released March 1, 1991

Gerry Hemingway Quintet
Special Detail

1) Endpiece 1 7:57
2) Special Detail 19:15
3) Third Scape 8:28
4) Taffia 13:43
5) Wooferlo 2 11:31
6) Beef 2 8:58

Don Byron - clarinet, baritone saxophone
Wolter Wierbos - trombone
Ernst Reijseger - cello
Ed Schuller - bass
Gerry Hemingway - drums, steel drums

All compositions by Gerry Hemingway
Digital two-track recording by WDR Cologne, live at Alte Ravensberger Spinnerei Bielefeld/Germany on October 29 & 30, 1990
CD-master by Peter Pfister
Cover art by Andreas Straub
Liner notes by Bob Blumen­thal
Photo of Gerry Hemingway by Marco Ugolini
Photos of quintet by Gerry Hemingway
Design by Walter Bosshardt
Produced by Ulrich Kurt & Pia and Werner X. Uehlinger
A coproduction WDR Cologne

Special thanks to Ulrich Kurt of WDR and Andreas Straub. This recor­ding is dedicated to Nancy Hemingway

®+©1991 HAT HUT RECORDS LTD.

Liner Notes

This album strikes me as Gerry Hemingway's most significant statement to date - not because its excellence is unexpected, but rather because of the way it reaf­firms and builds upon this most talented percussionist/composer's previous work. Hemingway has been an inspired artist in a variety of past situations, including the quintet instrumentation he leads here. "Special Detail" goes farther than previous efforts, however, in underscoring Hemingway's voice as an ensemble leader. With its mix of new and old music, of long ­familiar and more recent associates, it places him even more firmly in the realm of the true originals.

Such a judgment by no means is intended to slight the music Hemingway has previously crea­ted in a variety of contexts. Many listeners know him best for his long associations with Anthony Braxton, Anthony Davis and the cooperative trio he shares with Ray Anderson and Mark Helias (known at various times as Oahspe and BassDrumBone). There have also been ingenious solo perfor­mances (including one I witnessed a few years ago as part of a six-drummer extravaganza that provided a veritable clinic for his fellow participants); duets with the elusive saxophonist/composer Earl Howard; writing and playing for the Creative Improvisers Orchestra (a group he co-founded with Leo Smith and Bobby Naughton); numerous recordings (including three on his own Auri­cle label); and, more recently, per­formances with Reggie Workman, a new cooperative trio with George Graewe and Ernst Reijseger (heard on "Sonic Fiction," hat ART 6043), and the quartet Tambastics.

Still, the band heard here gives us Hemingway at his most complete. "The quintet is my absolute priority," he admits; "it is what I want to do the most at this time. I'm dedicated to this instru­mentation, though I can't quite describe how it came to be. In part, it came out of my relationship with Ernst, but it is really a combina­tion of drawing upon specific personalities and the possibilities of the instrumentation. I love har­mony, and it's so nice to have more voices to orchestrate. At the same time, I like working with elusive and transparent qualities which are an outgrowth of extend­ed techniques, and Ernst and Wolter are especially fluent in that area. A band like this understands certain material without explana­tion - it's more intuitive, rather than directed, although there are orchestrated passages as well."

In its original 1985 incarnation, as heard on the Sound Aspects album "Outerbridge Crossing," the Hemingway quintet was primarily comprised of old friends. Ander­son and Helias, the bone and bass of BassDrumBone, were present, along with baritone saxophonist David Mott, who Hemingway had known since the mid-seventies, when the drummer audited Mott's class at Yale University (Mark Helias and Anthony Davis were Yale graduate students at the time, while Hemingway was a working drummer in his native New Haven, Connecticut). Cellist Reijseger, who Hemingway has performed with in several contexts since their initial meeting in New York City with Derek Bailey and Company, is the only returning member on this second quintet album, recorded five years after the first. In part this is a matter of practicality, of maintaining several reliable collaborators so as to maximize work opportunities in Europe and the United States; in part it testifies to Reijseger's status as a "core member" of Hemingway's enterprise. In another sense it is a sign of musical depth, of a body of work that has established its own voice above and beyond the personali­ties of its talented members.

