Label: Corbett vs. Dempsey

故Mars Williamsのアーカイヴ録音シリーズ第一弾!!シカゴのフリー・ジャズ・グループNRGアンサンブル、ニューウェイヴ・バンドのウェイトレシズの活動で知られ、2023年11月に他界したサクソフォニストMars Williams。米Corbett vs. Dempseyが2024年に始動した、氏の関連音源をアーカイブするシリーズの第一作目[I Know You Are But What Am I?]。ブロッツマンらとも絡みあった米ジャズドラマー/パーカッショニストHamid Drakeとのデュオ編成で挑んだ1996年ライブ録音であり、Mars Williamsの激しいリードワークが特殊な緊迫感と迫力を与えた名演。尚、このシリーズはMars Williams本人が亡くなる直前に厳選していた音源をリリースしていく模様。





At the tail end of 1996, saxophonist Mars Williams and drummer Hamid Drake took the tall corner stage at Chicago's Empty Bottle for two sets of duets. The rock club had just started a weekly Jazz & Improvised Music Series, curated by Ken Vandemark and John Corbett, which would run for nearly a decade. This rare pairing brought together two pivotal figures in the city's creative music scene, both of whom had extensive experience in diverse areas of music, from the free jazz focus of this intimate encounter to Mars's stints in rock with the Waitresses and the Psychedelic Furs and Hamid's work in Mandingo Griot Society, playing in reggae house bands, and lending rhythms to hits by Herbie Hancock. As eclectic as these inputs were, in the deep souls of Williams and Drake they added to the players' burgeoning inventive resources, rather than urging the players to pastichery. In the venerable dialogical lineage of saxophone and drum kit, these two contemporary ninjas indeed invented their own approach, very different, for instance, from other such duo settings for Drake, like those with Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, or Ken Vandermark. Here, the fiery reedwork of Williams lends the concert a special urgency and punch, Drake's funk trap imbued with G-force, his cymbals ringing with nuance, his toms speaking like a whole West African drum choir. Williams responds to this positive energy with one of his most commanding performances, starting with his composition "The Worm" (written for Dennis Rodman of the Bulls), and continuing through a series of phenomenal improvisations. Released by CvsD as part of a series of archival Mars Williams CDs, hand selected by Williams shortly before his untimely death in 2023, I Know You Are But What Am I? goes on the record proclaiming the lasting power of Mars Williams, especially in the company of a master like Hamid Drake.