Michael Formanek Drome Trio: Were We Where We Were
Circular File Records

The down-time imposed by the pandemic affected double bassist Michael Formanek in a rather unusual way. Alterations in temporal perception introduced corresponding changes in musical experience, such that, by his own reckoning, he began hearing fragments of music moving not just forwards but backwards. It was a short step from there to a desire to formally explore the concept of musical palindromes. Approaching the writing process non-linearly, he incorporated colours and directions such as “repeat backwards or forwards” into his notation to provide tentative guidance to prospective performers. Satisfied with the outcome, he then translated the graphic scores into conventional notation he believed would be more palatable to musicians. As saxophonist and clarinetist Chet Doxas and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza had already been making weekly jaunts from Brooklyn to play jazz tunes, standards, and free improvs with Formanek in the backyard of his West Orange, New Jersey home, it made sense that the three would eventually grapple with the palindromic material and that it would eventually become the music on Were We Where We Were.

Issued on Formanek's nascent Circular File Records label, the vinyl version of the album (also available in CD and digital formats) is a feast for the eyes, with a striking gatefold jacket adorned with Stewart III's artwork and a dark blue twelve-inch snugly housed within. Whereas the vinyl version features three tracks, the CD and digital formats supplement them with a second version of “Tattarrattat” that's about eight minutes longer than the vinyl one. All of the album material was laid down on December 2, 2020 at Sound On Sound Studio in Montclair, New Jersey.

The first question, naturally, has to do with how much the music's palindromic dimension enters into listening reception. In other words, absent any awareness of the project's backstory, would a listener experience the material as palindromically structured or simply as three highly skilled jazz artists giving form to the bassist's compositions? No doubt an analysis of the score would bring those palindromic details into sharp relief, but the likelihood of them receding into the background during real-time listening would obviously be greater. Ultimately, it's likely the case that each listener will approach the performances according to personal inclination, with some astutely monitoring the trio's playing to identify moments where parts undergo reversal (most noticeably detected in the melodic statements by Doxas) and others content to simply enjoy the ride and the sound of three engaged jazz artists operating at a high level.

As someone who's played with a vast array of top-tier musicians—Tony Williams, Stan Getz, Jane Ira Bloom, Tim Berne, Fred Hersch, and Joe Henderson among them—and is one-third of Thumbscrew with guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, Formanek's used to thinking fast on his feet, but so too are Doxas and Sperrazza, and the time the three played together before recording the album is clearly felt in the performances. An unaccompanied Doxas introduces the palindromically titled “Tattarrattat” with soprano sax—clarinet and tenor sax are wielded elsewhere—that slips, slides, and whinnies before the others enter, the tempo slow and the mood ponderous. Things develop quickly, with the pace picking up and each contributing expressively while responding to the others. At twenty-seven minutes, the road is long but always scenic and packed with twists and turns. There are restrained passages but occasional flirtations with tumult, and fittingly the piece ends as it began with Doxas extemporizing alone.

March 2022