Other Stories

Album Review

This album is Taylor Ho Bynum's first large project on record billed to his own name. At first, the cornetist had devised SpiderMonkey Strings as a classical string quartet with two violins (Jason Kao Hwang and Jean Cook), viola (Stephanie Griffin), and cello (Okkyung Lee), augmented by an electric guitar (Peter Fitzpatrick) and the cornet. That's the instrumentation heard on the six-minute-long "The First Three Lives of Stuart Hornsley," a funny little piece recorded in April 2003. It is sandwiched between two longer pieces (around 25 minutes each) recorded in February 2005 by a nonet version of the band that now also features tuba (Joe Daley), drums (Luther Gray), and vibraphone (Jay Hoggard) — there have also been a few changes in the string section, Jessica Pavone and Tomas Ulrich respectively replacing Cook and Lee. This nonet can make a lot of noise (as featured in the raucous second section of "SpiderMonkey Stories"), but Bynum knows how to keep control in the quiet, more delicate passages of "Supo Eno," by far the most surprising composition here. This four-part suite offers an unusual blend of complex Anthony Braxton-like interactions, contemporary string quartet work, and string-drenched post-rock. The music morphs from one style or influence to another — Bynum is not flipping channels, he tries hard to make these changes sound natural, almost required by the music. It doesn't always work out that well, but at least he is going for something different as a composer and his writing has enough interesting strengths and quirks to tone down any areas that need improvement (and no doubt will be improved in the next few years). Some passages would have benefited from one or two extra takes and the instruments lack a bit of separation in the nonet recordings, but otherwise Other Stories makes a fine, promising initial statement from Bynum the bandleader. ~ François Couture, All Music Guide