racing the sun chasing the sun |cs096

Três discos mais tarde, dois em duo com o baterista Rick Rivera (I’ll Meet You Halfway Out In the Middle of It All e Everything’s Going Everywhere, ambos na Edgetone Records) e outro a solo (Solo Piano, na Pax Recordings), o que Thollem McDonas, pianista da Bay Area de S. Francisco, nos oferece em Racing the Sun / Chasing the Sun, é um conjunto de 11 peças para piano solo retiradas de duas metades de concerto. A primeira, de uma apresentação em Forli, Itália, em Dezembro de 2005; a segunda, de um concerto em S. Francisco, em Março de 2006. Anote-se o posicionamento do pianista num estilo sem fronteiras definidas, que atravessa géneros e estilos, dentro do jazz e de Rachmaninoff a Bartók, cuja síntese complexa se poderia situar algures nos desenvolvimentos ocorridos num tempo e num modo posterior às invenções de Cecil Taylor. Thollem é um virtuoso do piano, um talento nato. Em parte, educado (começou a estudar piano aos 5 anos com a mãe), noutra parte espontâneo, de originalidade e capacidade inventiva rara nas áreas do jazz e da improvisação. Pondo de lado a forma das várias escolas do piano com aquelas referências, Thollem assume por inteiro o seu lado mais iconoclasta, irreverente e exuberante no uso da cor. Na Europa, talvez um Joachim Kühn mais eruptivo possa dar uma ideia do universo a que pertence o pianista da Costa Oeste dos EUA. De execução rápida e precisa, com total independência de mãos e extraordinário sentido rítmico e brilho harmónico mesmo em alta velocidade, servido por uma imaginação delirante, que convida o ouvinte a excursionar-se pelos labirintos da sua arte do piano. Arte que o próprio pianista e compositor define como post-classical circus punk world jazz free music – for people and everyone else, um contributo mais para o refrescamento da gramática e do vocabulário do piano. Poucos pianistas em exercício poderão hoje ser referenciados, separada ou simultaneamente, nos livros de jazz, livre-improvisação ou composição contemporânea. Thollem McDonas é um deles. Racing the Sun / Chasing the Sun foi editado em CD pela Creative Sources Recordings. Eduardo Chagas (Jazz e Arredores)

I had the feeling of listening simultaneously to two differentconcerts, both following their own intentionality. This experience never fades but on the other hand both recordings start to 'talk' to each other very soon and many meeting points occur. With a very limited set of manipulating techniques McDonas succeeds in superimposing an intented structure. And the whole becomes more then the sum of its parts. It is not that McDonas is interested in reaching some effect, just for it's own sake. The CD reflects some internal schizophrenic battle through which he maximizes and intensifies his own voice. A dazzling experience. In listening intensively it is possible to identify both threads from which this tapestry is woven. But the real joy is to discover the patterns, the possibilities of relating both voices. Sometimes both voices make a contrast, at other moments they come close. Great exuberant crescendos are followed by more intimate passages. Themes and other ideas we know from earlier recordings make a new appearance. At moments I'm reminded of the universe of Nancarrow. Also, like in track ten, he makes use of extended techniques. Well, I find it hard to say what border McDonas is crossing here. But I can live without an answer. In fact, these and other questions that are evoked by these recordings are part of the fun. An astounding and intriguing musical experience. Dolf Mulder (VitalWeekly)

When one listens to Thollem McDonas' keen-scented navigations of harmonic seas, every chord or flurry coming from his piano transports right back to a past time where learning to actually play an instrument was not an option if you wanted to become a musician. "Racing The Sun, Chasing The Sun" is wonderfully complicated - you could well get seasick if trying to thoroughly follow those monstrous digital precognitions - yet it has that talkative contrapuntal hyperalimentation, typical of Thollem's most enthralling playing, which will force your body and soul to become a small part of it.
Fecundating those silences that still linger in his music every once in a while, this passionate artist mixes reflection and effervescence - often in the very same moment - to establish his unique citizenhood in a one-man universe amidst the frazzled specimens of "free-thinkers-once-corporate-today" musicians who carry on despite the fact they're without a clue of what they're doing since years.
Instead, Thollem McDonas is a justicer of the worn-out, his instrument a magic machine of rejuvenation of a vocabulary which can still be redintegrated in a fantasy world where we can go astray without ever feeling an ounce of fear. For this reason only, we all should thank him. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

