\u2022 Mansarda Records | 2013<\/p>\n
\u2022 Formato: CD, envelope<\/p>\n
Building on a famous quip from soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, that \u201cthere was something on the other side\u201d of Monk\u2019s compositions, it is often true that knowing the ins and outs of a form are a way to push through towards the next thing \u2014 the next interest, the next level of artistic engagement.<\/p>\n
Chinese Cookie Poets, an electric guitar-bass-drums trio from Rio de Janeiro, hold an impulsive cut-up sensibility that is reminiscent of Oval\u2019s Markus Popp employing the no-wave immediacy of DNA \u2014 indeed, they\u2019ve collaborated with Arto Lindsay. On Danza Cava, their second full-length and fourth release altogether, CCP are heard on six improvisational fragments joined by fellow Brazilian trumpeter Nicolau Lafet\u00e1, who is a post-Bill Dixon player along the lines of Jacob Wick, Nate Wooley and Mazen Kerbaj.<\/p>\n
Lafet\u00e1’s incisive, crumpled volleys glint off the Renato Godoy\u2019s surging percussion while guitar and electric bass ferret and hack on\u201cLapetus l\u2019uccello,\u201d before the ensemble drifts into a fusion-y chug. Gone as soon as it begins, there\u2019s a piled and brief charge in \u201cIl semi-affetto degli argonauti\u201d before the quartet unfurls the impressive and spare \u201cTiao Yue.\u201dPapery chortles and kisses building into an explosive fracas, Lafet\u00e1 leaps outfront alongside clattering rhythms and the skittering guitar of Marcos Campello on \u201cChang\u2019e III,\u201d bassist Felipe Zen\u00edcola thwacking mightily below and around the ensemble.<\/p>\n
Certainly free rock enters into the picture across these six pieces, but there is an element of dynamic group listening and patience that has its own galvanic power apart from punkish vigor. Furthermore, the addition of an unpredictable brass voice has added a fascinating element to their codified yet open group language.<\/p>\n
It will be interesting to hear where Chinese Cookie Poets head next, but for now we have a wonderful, cherished document of genre-busting brazilian free music. Ears should be open worldwide to these four important voices.
\nClifford Allen, Brooklyn, NY.<\/p>\n
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