ORIGINAL LP ALBUM NOTES FROM White Cow Records WCR 1202

This album might rightly be dubbed “Three ‘n One.” Side One contains music for trio while Side Two is solo outings, unusual though they might be. The leader and soloist is pianist Steve Cohn. A native San Franciscan, Cohn is a veteran of performances at that city's famed Keystone Korner as well as at the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay and Yoshi’s, Berkeley. But there is no east-west dichotomy here for Steve's ideas were not learned at the elbow of any of the famous.

“Everyone has been my influence,” Steve said in an interview on WFDU, the voice of Fairleigh Dickinson University. He qualified that by making a few conciliatory “if you musts”: Mal Waldron, Cecil Taylor, Bill Evans, Paul Bley, Anton Webern and Bela Bartok. As you listen you may, indeed, hear an amalgam; you think you've heard it before, but, mark you, Steve Cohn is anything but derivative. There are the free moments of a Taylor, the tender passages of an Evans, the complete creativity of a Bley and, always, the development of a Waldron. There are even mixed tempi a la Dave Brubeck.

“I tend to ‘graft’ my music,” Cohn told WKCR (Columbia University radio). “I'll add rhythms on top of rhythms, chords to chords, melodies all over the place. My music is totally improvisational; that is not to say free. It is not written in any way.”

Although his first album “Sufi Dancers” (White Cow Records WCR 1201) was more traditionally arranged— the quintet he led lent itself to that format—there were those mixed meters alluded to earlier; the chords were complex, but there were charts. While Brubeck was among the first to popularize unusual time signatures, even combining them, it was those who came after him who experimented with such meters as 7/4 over 2/4. Cohn is one of those. “Arts and Crafts,” however, has no such trappings. In fact, one frustrated member of the trio asked disconcertedly during rehearsal, “Where are the heads? We've got to have heads!” He was looking for that single line of melody upon which to hang his solos. But there are no heads on “Arts and Crafts,”only starting points, reference areas and a single-mindedness which evolves into a cohesive whole. Cohn's background includes an extended residence in Japan. “I did not spend my time in the cities,” Steve quickly explains. “I went into the country to a farm, into the mountains.” He walked into and out of those mountains carrying a dictionary so he could more easily learn the phrases he heard. Consequently, Steve speaks fluent Japanese. He also carried with him his shakuhachi, the traditional Japanese bamboo flute, an instrument he is most proficient in, having taught shakuhachi playing at San Francisco State University. Examples of shakuhachi playing may be found on “Take Two For Now" and "Shakuhachi and Piano."

“Arts and Crafts” is the second album on Steve's “White Cow" LP record label. The first, “Sufi Dancers,” was recorded partly at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley and partly live at Keystone Korner in 1982. The quintet format on that album is quite different from this one. On the current disc we find Chuck Fertal on drums. Chuck has appeared with Mal Waldron and Jeremy Steig. The bassist, Jay Elfenbein (aka Jay Elf), has toured with ensembles in the European classical tradition as well as with jazz groups. He has been heard with Earl Klugh.

Side One consists entirely of an extended piece which is improvised as a cooperative effort directed by Cohn. It is called "Take Two For Now," its title coming from Steve's response to th engineer's query as to its title. Steve says it is based on twelve tones, "but it is not atonal." The opening statement has the threesome pecking at each other around a common chordal framework which Steve insists is not written. You be the judge.

The second moment, to steal a phrase from George Russell, has Elf moving his way into the forefront while Cohn "comps" and picks at him, eventually breaking into the clear with a solo of his own.

While Steve likes to talk of the lack of time signatures, there is very definitely one. The problem is how to write it down. The rhythm prances merrily; rumbles mysteriously; pounces darkly. And it's not always carried by Fertal. Elf steps into the rhythmic pattern and leads Fertal into an almost funky-rock episode. In the meantime, listening intently to all of these goings-on is Cohn, who steps into it, calming the proceedings, allowing Elf to wend his way a cappella. Joined by his two compatriots—most notably some innovative stick tricks by Fertal—Cohn enters yet another phase of the piece: a balladic investigation of the harmonic structure. While slowly breaking the piece down into its component parts, Cohn painstakingly lets his listeners in on what he's trying to say.

Almost without notice, the ballad accelerates and, gaining momentum, sprints for what appears to be the finale, only to be met with our first example of shakuhachi with rhythm accompaniment. After a brief Fertal solo, "Take Two For Now" slides to a quiet conclusion.

Side Two is part Japanese traditional, part piano mastery and all virtuosity. "Bell and Wood" is “preparation, in the Zen sense, prior to entering the atmos of ‘Shakuhachi and Piano,’" Cohn explains. The traditional Japanese bell is struck and allowed to decay naturally. If you have seen
a Japanese movie, you will recognize the sound of the wood blocks being struck against each other.

Segueing fluidly, we arrive at "Shakuhachi and Piano," an a cappella outing for those two instruments. Steve plays both and it becomes immediately apparent that they are in masterful hands.


"Exercise" is just that: the freeing of Cohn. "I'm not influenced by anyone per se," he says of "Exercise." But with the popular efforts of soloists such as Cecil Taylor, Mal Waldron, Keith Jarrett and Paul Bley, and the simple yet complex twelve-tonality of Webern, Steve feels at home going the same routes. He adds one statement which brings an end to these notes, "Let's just give it a Listen."

By Arnold Jay Smith
April, 1983

Love is the Reproductive Organ of Life.