Jazz drummer and composer Allison Miller (courtesy of Royal Potato Family)
At the beginning of February, Royal Potato Family (RPF) released Glitter Wolf, the latest studio album of Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom. Drummer Miller is the composer of all ten tracks on the album. Her group is a sextet whose other members are Jenny Scheinman (violin), Kirk Knuffke (cornet), Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Todd Sikafoose (bass), and Myra Melford (piano). The title of the album is taken from one of the tracks. It has a Web page on Amazon.com, but it is available only for streaming or MP3 download.
It was through the presence of Goldberg and Melford that I was drawn to the album, since I tend to be consistently interested when I encounter them in other settings. (Most recently, both Goldberg and Scheinman were playing in Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra at the SFJAZZ Center this past September.) However, I also tend to be interested in the idea of the drummer leading the combo, particularly through my own encounters with Max Roach in a variety of different performance settings.
When I first listened to this album, my wife heard the opening track, “Congratulations and Condolences” from the next room and came in to ask if this was some new approach to klezmer. Since klezmer is part of Goldberg’s repertoire, I could see how she might have been confused. However, while at least one of the themes has a distinctively modal quality, but Miller shows few signs of allegiance to (or, for that matter, influence from) any familiar genre. Indeed, one of the reasons that I raised Roach’s name is that, for all of his virtuoso command of the many different approaches to what was called “modern jazz,” he was never afraid to lead his own groups into less familiar territory. Similarly, it is not always easy to stake our familiar ground on Miller’s turf; but, if the territory is not familiar, it is also not hostile.
The advance material I received had the following to say about the title track (quoted without compensation for grammatical errors):
On a spiritual level, 'Glitter Wolf' was inspired by the collective need for community and self-acceptance in an incredibly unpredictable time. The music shimmers with the spirit of empowering actions such as the #MeToo Movement and Black Lives Matter, while the dichotomy between suspect governmental policies inspiring rightful protests; embracing the varying degrees of the feminine and masculine from within or living a fulfilled yet challenging life are reflected back in musical juxtapositions of space versus density. Miller’s trenchant writing and Boom Tic Boom's soaring performances results in record that speaks directly to the zeitgeist of the moment.
This is one of those situations where I feel that the text may be making a more declarative statement than the music. There are, of course, cases in which it is clear that the music is “sending a message.” One of the most pointed examples I have encountered recently was Gemma Peacocke’s “Death Wish,” which is the composer’s reflection of sexual assault. This was performed here in San Francisco by Third Coast Percussion at the beginning of this month; and, for all of the intensity of Peacocke’s rhetoric, I got the impression that not everyone on audience side “got the message.” Similarly, I have to wonder how many listeners will detect the layer of irony beneath the upbeat rhythms of the surface structure of “Glitter Wolf,” almost as if the dazzling quality of the glitter obscures “what lies beneath.”
On the other hand, there is no end of imaginative twists encountered as that surface structure unfolds. Indeed, it is the breadth of Miller’s capacity for imagination that makes this entire album such a delight. Performing from her drum kit, she can keep her sextet coordinated as confidently as the sure hand that holds a conductor’s baton. At the same time, this is jazz; and, over the course of the album, all members of the sextet have the opportunity to take their material into their own individual domains of invention. Given that this recording was made across the Bay at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, I would welcome any opportunity to listen to this sextet in concert, rather than just on recording.
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