesture. But the musical spirit that I sense hovering over this September 1998 session is that of Eric Dolphy. Brennan seems to share the Los Angeles master's appetite for harmonic exploration and bop rhythmic expression. "Ornithine," one of the 11 Brennan/Ellis compositions on the date, is less Birdlike to to these ears than Dolphyesque, and it's as much fun to listen to as it must have been to play. Overall, though, this is a somewhat emotionally circumscribed session; nothing ever gets too hot or too cool, too exploratory or too conventional. The duo partners work together splendidly but never prod one another; a certain decorum is always observed. It helps, then that such an intimate and conversational session was recorded with the immediacy that Marc Rusch is able to achieve in The Spirit Room. In his Recording Engineer's notes in the booklet, Rusch almost apologizes for capturing the sound of the floor creaking under Patrick Brennan's feet as he rocked in time to his playing. Played loud, this soft-grained music come right into your listening space. "Naked sound," Rusch calls it. "Nothing added or taken away." And nothing further needed. Listeners interested in the art of subtlety should run, sprint, dash to get this human and humane date.

John Chacona
Page 51 Signal to Noise - March/April 2000

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