Thollem McDonas chiude (in bellezza) la sua trilogia per solo piano dello scorso anno.
“Racing The Sun, Chasing The Sun” è un'overdose stilistica d'impressionanti proporzioni.
L'album riprende due live entusiasmanti (Italia Area Sismica di Forlì nel Dicembre 2005; San Francisco Musicians Union Hall nel Marzo 2006), nessun effetto aggiunto, nessuna manipolazione di studio; solo ciccia. Di quella vera.
Dimostrazioni pubbliche di talento infinito, sconcertante nervo scoperto che scarta e sbanda iper alimentato dal suo stesso furore esecutivo; un gioco di pressioni insostenibili.
Spettri, rimandi ed avvistamenti sospetti; tritacarne umano in gentile veste pianistica.
Testimonianza sincera sulla necessità di confronto costante percepita dall'artista, migliaia di chilometri macinati in giro per il mondo, concerti in solo, in duo, per le strade, nelle foreste, televisioni e radio, nel sito dei test nucleari nel deserto del Nevada, in teatri ed università, nel corso di manifestazioni ed ancora; scuole elementari e case occupate.
Il privato che si sposa con il pubblico, le tensioni che si incastrano fra i tasti del piano, il piano stesso che (ri) diventa oggetto da percuotere; da riportare in strada.
Le aree intimiste si tramutano in luoghi recupero energia, tensione strisciante; lo scarto improvviso una costante.
Il suo pianismo non è (però) solo rauco ed eccentrico urlo.
Schizofrenico ed umorale, mistico a tratti nella sua dissennata insistenza; un vero e proprio dono prezioso.
L'equivalente in un sol uomo della furia iconoclasta che agitava i God!
Ansia febbrile e vitale, dietro si respira puzza di coraggio, di salto nel vuoto senza rete, s'intravedono brandelli classici (Cage; Schoenberg e Satie) strapazzati con brio delicatamente assassino; si avverte la ricerca di uno spazio incontaminato in cui trovar momentaneo approdo.
La Monte Young approverebbe l'insistenza caparbia esibita sul singolo tasto.
Stravinsky, le colonne sonore del cinema muto, il blues, tutti frammenti che s'incontrano lungo il percorso, tutto martellato a dovere e compresso in una visione oltre (credetemi vi prego); senza tempo.
Torrenziale.
Un urlo che sollecita l'urlo.
L'otto resta stretto di spalle in questo caso. Marco Carcasi (Kathodik)

Troisième et dernier volet de la trilogie amorcée par Nuclear Bomb, Cave Painting, ce disque succède à un Poor Stop Killing Poor dont on avait pu apprécier les qualités il y a peu. Là encore, l'Américain nous propose un enregistrement live. Ou plutôt deux puisque Racing The Sun Chasing The Sun est la compilation de deux performances scéniques survenues à Forli (Italie) et à San Francisco. On suit évidemment avec déléctation notre bonhomme dans ses pérégrinations improvisées dont la virtuosité n'est plus à prouver. On retrouve d'ailleurs les mêmes ingrédients que sur Poor Stop Killing Poor c'est-à-dire une musique qui alterne entre vitesse nerveuse et lenteur apaisée mais qui arrive à se trouver un lien pour qu'existe une certaine logique entre ces sautes d'humeurs. La seule différence, et celle-ci est sans doute notable, c'est cet éloignement progressif du jazz auquel McDonas est pourtant si attaché. Ici nous sommes plus proches d'une musique contemporaine, d'où les nombreuses expérimentations, comme si le musicien était en recherche d'une sorte d'accord parfait, agissant comme un éternel insatisfait qui ne pourrait pas se contenter du minimum syndical. Avec lui on arrive à se perdre dans ces méandres pianistiques. McDonas semble alors intarissable, inépuisable devant la tâche à accomplir. Il n'est pas dit, par ailleurs, que tout le monde veuille le suivre sur ce terrain-là. Parfois déroutant il apparaît parfois un peu difficile à suivre mais pour celui qui arrive à dépasser les premières difficultés le voyage proposé par McDonas s'avère des plus fascinants. Après, libre à chacun de faire cet effort qui n'est pas aussi insurmontable qu'il n'y paraît. L'Américain vaut bien ce détour. Fabien (Liability Webzine)

