Recording: Nerve Gas

Artist: Nerve Gas

Song: Machine Gun [composer: Peter Brötzmann]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Jazz and Otherwise Improvised Musics), March 12, 2019.

Nerve Gas - Machine Gun

This ambitious evening in Andrew Furlong's JAOIM series saw saxophonist Patrick Smith assembling a band with the same lineup deployed by Peter Brötzmann for his Machine Gun session. After a first set of tunes from Furlong and Smith (as well as some Ornette), the group was ready to really take off, tackling the Machine Gun album in full.

This was a full-on blast fest with plenty of collective caterwauling clatter and the group was certainly up to the material. (And given the notoriously muddled fidelity of the album, even this field recording may be a bit cleaner to the listener's ears.) A special nod should be given to pianist Max Donaldson — one of the next wave of players emerging from U of T — for really standing out in this esteemed group.

The full Nerve Gas complement consisted of:

• Patrick Smith, Alex Manoukas, Karen Ng - saxophones
• Colin Fisher, Mike Gennaro - drums
• Max Donaldson - piano
• Andrew Furlong, Mike DeiCont - double bass

[JAOIM returns to Wenona on Tuesday (May 14th) with a solo set of microtonal guitar from Brian Abbott plus a trio of Julian Anderson-Bowes, Kayla Milmine and Luan Phung.]