Daniel Carter/Morgan Craft/Eric Eigner: Mysterium (2004)

Elliott Simon

CD/DVD Reviewer since 2001

Elliott enjoys music with energy, chops and tension; whether it be from the mainstream or the outermost fringe.

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Published: July 7, 2004

Daniel Carter/Morgan Craft/Eric Eigner: Mysterium

An active sound experience, Mysterium grabs hold and forces the listener to hang on for a wild multi-genre ride. Using jazz, drum and bass, blues, rock, funk and some down right nasty noise, extended drum set artist Eric Eigner has collaborated with multi instrumentalist Daniel Carter and stunt guitarist Morgan Craft to produce a transgenerational improvisational engagement.

Old head meets new, as Craft, who can make his guitar squeal like the downtown 7th Ave express pulling into Times Square and Carter, who has been a fixture on the NYC improv scene for decades, provide the ideal pair to explore Eigner's sound panoramas. Carter excels on trumpet, sax and flute, at times changing off within a single piece. "Some People Need Bibs" begins as a trumpet/drums free-formish romp. Some kick-ass guitar then hurtles forward against a pumping bass rhythm. Things then get very funky until Carter switches to sax for some "real" jazz. "Charlatans Draped in Blue" is a tonal improvisational excursion that includes bells, springs and screeches to build a percussive landscape where sax meets screech in sirenic wail. A sax/feedback summit slowly builds to a climax and then honk off into the night.

Morgan Craft is the answer to "Who's got the battering-ram?" as his guitar explosions complement the percussive pace set up by Eigner. A stratospheric sax joins over a non-stop funky rhythm until things calm down for a Trane-meets-Hendrix rendezvous. The African feel that Carter's flute and Craft's folkish twanging bass line add to "City Bumpkin Cadenza" and the very bluesy muted trumpet/guitar trip "Harmoniums at Midnight" make for a very well-rounded jam.

Visit Mysterium on the web.

This review originally appeared in AllAboutJazz-New York .

Track Listing: 1. Some People Need Bibs 2. Charlatans Draped In Blue 3. City Bumpkin Cadenza 4. Who's Got the Battering-ram? 5. Harmoniums At Midnight

Personnel: Daniel Carter - Alto, Tenor, Clarinet, Trumpet, Flute; Morgan Craft - Stunt Guitar; Eric Eigner - Extended Drumset, Clarinet

Style: Modern Jazz