DAVID S. WARE
Threads (Thirsty Ear)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

---

With Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Guillermo Brown building the foundation, Mat Maneri and Daniel Bernard Roumain supplying the strings, and the man himself, David S. Ware, at the nucleus, Threads springs to life as an exciting jazz recording that might just prove a perfect entry point for future Ware fans. Instead of the usual M.O., Ware has decided to record a collection of complete compositions, and though the styles of the players are incendiary by nature and therefore the excitement reminds us of free jazz, there's more unity here and therefore it's more accessible to one just starting to explore the genre. Ware gives his fellow musicians plenty of room to shine, and they come through. Maneri and Roumain are particularly brilliant throughout, sometimes stirring up the sounds with atonal unisons and sometimes laying down beautiful sunsets of shimmering textures. Brown is more impressive with every recording he appears on. While many drummers seem to play with more power with each successive album, Brown seems to understand the power in subtlety and he employs it perfectly here. Ware is not the show, at least not as a saxophonist, though when he does go for the hot solos he is definitely every bit the monster player he's always been. He is, however, the show as a composer. I won't be surprised to see a lot of free jazz artists using some of these songs as jumping-off points on their own albums in the near future, and I won't be surprised if this album becomes the doorway to David S. Ware for a lot of new fans.

© 2003 - DJ Johnson