REVIEWS of the NEW INNERrOUTe CD "Fourmation"
INNERrOUTe: FourmationBy JOHN EPHLAND
Published: March 27, 2016
Views: 965
Starting with keyboardist Joe Vincent Tranchina's steady, alarming tone, Fourmation suggests an emergency of some kind. "Consensual Motion" gradually includes the other three members entering the fray, a fray that's loose and free-form, and eventually calming, not to mention a little bit funky.Michael D'Agostino's drum fills combine with Bill McCrossen's probing basslines to form a rhythmic framework for trumpeterRick Savage to follow suit, his tone softer, more meditative even as it follows a similar probing trajectory.
INNERrOUTe is the clever name of this New York-based foursome. It's a band on a mission to, as the back cover says, remain "deeply rooted in jazz, while creating genre-bending journeys in free improv, touching rarely experienced & emotionally beautiful realms." In similar fashion, "First Prayer" once again begins with Tranchina setting a template, a pattern upon which the other members join in, Savage's trumpet enhancing what might be considered one of those "emotionally beautiful realms," a slightly reverb-laden softness hinting that this "free improv" might not be of the kind that smacks you upside the head. In fact, as the band moves onto "The Roadless Traveled," one might get the impression that Fourmation is heading down a path somewhere between Miles Davis, circa 1969, In A Silent Way and the vast expanses that music made possible. Since we're using labels here, one might call Fourmation a kind of free-form easy-listening experience, the lines not always uniform, the absence of "songs" in the usual sense pervasive, the reliance on a pensive feeling and nuance paramount. This could also be said of their 2011 eponymous debut.
By the time we reach "Morpheus Awakens," Tranchina has moved beyond his more functional role creating patterns, delving into headier territory, a la Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi and Head Hunters periods of the early-to-late 1970s, his electric piano tossing off glimpses of what is in other settings a more lyrical, acoustic style of traditional jazz, albeit maintaining Fourmation's funkiness. The aptly titled "Slippery Slope" clocks in as the album's longest cut, at just over 13 minutes. And, as with all 12 of these original group-composed pieces, it offers perhaps the best window into each member's talents as musicians, McCrossen (who also doubles on electric fretless bass) distinctively plying and plucking his resonant bass while D'Agostino's flowing drum rolls and fills suggest a big band drummer in a former life. Eventually, Savage shows up as the band as a whole creates a rolling rock groove with Tranchina back to supplying steady formal lines, the trumpeter still somewhat soft-focused but occasionally letting a blast surface here and there. Despite the way in which Savage's horn (he doubles on flugelhorn elsewhere) is recorded, his voice does manage to provide the necessary bite to an album that otherwise seems to put a premium on relaxed, open-ended vibes. "Sacred Eclipse" comes closest to recalling In A Silent Way's stolling rubato, the easy listening peppered with more soft-focus, minimalistic, non-thematic music that, with Savage's playing especially, invokes a hymnal-type crossing between jazz and something akin to something "sacred." It's a sketch, an idea, as is much of Fourmation.
To say that Fourmation soothes would not be far off. The rest of the album extends the variation on a theme commented here, with subtle dissonances and more loose-limbed playing that rests easy on the ears, the moods mostly temperate, mellow. And while, on the surface, the music may play like an afterthought, easy to hear, and therefore easy to perform, Fourmation's mellowness hints, suggests and allows the listener to fill in the blanks even as they're hearing music created by four accomplished musicians, all of whom have a shared history. With no apparent agenda other than to experiment and explore, it's music that reflects some deep, patient four-way listening.
Track Listing: Consensual Motion; First Prayer; The Roadless Traveled; Morpheus Awakens; Slippery Slope; Sacred Eclipse; Home And Deranged; The Asking; Realms; Fourmation; Grace; InnerOUTeTAKE: Where’s One?
Personnel: Rick Savage, trumpet, flugelhorn; Joe Vincent Tranchina, keyboards; Bill McCrossen, acoustic and electric fretless basses; Michael D’Agostino, drums, percussion.
Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Planet Arts Records
Published: March 27, 2016
Views: 965
Starting with keyboardist Joe Vincent Tranchina's steady, alarming tone, Fourmation suggests an emergency of some kind. "Consensual Motion" gradually includes the other three members entering the fray, a fray that's loose and free-form, and eventually calming, not to mention a little bit funky.Michael D'Agostino's drum fills combine with Bill McCrossen's probing basslines to form a rhythmic framework for trumpeterRick Savage to follow suit, his tone softer, more meditative even as it follows a similar probing trajectory.
INNERrOUTe is the clever name of this New York-based foursome. It's a band on a mission to, as the back cover says, remain "deeply rooted in jazz, while creating genre-bending journeys in free improv, touching rarely experienced & emotionally beautiful realms." In similar fashion, "First Prayer" once again begins with Tranchina setting a template, a pattern upon which the other members join in, Savage's trumpet enhancing what might be considered one of those "emotionally beautiful realms," a slightly reverb-laden softness hinting that this "free improv" might not be of the kind that smacks you upside the head. In fact, as the band moves onto "The Roadless Traveled," one might get the impression that Fourmation is heading down a path somewhere between Miles Davis, circa 1969, In A Silent Way and the vast expanses that music made possible. Since we're using labels here, one might call Fourmation a kind of free-form easy-listening experience, the lines not always uniform, the absence of "songs" in the usual sense pervasive, the reliance on a pensive feeling and nuance paramount. This could also be said of their 2011 eponymous debut.
By the time we reach "Morpheus Awakens," Tranchina has moved beyond his more functional role creating patterns, delving into headier territory, a la Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi and Head Hunters periods of the early-to-late 1970s, his electric piano tossing off glimpses of what is in other settings a more lyrical, acoustic style of traditional jazz, albeit maintaining Fourmation's funkiness. The aptly titled "Slippery Slope" clocks in as the album's longest cut, at just over 13 minutes. And, as with all 12 of these original group-composed pieces, it offers perhaps the best window into each member's talents as musicians, McCrossen (who also doubles on electric fretless bass) distinctively plying and plucking his resonant bass while D'Agostino's flowing drum rolls and fills suggest a big band drummer in a former life. Eventually, Savage shows up as the band as a whole creates a rolling rock groove with Tranchina back to supplying steady formal lines, the trumpeter still somewhat soft-focused but occasionally letting a blast surface here and there. Despite the way in which Savage's horn (he doubles on flugelhorn elsewhere) is recorded, his voice does manage to provide the necessary bite to an album that otherwise seems to put a premium on relaxed, open-ended vibes. "Sacred Eclipse" comes closest to recalling In A Silent Way's stolling rubato, the easy listening peppered with more soft-focus, minimalistic, non-thematic music that, with Savage's playing especially, invokes a hymnal-type crossing between jazz and something akin to something "sacred." It's a sketch, an idea, as is much of Fourmation.
To say that Fourmation soothes would not be far off. The rest of the album extends the variation on a theme commented here, with subtle dissonances and more loose-limbed playing that rests easy on the ears, the moods mostly temperate, mellow. And while, on the surface, the music may play like an afterthought, easy to hear, and therefore easy to perform, Fourmation's mellowness hints, suggests and allows the listener to fill in the blanks even as they're hearing music created by four accomplished musicians, all of whom have a shared history. With no apparent agenda other than to experiment and explore, it's music that reflects some deep, patient four-way listening.
Track Listing: Consensual Motion; First Prayer; The Roadless Traveled; Morpheus Awakens; Slippery Slope; Sacred Eclipse; Home And Deranged; The Asking; Realms; Fourmation; Grace; InnerOUTeTAKE: Where’s One?
Personnel: Rick Savage, trumpet, flugelhorn; Joe Vincent Tranchina, keyboards; Bill McCrossen, acoustic and electric fretless basses; Michael D’Agostino, drums, percussion.
Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Planet Arts Records
By: Carol Banks Weber AXS Contributor Feb 17, 2016
A lot of jazz musicians like to think they’re boss at the art of improvisation. Onstage, the twists and turns of herding cats without a net (or charts) can become a train wreck and another jazz caricature. In the recording studio? Forget it.
New York City percussionist Michael D’Agostino and his three band mates — Rick Savage (trumpet, flugelhorn), Joe Vincent Tranchina (keys), Bill McCrossen (acoustic and electric fretless bass) — do what most seasoned jazz vets still have a hard time accomplishing. Together, this band of likeminded players and fast friends — formed over countless jam sessions in D’Agostino’s studio in West Milford, N.J. — manage to do the impossible on their debut record, INNERrOUTe.
The interesting album title from the Oct. 15, 2015 release doesn’t even begin to cut it.
These four musicians went into the recording studio to capture one night of improvisational ecstasy — together. The 12 original compositions, if you will, are a culmination of that attempt to tap into each musician’s innermost, intuitive impulses, but as a collective.
In many ways, the album’s tracks play out as a kind of dream sequence, with the same wordless, dreamy form of limitless communication that takes place entirely in a person’s imagination, beyond language or earth-bound definitions of property, ownership, and material ties, things that don’t matter.
If you really think about it, in dreams we have no need to haggle over words we do or do not say. Everything is transmitted via telepathy. That is the ultimate goal of every truth-seeking jazz musician.
That is what Fourmation goes for here.
“Every time we get together, it’s to get out of the way, allowing a whole new fount of ideas to flow through us, never the same; that’s the beauty of our music,” D’Agostino explained in the liner notes.
Times Herald-Record music critic Timothy Malcolm dug it. “There’s a wondrous element of exploration to everything… because four very individual musicians found a way to work with each other, and yet completely within themselves, all at the same time. ‘INNERrOUTe’ is an intriguing voyage.”
To go on such an intriguing voyage, all four of these musicians had to be on the same invisible page, relying solely on their connection to one another from time spent in those jam sessions. Trust and the ability to really listen — two of jazz’s most important attributes — lend themselves to such remarkable pieces like “The Roadless Traveled,” four minutes of what should’ve been a godless cacophony writ by wayward strategists out for themselves, zero end in sight.
Instead, horn player Rick Savage steps forward almost immediately in the clandestine shimmers of keyboardist Joe Vincent Tranchina’s ambient opening to set a timeless, romantic, and even techno-futuristic tone throughout. Savage forages through what sounds and feels like a dystopian world set several hundred years ahead. He plays melodic threads and a banquet of harmonic snippets meant perhaps to grasp fleeting, warm human elements underneath a cavern of nihilistic forward thinking in an atmospheric retreat. The other musicians naturally pick up on Savage’s wavelength, parting the way for him.
Most other times, as on “Slippery Slope,” the way is a little more cluttered. Typically, when jazz musicians go on an improvisational tear, the styles tend to muddle into the centrifugal force of the avant-garde, or free jazz — when anything goes. The end result for the listener is a disconcerting sense of the chaotic, where the ear doesn’t quite know what sound to latch onto. The sounds on this lengthy piece (over 13 minutes, the longest in the album) break up too frequently to get a handle on any specific mood, vibe, or direction, assuming there is any.
Yet, there is, however aimless at first listen.
Savage comes in once again to save the song, piercing through the broken shards of the other musicians’ completely intense interpretation of what’s going on to connect those dots. He turns a disparate tangle of voices into a cohesive number about souls falling apart and the inner conversations of those souls as they panic and watch their humanity wither away. At least that’s what it sounds like.
Fourmation spent one night on Jan. 24, 2011 recording this album, “with no discussion, no rehearsal, no overdubbing, just creative listening; listening for an opening, an invitation for the magic to happen, allowing the music to tell us what it desires,” according to the liner notes.
If you think about the final end product of that one, fateful night, INNERrOUTe does all that and more.
