''Utility Hitter'' is an album by American jazz reedist Ken Vandermark, which was recorded in 1995 and released on the Quinnah label. He leads the Barrage Double Trio, composed of one bass-drums-reeds trio (Nate McBride, Curt Newton, Vandermark) from Boston and other (

Kent Kessler Kent Kessler (born January 28, 1957) is an American jazz double-bassist. Career Although born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Kessler grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He began playing trombone at age ten. When he was thirteen, he moved with his f ...

Hamid Drake Hamid Drake (born August 3, 1955) is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. By the close of the 1990s, Hamid Drake was widely regarded as one of the best percussionists in jazz and improvised music. Incorporating Afro-Cuban, Indian, and Afr ...

, Mars Williams) from Chicago. The whole band plays six Vandermark compositions, the remaining five tracks are short improvisations: one for each of the trios and three duos.

Reception

'' The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' describes the album as "monumental" and states "The dedications to Mingus, Andrew Hill, Ornette,

Cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

and

Ayler Ayler is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert Ayler (1936–1970), American jazz saxophonist, singer, and composer * Donald Ayler (1942–2007), American jazz trumpeter, brother of Albert * Ethel Ayler (1930–2018), America ...

are marvellous, but so is the revisionist hard-bop-as-raging-fury of their tribute to

Griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...

and Lockjaw." The '' Down Beat'' review by Aaron Cohen notes that the album "draws on Ornette Coleman's '' Free Jazz'' double-group assembly as a blueprint" and claims "It takes considerable nerve to emulate a legendary configuration, and Barrage Double Trio demonstrates that the experiment should be tried more often."Cohen, Aaron. ''Utility Hitter'' review. ''Down Beat'' June 97: page 54. Print.

Track listing

:''All compositions by Kent Vandermark except as indicated'' # "Over and Both" – 5:15 # "Chicago Trio" (Drake, Kessler, Williams) – 2:39 # "Agamemnon Sleeps" – 15:46 # "Bass Duo" (Kessler, McBride) – 3:14 # "Turn Your Head" – 4:49 # "Tenor Duo" (Williams, Vandermark) – 1:56 # "There Is No Reason" – 8:51 # "Drum Duo" (McBride, Newton) – 3:31 # "East River Suite" – 12:40 # "Boston Trio" (McBride, Newton, Vandermark) – 2:19 # "Polarity" – 6:12

Personnel

*Nate McBride – acoustic bass, electric bass *

–

trap set A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player ( drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsti ...

, hand drums *Curt Newton – trap set, percussion * Ken Vandermark – tenor saxophone, B-flat clarinet,

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

– acoustic bass * Mars Williams – tenor saxophone,

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

, B-flat clarinet

References

{{Authority control 1996 albums Ken Vandermark albums