Here is another rather scarce , lp , by the enigmatic Michael J Smith , whom ,most readers may recognise as a major Collaborator of both Steve Lacy& Anthony Braxton, and more recently Noah Howard.
I love this record , which is a further installment of what smith calls his Non Notational system of composition 'geomusic(S)'.
There are no liner notes to this or the other 2 Smith Lp's in my possesion , but his methodology like those of his namesake Master-Wadada, and perhaps Cecil Taylor seems to involve organically evolving free improvisations stemming from repeated fragments of melody , and the inversions of those motifs and patterns.
Some of these pieces evolve from simple structures , becoming squalls of almost branch like complexity , very reminiscent of say , a contemporary composer in the vein of Brian Fernyhough.
A Couple of tracks hint at a much more firmly rooted tonality ,standard song structures and more primal Ethnological explorations.
For this record he has 2 very fine collaborators in Zbigniew Namyslowski ,an early major collaborator of Krisztof Komeda,Tomasz Stanko and Smith himself .
Jacek Bednarek , was a Polish bassist, who's work I'm not all that familiar with , although he does play on the incredible New Jazz ensemble's Burning Flowers set ,Generously shared by Onxdlib a few pages back.
Despite being Smiths compositions , this record has the feel of a real collaborative effort , with the very distinctive contributions of Bednarek and Namyslowski , essential to it's over all success.
Smith , now in his seventies , resides in Tyringe in Sweden, and apparently continues to compose and record.
His internet presence apart from a myspace page is virtually nil , and even there , one sees no reference to his most recent recordings ...
a pity , I for one would love to hear more recent 'Geomusics'
a very nice record .
On another note iwould like to mention that i once had an lp on Storyville , from 1975 of Smith's Featuring Lawrence Cook and Kent Carter...its something i would Appreciate hearing again , so please in the event that you have it and are able to share it please consider this a request... i cant even remember the name of the record ....TIT i think it was called , though i may be wrong .
If you want us to keep sharing Here .... please consider Sharing with us !
players
Michael Smith - piano;
Zbigniew Namyslowski - alto saxophone, cello, flute;
Jacek Bednarek - bass;
