Peace Planet / Box of Light (AUM Fidelity)

Whit Dickey / The Tao Quartets

Released July 5, 2019

Allmusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2019

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/07MTdfTVSQv3ZnessgWl0k?si=xhQLm03NQyWVFAX9iev8Mw

About:

This is a united & mighty pair of brand new studio albums from drummer-bandleader Whit Dickey which were created together with two distinct yet interrelated Quartets. The two works represent the Yin and the Yang respectively, the inseparable and complementary opposites, following an ancient and enduring understanding of the world. Dickey chose Tao Quartets as the name for these groups / this specific work as the Tao wholly incorporates an understanding of this eternal dynamic, and it is here to be heard.
As he states in the liner notes, “these albums together are two parts of a whole; it depends on which part of the total vibration the listener wants to tune into. One features a slightly behind-the-beat Yin thing, and the other a bit ahead-of-the-beat Yang approach. It’s really a question of trying the find the center. My playing doesn’t represent the center in either one; rather, the slight differences between the two in approaching it.”
All involved here have long been deep seekers of truth through sound, and between them is a luminous web of deeply affecting work, which now spans decades. This pair presents their very latest work together.
Representing the Yin is Peace Planet: a fluid, supple and dynamic flow of instantly composed wonder; each of the pieces presents as a mini-suite, with astonishing cohesiveness. Gentle lyricism and rhythmic/melodic invention abound. Also of note here is “Suite for DSW” – a paean to Dickey/Shipp/Parker’s former bandleader, David S. Ware, whose profound and enduring inspiration is deeply felt by all.
Box of Light brings the Yang herein, with fiery energy and crackling interplay to the fore. The inspiration of Dickey’s early studies with Milford Graves are clear here, as is the precedent set by such as the New York Art Quartet (feat. Graves/ Tchicai / Rudd). It is likewise clear that the idea of total sensitivity, to each and from each musician toward the evolution of the music, is also to the fore.
After an extended period of realignment with his central creative essence, it was AUM’s great pleasure to present the re-emergence of Whit Dickey as a leader in 2017 with the exquisitely rendered Vessel in Orbit, a trio work featuring Shipp and violist Mat Maneri. Very thankfully – as can be heard on these brand new recordings (and those that are to come) – that album was just the beginning of his creative re-birth. Enjoy!

Track Listing:

Disc 1

Peace Planet

1. Peace Planet (Whit Dickey) 10:11

2. Seventh Sun (Whit Dickey) 10:36

3. Ancient Monument (Whit Dickey) 09:57

4. Suite for DSW (Whit Dickey) 14:00

5. Blossom Time (Whit Dickey) 08:59

Disc 2

Box of Light

1. Eye Opener (Whit Dickey) 04:20

2. Ellipse: Passage Through (Whit Dickey) 07:26

3. Ethereality (Whit Dickey) 08:08

4. Box of Light (Whit Dickey) 12:55

5. Rotation Steps (Whit Dickey) 07:49

6. Jungle Suite (Whit Dickey) 12:06

Personnel:

Peace Planet (1–5)
Matthew Shipp: piano
Rob Brown: alto saxophone
William Parker: bass
Whit Dickey: drums

Box of Light (1–6)
Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Steve Swell: trombone
Michael Bisio: bass
Whit Dickey: drums

Recorded during Winter 2018/19, at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY

Produced by Whit Dickey,
Recorded & Mixed by Jim Clouse
Artwork/design by Ming@AUM

Review:

As left-field jazz fans know, drummer-composer Whit Dickey has amassed a sizable catalog of recordings as a bandleader, in addition to several dozen more as a collaborator and sideman with David S. Ware, Matthew Shipp, Ivo Perelman, and Joe Morris among them. Peace Planet and Box of Light were recorded by his Tao Quartets, whose membership varies. He and saxophonist Rob Brown are the common denominators, while Shipp and bassist William Parker fill out Peace Planet, and trombonist Steve Swell and bassist Michael Bisio appear on Box of Light. As might be expected, the music on these albums varies significantly yet remains inexorably linked by the drummer’s and saxophonist’s presences. Dickey composed everything on these dates, recorded during the winter of 2018 and 2019 in Brooklyn. The relationships between these musicians are longstanding. Dickey, Shipp, Brown, and Parker began working together during the late ’80s; Dickey met Bisio shortly thereafter, and Swell during the ’90s on N.Y.C. downtown scene.

Peace Planet is constructed suite-like, with each piece flowing forward and dissolving into its successor. Dickey’s playing identifies a more in-the-pocket feel, and his sense of swing unites the interplay between Shipp and Parker — check the final section of the opening title cut as Brown’s Charlie Parker-esque melodic lines rise above, colored by sharp legato phrasing and an evolutionary harmonic architecture. The drummer’s sense of elastic time is showcased by using the entirety of his kit, whether he’s feinting and filling, double-timing, or creating points of emphasis in the shifting instrumental voices (as on “Suite for DSW”).

Box of Light is more raucous and angular but no less compelling. On “Eye-Opener,” Brown’s Monk-like lyric is joined contrapuntally by Swell’s bleating low-end; the pair join the interplay between Dickey and Bisio. On “Ethereality,” Brown finds a bluesy, Sonny Rollins-esque phrase that coaxes Bisio’s arco to highlight the jam’s varied harmonic elements. Dickey’s hi-hat and ride cymbals are given added dimension via his prodigious use of tom-toms. When Swell enters, the piece alters form, and drones mantra-like into space — one can hear traces of the influence of the New York Art Quartet’s edgeless Mohawk linked, with Dickey’s modern ears, to the historic free jazz past. Bisio shines, giving the drummer an added textural body by allowing his kit a grounding, song-like emphasis that actually swings. Disc two’s title track commences as a funeral dirge before transmuting into a fluid, action-packed post-bop rumble with glorious soloing from all players. Dickey has spent a lifetime getting here, where his playing and compositional acumen are on the same plane. On Peace Planet/Box of Light, the drummer takes his musicality to another level, vast as a rainbow, intimate as a prayer, and flowing like a river.

Thom Jurek (Allmusic)