Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Mike Nielsen Quartet: Acoustic Sound Recipes

158

Mike Nielsen Quartet: Acoustic Sound Recipes

By

Sign in to view read count
Mike Nielsen Quartet: Acoustic Sound Recipes
In 2005, American expat singer Ellen Demos released Osmosis (Self Produced), featuring Ireland's Mike Nielsen. The Irish guitarist now leads the aptly titled travelogue, Acoustic Sound Recipes, an aural journey through many different styles of music, often divided on ethnic borders.

The instrumentation is spare, amounting to only Nielsen's guitar, Demos' voice, Brendan Doyle's clarinets and percussionist Shane O'Donavan's thumping. Without much baggage to carry, this group is well fit to interpret whatever music they wish. The ten original compositions are lengthy considerations (all longer than five minutes) of different climates, with "African Way" depicting a broad savanna of rhythms and sounds, accented by Demos' wordless vocals. The sound is an arid wind blowing.

"Temple Bar Monk" is a clever take off on Thelonious Monk" "fractured symmetry" method of composition, and Nielsen's lyrics are quite clever also, while "Expectations" is an extended elegy that pits Demos' voice against Doyle's clarinet. The duo sets up a rhythmic and tonal landscape into which Nielsen's acoustic guitar collides and eventually assimilates. O'Donavan strategically places cymbal eruptions throughout the piece, accenting emotive sections.

The crazy, complex hard bop of "W.B. Will Haunt Us" comes by way of Eastern Europe, devolving into some thrillingly noisy modern jazz, all banging gongs and clanging clarinets. Nielsen plays wicked, single-note runs after Demos' vocal flights of fancy. Doyle, for his part, thinks he is Jimmy Giuffre circa 1961. The song is a "Hot Mess," in today's vernacular, while the lyrics to the attractive "Innocence" are the album's most straightforward.

Demos shares a direction of jazz vocal investigation with Gretchen Parlato, expanding the perimeter of no-words vocals, scat, and vocalese. With several recordings under their collective belts, Nielsen and Demos are due some street cred.

Track Listing

African Way; Rigby Sketch; Temple Bar Monk; Expectations; W.B. Will Haunt Us; Introspection; Innocence; India Vibe 2010; Autumn Trees; Kopanypso.

Personnel

Ellen Demos: voice; Mike Nielsen: acoustic guitar; Brendan Doyle: clarinets; Shane O'Donovan: percussion.

Album information

Title: Acoustic Sound Recipes | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Self Produced

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Fiesta at Caroga
Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective
Fellowship
David Gibson
Immense Blue
Olie Brice / Rachel Musson / Mark Sanders

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.