A lot of jazz musicians like to think they’re boss at the art of improvisation. Onstage, the twists and turns of herding cats without a net (or charts) can become a train wreck and another jazz caricature. In the recording studio? Forget it.
New York City percussionist Michael D’Agostino and his three band mates — Rick Savage (trumpet, flugelhorn), Joe Vincent Tranchina (keys), Bill McCrossen (acoustic and electric fretless bass) — do what most seasoned jazz vets still have a hard time accomplishing. Together, this band of likeminded players and fast friends — formed over countless jam sessions in D’Agostino’s studio in West Milford, N.J. — manage to do the impossible on their debut record, INNERrOUTe.
The interesting album title from the Oct. 15, 2015 release doesn’t even begin to cut it.
These four musicians went into the recording studio to capture one night of improvisational ecstasy — together. The 12 original compositions, if you will, are a culmination of that attempt to tap into each musician’s innermost, intuitive impulses, but as a collective.
In many ways, the album’s tracks play out as a kind of dream sequence, with the same wordless, dreamy form of limitless communication that takes place entirely in a person’s imagination, beyond language or earth-bound definitions of property, ownership, and material ties, things that don’t matter.
If you really think about it, in dreams we have no need to haggle over words we do or do not say. Everything is transmitted via telepathy. That is the ultimate goal of every truth-seeking jazz musician.
That is what Fourmation goes for here.
“Every time we get together, it’s to get out of the way, allowing a whole new fount of ideas to flow through us, never the same; that’s the beauty of our music,” D’Agostino explained in the liner notes.
Times Herald-Record music critic Timothy Malcolm dug it. “There’s a wondrous element of exploration to everything… because four very individual musicians found a way to work with each other, and yet completely within themselves, all at the same time. ‘INNERrOUTe’ is an intriguing voyage.”
To go on such an intriguing voyage, all four of these musicians had to be on the same invisible page, relying solely on their connection to one another from time spent in those jam sessions. Trust and the ability to really listen — two of jazz’s most important attributes — lend themselves to such remarkable pieces like “The Roadless Traveled,” four minutes of what should’ve been a godless cacophony writ by wayward strategists out for themselves, zero end in sight.
Instead, horn player Rick Savage steps forward almost immediately in the clandestine shimmers of keyboardist Joe Vincent Tranchina’s ambient opening to set a timeless, romantic, and even techno-futuristic tone throughout. Savage forages through what sounds and feels like a dystopian world set several hundred years ahead. He plays melodic threads and a banquet of harmonic snippets meant perhaps to grasp fleeting, warm human elements underneath a cavern of nihilistic forward thinking in an atmospheric retreat. The other musicians naturally pick up on Savage’s wavelength, parting the way for him.
Most other times, as on “Slippery Slope,” the way is a little more cluttered. Typically, when jazz musicians go on an improvisational tear, the styles tend to muddle into the centrifugal force of the avant-garde, or free jazz — when anything goes. The end result for the listener is a disconcerting sense of the chaotic, where the ear doesn’t quite know what sound to latch onto. The sounds on this lengthy piece (over 13 minutes, the longest in the album) break up too frequently to get a handle on any specific mood, vibe, or direction, assuming there is any.
Yet, there is, however aimless at first listen.
Savage comes in once again to save the song, piercing through the broken shards of the other musicians’ completely intense interpretation of what’s going on to connect those dots. He turns a disparate tangle of voices into a cohesive number about souls falling apart and the inner conversations of those souls as they panic and watch their humanity wither away. At least that’s what it sounds like.
Fourmation spent one night on Jan. 24, 2011 recording this album, “with no discussion, no rehearsal, no overdubbing, just creative listening; listening for an opening, an invitation for the magic to happen, allowing the music to tell us what it desires,” according to the liner notes.
If you think about the final end product of that one, fateful night, INNERrOUTe does all that and more.
