(Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Improvisation) The Ames Room (Clayton Thomas, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Will Guthrie) - Bird Dies - 2011, WEB, FLAC (tracks), lossless

The 'saxophone trio' pioneered by Sonny Rollins in the mid 50's, was taken as the format of choice by the leading saxophone players of the 70's. The removal of the harmony instrument and the strictures of eventemperament, liberated the potential horn and rhythm section - as the TRIO AIR with Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins, and the seminal 3D Family by David Murray, Andrew Cyrill and Johnny Dyani so aptly attest. The Ames Room with saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet, bassist Clayton Thomas and drummer Will Guthrie, definitely draw on this lineage, but far from being another 'Neo-NewThing' tribute band, The Ames Room pursue a radical music that attempts to make the unique, personal and devastating impression, the aesthetic leap, that the AACM, the Loft Scene, and for example, the minimalist community made in their most feverish moments of creativity.
All three members are well documented players and researchers in the music we broadly call 'experimental' - working across the spectrum of electro-acoustic composition, to noise, to 'Improvised Music'. In this trio the listening experience is reduced, amplified and codified. This recording documents their final concert of a two week tour, where the literally bloodied mouth and fingers and hands of the trio were at their most precise.

Encompassed by the 46-minute marathon title track, the live performance captured on Bird Dies is irrefutably exhilarating. Featuring French alto saxophonist Jean Luc Guionnet‘s lead voice, The Ames Room embarks on a splintered approach to free-bop, propelled by drummer Will Guthrie‘s penetrating beats and bassist Clayton Thomas’ pumping bottom.
Perhaps the album title serves as an antithesis to the “Bird Lives” maxim ascribed to bop’s troubled genius Charlie Parker, where the hustling, pawning of saxophones, and recurring substance abuse led to his passing. This fast-paced memorial is conceivably exercised on a broad plane via the trio’s loose, but pummeling ostinatos, nestled within a fractured loop of concepts.
Guionnet’s rough-hewn tone is built on animated and staggered phrasings. Throughout the band’s relentless momentum, he carves out a tumultuous soundscape, filtered through the buoyant rhythmic element. Repetitive to some extent, the in-your-face gait offers a forum for extensive improvisation; nonetheless, it’s a high-impact endeavor that must have kept the audience on the edge of its seats.
The musicians exude angst, chaos and a locomotive-like cyclical impetus, tinted with a guttural underpinning via blistering choruses and understated variations. A relatively young band, the artists stay on target by engineering a consistent foundation, and do not simply waver into a free-form abyss during the course of the proceedings. The Ames Room provides a tensely articulated mosaic of sound, transposed into a blueprint for originality, which is a commendable attribute when considering these avant-garde-based endeavors. ~ Glenn Astarita

Power trios come with various sounds and sizes. The Ames Room may be small but their sound is bold and forceful. This French/Australian trio lays into you like the first time you got beat up as a kid. It’s sheer brute force and once you finally give in there is this little blissful nature that sets in. The feeling that this might be all there is left for you. But The Ames Room help you realize there’s more inside the noise than you realize.
The Ames Room have only been on the scene for a short time (since 2007) but have crafted a sound that is blistering and beautiful. Fans of Vandermark, Gustafsson, Haker Flaten and Nilssen-Love are sure to gravitate to the trio’s new album, Bird Dies (Clean Feed). This one piece live recording follows up where their debut, IN (Monotype Records; 2010), left off–a full frontal attack of chords against the borders of a genre.
There’s no build up here. The Ames Room make their statement known from the first note. They come out of the gates ripping forward like Gustafsson’s The Thing in mid-performance. The staccato drums, breakneck sax and suffocating basslines that dominate the first 15 minutes of the piece are impressive for the duration as well as the stellar delivery.The gears shift only slightly around the 23min mark. Guionnet’s takes the lead but is challenged perfectly by Guthrie’s cascading patterns. Meanwhile Thomas paints a small rhythm in the background. There are moments just after the half hour mark that remind of Ornette Coleman’s Change Of The Century. A calm descends on the closing ten minutes only to be resurrected to the opening salvo of white noise which cuts deep then comes full-stop.
The audience at this performance was probably left in awe. You can only briefly feel it from low volume mic on the audience. But make no mistake The Ames Trio is building a following and will leave an indelible mark on your senses. Bird Dies is challenging music but isn’t that what music is all about? ~ Stephan Moore