Devin Gray feat. Andrea Parkins & Frank Gratkowski

 Released: March 6

A drummer by trade, Devin Gray’s latest album has him collaborating with two other artists to create a deep and enveloping musical experience steeped in jazz influences with plenty noise and abstract textures to join in. Andrea Parkins utilizes unspecified electronics along with an accordion and Wurlitzer while Frank Gratkowski provides the woodwinds to include saxophone, flute, and clarinet. It’s with the contributions from Gratkowski that the jazz influences really shine, though Gray himself provides all manner of jazz-inspired drum fills, and the contributions from Parkins keep the album deeply in the territory of experimental. The melange of influences comes together in something that is innovative, experimental, and with just a slight abrasive edge. 

“In Vivo” opens the alum on a darkly tinged note while the more obvious jazz improvisations begin on the second track, “Longtermism.” It’s at this point that things shift a bit into an airier and more spaced out vibe with wild improvisations going back and forth between the saxophone and the Wurlitzer while Gray provides a steady backdrop. The room on this track feels so alive, putting the listener seemingly right there for the experience. Later on, “Doom Loops” give Gray his time to really shine, not so much on soloing here but rather just holding the track together as sparse accompaniments of noise and woodwinds veering in erratically. The rhythm is tight but still unconstricted in its ability to improvise randomly and the whole tack has a darkly fun vibe to it. We get a similar, but vastly more deconstructed kind of vibe later on in “Light Chop.”

The album is a rather invigorating listen. The depth of improvisation can veer into the extremes periodically, sometimes play around in there for extended amounts of time. But it really captures the essence of a particularly noisy aesthetic in jazz, an essence that some try but feel hesitant to lean in fully. Here, Gray and his collaborators don’t hesitate to dive in headfirst.