| MAD TRIO
The MAD TRIO is an electro-acoustic ensemble based in California and New Mexico. MAD TRIO had it's start in 1999/2000 with Mark Weaver (tuba) and Alan Lechusza (woodwinds). Both Mark Weaver and Alan Lechusza have and continue to compose for the ensemble in different settings and recordings.
The MAD TRIO has entertained such notable performers as Dave Wayne (percussion), Harris Eisenstad (percussion) and Michael Vlatkovich (trombone).
While treading new territories MAD TRIO has welcomed the addition of cellist Carolyn Lechusza to the ensemble. Her work as a solo and chamber artist have taken her throughout the U.S. playing with the likes of Bertram Turetzky, Mark Dresser, Anthony Davis, George Lewis, Joelle, Fred Frith, Wadada Leo Smith, Vinny Golia and many others. Currently Carolyn Lechusza is woking on her PhD in the Critical Studies/Experimental Practices Program at the University of California, San Diego.
Upcoming Release on Black Phone Records:
"mad trio" (2005) bpr 111
MAD TRIO releases their latest full recording featuring the newest configuration. All new compositions by Alan Lechusza are presented here in a frenzy of sounds and collaborative improvisations. Recorded in Albuquerque, NM at Q! studios, MAD TRIO put this recording together following their West Coast debut at the Blue Dragon (Abq., NM) this past fall 2005. Incredible textures and breath-taking unisons abound while stunning electronics paint a playground ready for these eager improvisors.
Local radio DJ and author Roy Durfee presents the following "preview" of the recording:
MA
Preview January 2006:
MAD Trio
I associate performer/composer/multi-instrumentalist Alan Lechusza with acronyms, having first heard his impressive personal approach to reed instruments during his visits to New Mexico as the A in the AMH Trio, with Mark Weaver and percussionist Harris Eisenstadt, and the MAD Trio, with Weaver and percussionist Dave Wayne. Composer, deep brass improviser,
Albuquerque architect and jazz dj Weaver was working a musical connection between the high
desert of
New Mexico and the creative climes of
California, bringing spontaneous music to Field and Frame, Plan B, and other elusive venues. (Much of that music is audible on Weavers Plutonium Records.)
No longer acronymic, the current trio performed at
Albuquerques Blue Dragon shortly before the present recording, substituting in the familiar corner for Dave Waynes expansive percussion paraphernalia the Yamaha electric cello, foot pedals and soundboard of Carolyn Lechusza, and yielding a music more purely aural than rhythmic, seemingly both pre-conceived and manufactured on the spot. Absent conventions, each trio-led experience was informed for the listeners by their own pursuits of the musically defined figures to an eventual rest.
Each such rest opened into cordial discourse with the audience before another venture into sound acoustic, electronic, sampled and modified toward the trios ends. Those ends are clearly exploratory, with Alan talking later about the working parameters of an electro-acoustic ensemble as Carolyn brings the new and expansive parameters of her instrument to music with a tuba pulse. She has developed her improvisational craft with players from Hans Bennink to Michael Vlatkovich, Anthony Davis to Wadada Leo Smith. Sounding almost as though his writing is sacrificial, the composer describes his partners cello as becoming a battle axe cutting through compositional complexity while detailing intricate nuances.
Weavers tuba is similarly an incredible force of nature, says the composer. (It has also become his featured instrument in recent years, notably with his brass-plus-drums quartet, Brassum.) Writing for such familiar and expressive voices, including his own, allowed Lechuszas compositions to come to life off of the page, he told me. Natural forces and battle axes can surely be heard in the insistently surging wail of Plack Bage, while less insistent sonics prevail in untitled, and variations on the #1 offer soundscapes distinct from This is NOT a Piece by John Cage, performed from a graphically detailed but ink-smeared score. Like the alert avian figure of the CD jacket, the MAD Trios music looks to the horizons and often soars.
