Why Get You Jazz From NYC When the Home Brew Is Just As Good?

"Ballard Jazz" is still far from being a household catch phrase, but Origin Arts Music is trying to change that. Under the direction of John Bishop, Seattle's most furiously gigging drummer, Origin Arts has produced a baker's dozen of high-quality local jazz releases in recent years. Most of the records have leaned heavily on mainstay jazzers like Don Lanphere, Marc Seales, and bishop himself, but the label has been expanding in 1999, first producing the debut album of drummer Steve Korn and now releasing The Madman's Difference, vibraphonist Ben Thomas' first record.

Ballard folk (Ballardites? Ballardians?) may remember that Ben Thomas spent his spring holding the jazz line at the Old Town Alehouse with his trio. But hosting a weekly jazz jam is no obvious symptom of greatness. Good improvisers are not necessarily good band leaders or good composers, but Ben Thomas manages to do all three jobs well enough to make The Madman's Difference as good a straight-ahead album as you're likely to find coming out of Seattle.

The secret, of course, is math. Or at least, that's how Thomas himself sees it. A mathematician in college, he enrolled in a rigorous Masters in Musical Improvisation program for his post-graduate study, and began studying improvised music as quasi-mathematical variations in timbre, dynamics, and intrumentation. Although that may sound like a nerdy approach to music, the payoff is evident throughout the album.

In compositions like "Melicatu," the first track of the album, precise changes in rhythm and dynamics create a series of fresh backgrounds for pianist Jovino Santos Neto and Thomas. Most of his compositions share this calculating crispness. Even though the instrumentation remains mostly the same, the songs vary in structure, dynamics, and feel enough to hold the listener in place.

The only knock on The Madman's Difference is that the dominance of vibes and soprano may take some getting used to: It's an uncommonly delicate sound. But once your ear has worked through that, the album has enough nuance to offer some new improvisational or compositional value each time you put it on.

But perhaps the most pressing reason to buy this album is local pride: This is Seattle jazz, and it's good. You drink Hale's Ale and eat only Washington apples, so why get your jazz from New York City when the home brew is just as good.

Nathan Thornburg
Stranger, October 1999