Greg Ward - Clean on the Corner '2012

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. The Lady Has a Bomb
02. Old
03. December?
04. Where the Story Ends
05. Sharon
06. House of Three Smiles
07. The Ephemeral Words of Ruth
08. Warming Down


 moreWith the band’s initial three-album mission completed in a
dizzying two years, complemented by a hectic touring schedule, Reed envisioned
their next album benefiting from a much more leisurely pace. “I originally
had taken to the idea of recording the fourth PP&T installment over the course
of a year,” Reed writes in the album’s liner notes. “We would
record in various locations with guests as it presented itself. I’d also
come up with music not to complete an album project but just for the sake of
writing or discovering a new tune! After a while we would have that brand new
record and a new process of working on a project.”

Time, however, is a commodity that few musicians can spare, much less one as
in-demand as Reed. Beside PP&T, he remains an integral part of the Chicago music
scene as both performer, in a staggering variety of contexts, and as presenter,
working on the Umbrella and Pitchfork music festivals and co-programming (with
cornetist Josh Berman) the Sunday Transmission Series at the Hungry Brain for
the past eleven years.

But Reed insists that his busy schedule was not the prime factor in Clean on the
Corner being recorded at a much more breakneck pace than originally planned,
crafted in ten hours over three studio sessions. “The forces behind my
sudden change in direction are varied,” he writes, “but none are
musical. Some people react to life by acting out or thrill seeking – I
make things.”

What he made turned out to be eight vital new tunes, six originals and the two
aforementioned rediscoveries, with the stellar PP&T quartet – Reed,
saxophonists Greg Ward and Tim Haldeman, and bassist Jason Roebke, along with
special guests Berman and pianist Craig Taborn on two tracks apiece.

“I’m never disappointed with his boundless yet humanistic
abilities,” Reed says of Taborn, whose collaborators include Tim Berne,
Chris Potter, and James Carter. “He’s one of those great examples
of a person who can fit anywhere.” The pianist finds his place with
PP&T’s history-spanning approach immediately, adding dense clusters to
the hard-charging “Sharon” and spinning a mesmerizing web through
“The Ephemeral Words of Ruth.”

Berman, meanwhile, adds an intimate, street-corner charm to “House of
Three Smiles,” a piece based on vibraphonist (and frequent Reed
collaborator) Jason Adasiewicz’s solo on his tune “I Hope She Is
Awake,” the original version of which also featured Berman and Roebke. The
cornetist returns to draw the album to a close with the brief “Warming
Down,” which replicates the final moments of the pair’s Sunday
night performances at the Hungry Brain.

The remainder of the stylistically diverse album includes the swaggering swing
of opener “The Lady Has a Bomb,” the bleak, frosty
“December?” whose question mark calls the “holly jolly”
aspects of the season into doubt; and “Where the Story Ends,” which
brackets the quartet’s free-form dialogue between lovely, hushed
elegance.

No longer an archaeological dig into Chicago’s musical treasures, People,
Places & Things continue nonetheless to find inspiration in the city’s
rich jazz heritage. On Clean on the Corner, Reed shows that his band is more
than ready to not just spotlight that legacy, but to create its own. 



Mike Reed's People, Places & Things - Clean on the Corner.rar - 247.8 MB

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