On the evening of the coffeehouse concert, my first encounter with Ms. Lechuszas instrument, there was much wonder and magic around its sound, made even more so by this studio recording of the following day. While lacking the familiar intimacy of the coffeehouses and small venues where such music is most often heard, and the visual stimulation of live performance, the music found here is variously dense and subtle, frequently both, indulging fully the unique timbres of all technologies involved, from breath to electron. Repeated listening in the comfort of ones home, I have found, is well rewarded.
Roy Durfee
Albuquerque,
New Mexico
Other Reviews from MAD TRIO formations:
AMH Trio, Live at Field and Frame (MW, tuba;Harris Eisenstadt, drums; Alan
Lechusza, winds. Plutonium 001)
Is a fun album (very softly recorded though). It features tunes by all players and lots of wild improv.
Eisenstadt has a great touch and moves freely from groove to free. Lechusza
shows his knowledge of many instruments in the different contexts given here.
Radius, Witch of Agnesi (MW, Tuba; Alan Lechusza, winds; Damon Smith,
contrabass; Dave Wayne, drumset. Plutonium 004) combines members of the
previous albums into one. On this album the free sections are particularly
engaging. On track 2 (rendezvous of symmetries) oboe and tuba take the
forefront. As on the other albums, Weaver shows himself a force to be
reckoned with in varied musical environments, from notated to free, from
traditional vocabulary to extended.
http://www.pfmentum.com/ncm/contents/wordsworth/ew_11_2002.html
AMH trio "live at Field & Frame"
plutonium plu001
There seems to be something exotic about a jazz group led by a tubaist.
First of all, it's a rarity and, second, the leader often takes a different direction in writing. That's what happens with the AMH Trio Mark Weaver, a tuba player based in
Albuquerque,
NM, invited reedist Alan Lechusza to join him for a session (both played in trombonist Michael Vlatkovitch sextet) Lechusza brought with him
Los Angeles drummer Harris Eisenstadt.
The three musicians played together for the first time two days before this live recording. Weaver contributed five composition's, the other players one piece each. The set opens and closes with "Pentimento," a piece built on a twisted melodic/rhythmic motif. Actually, this is mostly the way Weaver writes - sharp bouncy head lines tied together with improvisation ("Every Cubic Centimeter," "Elements," "Stitches"). Yet, the AMH Trio is quite different than Weaver s earlier project Protuberance (with guitarist Paul Pulaski and drummer Dave Wayne the group is less funky, dynamic, and structured, and more mellow, exploratory, and free. Eisenstadt proves to be an inventive drummer, pumping excitement!
into "Pentimento: Encore" as he punctuates its leitmotif, trying to anticipate when the other players will fall back on it. Lechusza does a fair job on saxophones, less fair on clarinets, and overall doesn't come through as a striking player. Live at Field & Frame has been mastered very low, but the sound quality is good enough to be pleasing. This is a nice first effort, but it promises more possibilities in the future.
- François Couture (www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll)
AMH trio "live at Field & Frame"
plutonium plu001
Multi-reed player Lechusza teams up with Weaver on tuba and Eisenstadt on
drums in a loosely configured recording containing substantial free blowing
and explosive drumming. Lechusza is into adventurous improvising spurred
throught the prodding of Weaver, who uses his tuba in a dual capacity. He
takes on the bass role and also turns the unwieldy instrument into an
improvising tool using highly dexterous fingering and breath control.
While Lechusza is launching the all-original compositions (most of which
are by Weaver) with hefty rounds of spontaneity, Weaver is either matching
his action with vigorous puffing or laying down a patterned bottom line.
Eisenstadt is a deft handler of the drums, providing significant firepower
when needed or simply using shimmering cymbal crashes and brush strokes to
supplement the quieter moments.
The recording is from a live session, and all three musicians capitalize on
this to produce a highly original set. Lechusza continually rotates his
horns, creating shifting moods and scenarios with the varying tones. On
the slower pieces, he uses the higher-pitched flute and clarinet, while on
the more robust songs, the darker baritone and bass clarinet emerge. In
all cases, he is into heavy realms of inspiration spun off the song themes.
