Chicago Spontaneous Combustion Suite

They Say...

Review by Jonathan Widran, All Music Guide

An avant-garde jazz lover's dream, this crazymaking (for the mainstream fan) suite created by saxophonist, composer, and arranger Mike Ellis is formed from 19 separate "parts" ranging from the hustling, bustling, 13-minute "Part Two" (which sounds like jazz created by New York City rush hour traffic and a lot of impatient drivers) to softer, slightly more lyrical but still meandering nine-minute segments ("Part 9") and then two-minute parts that seem to focus on the improvisational interaction (sometimes brash, sometimes hardly audible) between Ellis and trumpeter Jeff Beer, whom Ellis first worked with when the two were playing with Alan Silva's Celestial Communications in Paris circa early '80s. Ellis has a long and interesting history beyond that group, ranging from playing with the Tokyo-based group Méta to working regularly in NYC these days with his large ensemble the Urban Jungle Orchestra. In 2005, he founded AlphaPocket Records to encourage improvising musicians deserving of wider recognition. Certainly the kind of weird, disjointed connections between the two horns, a bass trumpet, and the rhythm section on this suite must appeal to someone, somewhere -- but not to anyone who cares a whit for melody, rhythm, or anything approaching a theme. Hence the recommendation for the avant-garde crowd, which tends to be open-minded and on a similar wavelength. As for the rest of us, maybe Ellis and company can beam us up into their rarefied world where this could be considered interesting and enjoyable.