Airports for Light marks the debut of the new edition of the Vandermark 5, with Tim Daisy now holding down the drum chair. The music is a typical Vandermark balance of styles: pocketsize R&B and rock charts; temperate free improvisations featuring the leader’s clarinet; touches of West Coast swing; and the odd stormy moment, such as the pell-mell “Confluence” (a tribute to Sonny Rollins). This lean, unadorned quintet format is in many ways the ideal vehicle for Vandermark’s compositional sensibility; the nine originals here are sharply etched, catchy and, above all, efficient. They contain no wasted space, and though most of the tracks are fairly long (roughly eight minutes on average) the compositional frameworks ensure that the results are highly focussed.

In many ways, Vandermark makes his mark on this music more as an organizer, composer and arranger than purely as a soloist. He has always assembled impressive bands, but is not himself usually the band’s strongest improvisor. On Airports for Light Bishop and Rempis both turn in fine solo work, fluid and quick-witted; indeed, the album opens on a high point with a joyous simultaneous improvisation by the two of them. The contrast with the leader’s work is sometimes striking. On the strutting funk number “Money Down” (dedicated to Roland Kirk) both Rempis and Vandermark solo on tenor, and the common choice of instrument drives home the disparity between Rempis’s rhythmic flexibility and Vandermark’s stiff and choppy approach. Yet ultimately such disparities in improvisational ability are of less significance than one would expect: it is the group sound and feeling, the compositional shape and gritty texture of the music, that matter, and which best express Vandermark’s vision.

Tim Daisy proves an intriguing new addition to the group. He is clearly better versed in rock and funk idioms than in jazz: he drops bombs with maddening regularity squarely on the first beat of the bar – THUD! – so it’s just as well that only one piece on the disc (“Both Sides”) actually requires him to play idiomatic jazz drums for any prolonged period of time. Yet otherwise he plays very well on the disc, not just on the hard-hitting pieces but also on abstracter compositions like “7 Plus 5” and “Initials,” which require a colourist’s sensitivity.

All in all, this is an enjoyable new excursion from the Vandermark 5. Dedicated followers of the group will want to purchase the limited edition of this disc (Atavistic ALP140DCD-X), which for a modest extra price includes a bonus CD of covers of Sonny Rollins tunes. It was not included with the review copy I received, so I can’t comment on it, but word-of-mouth has it that it’s well worth a taste.

Nate Dorward

Cadence, July 2003