Each horn, including the alto, is taken into dense areas as he breaks free
with independent and unconstrained action. I particularly liked his bass
clarinet rumblings on "Every Cubic Centimeter" and his aggressive attack on
alto on "Elements", but he is a force on all his reeds. Weaver's tuba
balances the act with growling efficiency, and Eisenstadt shades all of it
with well-adapted and responsive patterns. This trio listens to the music
and responds with a congealing effort. It is a very rewarding album of
challenging and daring p!
laying.
Frank Rubolino (Cadence magazine vol.27 no.9, Sept 2001, p. 41)
AMH trio "live at Field & Frame"
plutonium plu001
Releases like "live at the Field & Frame" serve notice that free
improvisation and outside jazz (...or whatever you want to call it) are
alive and well outside of NYC, Chicago and San Francisco. Though
New Mexico
may conjure images of cacti, cowboys and the Cerro Grande fire,
Albuquerque,
Santa Fe, and
Taos all support an enthusiastic and
knowledgeable audience for new music. Thanks to venues such as
Albuquerque's Outpost Performance Space (operated by multi-reed great Tom
Guralnick), and fearlessly eclectic record labels, such as Zerx Records
(started by writer, raconteur, and DJ Mark Weber as a vehicle for his own
mixed-media creations), some of the artists at the epicenter of the New
Mexico scene (Guralnick, J. A. Deane, Steve Feld, Stefan Dill, Mark Weaver,
and David Parlato - to name just a few) are getting some exposure.
Conversely,
New Mexico's home-grown talent is also getting some recognition
from the rest of the world. Tuba-ist Mark Weaver, a member of ensembles le!
d by Deane, Feld, and Parlato, encountered San Diego-based multi-woodwind
player Alan Lechusza while playing in
Portland
Oregon, in groups led by
trumpeter Rob Blakeslee and trombonist Michael Vlatkovich. To quote
Weaver's own liner note, he and Lechusza "immediately felt an affinity" for
each others' playing, and planned their own project.
Though "live at the Field & Frame" is dominated by Weaver's compositions (6
out of 8 tracks), there is plenty of variety here. Eisenstadt's There are
So Many Stars... is a floating, free-jazz ballad featuring Lechusza on
flute. Lechusza's Number 5 is a more chaotic, angular piece which wouldn't
sound out of place on one of Anthony Braxton's LPs from the mid-70s. Though
not overly complex, Weaver's tunes are replete with unexpected twists and
turns, space for extended improvisations, and opportunities for all sorts
of musical zingers. Percussionist Eisenstadt does a wonderful job of
picking up on the latter on Stitches: his instincts are as sure as his
reflexes, in this regard. Weaver, though he blends magically with Lechusza
on several of the themes and launches a vigorous extended solo on Stitches,
spends most of his time providing a pliant 'air bass' springboard for
Lechusza's (and Eisenstadt's) flights of fancy.
Pentimento starts off with a quirky, angular theme over an edgy rockish
groove, dissolves into a dialogue between tuba and drumkit, and climaxes
with an expressive, Surman-ish, baritone sax solo. In Place Of is somewhat
more somber, with Lechusza's Klezmer-ish clarinet fluttering over
Eisenstadt's purring snare, and Weaver's muttering tuba. My favorite track,
however, is Every Cubic Centimeter, which alternates duo and trio free
improvisations with a choppy 5/4 groove over which Lechusza (on bass
clarinet, here) solos magnificently. Alan Lechusza is definitely a name you
ought to take note of: he is one of those rare multi-woodwind players who
has truly mastered each of his axes. I can't really say which instrument he
sounds best on because he sounds great on each one (...and I am told his
primary instrument is oboe!). Finally, the bare-bones "live-to-two- track"
digital recording is surprisingly crisp and dimensional, though Weaver's
tuba suffers somewhat at the expense of!
Eisenstadt's drums and cymbals.
