Bill Dixon - Son of Sisyphus (Soul Note, 1990)

This post is by Dan

Bill Dixon (tr, p); John Buckingham (tba); Mario Pavone (b); Laurence Cook (perc)

Recorded June 28 and 29, 1988

Bill Dixon's contributions to the 1960's avant garde were unlike much of the raucous approaches to free music. As a member of Archie Shepp's and Cecil Taylor's groups in the 60s, he provided an intelligent perspective on freedom that mostly went unnoticed by traditional jazz fans and critics. By the 1980s, and coincident with his long association with the Soul Note label, his "style" became more intimate and introspective. 

Son of Sisyphus finds him at a peak of emotional and creative expression. The overall mood is dark and respectful of the lives and talents of two dedicatees - Jack Moore and Jo Wittman. They were not musicians, but they were artists within Dixon's spheres of influence. The music dedicated to them is dark but also uplifting and expressive of deep beauty. 

There is little orthodoxy in Dixon's techniques, which range from breathy smears, to growls, to clear lines, mostly in the trumpet's lower register. When accompanied by John Buckingham's tuba, Mario Pavone's string bass, and Laurence Cook's skittering percussion, Dixon has the freedom to float across the deep bass foundation to create gentle shapes and textures of great beauty. He also plays piano on two of the shorter pieces on the album.

It's not easy (or necessary) to "analyze" Dixon's music on Sisyphus, although sleeve notes by Art Lange do a pretty good job of it. I prefer to suspend analysis and critical thinking and just enjoy the work on its own terms. However, Lange's summary comment is insightful:

There is a continuity of feeling between these nine pieces, and they share a clarity, an integrity, an inevitability, a focus. The music embodies mystery, respect for the creative act, and what the painter Robert Motherwell termed "a sensuous interest in one's materials". It is sometimes elegiac, sometimes angry, sometimes proud. It exists.

The recording in the Italian studio does a great job of capturing the range of frequencies needed to express such deep emotions. On LP, at least, the details of interactions between Pavone and Buckingham are clear and fascinating to hear.