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Liner Notes - Consensual Tension

Liner Notes by Robert D. Rusch

During a conversation with Mark Whitecage in the Spring of 1997, he mentioned to me that he was sending a tape as a proposal for a recording. "What group?" I asked, as we had already recorded his trio (CIMP 106) and quartet (CIMP 119) along with pairing his quartet with the Joseph Scianni Trio (CIMP 155). Mark said, "It's my quartet." There is a huge amount of music being recorded and released, some of it extraordinary, much of it ephemeral and forgettable, and artists, even those deserving of documentation, are more often than not being put into redundant situations. Even with the massive amount of releases flooding the market, there seems to be no real correlation between recording opportunity and talent, deserving or otherwise. It has always been CIMP's intent to offer material of excellence and, when dealing with artists already well documented, to put them in fresh settings and faced with fresh challenges. So when Mark responded that he was sending material by his quartet, I responded, "Mark, we've recorded your quartet." His check to me was, "This is my other quartet." Still, I remained reasonably skeptical for, while I am greatly challenged and rewarded by Mark's playing and had been impressed by Sabir Mateen, particularly on his recording with Marc Edwards' Trio (CIMP 128), I figured it would be more or less a pairing of known musical personalities. What I had not figured was how absolutely different both Mark and Sabir sounded when paired together. Here were color and dynamics bearing little resemblance to what I thought I knew and that, combined with the very different rhythm section of Joe Fonda (CIMP 151) and Harvey Sorgen, brought a freshness and perspective that still surprises me. Over the two days of recording, the music poured forth. Music is so integral to Mark's persona that he's often oblivious to some of the formal structures that intrude on a recording session. A good example occurs on "Oleo" which began without any formal cue and before studio silence had been established. What I thought was just ad lib riffing between Joe and Harvey quickly developed into something else. Fortunately, the tape was rolling. It's illustrative of how this session went. The group had, prior to this date, been touring with each other for about a month and I think it accounts for the assured but very subtle intensity that prevailed through the session. During the first couple of hours, at the beginning of each take, I wondered if the music was going anywhere. Inevitably, the piece would come around to my understanding and deliver its forceful statement. Midway into the session, I no longer questioned if it was going anywhere, but relaxed in expectation of where it would take me and how it would get there. Give these guys a tone and they'll construct a musical universe of fascinating encounters. This was a very laid-back group, 4 artists in a strategy of consensual tension with imagination and invention.

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