Dedication Suite

Label:
Umbrella - 031

Web:
www.umbrellarecords.com

Personnel:
Dave Fox, keyboard

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Chosen by allaboutjazz.com for their New and Noteworthy section in the December issue
By Glenn Astarita

Dave Fox goes it alone during this solo piano exposition. The album comprises nine pieces that are engineered upon intersecting improvisations, shocking dynamics and slanted rhythmic effects. He alternates between prepared piano type implementations, free-jazz workouts and flurrying crescendos. In some instances, Fox gets into grooves where he seems to be having conversations with himself via left-hand, right-hand contrasts and probing thought-processes. It's a rather heady sequence of events and demands the listeners' utmost concentration.

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Dedication Suite & the Foxbourne Chroncles Review: Signal to Noise , October 2006
By Mark Medwin

These two new releases on Ian Davis’ Umbrella imprint blur the boundaries dividing improvisation and composition. The Foxbourne Chrponicles veers between transcendental beauty and hilarity (typical of anything involving Eugene Chadbourne.) The major portion of this disc is devoted to Fox’s “Sonata for Piano and Banjo (Quasi-Improvised)”. It’s a four movement structure on paper, and out of conventional order to boot, as Fox commits the unforgiveable sin of putting his Rondo before his funeral march – for shame! The music goes some way toward redemption, as it’s a lot of fun throughout, alternating passages of obvious planning, like the opening exercises on single notes and dyads, with folky/jazzy sections of zany improve. I love the page turns and the spoken word fragments, delivered simultaneously in Chadbourne’s empty-hipster drawl and Fox’s quasi-academic leconicism. The disc’s varied repertoire sustains interest, highlighted by Chadbourne’s almost frightening dismantling of Bill Evans “Time Remembered.” Fox and Chadbourne share a love for whimsical irreverence that serves their partnership well.

Fox’s playing is restrained but intense in a way that Chadbourne’s is not, timbral exploration abounding as he spends as much time inside the piano as at the keyboard. This is certainly the case with his solo offering, Dedication Suite. From the very opening gestures, full of space and somehow comfortably solitary, Fox elicits an unbelievable series of multivalently fluctuating overtones, rendering the concert grand liquidly percussive, tam-tam fashion, invoking John Cage’s orientalism and Sorabji’s opulence in one breath. Cage’s shadow certainly looms large over “Dedication #1” most notably his early prepared piano works, but Fox augments the sound with layers of taps, rattles, knocks and rhythmic scrapes, his textures even more “chromatic” than Cage’s; the switch to a louder jazz-inflected rhetoric midstream is more refreshing given what precedes and succeeds it. Fox’s sense of harmony is no less inventive than his ear for timbre, and the two other pieces in the dedication series demonstrate a witty and innovative approach to motivic and scalar development. “Tocotta” in particular is harmonically fresh, beginning decidedly in D major without a chord having ever been sounded, branching out in chromatically and technically facile ways that would make the masters of the genre proud. Both discs are well recorded, and while Fox’s solo effort is a bit dry for my taste, any more echo would muddy details that shouldn’t be obscured. Umbrella keeps dropping strong releases that fall, if uneasily, into the pan-idiomatic bag, and both sets are worth repeat listenings.

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Dedication Suite Review: The Lamp , December 2005
By Eddie Becton

Pianist Dave Fox's latest release Dedication Suite , is reminiscent of New York City's creative jazz scene. Fox, however, resides in North Carolina, scores of miles from the Big Apple. Where many jazz fans embrace soft melodies and rhythms of the likes of Horace Silver and McCoy Tyner, Fox not only pushes the envelope, he simply ignites it.

At times, Fox displays subtle harmonies and complex rhythms, and just as the listener begins to settle in, bang, a completely different direction. For example, on Dedication #2: Impromptu , Fox begins with intermittent haunting chords and then settles into an improvisational massaging of the piano chords – literally. In other words, piano notes are interspersed with Fox plucking the piano strings, which make for a collage of harsh tones.

By contrast, Interlude #2: Romance Todeslied , shows a gentle, harmonically emotional side of the pianist. Much of this piece, just under four minutes, is relatively soothing, and demonstrates that Fox does have command of his instrument, it's just that he's playing his way, unabashedly and unapologetically. Similarly, Dedication #3: Tocatta , exemplifies his gentle side and that he's not solely concerned with shocking listeners with unpredictable chord changes and impromptu sounds.

Usually, a production of this type is an acquired taste, largely because of its unpredictable nature and chord structures. The harsh tones may not work for everyone, but, overall, Dedication Suite should appeal to listeners who crave improvisational eclectic sounds. While some may find the myriad chords and changes too challenging, this disc will appeal to fans of avant-garde piano structures, and perhaps even more to musicians of the creative scene so vibrant in New York City, e.g., Vision Fest. If you're looking for mellifluous tones and harmonies ascribed to icon McCoy Tyner, this disc won't work for you. If, however, you enjoy myriad structures and sounds, this disc may prove to be palatable.
Track Listing: Prologue and Innovation/ Mayday/ Dedication #1: Harmonious Prelude/ Interlude #1: m.s.m.g./Dedication #2: Impromptu/ Interlude #2: Romances, Todeslied/ Dedication #3: Toccata/ Finale: Punteado and Susteniendo/ Conclusion and Evocation.

Personnel: Dave Fox – piano.