Featuring:
Jason Stein - bass clarinet
Ben Cruz - guitar
Emerson Hunton - drums
| 1. And When Circumstances Arise | 6:13 |
| 2. Threadbare 02 | 8:45 |
| 3. 70 Degrees and Counting Down |
4:59 |
| 4. 24 Meshed Veils |
4:55 |
| 5. Funny Thing Is |
3:52 |
| 6. Threadbare |
7:16 |
| 7. Silver Dollar |
6:26 |
| 8. Untitled |
8:00 |
George Grella - New York City Jazz Record
The bass clarinet-guitar-drums trio Threadbare is much more in Stein’s wheelhouse. There are grooves on Silver Dollar, edged with plenty of metal and even punk rock ideas and a heavy feel that’s a nice change of pace to the majority of modern jazz. Having the groove there, even the sludge of the title track, makes an enormous difference, bringing out the best in Stein; he may be one of many quality musical thinkers who excel when responding to the stimulus of the world around them. This band is bedrock for Stein’s musicality. The strong beats and pulses bring out a subtle change in his articulation that makes for a dramatic separation between this album and the other two—stand-alone notes, or ones that initiate phrases, have a clear, measured attack, not emphasis but the energy of a band playing within structure. “Threadbare” is a critical microcosm of his qualities, with a long, free opening that moves toward and away the attention, then a crushing, complex groove that launches Stein, guitarist Ben Cruz and drummer Emerson Hunton onto a higher level. There’s a sense of variety among the tracks, which make this a substantial statement from what sounds like a working band.
Raphaël Benoit - Citizen Jazz
Originally from Washington and based in Chicago, clarinetist Jason Stein has a background as solid as it is dashing, stamped notably by Northern Spy, Clean Feed or as here at NoBusiness Records. We could hear him within Boris Hauf's sextet, alongside Ivo Perelman and Rudi Mahall, Mike Reed, or in his Locksmith Isidore with Jason Roebke and the formidable Mike Pride. But the list would be far too long if it were intended to be exhaustive.
This time, we find him in a trio initiated by drummer Emerson Hunton and guitarist Ben Cruz. Members of another industrial pop trio named Moontype, the two young musicians composed all of the tracks on Silver Dollar , either together or separately. We are light years away from Moontype, and yet, this unexpected launch into orbit could hardly work better. Often compared to Eric Dolphy or Steve Lacy, Jason Stein is a rare musician, capable of extracting religiously apocryphal sounds from his bass clarinet. He finds in Hunton and Cruz two worthy companions to set off on musical terrains rarely trodden with such ease and cohesion.
Marked by the blatant mark of a prodigal post-rock, which does not owe everything to the saturated guitar of Ben Cruz, Silver Dollar develops a free-jazz with great strides, which spreads its spiritual jazz on the arid soil of doom. But where Jamie Saft had skillfully found the recipe for a dark and melancholic Jazz Doom with Swami Lateplate, Threadbare seizes the passion of Black Sabbath, and is not afraid to take the muddier paths. The eponymous title plunges us into the middle of grumpy stoner, a sort of virtuoso sludge. And that had to be invented.
The trio never ceases to carry us away in the clarity of this music that it maintains even when it shakes its toy in a joyful mess. So much so that even when chaos sets in - and it is not shy - the message is never confused. We will not accuse this free jazz of elitism without being dishonest. Such connivance in improvisation is rare, the three musicians seem connected, as if crossed by the same spirit. Threadbare is incontestably a masterstroke, in this case of disciples who have found both their master and their equal
