Taylor Ho Bynum - The Middle Picture

Sometimes when I sit down to write about a recording, I haven't had the chance to listen to it more than a handful of times. I like to listen to a recording at least 3 times, and 5 times is preferable before writing about it. This album has been in regular rotation since I picked it up in April at a live performance at the Velvet Lounge that featured some locals along with Mr. Bynum's trio, so I have a more in depth perspective on it than other recordings I sometimes write about.

The album is called The Middle Picture. Before I read the liner notes that explained the title's origins, the first connection I made was with the Middle Path or Middle Way touted by Gautama Buddha, one of the core principles of Buddhist practice. It's a practice of finding the middle and avoiding the extremes; the Buddha himself explored the extremes of decadence, living as a prince, and then of asceticism, living as austerely as possible. His conclusion was that neither path would lead to self realization, and that non-extremism was the way.

Mr. Bynum offers his own take on this principle by talking about the Big Picture (global) and the Small Picture (personal), both of which offer their own frustrations and anxieties. The Middle Picture is everything in between that transcends the personal without reaching the unwieldiness of the global, allowing an objectivity that then allows more optimism to seep in. The creamy middle of the oreo, if you will.

The Middle Way of Buddhism also refers to ways of transcending apparent dichotomies, phenomena that appear antithetical on the surface but have an underlying unity.

There was clearly a lot of thought given to the sequencing and structure of the album. On the back, where the tracks are listed, they are grouped. 1 stands alone, 2 and 3 are grouped together, 4, 5, and 6 are grouped. Tracks 7 and 8 are titled as a suite and grouped, and then 9 stands alone. How symmetrical!

The album also builds symmetrically - tracks 1 and 9 which bookend the album feature the trio of Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, and Tomas Fujiwara - the other middle tracks feature the trio plus Matt Bauder, Evan O'Reilly and Jessica Pavone.

The opening track is entitled Brooklyn with an E and opens with Mary Halvorson's guitar spinning ostinati over Tomas Fujiwara's grooving drums. Mr. Bynum's plungered cornet enters to a juxtaposing, contrasting effect, introducing texture as a primary concern, a thread that weaves throughout the album. It's a lovely contrast, as Ms. Halvorson's guitar has a very dry, clear sound, and Mr. Bynum's cornet adds a wet, gooey, plungery mess to the proceedings. This tune, like most of the songs on the album, resist the typical understandings of song in terms of form, without ever appearing to lack structure or composition, and adding to my intrigue with every listen.

Track 2, Woods, is part of a two part suite with In A Silent Way. It opens with Taylor Ho Bynum's cornet, which he twists and snarls into some lovely multiphonics, before the rest of the band enters. At this point we have a full sextet and some really interesting sounds going on. There is a guitar that sounds like it's being run through a ring modulator, a viola bowing, a bass clarinetist doing some tongue slapping, lots of cymbal work from Fujiwara, what sounds like some very low tones on the cornet, and an overall sound that's busy without sacrificing breathing room for each of the individual voices.

There's a clean segue between Woods and In A Silent Way which opens with a simmering shimmer from the ensemble - mallets on the drums, sustained bowing on the viola, and delays and effects on the guitar. The clarinet and the cornet state the theme over this backdrop. It's a quick 5:15 through the tune, and it's without a doubt one of my favorite versions of the song already, which is saying a lot.

There's a contemplative pause between the Woods/IASW suite and the beginning of mm(pf), the start of another three part suite. This song sees Jessica Pavone switching from Viola to electric bass. Forgive me for skipping over the grooves of mm(pf) to get to Bluebird of Delhi, but it might be my personal highlight of the album, fittingly since it fits in the central 5 slot, the peak of the structural edifice of The Middle Picture. I don't know if I'd say I'm obsessed with it, but if I'm putting the album on but only have the time to listen to a track, I oftentimes find myself skipping to Bluebird of Delhi, a fascinating take on this Strayhorn tune featured in Duke Ellington's Far East Suite.

3V2 is the closing part of the middle suite, and it covers a lot of ground musically, to the point that I have hard time finding a thread of continuity that makes it a whole piece rather than a series of musical vignettes. One middle section features Matt Bauder on tenor sax heavily, a tone that was jarring in its associational power with jazz in my listening experience, maybe because so much of this album utilizes sounds that are not usually associated with the jazz orthodoxy.

Tracks 7 and 8 are part of a suite entitled JP & the Boston Suburbs - it's actually a three part suite divided into two tracks - maybe Mr. Bynum can help explain that decision. I'm not sure if that's a name of Jessica Pavone's rock side project band or if the 'burbs provided the inspiration for the tunes. I'm not quite sure what here evokes the suburban experience, because I could probably justify almost anything as fitting into the melange of suburbia.

There's some great the electric guitar work throughout the album, and this is as good a place as any to talk about it. I wish I was more familiar with Mary Halvorson and Evan O'Reilly's playing and individual penchants for use of effects so I could determine who I was hearing at various points. My best guesses are stylistic contrasts, but I also know what a diverse territory one player can cover. Regardless, there is a lot of really interesting playing and tones from both players throughout the album, and they both really shine in this suite to my ears.

Apace finds us back where we started, with a trio of THB, Mary Halvorson, and Tomas Fujiwara. It's a nice place to be - I enjoy the trio playing quite a bit. It ends on a contemplative note, with a fadeout vamp from Halvorson and a two note repeating pattern from Bynum, laying the listener gently to rest at the end of the proceedings.

This is a great album. I have no problems saying that. There's some element in the music that keeps me coming back for repeated listenings and I hear something new each time. You can buy it here.