Hm, wenn ich das richtig auffasse, sind bei RacingTheSun ChasingTheSun (cs. 096) zwei völlig separate Piano-Solo-Konzerte von THOLLEM MCDONAS, eins in San Francisco und eins im italienischen Forli gespielt, zu einem Konzert für vier Hände überblendet. Oder? Der 1967 in San Francisco geborene, halb irisch-, halb irokesisch- stämmige Vollblutmusiker ist bekannt für seine PerpetualTouringPhilosophy - I think it's crucial to the cultural health of our planet for musicians and artists of all varieties to travel as much as possible - und entsprechende TourStories von Autopannen, AdHoc-Konzerten und dem Sichnichtsattsehenkönnen an grandiosen Landschaften.
Er spielt Piano und/oder singt und nennt das, was er improvisiert, komponiert oder komprovisiert ‚eccentriclect’, da es sich weder in noch gegen eine Tradition stellt und für Alle und alles Mögliche taugt. Verdopplung und ‚Chance’, zwei der wichtigsten Pynchonschen Against the Day-Parameter, verdichten McDonas Klangwelt zu opulenten Räuschen, Nancarrowschen Tontrauben und Nietzscheanischem Schwelgen, lassen aber auch erstaunlich fragile Momente bestehen. Ein Unikum. Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy)

“This album consists of live recordings of the first halves of two solo piano concerts layed side by side, woven in and out of each other”, one concert in Italy and one in the US, but the whole recording is clean and so well produced you’ll have an hard time distinguishing different reverberation or anything like that, the sound’s so good and this could be the result of two different studio session. Ages ago I’ve reviewed the solo record of McDonas on Pax recording and in the meanwhile this guy has been sailing the world as if he were the “flying dutch of piano” and you can bet he’s enriched his style so much I’ve been loving this collection of live tracks enough to regret I was not there. McDonas’ fingers move fast on ebony and ivroy but while I’m tented to comment his style as “nervous”, I think it’s not exactly true, and maybe that’s just an impression but I see the approach of this american pianist has become mature, that’s why these eleven tracks show he can be sucked into a whirlpool of notes but with an incredible elegance in a split second he’s slowing down to change dierction focalizing on a small sequence of keys. I think Thollem’ style betrays some past infatuation for jazz piano, but also a great number of classical influences like in that melancholic progression of chords at the end of the ninth track. I love piano but I’m also quite aware this’ one of those instruments so inflactioned by many heartless performers it can be deadly boring, but believe me when piano is well played you believe it’s a “single instrument armada” and holy shit…this guy is so talented!. Even if their style is considerably different it reminded me of a solo performance of Martial Solal to which I’ve attended some years ago…sure he was more “jazzy”, MacDonas is younger more abstract and less idiomatic in his playing (improvising?) but I remember so well when Solal destructurated and rarefied a weird medley of Sinatra’s arias shocking a good part of the audience and showing jazz sometimes can still be alive instead of a mummy!. Maybe MacDonas won’t have the same luck of Solal and perhaps his syle won’t keep progressing this way, but this’ the second time I’m listening one of his solo recordings and I’m thinking piano is a great intrument if touched by the right fingers. Andrea Ferraris (Chain DLK)

Dédié For the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers (!?), Racing the Sun Chasing the Sun est un curieux album de piano solo composé de d’enregistrements live des premières moitiés deux concerts de piano solo « laid side by side , woven in and out of each other ». Comprenne qui peut. Un concert a été enregistré à Aera Sismica à Forli en Italie et l’autre à San Francisco au Musicians Union Music Hall. Onze pièces provenant des deux concerts. Thollem Mc Donas est un pianiste virtuose avec un beau toucher qui réalise là un album qui ravira les amateurs de piano contemporain. La pochette est ornée d’une peinture expressionniste abstraite et colorée exprimant une force tournoyante centrifuge lumineuse. Cela évoque les lignes de force de la musique qui mènent vers des ostinatos polyrythmiques et répétitifs dans le bons sens du terme dans une démarche disons … post-romantique. Peut être rien de révolutionnaire, mais c’est bien dans la ligne actuelle du label portugais de nous réserver des surprises en tout genre comme celle-ci. A écouter pour le pianiste. Jean-Michel van Schouwburg (Improjazz)

I've only heard a couple of recordings by Bay Area pianist Thollem McDonas—he's made nearly 20 in the past five years—but that's enough to convince me of his nonchalant range. McDonas is a free improviser who pairs a strong understanding of classical music with a willingness to collaborate with indie-rock freaks (he's a member of the Naked Future with Old Time Relijun's Arrington de Dionyso) or sing along with his playing. On his 2008 solo album, Racing the Sun Chasing the Sun (Creative Sources), he weaves bits of two separate concerts together into a cogent whole, and the result is a relentless zigzag of rhythms, densities, and moods that ranges from kinetic, tightly wound flurries to calm, meditative queries. Peter Margasak (The Chicago Reader)