Cuong Vu
It's Mostly Residual

THE REVIEW

In a song by his Bluvertigo, Morgan claimed that yes, the skill, but jazz only increased his headache. What I say instead, which unfortunately I cannot record on a disc, is that I want more "headache" jazz like that of Cuong Vu and less riffraff like Morgan. Having said this, I say something else. Cuong Vu is Vietnamese by origin but soon takes on the DNA of Seattle/Washington and American jazz, embracing the study of the trumpet right in this environment. And therefore it's not at all strange to understand his approach to music. Cuong has a philosophy that should be adopted not only by modern jazz musicians but also by more or less radical musicians all around the world.

Why? Simple, he cannot stand the closed-mindedness typical of certain jazz environments and is careful not to end up there. He listens to everything and loves pop, rock, and classical more than anything, trying to break free from the music he plays and immerse himself in other, distant environments, making his approach to the thing much more interesting, innovative, and particular. What better recording companion, then, than good old Bill Frisell, to expand the formation that leader Vu prefers the most?

The album opens, in fact, with the title track, on a velvet carpet of sounds woven from Frisell's six strings, sparse melodies that build electrifying moments, accompanied by metallic percussion that soon turns into a groove, a deconstruction that becomes true creation of melody, also joined by the electric bass of Stomu Takeishi and, of course, our man's trumpet, and the atmosphere that is built is pop to the nth degree, which grows until it becomes something else, echoes of King Crimson in the guitar, and grandeur and epicness in the trumpet phrasing.

"Expression Of A Neurotic Impulse" is the right title for this piece, extremely nervous trumpet sobs bounce on an equally nervous rhythmic session, until a direct and swift piece starts, interspersed with distorted guitar-trumpet phrases on the edge of psychedelia. The crazy distortions return on "Brittle, Like Twigs", from the rhythmically and "distortively" """noiserock""" intro, to the "verse" where the trumpet-bass-drums trio gives its best, producing cyclical and pressing sections, the full power of Takeishi becomes evident, and Frisell intervenes in reverse, counterpointing rhythm and melody.

The finale is left to the electronic and almost post-rock echoes of "Blur", where the pinnacle of the Vu-Frisell duality is reached, in liquid melodies supported by a bass that seems more like a double bass played with a bow, an infinite, gray, and silent sea.

Splendid.