Chronogram Magazine
With case play on top of multiple puns, the quartet INNERrOUTe doesn't make it easy to type its name or to interpret it, but one could say that, given the group's native genre--improvisational jazz--difficulty is part of the bargain on every level. On Fourmation, this quartet of trumpet, electric piano, drums and bass sets out to capture one evening of improvisations, and the results are scintillating, due as much to the excellent recording quality as to the heightened, empathic playing of this very capable and egoless ensemble.
The reverberant mix rounds the top end of Rick Savage's often effected trumpet and flugelhorn in the most pleasant way and situates the rhythm section of Michael D'Agostino (drums) and Bill McCrossen (bass) in a warm and natural space. The complex, phasey timbre of Joe Vincent Tranchina's electric piano swirls through the space between voices like a sonic glue. Like so much free jazz, this stuff originates with Miles circa Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way; free and untimed conversations morph into near funk and back again on the opening track "Consensual Motion." But on the lovely "Sacred Eclipse" and on many other tracks, INNERrOUTe reveals itself to be a band more interested in moments of warm euphony than in contentious squawk. The music-as-spiritual-practice liner notes are borne out in the quite accessible and enjoyable sounds. Planetarts.org
---John Burdick
With case play on top of multiple puns, the quartet INNERrOUTe doesn't make it easy to type its name or to interpret it, but one could say that, given the group's native genre--improvisational jazz--difficulty is part of the bargain on every level. On Fourmation, this quartet of trumpet, electric piano, drums and bass sets out to capture one evening of improvisations, and the results are scintillating, due as much to the excellent recording quality as to the heightened, empathic playing of this very capable and egoless ensemble.
The reverberant mix rounds the top end of Rick Savage's often effected trumpet and flugelhorn in the most pleasant way and situates the rhythm section of Michael D'Agostino (drums) and Bill McCrossen (bass) in a warm and natural space. The complex, phasey timbre of Joe Vincent Tranchina's electric piano swirls through the space between voices like a sonic glue. Like so much free jazz, this stuff originates with Miles circa Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way; free and untimed conversations morph into near funk and back again on the opening track "Consensual Motion." But on the lovely "Sacred Eclipse" and on many other tracks, INNERrOUTe reveals itself to be a band more interested in moments of warm euphony than in contentious squawk. The music-as-spiritual-practice liner notes are borne out in the quite accessible and enjoyable sounds. Planetarts.org
---John Burdick
5 star Review from French Alt Rock magazine HIGHLANDS
Highlands 76 December 2015
Highlands Magazine INNERrOUTe FOURMATION review
Fourmation [sic] [INNERrOUTe] is an American Jazz-Rock "formation" that originated from New York and is now based in New Jersey. Lead by drummer/percussionist Michael D'Agostino, the quartet includes trumpeter Rick Savage, keyboardist Joe Vincent Tranchina and bassist Bill McCrossen - who plays both acoustic and fretless electric bass. [INNERrOUTe’s] Fourmation’s [sic] album comprises 12 original compositions.The first track, entitled Consensual Motion, reaches its climactic point at 10'08.
From the very first note, the listener is transported to the world of Miles Davis' In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew - notably sequences of irresistible Fender Rhodes grooves, with mellow, velvety, freely executed trumpet flourishes, taking us back to the music of the "grand" Miles. The recording abounds with outstanding percussion and even if Michael D'Agostinio's playing on drums is sharp and precise, he keeps changing tempos with amazing ease, and is consistently impressive.
First Prayer, a particularly thrilling piece, starts with Fender Rhodes' motifs that charms the listener little by little, and follows with trumpeter Rick Savage's voluptuous sound taking us to some unknown mysterious place.
The Roadless Travelled features the percussion along with murmuring cymbals', fret-less bass detours, and accompanied by soft and free trumpet lines spiraling into another dimension.
Whether it is the creative, grooving leading Fender Rhodes, the free spirited trumpet silvery timbre and dreamy tone, the numerous flawless fretless bass exciting moments, or the spicy fiery percussion, this album is exciting from beginning to end. If you are into Jazz and adventurous music this wondrous, inspired, and powerful recording will fill you with pure joy.
