By Eyal Hareuveni
American, Brooklyn-based guitarist-luthier-sound artist Terrence McManus
began to work with master-drummer composer Gerry Hemingway in 2007,
recording a duo with Hemingway (Below The Surface Of, Auricle, 2010), a
trio with Hemingway and double bass player Mark Helias (Transcendental
Numbers, NoBusiness, 2011) and as a member of Hemingway American Quintet
(Riptide, Clean Feed, 2011, with tenor sax player Ellery Eskelin), and
performing with Hemingway’s WHO trio + 2 ensemble. The trio of McManus
with veteran Eskelin and Hemingway, who have been working together since
the late nineties in Hemingway Quartet and Quintet, and as a duo,
Inbetween Spaces, Auricle, 2010), reconvened for the recording of Music
for Chamber Trio, released by McManus’ label, Rowhouse Music.
The reserved and intimate, minimalist spirit of Music for Chamber Trio
is inspired by free jazz and contemporary music but does not subscribe
to any genre or style conventions, but creates its own, nuanced and
conversational sonic universe. McManus composed seven notated and
semi-notated untitled pieces about fifteen years ago especially for
Eskelin and Hemingway, the opening, a 26-minute one and the following,
six shorter ones, more urgent and open for sonic experiments with folksy,
ambient and drone textures, and plays a home-built, stereo nylon string
guitar.
The unique kind of guitar allows McManus to suggest elusive, dream-like
and almost abstract textures where he investigates the resonant timbres
of the guitar while complementing the delicate and precise percussive
touches of Hemingway. or solidifying the gentle, breathy melodic threads
of Eskelin, and patiently daring more and pushes the spacious and
understated interplay into a more dense and intense one. The album
radiates an unhurried, calm and natural flow of introspective and
thoughtful, chamber music, relying on rich musical chemistry and
exceptional deep listening of these gifted improvisers. Here, less means
much more.