Jimmy Ghaphery – Path

By complete coincidence after posting a review of Ghaphery/Bivins/Davis’s Impermanence on Monday, I learned today that saxophonist Jimmy Ghaphery just put out a new solo saxophone release. I gave a listen, really enjoyed it, and decided it might as well be Jimmy Ghaphery Week on RVAJazz.

January 13, 2010; 3:16 PM • by Dean Christesen

Jimmy Ghaphery
Path
Music Is Big Place, 2010

By complete coincidence after posting a review of Ghaphery/Bivins/Davis’s Impermanence on Monday, I learned today that saxophonist Jimmy Ghaphery just put out a new solo saxophone release. I gave a listen, really enjoyed it, and decided it might as well be Jimmy Ghaphery Week on RVAJazz.

As I mentioned before, his trio New Loft is obsessed with self documentation and makes available most of their improvised jams online at the Internet Archive. So does Ghaphery, and that’s where his latest release is available for free download and streaming. The release is called Path and is inspired by — and even features noises from — a neighborhood path and its surroundings. He writes,

The path in the woods behind my house is not terribly efficient in terms of mileage from point A to B, winding around trees, hugging a creek, branches to overlooks. My fifth solo release at best shares some of these characteristics. While still focused on solo acoustic improvisation (sax and flute), other sounds have found their way into to some of these tracks. These include ambient nature, distant mike placement, a percussionist (Will Bryce), multi-tracking and manipulation via Audacity. Enough with the process, paths are meant to be walked not mapped.

The very first piece, especially, has interesting effects due to distant microphone placement. A mic placed in the front yard picks up his chirps and squeaks as he literally walks the perimeter of his entire house. Really pretty stuff.

Will Bryce — who played with Ghaphery at the front doors of the last Musicircus (photo) — plays djembe, doumbek, and other hand percussion on some of the tracks, like “Powhite Stomp.”

Multi-tracked saxophone and flute takes coalesce into interesting pieces, too. Although they are improvised, there’s a certain sense of preconception when adding on layers; by the third and fourth overdubbed layers, the player can probably remember or sense what’s coming next, since he was the one who played it. Pieces like “Sax Q Blend,” which features at least one saxophone blowing over consonant chordal structures, stand out from the totally improvised solo tracks so that in listening down the playlist, there’s no lack of variety. Total improv and semi-improv bleed into one another, and it truly doesn’t matter which is which.

Listen:

Tracks: Front Yard, Sax Q Blend, Sax Cricket Car, Scree, Flute Blend, Sax Blend 3, Pulleys, Sax Blend, Sax Cricket Car Duet, Fish King, Shlap, Sax Blend Remix, Sax Blend 2, Powhite Stomp, Full of Life.

Personnel: Jimmy Ghaphery: alto saxophone, flute; Will Bryce: percussion.

Listen to Path at the Internet Archive