***** Didier Gonzalez
Highlands 76 December 2015
Highlands Magazine INNERrOUTe FOURMATION review
Fourmation [sic] [INNERrOUTe] is an American Jazz-Rock "formation" that originated from New York and is now based in New Jersey. Lead by drummer/percussionist Michael D'Agostino, the quartet includes trumpeter Rick Savage, keyboardist Joe Vincent Tranchina and bassist Bill McCrossen - who plays both acoustic and fretless electric bass. [INNERrOUTe’s] Fourmation’s [sic] album comprises 12 original compositions.The first track, entitled Consensual Motion, reaches its climactic point at 10'08.
From the very first note, the listener is transported to the world of Miles Davis' In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew - notably sequences of irresistible Fender Rhodes grooves, with mellow, velvety, freely executed trumpet flourishes, taking us back to the music of the "grand" Miles. The recording abounds with outstanding percussion and even if Michael D'Agostinio's playing on drums is sharp and precise, he keeps changing tempos with amazing ease, and is consistently impressive.
First Prayer, a particularly thrilling piece, starts with Fender Rhodes' motifs that charms the listener little by little, and follows with trumpeter Rick Savage's voluptuous sound taking us to some unknown mysterious place.
The Roadless Travelled features the percussion along with murmuring cymbals', fret-less bass detours, and accompanied by soft and free trumpet lines spiraling into another dimension.
Whether it is the creative, grooving leading Fender Rhodes, the free spirited trumpet silvery timbre and dreamy tone, the numerous flawless fretless bass exciting moments, or the spicy fiery percussion, this album is exciting from beginning to end. If you are into Jazz and adventurous music this wondrous, inspired, and powerful recording will fill you with pure joy.
***** Didier Gonzalez
INNERROUTE/Fourmation: An equal mix of improv and fusion leavened with taking their time yields a very interesting new set from a crew that came together at the suggestion of their UPS delivery man. Tasty stuff dedicated to pushing the boundaries of where certain forms of jazz lie, this crew gives you an unvarnished and uncommercial look behind the curtain where the muse is what it’s all about. A wonderful, wild ride whose chops keep you riveted throughout.
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher MIDWEST RECORD
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher MIDWEST RECORD
INNERrOUTe…..presents a unique voice in the free improv jazz and jam band tradition. For a true experience with the finest in improvisation, listen in – and feel what it does. Grady Harp Amazon top 10 reviewer
Jazz CD Reviews
A spontaneous night’s music mustered with collective communication.
Published on December 18, 2015
INNERrOUTe – Fourmation [TrackList follows] – Planet Arts PA301554, 68:27 [10/15/15] ****:
(Michael D’Agostino – drums, percussion, recording, mixing, mastering; Rick Savage – trumpet, Flugelhorn; Joe Vincent Tranchina – keyboard; Bill McCrossen – acoustic and electric fretless bass)
Fully improvised jazz can appear too chaotic and unstructured to the uninitiated. But the best musicians can find a way around seemingly obstructive limitations, and offer a sense of organization, harmonic development, even melody. That’s what the East Coast quartet christened INNERrOUTe has accomplished. As the group name implies, the foursome combine inner spirit with outbound collective communication. This 68-minute, 12-track outing is the outcome of a studio evening in early 2011 when the four INNERrOUTe members got together with no prior discussion, no rehearsal, no overdubbing, and commenced to do some creative performing and, most important, active listening. The instigator of this project is drummer Michael D’Agostino, who recruited likeminded players Rick Savage (trumpet, flugelhorn); bassist Bill McCrossen (on acoustic and electric fretless bass); and keyboardist Joe Vincent Tranchina. The result is the second INNERrOUTe record, Fourmation.