"live at Field & Frame", available directly from Plutonium Records
(plutoniumrecords.net) and Cadence/Northcountry (www.cadencebuilding.com),
is a great example of what can happen when creative musicians in
out-of-the-way places get to have friends in for a visit and stretch out a
little. I hope that whatever is going on in
Albuquerque is also happening
in a town near you.
(www.jazzweekly.com/reviews/amhtrio_live.htm)
AMH Trio: Live at Field & Frame (plutonium plu001)
Protuberance: Treated & Released (zerx 019)
The man behind the plan is Mark Weaver, tuba player extraordinaire. I've
been sitting on the Treated and Released album for too long, always meaning
to review it, but never getting down to it. Now, with Weaver and company's
latest offering, live at Field & Frame, I can kill two birds with one
stone, or rather: place two birds nicely in one bush with a soft hand.
The difference in the two discs is essentially the lineup: Weaver plays
tuba on both, both have a drummer (Harris Eisenstadt on Frame and my good
email buddy Dave Wayne on Treated), but the newest offering has a reed
player (Alan Lechusza) as opposed to a guitar player (Paul Pulaski) on the
earlier release. This makes for very different soundscaping. The two discs
are very similar, but very different.
Live at Field & Frame has moments that sound like the Sakoto Fujii
orchestra. I attribute this quality to Lechusza's
bari sax ostinatos on the
first track, doubling the tuba line. The disc is a little noodly in places,
but not too much to be a hindrance. When Lechusza plays clarinet, I am
reminded of Don Byron's Romance with the Unseen, which is a high
compliment. The group has tight, unison lines, and a start/stop quality
that places their musicality on a high plain. This is a good effort into
the compositional avant-garde, or "organized chaos."
Treated & Released has a rusty King Crimson flavor to it, due to the
guitar. Once again, we have organized chaos, but here it has no weaknesses.
The guitar fills the space nicely. There might be less dynamics than Frame
but let me tell you this: I had this disc rotating in my CD Rom player at
work for a full day, non-stop, and I never got bored. We also get a trashy
feel from the guitar, which reminds me of every alternative band in
Richmond,
VA in the late 90s, like King Sour, Mao Tse Helen, and
Austin,
Texas' Dyn@mutt. Pulaski knows what he's doing.
The flavor of Treated & Released is definitely more alternative rock than
jazz, but the tuba changes everything. The combination of guitar/tuba or
reeds/tuba gives an original quality to both of these discs. I might not be
able to spin live at Field and Frame all day, but the talent is consistent
throughout. The mastermind is Weaver: he is a true compositional talent,
especially in playing such a difficult instrument as the tuba. He doesn't
limit his comps, or make them easier to play. These tunes are difficult and
complex, and he weaves his way through them effortlessly.
Fred Barrett (www.beyondcoltrane.com/albums.cfm)
RADIUS "witch of agnesi"
plutonium plu004
[Altrisuoni 096 and Gemini 107 were also included in the review]
[This recording] presents an intriguing counterpoint to [altrisuoni 096]
in being another quartet entry of "free" music that, for whatever
superficial similarity, is in fact quite different. Unlike those on
[altrisuoni 096], these six tracks don't seem to have any prearranged
sections at all. The musicians, who are all quite convincing, solo one
after the other, with support from the rest a la Ornette's Free Jazz. The
multi-instrumentalist Lechusza plays impassioned bass clarinet, but the
main attraction here is the tuba player, Mark Weaver. I can think of Ray
Draper as another tuba player who has attempted to make his huge horn skip
and dance and improvise, but that's about it, and Draper enjoyed his brief
heyday over forty years ago.
One may charitably assume that tuba soloing is so seldom done because it is
so difficult, and not because the results are so unprepossessing. But
certainly Weaver is at his best here when he is supporting Lechusza - not
because he is an inferior instrumentalist, but because Lechusza has the
advantage of playing instruments that are, by their nature more fleet and
suited to the matters at hand. Still, give him points for effort.
Robert Spencer (Cadence magazine vol.29 no.1, Jan 2003, p. 129)
MAD
MAD Trio
I associ
MAD
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