scatter era reviews

 

Boston Phoenix May 1992
A quintet of young firebrands who write well, blow up a storm, and work to form a coherent unit. Chris Speed’s post-Coltrane tenor explorations and Andrew D’Angelo’s angular Ornette-inspired alto compliment each other admirably; guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel’s mercurial sound adds depth to the ensemble and an original solo voice. Bassist Joe Fitzgerald and drummer Jim Black are the fast-on-their-feet rhythm section that keeps the band moving. Their latest CD is Scatter (GM).
- Ed Hazel

 

JazzTimes Oct 1992
This youthful composers’ quintet hurls darts at traditional bop and drawls moaning quasi-unison horn lines with gentle guitar splashes. They play quite original new stuff with big ears, low profile, and open heart. Begun among Seattle big band pals, Andrew D’Angelo (also sax), Chris Speed (tenor sax) and Jim Black (drums) reassembled in Boston in 1987. Their first CD (1989) attracted attention; by 1991 they’d placed first at NightStage’s JazzStage and won at Boston Music Awards. Human Feel’s strivings for unified vision and expression succeed through a collective melodicism. They listen well and anticipate each other’s turns of phrase. This CD on Gunther Schuller’s label may open them to a bigger world. They never bluster or roil brazenly, but persist with energy and alertness, especially evident on D’Angelo’s ebullient tunes and Speed’s jagged splatters. Yet cosmic sadness pervades lengthy pieces by guitarist Rosenwinkel (“Eyes Cries”), who extends his axe toward Mick Goodrick and Bill Frissell, and the slyly inventive Black (“Low Joe”, “Numb”), whose soft, dynamic swing lifts all.
-Fred Bouchard

 

Option Music Alternatives Nov/Dec 1992
Human Feel: Scatter This Boston-area quintet (Jim Black, drums; Chris Speed, tenor sax; Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitar; Joe Fitzgerald, bass; and Andrew D’Angelo, alto sax) achieves that paradoxically loose but tight sound that seems to come from working groups. Their approach is strongly influenced by the various combos led by drummer Jack DeJohnette, with spiky horns over atmospheric guitar and extremely limber and expansive drum parts. There’s also a hint of Ornette Coleman’s music in the way the saxes blend and in the way the compositions use the blues as a foundation. A solid hour of original tunes from all hands in a nicely detailed recording. Very enjoyable and highly recommended.
-Stuart Kremsky

 

The Boston Globe Aug 1992
The growing refinement and depth of the new-jazz quintet Human Feel is evident on their second release, Scatter (GM recordings). There’s an all-for-one-and-one-for-all quality to the music that accommodates individual and collective expression and a playfulness about listener’s expectations that is refreshing. For instance, Chris Speed’s “Kortone” establishes a medium groove only to ignore it during the opening arhythmic guitar improvisation. “Older Sports” winds down rather than builds, as Speed’s fast and furious tenor solo gives way to ever more spacious and slower solos from the rest of the band. Like a Charles Mingus small band recording, every track covers a lot of territory, and the quintet seems larger than it is.
Speed and alto saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo are good foils for one another, as their oblique, interlocking duet on “Scatter” indicates. Guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, recently with bands led by Paul Motian and Gary Burton, has a warm, enveloping sound that thickens the ensembles and adds an intriguing contrast to the horns. Bassist Joe Fitzgerald and drummer Jim Black play with energy and attention to detail that help the band cohere into an impressive unit.
- Ed Hazell

 

The Boston Herald March 1992
The set by the quartet Human Feel was fierce and fresh. Each solo was a seamless extension of the last, with Chris Speed and Andrew D’Angelo’s Saxes throwing up fragments of lines and then rolling them into a whole, and guitarist Brad Scheoppach creating an approach that seemed ambient and assaultive at once. Drummer Jim Black maintained the focus.
-Daniel Gewertz

 