The ten-minute opener, “Consensual Motion,” has moments of complete freedom, where arco bass and plucked bass lines collide against colorful keyboards, and diverse rhythms juxtapose against trumpet. And yet, there is a perceptible groove, albeit one with a quickly changing attitude. There are also straight-ahead jazz components which listeners can relate with, although the quartet never stays put in a particular place for too long. There’s a broadening of the band’s spontaneity during the eclectically-charged “Home and Deranged,” where it’s obvious the musicians allow the music to progress in a natural way, often sitting out and experiencing what the others are doing, and then responding, opening doors for further inventiveness. This isn’t a case of disarray, although there is no guiding melody or lyrical center.
INNERrOUTe is capable of fast movements, but also can provide instances where beauty and delicacy slide forward, such as during the ethereal, concise “First Prayer,” where Savage’s echo-laden trumpet glides above D’Agostino’s glittering percussion, and McCrossen supplies supple single-note bass lines. Another cut which has a similar, slow sensibility is the appropriately-designated “Grace,” which traverses with an intermittent equilibrium, with underlying tension roiling but never enveloping the music.
Funk rises to the foreground on another brief piece, the mythology-marked “Morpheus Awakens,” based on the ancient Greek god of dreams. Tranchina is spotlighted on this tune, while the drums and bass have a fitful conversation. There’s a fusion feel which rides below the start of the title track, due to Tranchina’s electric keyboards, although that doesn’t hold for long, as INNERrOUTe heads into uncharted territory, never remaining in one specific direction, with ideas building up, settling, and rising again. The theme of proceeding into atypical pathways can also be heard on the aptly-titled, pun-derived “The Roadless Traveled.” Here, again, INNERrOUTe’s mutual, unconstrained interaction is the focus, with Savage’s trumpet front and center, Tranchina’s keyboards bubbling beneath, and the rhythm section furnishing a restless rhythm. Like some of the other numbers, this one fades out before it can achieve a definitive finish. The ensemble’s wit and humor lace through the concluding snippet, “innerrOUTeTAKE: Where’s One?,” which runs just under two minutes. There is something to be said about doing head/chorus/head jazz arrangements. But for those who embrace the never-to-be-repeated avenues of exploration, and are inclined toward in-the-moment inspiration, then INNERrOUTe is a band to find and appreciate.
TrackList: Consensual Motion; First Prayer; The Roadless Traveled; Morpheus Awakens; Slippery Slope; Sacred Eclipse; Home and Deranged; The Asking; Realms; Fourmation; Grace; innerrOUTeTAKE: Where’s One?.
—Doug Simpson
A spontaneous night’s music mustered with collective communication.
Published on December 18, 2015
INNERrOUTe – Fourmation [TrackList follows] – Planet Arts PA301554, 68:27 [10/15/15] ****:
(Michael D’Agostino – drums, percussion, recording, mixing, mastering; Rick Savage – trumpet, Flugelhorn; Joe Vincent Tranchina – keyboard; Bill McCrossen – acoustic and electric fretless bass)
Fully improvised jazz can appear too chaotic and unstructured to the uninitiated. But the best musicians can find a way around seemingly obstructive limitations, and offer a sense of organization, harmonic development, even melody. That’s what the East Coast quartet christened INNERrOUTe has accomplished. As the group name implies, the foursome combine inner spirit with outbound collective communication. This 68-minute, 12-track outing is the outcome of a studio evening in early 2011 when the four INNERrOUTe members got together with no prior discussion, no rehearsal, no overdubbing, and commenced to do some creative performing and, most important, active listening. The instigator of this project is drummer Michael D’Agostino, who recruited likeminded players Rick Savage (trumpet, flugelhorn); bassist Bill McCrossen (on acoustic and electric fretless bass); and keyboardist Joe Vincent Tranchina. The result is the second INNERrOUTe record, Fourmation.
The ten-minute opener, “Consensual Motion,” has moments of complete freedom, where arco bass and plucked bass lines collide against colorful keyboards, and diverse rhythms juxtapose against trumpet. And yet, there is a perceptible groove, albeit one with a quickly changing attitude. There are also straight-ahead jazz components which listeners can relate with, although the quartet never stays put in a particular place for too long. There’s a broadening of the band’s spontaneity during the eclectically-charged “Home and Deranged,” where it’s obvious the musicians allow the music to progress in a natural way, often sitting out and experiencing what the others are doing, and then responding, opening doors for further inventiveness. This isn’t a case of disarray, although there is no guiding melody or lyrical center.
