Never Is Enough is the sixth record from the new jazz/ new music trio Thumbscrew, coming hot on the heels of their stunning Anthony Braxton birthday tribute project from late July of 2020. In fact, drummer Tomas Fujiwara, guitarist Mary Halvorson, and bassist Michael Formanek recorded this album simultaneously with the Braxton set, but more on that below. Featuring three originals by each member, the selections cohere into an immersive smoker that’s available now, and please take note that Cuneiform Records is offering a limited 2LP edition with four exclusive live tracks on side four. These cuts aren’t on the CD or the digital download; this review focuses on the nine-track core release.
Recording two albums at once might seem like it’s setting up a stressful, potentially even harried situation, but that’d be far more likely if the dual task derived from a studio scenario where time equates to money spent. Contrasting, Thumbscrew has a productive relationship with City of Asylum, indeed so beneficial that this is the second time the trio has cut two records at once in conjunction with that Pittsburgh-based arts organization.
Thumbscrew’s previous undertaking produced the 2018 albums Theirs, a disc of interpretations of material by others, and Ours, which consists of Thumbscrew originals (side four of Never Is Enough features live recordings from the Theirs and Ours tour). The Anthony Braxton Project and Never Is Enough constitute a similar (but not exact) attempt at making the most of their latest City of Asylum residency, as the former is devoted to readings of work from Braxton’s extensive Tri-Centric Foundation archives, while the latter, like Ours, is all original material.
In Cuneiform’s press release for Never Is Enough, it is mentioned that the two records were “not intended as the same kind of dialogue” as Theirs and Ours (which were released on the same day in 2018), but that the Braxton album and Never do speak to each other, with Formanek stating that he believes the influence of Braxton’s music is felt on Never, and if not a direct influence, then certainly inspiration from a massive body of work to which all three members of Thumbscrew have direct connections, Halvorson most extensively.
I’ll add that with Thumbscrew’s latest, they persist in elevating a platform in which Braxton had a considerable if perhaps underdiscussed hand in developing circa 1970-’71, specifically the leaderless combo, with the saxophonist an equal partner in the Creative Construction Company with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, violinist Leroy Jenkins, pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Steve McCall. During the same period, Braxton was part of Circle, with pianist Chick Corea (RIP), bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Barry Altschul.
The background of the Creative Constructive Company, or CCC (two albums issued posthumously on Muse in the mid-’70s), and Circle (a handful of records also released post-breakup by Blue Note, CBS, and ECM) are far more fleeting (live recordings are the source for both CCC releases and for much of Circle’s output) as they resist being strictly defined as collective ensemble expressions. To elaborate, the first CCC LP was later issued by the Vedette label as Muhal, and numerous editions of Circle’s work have unsurprisingly been released as Corea albums.
As The Anthony Braxton Project wasn’t intended as a dialogue with Never Is Enough, neither is Thumbscrew a direct reaction to or an extension of Braxton’s work in CCC and Circle. For one thing, six releases deep, Thumbscrew sustained success as a collective lends them distinction. Frankly, in terms of achievement, Thumbscrew is nearer to the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Air (which featured McCall from CCC), and Test, though with an approach to jazz composition that’s refreshingly contemporary.
Leaderless combos are no longer a jazz rarity, but most of them cohere as one time only affairs. Upon release, the names of the participants are simply given equal weight in the packaging and promotion. That’s cool, but the intention with Thumbscrew was to create music specific to the aggregation, tapping their individual and collective strengths, and to exist as a working outfit both live and in studio. Hence the adoption of a band name, a tendency that’s still far more the norm in the rock and pop spheres.
Interestingly, elements of rock are heard throughout Never Is Enough, most prevalently on “Sequel to Sadness,” the title track and closer “Scam Likely,” but it’s inapt to tag the record as fusion in the classic sense (even as band names flourished in that subgenre, e.g. Weather Report, Return to Forever, Lifetime, and Mahavishnu Orchestra). Instead, the music is better assessed as residing in the vicinity of prog’s heartier and predominantly undersung specialists (fitting, as Cuneiform has been a tireless promoter of quality prog for decades).
Shining through across Never Is Enough is Thumbscrew’s evolving adeptness as a compositional entity, and to the point where it would serve as a fine point of entry for curious newbies perhaps intimidated by contempo avant-leaning jazz’s reputation for abstraction. But to be clear, this isn’t a rock album, even as Formanek’s electric bass playing in the title track (a fresh twist for him, at least on record) reminds me a bit of Mike Watt.
Rather, these pieces succeed through structure, as what’s written and what was improvised during that City of Asylum residency merges into a seamless whole, expansive but not excessive, most of the cuts landing in the six-minute range. The wiggly, off-kilter flareups in Halvorson’s execution remain the most immediately distinctive element in the ensemble sound, heard as such in the opener, Fujiwara’s piece “Camp Easy,” though she really thrives in her own composition “Sequel to Sadness.”
Fujiwara also excels in that track, first by delivering a substantial rock groove and then following it with a vibrant, tidy solo. Halvorson jumps back in with a flurry, trading ideas with Formanek, whose double bass is as limber as it is brawny. And the piece blooms by eluding expectations at the close. It’s worth establishing that Fujiwara and Formanek never settle into rote rhythm-section mode, though they do have fun playing with convention during Halvorson’s totally unexpected twist on classic jazz balladry, “Heartdrop.”
Don’t get the idea that she’s aping Kenny Burrell. Her playing is as woozily diagonal as ever, but this time from a foundation that’s informed by the warmth of jazz standards. Like Formanek’s introduction of amped bass (heard again in the effects-laden finale) and Fujiwara’s range of expression in his composition “Unsung Procession,” it reinforces the continued vigor of Thumbscrew’s vision. Never Is Enough is another standout from one of the finest sustained creative music ensembles of the 21st century.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
