http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09106/963036-388.st...

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For the Record: Breakway, Paul Giallorenzo

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Records are rated on a scale of one (awful) to four (classic) stars:

JAZZ

Breakway 'Get Down' (Friends & Relatives)

3 1/2 stars = Very good
Ratings explained

Paul Giallorenzo 'Get in to Go Out' (482 Music)

3 1/2 stars = Very good
Ratings explained

The answer to "what's new in jazz?" doesn't need to involve hippie jam-funk or a band that smarmily covers Nirvana and Radiohead. On the contrary, there are talented threads in creative improvised music popping up all over, and one of the most fertile scenes has been in Chicago.

The name of keyboardist Paul Giallorenzo is familiar to those in the Windy City who've attended the Elastic Arts series of improvised music concerts that he organizes. But for those of us who live elsewhere, releases are finally emerging that begin to document the many sides of this busy man's artistic persona.

Breakway is his electroacoustic free-improv trio, presented in a refined, European avant style (think Keith Rowe or Thomas Lehn). The closest this gets to jazz is the clattery percussion of Marc Riordan -- otherwise, the resulting scrapings, tumblings and clankings are much closer to the sound-art tradition going back to the '60s when David Tudor and Gordon Mumma first seized upon filters and ring modulators. In the case of Breakway, the electronics are mostly based on the laptop ministrations of sound designer Brian Labycz (although I'd like to find out exactly what the "breakway wand" and the "breakway box" do, as pictured on their MySpace page). But whether it's Labycz spinning out waves of gentle static and Subotnick-esque electronic tones, Riordan making his cymbals creak and whine, or Giallorenzo playing simple octaves on the piano, there's a determination to this work that's compelling, and by the conclusion of the almost Zen-like "Outtheotherside," you'd be hard-pressed to demean any of it as mere debris.

"Get In to Go Out," the pianist's jazz quintet CD on the prolific 482 label, is a very different animal, showcasing the bright cornet tones of Josh Berman and able timekeeping by drummer Frank Rosaly. True to its name, "Vacillation" kicks things off with angularity and modern classical inflections, but "Twisted Lopes" gets deep down in a swing rhythm with Giallorenzo's fluid lines on the keys. "Porous" explores nebulous, plaintive atmospheres, while a track such as "Fifth Flow" is a herky-jerky offering of free-form fire and squonky sax goodness (courtesy of multi-hornist Dave Rempis). Despite its title, "Crazy Ladies" gets the listener chilled, snapping the proverbial fingers in the jazz lounge, while Ajemian's Funk (named after ubiquitous Chicago bassist Jason Ajemian, who's not on the disc -- Anton Hatwich is) gets those ladies out of their chairs with a bit of hip-twisting and head-bobbing action.

Finally, "Eternal Circle" closes out with credible solos from all and sundry, plus some lines that wouldn't be out of place on a Blue Note album -- if jazz radio doesn't pick up this track, it's missing something.

According to his bio, Giallorenzo also composes soundtracks for film, performance art, and dance, and it would be fascinating to hear what those contain. But in the meantime, he definitively and strongly makes his creative presence felt with these two albums.

-- Manny Theiner, for the Post-Gazette

Paul Giallorenzo's trio Breakway plays at 8 tonight with openers Melissa St. Pierre and Bernabo/Masterman at Monk's Place, 3634 Penn Ave. in Lawrenceville. Admission is $5.

First published on April 16, 2009 at 12:00 am

Another Side of Paul Giallorenzo
by Peter Margasak on June 28th - 12:08 p.m.
Tags: Elastic, experimental music, Paul Giallorenzo, Masul, Thomas Mejer

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Keyboardist Paul Giallorenzo is probably best known around town as one of the driving forces behind the eclectic performance space Elastic Arts (formerly known as 3030 when it occupied an old Humboldt Park church), but he's also an active presence on the local free jazz and experimental music scene. Along with saxophonist Dave Rempis, cornetist Josh Berman, bassist Anton Hatwich, and drummer Frank Rosaly, he's a member of the group Get In to Go Out, which has a forthcoming album due on 482 Music. But it's with his duo, Masul, which recently released its debut, The Arousal City (Creative Sources), that he's captured in a much more abstract light.

A collaboration with Swiss reedist Thomas Mejer (who enjoyed a fruitful Chicago residency a few years back as part of the Sister Cities program with Lucerne) Masul crafts subdued yet colorful electro-acoustic meditations, shuffling cycled melodic snippets, hovering drones, gently rippling noise, and all manner of sibilant breathiness (courtesy of Mejer's whispery, unpitched columns of air). Giallorenzo is credited with piano, synthesizer, found samples, and computer, and it's to Masul's credit that the genesis of any given sound often remains hazy, both musicians managing to forge a rich entwined sound stream where the subtle interactions are clearly audible.

On Monday [sic], June 30, Giallorenzo will collaborate at Elastic with another Swiss musician, sound artist Marie-Cecile Reber, who specializes in capturing the sounds and motion of nature (such as the swaying of flowers in the breeze) and translating them into abstract electronic tones.

I like minimally selected statements of profanity, out of context but with a subtle easy-to-miss minishock value; bring a smirk to a grandmother, again also easy to miss if your not looking

------ Forwarded Message
From: Paul Giallorenzo
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 16:37:59 -0600
To: info@ ap.org
Subject: Abramoff defrauded tribes from India?

To Whom it May Concern:

According to Curt Anderson's article "Abramoff Gets Almost 6 Years in Prison" (3/29/06), Abramoff defrauded tribes from India :


. . . Abramoff pleaded guilty in the SunCruz fraud in January. The same week, he pleaded guilty in Washington to defrauding Indian tribes and other lobbying clients out of millions of dollars. He also agreed to cooperate in a corruption probe that could involve up to 20 members of Congress, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas. No date has been set for his sentencing in that case . . .


I thought that he was under investigation for defrauding Native Americans?

Sarcasm aside, I think it is clear that Anderson, and countless other journalists, still refer to Native Americans as Indians. Why hasn't this practice stopped? I find it particularly offensive that this term is still used over 500 years after Columbus first began its usage; In my opinion, continued use of this term refers to Columbus and not only his inaccuracy, but his actions which include an imperialistic and genocidal campaign against the native inhabitants of this "new world." Whether intentional or not, usage of Indian in this context appears to condone or at least gloss-over this horrific and disgusting element of our history.

Is this merely a somewhat insensitive oversight, or is there a tacit agreement between journalists and the intellectual elite to continue using the term Indian, even though such historical terms as negro, oriental, and the like have since been stricken from the lexicon?

Please explain and/or retract.

Sincerely,

Paul Giallorenzo
Chicago, IL
------ End of Forwarded Message

What makes some words and phrases sound good? Beyond their literal meaning and context?

No one usually says that a word or phrase looks good. It sounds good. Sound is invisible, just as form and meaning and understanding are invisible.

A word or phrase looks good when its has a nice ring. Poetry has a nice ring to it. Like a bell it vibrates and reverberates, and transmits packets of information, in standing wave that require no outside energy to maintain (once it is set in motion) because as soon as the phrase is uttered, the viewer(s) immediately recognize the phrase's internal structural beauty and completeness as expressed through its unambiguous (as evidenced many viewers) ability to communicate a distinct thought or feeling or concept.

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