Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Cory Smythe: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Cory Smythe: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
ByCory Smythe
piano
Ingrid Laubrock
saxophoneb.1970

Peter Evans
trumpet
Tomeka Reid
celloJosh Modney
violinZekkereya El-magharbel
tromboneSmythe initially composed these ensemble works for a commission by the

Trondheim Jazz Orchestra
band / ensemble / orchestrab.2000
Each of the ensemble tracks comprises the purposeful collision of short sounds from carefully curated permutations, with the entire unit rarely simultaneously present. Improvisatory spaces appear amid the lurching, fluttering, shimmering textures, with Laubrock's squeezed out snorts and honks and Modney's violin creaks and whispers apparent in "Liquiform 1," Evans' slobbers and susurrations surrounded by eliding sighs in "Combustion 1," and Reid's careening cello flurries in "Liquiform 2."
On "Combustion 2"with its disconcerting, out of focus feel, it is as if the group morphs into the jazz band from a David Lynch movie, one where nothing is as it appears. Vocalist

Sofia Jernberg
vocals
Stephan Crump
bass, acousticb.1972
If on the ensemble numbers Smythe wields the orchestra as a single entity, on the six solo piano selections which follow he expands the keyboard into an orchestral polyphony. Each of the pieces, titled simply "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" without any numbering or other differentiation, make extensive use of preparations, subtle electronics and other manipulations to enable a world of microtones and unfamiliar timbres. But no matter how much supplemented, modulated or disguised, Smythe still somehow retains the essential signature of the piano.
With wishful thinking it might just be possible, in the first pass at the material, to discern the contours of the titular tune, albeit rendered glacially slowly, fragmented into slightly vinegary dissonances, separated by silences. But any resemblance is well and truly disposed of in subsequent passes as Smythe re-examines some of the same sonic possibilities, determinedly distilling a lexicon of spectral oscillations, ricocheting resonances which recede only to return renewed and scuttling taps like some small creature seeking its freedom, as well as the occasional glistening excursion along the keys proper, into bewitching otherworldly soundscapes.
Perhaps such experimentation will not be for everyone, but for those on the hunt for substance, Smythe has once again created something bracingly innovative, which like his previous albums Circulate Susanna (Pyroclastic, 2018) and Accelerate Every Voice (Pyroclastic, 2020), co-opts the tradition of American song as the basis for adventures which stretch musical as well political parameters. ">
Track Listing
Liquiform 1; Combustion 1; Liquiform 2; Combustion 2; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.
Personnel
Cory Smythe
pianoSofia Jernberg
vocalsJoshua Modney
violinTomeka Reid
celloPeter Evans
trumpetZekkereya El-magharbel
tromboneIngrid Laubrock
saxophoneDavid Leon
saxophone, altoJessie Cox
drumsStephan Crump
bass, acousticAlbum information
Title: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Pyroclastic Records
Tags
Comments
PREVIOUS / NEXT
Support All About Jazz