For this listener, the character of the quintet is best defined by the way it balances the contrasting impulses of freedom and form, just as the leader's drumming main­tains a visceral tension between rhythmic patterns and coloration. "I don't like to stay in just one mood or one tempo," Hemingway admits. "I prefer surprises all of the time, which can be created by the melding of textures; and I like shifting tempos. If there is any influence in the quintet's music, it would have to be Charles Mingus, because he's the guy who estab­lished shifting tempos."

The title track illustrates Hemingway's priorities quite convincingly, with its dramatic extended introduction, its evolu­tion into tempo (or, as Hemingway more accurately puts it, "layers of time - at various points we sound like two bands within one"), the thematic richness that recalls Mingus when Reijseger takes the lead, and the manner in which the extended vocabulary of the play­ers allows them to interact with such immediacy. There is also Hemingway's attention to the orchestral possibilities of percus­sion (recalling Sonny Greer's contribution to the Duke Ellington orchestra at times), and the culmi­nating release of Wolter Wierbos' closing trombone solo. As with each of the other compositions, there is still room for the individual musician to expand upon the rich material that Hemingway has provided.

One could not ask for more than what each player brings to Hemingway's music. Dutch cellist Reijseger, the quintet's veteran, is the most obviously astounding; his ease and flexibility whether playing area or pizzicato allow him to roam all over the music, sharing lines and space at various times with the horns, the bass and the percussion. Wierbos, a sonic magician on trombone with his own audacious techniques, is also from the Netherlands, where he is among the most active musicians. Ed Schuller, who only began playing with Hemingway recently, has known the drummer for a long time, and will be best known to listeners for his work with Paul Motian's quintet, Tim Berne, and Night Ark. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, as is Don Byron, one of the players who is making people pay attention to the clarinet once again "I've come to love the clari­net since I formed this band'," says Hemingway, "and Don's presence has allowed me to put clarinet into my newer pieces." The drummer and Byron also work together in the quartet Ten Ren Ren (with Brandon Ross and Mark Dresser). In addition, Byron has been heard with Craig Harris, David Murray, Ralph Peterson, the Mercer Ellington orchestra (where he played Harry Carney's parts), and his own bands, including a Klezmer group that has revived the music of Mickey Katz.

Hemingway has assembled a kaleidoscopic program of music for these players. In addition to the aforementioned "Special Detail," the new works include "Endpiece l," a bristing ensemble creation with the insistent theme providing something of a groove even through the most heated col­lective passages and Schuller tak­ing an emphatic bass solo. "Don feels more like the drummer than I do," the composer comments.

"Third Scape" is the final move­ment of a three-part suite. Its cello part is drawn in part from South African music. In this incarnation, it is a spectacular vehicle for Reijseger. The exotic "Taffia" begins with the steel drum, an instrument that has become an integral part of Hemingway's arsenal. After a shift in mood, the music evolves into a blues that originally concluded another, earlier suite.

The final two pieces have been recorded before, in versions with Anderson and Helias. Compari­sons underscore how the quintet enables Hemingway to revisit older material productively.

"Wooferlo" is the title track from BassDrumBone's 1987 Soul Note album, where it was heard in a more genteel version. Where the trio always played the piece in dif­ferent tempos, this more forma­lized arrangement, which begins with muscular swing and explodes through the horn and drum solos, derives from a performance at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. "Beef 2" was heard on the 1978 Auricle album "Oahspe," and is one of the titles Hemingway saves for encores. It was not originally intended to be included in this col­lection; but the tremendous spirit of this live performance, with its brighter-than-usual tempo and its explosive solos (particularly Byron's, which vaults from the basement to space), made it the logical closer.

As 1991 begins, Hemingway is committed to making his quintet heard. The band should make two trips to Europe this year instead of the usual one, and a series of U.S. dates are also being sched­uled. No doubt this long awaited second quintet set will also help spread the word. There will be other bands and other projects for Hemingway, to be sure, and they will all be worth hearing; but a band this unique, this deep, and this satisfying is all Hemingway needs to keep us listening.

Bob Blumenthal
January 1991