Boston Globe April 1991
…
While Human Feel often worked at the same dynamic level (as the previous band), it conveyed a more pronounced group concept. Front men Andrew D’Angelo and Chris Speed, on alto and tenor saxes respectively, alternately blow with and against each other to create a range of textures; and the rhythm section of electric guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, bassist Joe Fitzgerald and drummer Jim Black can whisper effectively in those moments when it is not exploding.
Rosenwinkel, who like Fitzgerald joined after Human feel’s 1989 debut recording, was well represented as both soloist and composer. He improvises with an admirable sense of direction, and is not afraid to employ chords over extended stretches. His three compositions also launched the band into distinct and inspiring moods. Speed was at his best on the guitarist’s tunes, especially “Hurrah,” where the tenor took a thematic roller-coaster ride with the rhythm in his wake. D’Angelo’s alto, generally more subdued and patient, created an effectively anguished statement on his own “United Music.” Every piece had contours that Human Feel could explore, which created more then a mere occasion for playing.
-Bob Blumenthal

 

AMG
07/13/2005 5:26 AM
Human Feel's Scatter is filled with tremendous and passionately performed avant jazz, but its importance comes mainly from being the first widely available CD (thanks to Gunther Schuller's GM Recordings label) featuring then-newcomers Kurt Rosenwinkel (guitar), Chris Speed (tenor sax), Andrew D'Angelo (alto sax), and Jim Black (drums). The presence of bassist Joe Fitzgerald is also noteworthy for a couple of reasons: He's a highly skilled and expressive player here (as he would also prove years later in Ballin' the Jack, and he left Human Feel after this CD and was not replaced. Human Feel went on to record its most defining work as a quartet without bass, so Fitzgerald has the somewhat peculiar distinction of having been the bassist in a group that most people remember as not having one. Human Feel used the later absence of a bassist to open the band's music up and redefine the expected roles of drums, electric guitar, and saxes. On Scatter, the roles are more traditional, but that is not meant to suggest ordinary or undistinguished. Rosenwinkel is astonishing on the leadoff and title track, Speed's "Scatter," with a guitar solo dominated by Django-like chords, thick and tinged with distortion -- hot club jazz meets Seattle grunge. Rosenwinkel's soulful and bluesy "Eyes Cries" has a "Lonely Woman" flavor, revealing the guitarist's Ornette-ish side. Speed's "Kortone" is a highlight too, taking off from a seven-beat rhythm in the bass and drums, adding off-kilter sax riffing and a five-beat two-chord vamp from Rosenwinkel. D'Angelo's "United/Music" is comparatively easygoing at the beginning, with an almost Caribbean lilt, before the tempo is loosened into a rubato ballad led by D'Angelo's wailing alto, which rises into a multiphonic scream, joined by Speed's bittersweet tenor. The steady mid-tempo swing of Black's "Low Joe" is just about the most straight-ahead thing he's ever done, and provides nice soloing room for everybody to show their chops. Rosenwinkel's speedy "Rumplestiltskin" is filled with boppish angularity as its lines tumble rapid-fire from the saxes and guitar, and Black's "Numb" ends the disc on a nicely ruminative note. The best was yet to come for these musicians, and yet anyone familiar with the later work of Speed and D'Angelo might marvel at how well-defined their respective tones and styles were even at this early date. As for Black, he had nowhere to go but up -- on this recording he is about as good as any jazz drummer going, whether more conventionally swinging, rolling, and tumbling through free jazz rhythmic terrain ("Older Sports"), or exploring texture and color. But his explosive talent wasn't on full display yet, as it suddenly would be on the next Human Feel release, Welcome to Malpesta, where, without Fitzgerald's bass in the rhythm section, Black's role completely changed and he fully rose to the challenges of the band's new quartet architecture. Scatter is a beautifully accomplished CD: varied, expertly paced, and astonishingly mature for a group of such young cats. And yet it shouldn't be sought out as an introduction to Human Feel -- it doesn't really represent the band's identity as can be heard on Welcome to Malpesta and Speak to It. Scatter is a great record by any standards of creative jazz, but it's not quite Human Feel yet.
- Dave Lynch, All Music Guide