By Troy Dostert

The 2013 launch of Matt Mitchell’s chief debut, Fiction (Pi
Recordings, 2013), introduced the arrival of a daring new presence in avant-garde
jazz: a pianist whose beautiful technical facility might coexist with an
infectious rhythmic sensibility, creating music that was demanding and
generally even forbidding, however to not the level of inscrutability. To
pursue his imaginative and prescient, Mitchell wanted a sympathetic drummer, one able to
navigating Mitchell’s bizarrely knotty compositions whereas one way or the other discovering
the occasional groove, and on Fiction that was Ches Smith,
starting a partnership that would unfold fruitfully over the next
decade. Smith would seem on Mitchell’s A Pouting Grimace (Pi,
2017) and Mitchell would return the favor on Smith’s

Path of Seven Colours

(Pyroclastic, 2021). However Mitchell has at all times had a knack for locating
supremely gifted and adventurous drummers: Dan Weiss was featured on
Mitchell’s Vista Accumulation (Pi, 2015) and Kate Gentile was a
pivotal contributor on each A Pouting Grimace and its follow-up,
Phalanx Ambassadors (2019). Certainly, so profitable was Mitchell’s
partnership with Gentile that they launched the formidable six-disc

Snark Horse

(Pi) in 2021, a stunningly prodigious assortment of duo recordings. Given
Mitchell’s fondness for percussionists, then, it’s no shock to see him
persevering with the piano-drums format on his newest double-disc effort,

Rectangular Aplomb, the place he as soon as once more companions with Gentile (on disc one) and Smith (on
disc two).

Like Fiction, Rectangular Aplomb has the texture of a group of
etudes, whereby Mitchell works out his concepts in dialog along with his
companions with a relentless tenacity, every idea explored exhaustively
earlier than transferring on to the following. One will get the sense that Mitchell is engaged
on this exercise as a lot for himself as for his listeners, to push himself
as far as he can go. And it’s fairly a journey, as Mitchell is in
unparalleled kind right here. Thankfully, Gentile and Smith are each bit his
equal, assembly his feints and parries with loads of deft maneuverings of
their very own, to not point out matching his seemingly limitless stamina. “Slarm
Biffle,” the spotlight of the twelve items with Gentile, sees Mitchell in
a fearsome showdown with the drummer, whose punchy assault retains tempo with
Mitchell’s tireless interrogations for nearly fourteen minutes, with an
indirect rhythmic logic that one way or the other is smart regardless of its bewildering
permutations. Gentile brings an incessant vitality and virtually locomotive
momentum to a lot of her twelve cuts, however her refined nuances are spectacular
too, as on “Blinkered Hoopla,” the place she appears perpetually within the course of
of each establishing and undermining the piece’s rhythmic heart, or the
subdued “Oneiric Argot,” the place she chooses to let Mitchell’s pensive
ruminations take heart stage, limiting herself to supplying shade and
texture.

Smith is simply as efficient, maybe a bit extra restrained than Gentile, however
with craftiness and creativeness galore. “The Amused,” the first of the
twelve items with Smith, is a remarkably advanced investigation, with a
number of rhythmic detours, every of which the drummer one way or the other negotiates
in excellent sync with the pianist. And on a number of tracks, like “Doleful”
and “Numen,” Smith’s vibes (on the former) and glockenspiel (on the latter)
permit transient respites for exploring much less tumultuous terrain. But Smith has
loads of methods up his sleeve as effectively, as on “Inveiglers,” the place he
adroitly retains tempo with Mitchell’s fleet upper-register runs whereas one way or the other
making a little bit of room for a fugitive funk beat to rear its head.

It’s value stressing that these are twenty-four well-wrought compositions,
tightly constructed and with a powerful precision that rewards shut
listening. It isn’t unbridled freedom that’s being celebrated right here, however
quite an uncompromising depth of musicianship—and the excellent pairing
of a demanding repertoire with these clearly greatest suited to taking part in it.
Whereas it’s at instances an arduous pay attention, and a variety of music to digest, it’s
a credit score to Mitchell and his colleagues that they’re persevering with to search out
new methods to problem each themselves and their listeners.