***
West coast trumpet player Kris Tiner and East Coast guitarist Mike Baggetta both have wide-ranging backgrounds, from Bop-based Jazz ensemble playing to freer contexts. For this working duo, compositional forms by both players are used as frameworks for abstract improvisations. On some pieces, the two navigate their way through a maze of angular lines that bring to mind Braxton's composition. Others use a strategy of conversational interplay, making the most of the timbral contrast between Tiner's trumpet arsenal (from piccolo trumpet to flugelhorn) and Baggetta's steely prepared acoustic guitar. Cafreful listening is always evident as the two play off of each other, whether shadowing lines or counterbalancing densities and textures of the freely evolving pieces. Tiner's playing displays a stronger use of space with wafts of melodic threads, certainly influenced by his studies with Wadada Leo Smith. Baggetta has a distinct sound, matching the sharp plectrum attack of picked lines with skewed, jagged chords. What stands out is the tension the two create as they shape the improvisational forms with the juxtaposition of raw extended technique and resonating tones and hanging harmonics. Throughout the series of 12 relatively short improvisations, the two maintain a taut, insightful approach to duet interaction.
Michael Rosenstein, © Cadence Magazine 2005,
www.cadencebuilding.com***
Trumpeter Kris Tiner and guitarist Mike Baggetta interpret this set of original compositions with an ear toward meaningful conversation and an eye on balance. Baggetta's light, acoustic guitar spits and spurts with understated emotion, while Tiner's horns express a wide range of feelings. Their musical conversation heats up in places and slows to a crawl elsewhere as the two artists labor to get their intended message just right. Thus, the session lacks spontaneity and relies instead on repetition, sustained space, and gradual changes. From high harmonics and bowed phrases on guitar to the unusual sound of a saxoflugel, the duo's performance offers new and different timbres. The best parts of the the program come when Tiner and Baggetta allow a few melodies to flow naturally. 'WE' consists of a little classical guitar harmony along with solo trumpet melodies. 'I' adds a solemn oath to the session. 'One More Chance' features muted trumpet and acoustic guitar in a classical music frenzy. At other times, the two musicians may sound as if they're tuning up or practicing. Nevertheless, they've allowed free choices to affect the outcome, and they grab hold of their music with an unbridled spirit.
Jim Santella, All About Jazz
***
This is a daring release merging Avantgarde Jazz with acoustic experimentation and influences from New Music, as well as other, more difficult to place, traits which contribute to endow this release with a great originality... The succesive sonic textures take us step by step into an unexplored terrain.
Valeriano Guiol, Amazings.com
***
Kris Tiner/Mike Baggetta - THERE, JUST AS YOU LOOK FOR IT : The opening moments of this track take me back to some of the earliest recordings I heard my friend Ernesto Diaz-Infante perform prepared guitar works on... Baggetta's style is similar in some ways, but the recording on this effort is superb... Tiner's brass (flugelhorn, trumpet, piccolo trumpet & saxaflugel) provides stark contrasts to the wide-ranging string sequences that Mike plays, but they somehow wind up (very much) "in synch" throughout the album. This isn't music for "regular" listeners... it requires a degree of concentration and focus that even some players can't muster up... but, if you're looking for something that will challenge your aural horizons, & stretch your mind a bit - GET THIS ONE! One of my fave tracks is cut 9, 'Caffeinated Weasels'... short, but intense (to say the least). The title track is a killer, too, clearly cut from cloth that hasn't been designed yet... plenty of room for the listener to fill in with colors, swirls & stripes that will make it their dreamcape. I'm impressed, & any listener who is looking for something 'more' will agree with me when I declare it MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED listening.
Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation Nation #73
***
East meets west with this collaboration between California’s Kris Tiner and New York’s Mike Baggetta. With various trumpets and prepared acoustic guitar, they explore a variety of compositional models while leaving plenty of room for showcasing improvisational prowess. Tiner plays through a spectrum of tones and approaches, well matched by Baggetta’s inventive, wiry guitar inventions. Both embrace an aural adventurousness that leads the listener to unforeseeable soundscapes and ear dreams. The set opens with 'The Road to El Paso.' Tiner spreads jagged honey blues, sometimes with throbbing vibrato. Baggetta gets less is more and throws metallic gleam accents in over his dark dirge. Tiner creates some cubist blues tough-guy crying persona that takes loneliness into the night. This could be Harry Dean Stanton’s walk on theme. On 'Second Preference,' Tiner emits shapely warbles against Baggetta’s needle and tweak, then sideways riffs end with a child’s toy, a sort of secret serialism with joyous bursts. Baggetta's 'A Delicate Touch' creates tension with a rumbling bass, which Tiner smears with a saxoflugel. Back on trumpet, he flies through Baggetta’s tangle of strings. 'Your Aftermath' has Baggetta glassy and solo, sounding like a piccolo koto. Tiner finds unique sound and intervals on his a capella 'Caffeinated Weasels,' while his muted musings on 'One More Chance' collide with Baggetta’s spiky lines and bowed modes. Baggetta slides around like an elastic octopus beneath Tiner’s fanfares on 'Choke on It.' The title track returns Tiner to soulful mode, going rich and lyrical with Baggetta providing sensitive subdued interaction. With their complimentary sensibilities blending to challenge and comfort, There, Just As You Look For It delivers pungent chamber music.
Rex Butters, All About Jazz Los Angeles
***
The disc has a bit of a desolate, eerie, ghost town feel to the improvisation; Bagetta adds a bit of twang to his Derek Baileyisms and Tiner complements nicely with an open, airy sound. Very interesting.
Ben, KZSU 90.1 FM, Stanford, CA
***
Trumpet and acoustic guitar duet Tiner and Baggeta serve up a dozen tracks of their own original compositions. Spare, ultra-modern and nonlinear, the musical pieces are all founded on improvisation, with little or no symmetry. That does not mean they don't make sense, in and of themselves--they do; but instead of melody lines and rhythm, you hear mostly grunting bursts of horn over jumbled, jangly, atonal guitar scuffle. In track number ten, 'One More Chance,' these lapses into madness are broken by islands of melodic calm. At other times the guitar becomes a percussion instrument (with knuckle tapping) and is bowed into raspy scree with a violin bow (by Baggeta, in this case a guitarist obviously not trying to be Jimmy Page). While this well-made yet spartan recording brings plenty of atmosphere with it, I have a hard time picturing its context. Is it romantic or existential? Urban or pastoral? Lyrical or elegaic? Jazzy or more classical? Does it take after Stravinsky or Coltrane more? It could be that its many amiguities are what's good about There, Just As You Look For It, in the first place. It depends on how impressed one is by musicians who are able to get as many different varieties of sound out of their instruments in a non-rock-and-roll or non-electronic-music setting, without smashing them to bits.
Perry Bathous, Chain D.L.K.
***
Mike plays a couple of lonely chords over and over as Kris takes a solemn solo. Mike launches off into Derek Bailey/Eugene Chadbourne-like fractured guitar playing as Kris throws ideas back and forth. There is a strong balance of written and free sections, intricately put together. If it weren't for the written bits, someone might mistake this for Dr. Chad and Kondo, minus the hijinks. This is a completely acoustic duo and both players are well matched, listening and responding quickly and creatively.
Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery, New York
***
Acoustic guitar and trumpet post-jazz possibilities are explored by two young jazz improvisers of west and east coasts respectively. Baggetta’s style is of Spanish influence with a Derek Bailey sound of chimes and tweaks, giving Tiner’s chamber trumpet sound a percussive fabric to play into. Space is the canvas, timing is relative. The full timbre and resonance of tones suspend in time, then evaporate into the surrounding wake of sound. Evening is the mood and all is calm as these young lions of free music eloquently pursue the masters’ path.
"outlier", KFJC 89.7 FM, Los Altos Hills, CA
***
Composed pieces, but they have a freedom and looseness of improvisation, and a general mood of enjoyment. Tiner’s brass moves through melodic and musical moments into fluttering and some squonk, without straining the listener too much. The guitar picks, strums (a lovely percussive beat with prepared tings on The road to el paso) and considered music (ITS) or a sliding scamper fill (Choke on it). The instruments play off each other - and while Baggetta composed most pieces, the brass dominates to my mind - and occasionally in a wonderful unison. As with much improv, it is easier, more enjoyable when it approximates to tunes and melodies (such as the title track), this release provides a range of moods and delivery that makes it work.
