Hearts & Minds

BlueStem Jazz.

media release: Jason Stein — bass clarinet Paul Giallorenzo — synthesizers, electric piano Chad Taylor — drums, percussion

Soon after the catchy synth-bass line that opens Electroradiance, listeners will start to suspect they’re in for something different. The synth-bass line has a herky-jerky contour that does fit a basic pattern of power-rock bands over the decades, but the bass clarinet melody that follows? Not so much. And halfway through, when the bass line becomes a vamp, and the improvisation enters a realm of altissimo squawks and thrillingly convoluted deep runs – well, we’re not in Kansas anymore, are we?

Electroradiance, the captivating new collection of grooves and freedom from Chicago trio Hearts & Minds, teems with such episodes. "Future Told marches to a humorously ominous riff rooted in the cartoonish melodies of Raymond Scott in the 1930s. The dance-inducing beat of "Step'n" supports a stuttering melody from bass clarinet - and then some whole-tone keyboard swaths, pockmarked by synthesized percussion blips - before shifting to a fast swing beat and back again. That same dynamic comes into play on "Slippery Slope," while a modified New Orleans street beat drives

"Shreveport". On the other hand, though, "Treeline" opens with a mournful melody and retains its lovely rubato tempo for the first portion; and the title track offers a space-agey tone poem - night-lonely and a little eerie - in which synthesized keyboard sounds and bass clarinet gargles become almost interchangeable.

Hearts & Minds is the brash and ballsy brainchild of Jason Stein and Paul Giallorenzo, who have remained friends since they met as grade-school classmates nearly three decades ago. Employing an unusual, not to say bizarre, instrumentation, they make music that loops the solar system but maintains an irresistibly grounded pulse (despite the lack of a bassist). Giallorenzo's keyboard work reaches back to the fledgling electronics of the 60s to encompass synth lines as well as asymmetrical tones and textures, which embrace Stein's rangy command of bass clarinet techniques. Joining them for the first time on disc, drummer Chad Taylor simmers or percolates, utilizing his wealth of experience with such artists as Chicago tenor-sax legend Fred Anderson and his Chicago Underground cohorts Jeff Parker and Rob Mazurek.

Taylor's history made him the perfect choice to replace Hearts & Minds' original drummer, Frank Rosaly (who moved to Europe shortly after the trio's debut recording). Working with Fred Anderson allowed him to learn from a free-jazz contemporary of Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, and Pharoah Sanders, whose pioneering improvisations of the 1960s are one touchstone for Hearts & Minds. And the drummer's collaborations with trumpeter-electronicist Rob Mazurek have honed his ability to support and shape music made by synths and electronics - the other major inspiration for Hearts & Minds, whose music reverberates with memories of Sun Ra and the electric jazz fusion of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock.

As the title of the opening track indicates, this ability to go "Back and Forth" between two seemingly opposed camps distinguishes Hearts & Minds - as does the ability to find a fusion path that skirts them both. This same dialectic applies to the name of the band itself, as these musicians seek to achieve an aesthetic unification of expressionistic energy (heart) and intellectual formalism (mind) - all with a 215'-century voice that refers to but does not imitate past influences. Neil Tesser