Since leaving Dazzle, Tyler Gilmore hasn’t been idling. The talented composer and leader of the mercurial 9th and Lincoln Orchestra recently received a grant to live and work in the little hamlet of Nebraska City. Along with a small room and a piano, “They gave me enough money to be unobstructed there,” he says. As an artist-in-residence, Gilmore had plenty of time to devote his energy to orchestrating material for the upcoming 9th and Lincoln album featuring Grammy-winning trumpeter Cuong Vu.
Gilmore and the band debuted some of his new WWII-themed pieces at Dazzle last Sunday. As venerable melodic motifs periodically surfaced in a volatile sea of brass backgrounds and digital loops, the homogenous juxtaposition of light and dark, ashen and chromatic, electric and acoustic and ultimately, remote and contemporary was intransigent.
Among his influences, Gilmore cites electronic pioneer Aphex Twin, drum and bass music as well a slew of twentieth-century composers and contemporaries that include heavyweights John Hollenbeck and Maria Schneider. Gilmore admits that the latter was a major influence on his early work though he is now attempting to “shed that cloud.” Finding a unique voice is certainly most imperative to developing composers and musicians alike and with a stellar cast of musicians at his disposal, Gilmore seems well on his way to creating his own identity.
With an extremely capable orchestra of some of Denver’s best jazz players, Gilmore-aided by Vu’s simultaneously lyrical and abrasive playing-created an contentious atmosphere, fierce, yet proportionately underscored by peaceful themes that kept things from spinning out of control.
During Soldiering, aggressive melodic movement rose above Paul Romaine’s strident drumbeat. Vu took the type of solo-bordering on corybantism-that has made him famous; inchoately dulcet and poignant before veering into dark recesses and eventually degenerating into a boiling delirium full of frightening and bloodthirsty imagery.
Other songs seemed to give a nod to a mutant strain of early-seventies psychadelica. On We’ll Meet Again, Romaine’s drums bore an uncanny resemblance to the barrage of ticking clocks of Pink Floyd’s, Time, evoking the doomed apphrehension that many soldiers must have felt, trapped in a foxhole, consumed by the nauseating fear that accompanies the knowledge that time is running out. The ambiguity of the various horn melodies only punctuated the fears shared by privates and generals alike. Vu’s somber sounds dissipated at the end of the piece like residual spires of smoke and souls encircling each other above the grim expanse of an empty battlefield.
In I’ll Be Seeing You, Gilmore borrowed melodies from the 1938 Broadway musical, Right This Way, though the differences between the original smoky, after-hours feel of Sammy Fain’s tune and Gilmore’s torrid modern preparation are light years apart. Featuring tenor saxophonist, Peter Sommer, Gilmore’s arrangement stripped the band down to just a trio during the embryonic stage of Sommer’s solo. Unrushed, he was eventually complemented by Greg Harris’ kaleidoscopic vibes. As his ideas gained momentum, a deluge of notes poured out of his horn like a torrent of rain and the desperate scene of a lone soldier in a jeep, speeding through a merciless thunderstorm, toward a black unknown seemed to materialize above the stage. Finally, spurred by the rhythm section’s tempestuous vigor, Sommer’s solo abruptly ended and there was silence. The jeep had driven over the edge of the cliff.
Gilmore’s music is evocative above all else. Whether the mood is violent or eerie, one can’t help but become transfixed by the assortment colors and images that span his compositions. And with the increased blur between electric and acoustic bands, it will be interesting to see how he is able to use both man and machine to create strange and beautiful landscapes in the future.
For more information and music visit Tyler Gilmore's website.
For a complete listing of upcoming Dazzle performances check out the calendar or call 303.839.5100
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