SAMUEL BLASER

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CD: STREAM I BANDCAMP

Audio Rebel notes

If world happenings were sound events, a global pandemic would be one hell of a clam. Discordant and ugly, it’s hard to imagine anyone making anything positive out of one, but jazz is all about the quick pivot that appositely resolves a potentially wrong note. The international music business shutdown that has accompanied attempts to flatten the COVID-19 curve may have cleared Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser’s performance and release schedules, but it has also given him the time to revisit his recording archive and select some hidden treasures, which he has placed on the virtual shelves of Blaser Music.

Audio Rebel, the digital imprint’s first release, is an artifact of Blaser’s first Brazilian tour. In 2013 he and French guitarist Marc Ducret were invited to play at Sesc São Paulo, a cultural center that serves the nation’s biggest city, and scheduled two other gigs around it. This recording is taken from the third, which took place at the intimate studio and concert space, Audio Rebel, in Rio De Janeiro. It reveals the essence of a partnership that began in 2009, appropriately enough, with a duo concert, and has been further documented by three CDs on Hat Hut Records.

The first two, Boundless (2011) and As The Sea (2012), are quartet performances of ambitious, album-length suites which are densely packed with musical information. But the music on Audio Rebel shows that the duo’s fluid interplay can be just as complete. Their give and take is evident from the first seconds of the title track, as guitar swells and muted trombone growls undulate in time with each other like ranked waves. Here and elsewhere, the two men pass the tasks of support and elaboration like a couple football players kicking the ball back and forth. Sometimes the exchanges are so quick, one wonders if the tape has been sped up. But on “L'ampleur des dégâts,” they’re more patient, giving each musician time to bluesy intensity about of the theme. And on “La voie grise,” they fall into unison to wring maximum yearning from the melody before letting it subside like the last coals of a fading fire. Despite the combativeness of its name, Audio Rebel is an expression of purposefully applied intimacy.

Bill Meyer

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