INNERrOUTe is capable of fast movements, but also can provide instances where beauty and delicacy slide forward, such as during the ethereal, concise “First Prayer,” where Savage’s echo-laden trumpet glides above D’Agostino’s glittering percussion, and McCrossen supplies supple single-note bass lines. Another cut which has a similar, slow sensibility is the appropriately-designated “Grace,” which traverses with an intermittent equilibrium, with underlying tension roiling but never enveloping the music.
Funk rises to the foreground on another brief piece, the mythology-marked “Morpheus Awakens,” based on the ancient Greek god of dreams. Tranchina is spotlighted on this tune, while the drums and bass have a fitful conversation. There’s a fusion feel which rides below the start of the title track, due to Tranchina’s electric keyboards, although that doesn’t hold for long, as INNERrOUTe heads into uncharted territory, never remaining in one specific direction, with ideas building up, settling, and rising again. The theme of proceeding into atypical pathways can also be heard on the aptly-titled, pun-derived “The Roadless Traveled.” Here, again, INNERrOUTe’s mutual, unconstrained interaction is the focus, with Savage’s trumpet front and center, Tranchina’s keyboards bubbling beneath, and the rhythm section furnishing a restless rhythm. Like some of the other numbers, this one fades out before it can achieve a definitive finish. The ensemble’s wit and humor lace through the concluding snippet, “innerrOUTeTAKE: Where’s One?,” which runs just under two minutes. There is something to be said about doing head/chorus/head jazz arrangements. But for those who embrace the never-to-be-repeated avenues of exploration, and are inclined toward in-the-moment inspiration, then INNERrOUTe is a band to find and appreciate.
TrackList: Consensual Motion; First Prayer; The Roadless Traveled; Morpheus Awakens; Slippery Slope; Sacred Eclipse; Home and Deranged; The Asking; Realms; Fourmation; Grace; innerrOUTeTAKE: Where’s One?.
—Doug Simpson
by George W. Harris • December 17, 2015
The quartet INNERrOUTe states that its purpose is to be “deeply rooted in jazz, while creating genre-bending journeys in free improv.” Together, Michael D’Agostino/dr/perc, Rick savage/tp-fh, Joe Vincent Tranchina/key and Bill McCrossen/b do a yeoman’s job of delivering on their promise.
Some of the moods and pieces feel like a free form musical food fight, as on “Consensual Motion,” with the relentless riff sounding like a warning from outer space, while on “The Road Traveled” the team goes deep into the hip pocket with Savage crooning over the deep groove. The team glows like a hologram on the sleek and vibrant mellower tunes such as “First Prayer” and “Grace” with the latter having a wondrous mix of McCrossen’s bass and Tranchina’s droplets of keyboard. They do like to have their moments of frivolity, however, and they take you on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride on “Home and Deranged,” but you do hang in there with them due to their inherent lyricism.
The quartet INNERrOUTe states that its purpose is to be “deeply rooted in jazz, while creating genre-bending journeys in free improv.” Together, Michael D’Agostino/dr/perc, Rick savage/tp-fh, Joe Vincent Tranchina/key and Bill McCrossen/b do a yeoman’s job of delivering on their promise.
Some of the moods and pieces feel like a free form musical food fight, as on “Consensual Motion,” with the relentless riff sounding like a warning from outer space, while on “The Road Traveled” the team goes deep into the hip pocket with Savage crooning over the deep groove. The team glows like a hologram on the sleek and vibrant mellower tunes such as “First Prayer” and “Grace” with the latter having a wondrous mix of McCrossen’s bass and Tranchina’s droplets of keyboard. They do like to have their moments of frivolity, however, and they take you on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride on “Home and Deranged,” but you do hang in there with them due to their inherent lyricism.