jeremy, ampersand, may 2005
***
Représentants d’un jazz West Coast contemporain, le trompettiste Kris Tiner et le guitariste Mike Baggetta se sont récemment confrontés, histoire de définir comment évoluent les clichés. Et faire fi des arrangements arrondis comme des figures de styles, sur There, Just As You Look For It , figure bipolaire en mouvement. Serein, d’abord, la trompette évoluant sur le va et vient - sur un demi ton - de la guitare ( The Road To El Paso ). Plus angoissé, ensuite, ceci n’interdisant pas les phrases convenues ( Second Preference ), mais capable, le plus souvent, de laisser-allers récréatifs ( Your Aftermath ,One More Chance ). S’il arrive à Tiner et Baggetta d’avoir recours à l’unisson ( A Delicate Touch ,Quadrants (for Ken Wilber) : IT ), leurs brillances viennent plutôt de l’emphase avec laquelle s’opposent leurs ardeurs. Alors, une trompette singeant le cool se rebelle face aux assauts d’une guitare en pièces ( Quadrants (for Ken Wilber) : WE ), ou signe la mésentente d’un dialogue extatique sans lendemain ( Caffeinated Weasels ). En bout de course, on s’accorde pourtant, l’espace d’une parenthèse. There, Just As You Look For It clôt le débat, sans tirer les conclusions d’une rencontre tendue mais facétieuse. Kris Tiner et Mike Baggetta s’en retournent, assurés maintenant du parti pris des choses.
Grisli, Infra Tunes
***
KRIS TINER (*1977, Wasco, CA) ist im Unterschied zu MIKE BAGGETTA kein ganz unvertrauter Name. Er tauchte nämlich bereits als Trompeter im Jeff Kaiser Ockodektet auf. Daneben zeigt Tiner sein Profil auch in MTKJ und dem Tiner / Phillips / Schoenbeck Trio. Sein Partner an der präparierten akustischen Gitarre, der aus Agawam in Massachusetts stammt, schwebt an sich in anderen Sphären. Willkommen, Fremder. Auf There, Just As You Look For It (pfMentum 025) spielen die beiden miteinander eigene Kompositionen. Tiner steuert das Titelstück bei, ‚Caffeinated Weasels‘ und das vierteilige ‚Quadrants (for Ken Wilber)‘, Baggetta macht den Auftakt mit ‚The Road To El Paso‘, die sechs Stationen später beim lakonischen ‚Choke On It‘ endet. Was man hört, ist nur schlecht in eine Schublade zu zwängen. Durch Baggettas eingestandenes Faible für coole Jazzer wie Konitz und Hall, aber auch für Ravel und Messiaen, führt eine vage Spur zu abgeklärten Verschmelzungen von Third-Stream-Jazz mit Neuer Kammermusik. Nur dass z.B. ‚Second Preference‘ einem komplexen Schnittmuster folgt, aber dabei alles andere als abgeklärt klingt, so scharf und vehement wird intoniert. Trotz oder vielleicht sogar wegen der genauen Notation des ‚Was‘ schlägt das ‚Wie‘ umso effektvoller ein. Tiner spielt neben Trompete noch Piccolo, Flügelhorn und Saxoflügel, Baggetta nutzt extreme De-Tunings, so dass etwa ‚Your Aftermath‘ mit allen Charakteristika englischen Plinkplonks aufwartet, nur ohne das improvisatorische ‚Free‘. Aber diese Musik versteht es, aus solchen Paradoxien faszinierende Funken zu schlagen. Tiner besticht immer wieder mit einer reflexiven Poesie, einer zarten Nachdenklichkeit. Baggetta setzt dazu ganz gezielte, angeschrägte Einzelnoten, repetitiv und plötzlich und immer wieder sprunghaft aleatorisch, und mit den Farbtonfinessen einer drei Tage alten Prellung. Das ganz große Plus dieser Gitarre ist in meinen Ohren der krätzige Sound, das bewusst präparierte drahtharfige Diskant, das sich im schönsten Kontrast in den oft sonoren, aber dann doch auch Herb-Robertson‘esk gepressten Trompetenton einmischt. Die unscheinbare Aufmachung täuscht. Dieses Duo zieht mir die Augenbrauen bis unter den Mützenrand.
Bad Alchemy #47 (Germany)
***
Twelve, mostly short, improvs of wild serenity.
Jackal Blaster Webzine
***
Fans of post-jazz experiments may enjoy this innovative combination of trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, saxoflugel, and acoustic guitar... this album is appealing...
Caleb Moon, Valley Advocate (Springfield, MA)
