DAVID A. ORTHMANN, THE PUFFIN CULTURAL FORUM

MAY 21, 2014

In the midst of the fourth and final selection of a fifty-minute set, Bill Moring and Way Out East transformed what had been an interesting performance to something extraordinary. The magic occurred during a lengthy series of exchanges between tenor saxophonist Tim Armacost and trumpeter Jack Walrath on the latter’s composition, “Balls of Everything.” At the onset of the witty jousting of the two horns, the rhythm section—Moring’s bass along with the piano of Steve Allee and drums of Steve Johns—tightened up and, with no appreciable increase in volume, became a vigorously swinging unit. As Armacost and Walrath moved from eight to four to two-bar trades, keenly nipping at each other’s lines, the thickening textures of the sound became as much as the room could contain.

During the course of the set Armacost’s solos said a lot in a relatively short amount of time. He fused various elements and made rapid, substantial changes in a manner that sounded logical and temperate. His solo on “Hop Blues” (a tune that evoked soul-jazz, Middle Eastern music, and ’50s rock ‘n roll) served up brisk rhyming couplets, a long convoluted run, and several trips into the horn’s upper register. By contrast, a voyage through Moring’s “A Space In Time” sounded somber from note one, as Armacost held something in reserve, moving slowly and in no apparent design before suddenly taking flight via long strings of notes and deliberate, soulful phrases.

As a means of explaining the inspiration for “Balls of Everything” Walrath offered a colorful plot summary of the 1983 science fiction film, Brainstorm. Throughout the set, the trumpeter’s forte was rummaging through a huge bag of tricks and putting things together in ways that somehow made sense. A lengthy garbled chain in the middle of “A Space In Time” sounded like someone being strangled. Long settled tones quickly became more pointed. An extended flowing progression degenerated into short pithy phrases. A protracted whispering interlude on “Hop Blues” was followed by loud cackles. Jagged high notes were repeated and abandoned in favor of thoughtful, evenly executed runs. Lines twisted, turned, and then suddenly flattened out.

Allee was particularly good at goosing Walrath during the trumpeter’s solo on Moring’s “Mary Lynn.” On “Hop Blues” the pianist began his improvisation with a number of roughhewn phrases. A couple of hard chords inspired Johns’ snapping hits to the snare drum, a chordal interlude threatening to move outside of the tune’s parameters before the percussionist reined it in by way of single notes only slightly less tumultuous.

The rich weighty sound of Moring’s bass was a fount of stability. He nailed down the bottom and supported the soloists without any extraneous movement. As Moring and Johns maintained a solid groove, the leader’s plainspoken “Hop Blues” solo was both soulful and substantive. Johns began a thematic “Balls of Everything” solo by way of thunderous tom-toms and tricky, chattering snare figures. Jittery Latin-oriented rhythms swung mightily. And while a simple, repetitive bass drum chant served as an anchor, the snare sounded out with gritty, crackling taps. Rapid-fire tom-tom hits competed with brisk cymbal splashes before Moring reentered, joining the drummer in leading the band back to the head.

BUDD KOPMAN, JAZZ IMPROV

MAY 21, 2014

One does not need to read the accolades of Rufus Reid, Dave Striker or John Hart in the notes to know immediately that this group is simply on fue and just let it loose in this session. The quartet, although officially led by Moring, is really a cooperative in that each contributes tunes and arrangements, with Walrath leading with three, and the others one each, plus two covers.
However, it is Moring who is at the center of things for every moment. One second he is walking a solid line, then the next he is playing a counter melody under the lead instruments. At the same time that he has an independent voice as a third lead instrument, he remains in constant touch with Johns to provide a solid and forceful rhythmic bottom. Yes, he is recorded up front, and thus is felt viscerally, but the effect is much more than being loud. Yank out your Mingus recordings, reacquaint yourself with that ferocious joy and you will have a good idea about the feel of this superb recording. The overall sound produced is much, much bigger than a quartet.
Walrath and Armacost deserve adulation for the way they play, not only as soloists but the way they play behind and under each other, acting as the filler that is the missing piano. Johns job is not be envied because he has to match Moring and not get crushed. He not only doesn’t, but comes punching back and actually leading many times. Together, Moring and Johns made me catch my breath.
While the originals are all catchy, and each explores a mood or groove in a way that gets that body moving, I must point out that the two covers (“Days of Wine and Roses” and “Sweet and Lovely”) clinch it for me. I have heard these tunes scores of times, but was not prepared for their treatment here. “Days” starts off with a very cool bass vamp over which the trumpet and sax trade licks until they sound off the melody in unison against a rhythm that cooks. Moring shines here as Johns is playing lightly so we can hear his driving melody lines, and the arrangement is revelatory. “Sweet and Lovely”, which does have some relation to the blues (as does, for example, “Willow Weep for Me”) is treated as a deeper blues than I have ever heard it, starting with the opening bass riff of Moring. It slinks and slithers, undulating with sensuality in a way that makes many other version seem prudish. The highest compliment 1 can give is’that I can see this quartet just leveling a club, getting standing ovations, and not being allowed to leave the stage. Bill, ask me in which city I want you to start your tour. Outstanding, the real thing, an hour-long CD that is much too short, “Way Out East” is a winner.

MICHAEL G. NASTOS, ALL MUSIC GUIDE

 MAY 8, 2014

It’s a bit shortsighted to consider Bill Moring as merely one of many capable jazz bassists, for in fact he is one of the best-sounding players on his instrument over a three-decade career. A skilled accompanist having worked with many big bands, singers, modernists, and fusioneers, Moring adds a contemporary retro-activist tag to his résumé with this quintet, dubbed the Way Out East band. Always potent veteran trumpeter Jack Walrath (why is he not heard more often on recordings?) and saxophonist Tim Armacost add sauce, spice, and depth to the melodic proceedings, while Moring, electric keyboardist Steve Allee, and the exceptional drummer Steve Johns collectively explore this new/old aesthetic. You hear the Fender Rhodes-based fusion music of the early ’70s (think of Mainstream record label artists like Hal Galper, Larry Willis, and Jan Hammer) merged with more modern complicated jazz compositions like those of Charles Mingus, Carla Bley, and Chick Corea. While it is the amplified sound of Allee that identifies this band, the drumming of Johns cements it rhythmically, while the horns make it fly.
Most recognizable in this vein is the title track, a sweet modal tune merging from 6/8 to 3/4 time, with composer Moring anchoring the band on his heavy contrabass in a manner reminiscent of predecessors like Cecil McBee, Richard Davis, and, naturally, Mingus. The excavated lesser-known Ornette Coleman tune “The Disguise” sounds typically harmolodic, lean, witty, and humor-laden in a free bop stop-start style very similar to Ornette’s band with Don Cherry, punctuated with an outstanding muted trumpet solo from Walrath. Walrath contributes three pieces to the book of this band: his peppy rock & roll to tango to bop tune “Sweat” features the horns in sharp staccato accents; “Balls of Everything” typifies the hip retro flashback of early jazz-rock groove fusion; and “Snakes” is a sneaky, dark, free piece with two-note phrases over the improvised rhythm section, then into a six-note rondo section. Moring also wrote the closer, “iHop,” a sleepwalking dark funk with Allee flipping the switch to a Hammond organ sound. Happily, Walrath in particular is on top of his game, which should be shouted to the rafters. One would hope this is not a one-off group, as it certainly sounds like a working band, but the liner notes suggest a single rehearsal was conducted prior to the recording session. It indicates these five musicians are indeed thoroughly professional, with a single-minded concept, resulting in high-level progressive music that should appeal to several generations of jazz listeners.