Multiplicity

“Jazz guitarist and composer Bruce Arnold teaches at Princeton University and stubbornly experiments with musical matter that was found almost hopeless to deal with by the so called “third stream” of the 50s. Mr. Arnold’s many experiments, which combine contemporary classical methods, the 12-tone system, the music of Hildegarde von Bingen, and Native American shamen have been unexpectedly well received even by the rather conservative Down Beat.
” Newsweek” What more can be done to the mutable blues that has not been done yet? The Bruce Arnold Trio’s new CD “Multiplicity” contains eight new compositions all based around the blues that push the form into new, thought provoking shapes. Throughout the CD this well honed trio (Ratzo B. Harris. Tony Moreno and Bruce Arnold) burns through new avenues for the blues pushed along by Bruce’s singular improvisations and composed rhythmic shifts. The compositions and improvisations all utilize a semi-serialized approach, being based on the development of a 1/2 step and a minor 3rd. Multiplicity opens with a braintwisting head…yet it is based on a typical Texas blues. That tricky head uses triplets against an eighth note melody. “Dakota Gumbo” Bruce calls this “a down home blues typical of a 60’s blues jam in Sioux Falls” where he grew up. The trio starts out cool and swinging but veers in and out of a free sensibility where drummer Tony Moreno stretches out. “LickCity Split” The theme is a bubbling intertwined call and response pattern. The trio tosses it around like a volleyball. “Detroit Blues” is a moderate tempo swinging blues where the bass and drums superimpose the feel a 3/4 feel over two measures of regular time. “Front and Back” sports an angular melody that jumps between major sevenths and flat nines and dissonant intervals reminiscent of Thelonius Monk. “Woodpecker Blues” is a written bass line and melody with a tip of the hat to Woody’s theme. The bass line superimposes a three eighth note time against the guitar melody creating an intriguing rhythmic juxtaposition. “Morning Glory” highlights Mr. Arnold’s counterpoint skills. This counterpoint is re-introduced between each so”lo. “Shift” is named for the rhythmic shift between a basic time level and a three eighth notes time level. The trio shows off their ability to move between these rhythmic levels throughout the track.