The bassist, composer, and bandleader Moppa Elliott is best known for his playing in the wildly inventive ensemble Mostly Other People Do the Killing, but his creativity is manifest in various other groups, including the quintet Advancing on a Wild Pitch and the nonet Acceleration Due to Gravity. Both have new LPs out now via Elliott’s Hot Cup label. On Disasters, Vol. 2, the five-piece delivers a warm and deep straight-ahead set of Elliott originals, and on Jonesville, an album inspired by bassist Sam Jones, the nine-piece group offers a wilder compositional ride. They are rewarding both singly and considered together.
Released in 2022, Disasters, Vol. 1 was recorded by Mostly Other People Do the Killing in a trio configuration of Elliott, pianist Ron Stabinsky and drummer Kevin Shea, with Stabinsky and Shea doubling on Nord electronics. Across that record, Stabinsky’s piano establishes Elliott’s “inside” compositional core as the bassist’s foundation is supple but sturdy. Shea’s frequently explosive drumming sends the record down a less conventional path. The electronics ensure Disasters, Vol. 1 won’t be mistaken for any other album.
As stated above, Disasters, Vol. 2 is a more straight-ahead affair, though it thrives on toughness of execution, in part through the choice of baritone sax, played by Charles Evans, and trombone, played by Sam Kulik. Alongside Elliott, pianist Danny Fox and drummer Christian Coleman round out the band. Two compositions “Marcus Hook” and “Dimock” return from the first volume; as on the prior set, all of the pieces are named after “towns in Pennsylvania that experienced historical disasters.”
Through an underlying disdain for conventionality, Advancing on a Wild Pitch brings the descriptor straight-ahead into question across Disasters, Vol. 2 in a manner that’s a bit reminiscent of Charles Mingus. Not surprising given Elliott’s chosen instrument, but the feel is based more in the horns recalling Jerome Richardson and Jimmy Knepper. As in Mingus’ work, there’s a boldness in both ensemble play and soloing here that suggests an affiliation with the avant-garde without ever embodying it.
Understand that Elliott wastes no time with moderately skilled players. The styles chosen are fully embraced. While Elliott enjoys messing with listeners’ heads (he’s been called a prankster with a punk spirit), there’s nothing “ironic” going on. The playing ventures into a post-bop (not hard-bop) zone but with elements, like Kulik’s muted trombone, that underline comfort with pre-bop forms (a la Mingus, again). “Mud Run” has a West Coast feel, while “Dimock” and “Marcus Hook” are bluesy numbers, he latter sounding like it could’ve been cut in the late 1950s for the Riverside label.
That’s a solid segue to Acceleration Due to Gravity’s Jonesville. The record’s inspiration Sam Jones is heard on a slew of disc’s issued by Riverside in the late ’50s-early ’60s, including his own date as a leader, The Soul Society from ’58. But interestingly, the three tunes by Jones chosen for interpretation by Elliott are from the early days when Jones was in the bands of Tiny Bradshaw and Paul Williams (Jonesville’s album cover is a direct homage to Seven Minds, Jones’ 1975 LP for East Wind Records).
For Jonesville, Acceleration Due to Gravity consists of trumpeter Bobby Spellman, trombonist Dave Taylor, alto saxophonist Matt Nelson, tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard, baritone saxophonist Kyle Saulnier, guitarist Ava Mendoza, pianist George Burton, drummer Mike Pride, and Elliott. While there are avant-garde flareups throughout, most prominently some skronky blowing in “Stack of Dollars,” these seven tracks in 22 minutes aren’t formally destructive.
Think of Jonesville instead as an attempt at fortifying and reinvigorating classic forms. Choosing tunes that Jones composed while playing in large bands makes sense for this nonet. The music swings mightily in a manner suggesting a collegiate jazz band competition circa 1981 that’s been infiltrated by John Zorn and members of the Lounge Lizards.
But there is also a playfulness, a creative restlessness and a refusal to accept codified norms that is similar in spirit to The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix, but unique in execution. The four Elliott originals on Jonesville all include snippets from recordings by Jones that have been significantly altered so they are absorbed rather than consciously recognized as samples. The music is also structurally cyclical, progressing with gradually altered loops as somebody is always improvising.
Jonesville is a wild affair, but serious fun rather than caustically anarchic. It pairs productively with Disasters, Vol. 2, where the naming system (per Elliott’s liner notes) is an avenue of historical (and contemporary social) commentary and not a dark joke. Both albums are admirable and engaging.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
Advancing on a Wild Pitch; Disasters, Vol. 2
A-
Acceleration Due to Gravity; Jonesville
A-
