3 out of 5

Label: Cantaloupe Music

Produced by: Bobby Previte

I think it always says something about a recording (or movie, or book, or etc.) when I have to have an understanding of the overall concept before I can appreciate the output: and more specifically, I think it makes it more permissible to not like that something.

I mean, tastes are tastes: no one is forced to like a piece of art. However, you can – kinda, sorta, most of the time, probably – assess “art” by some basic rules, and the more narrow you go with genre or messaging, the more precise those rules become. Thus: when something is defined more by a concept than meeting the needs of its genre, or fulfilling its message, the rules become rather pointless, precisely because those needs / fulfillment are no longer the point. And I guess you could then assess whatever by how well it, er, embodies its concept? I dunno. That feels extremely squishy. Bringing us to another thus: that you either like it or you don’t.

“Duh,” you’ll tell me. Fair ’nuff.

Bobby Previte’s “Terminals” is maybe not a Bobby Previte album. He is conducting experimental percussion group Sō Percussion, and then concerto pairing them with a soloist per “terminal,” with the inspirational concept here being the criss-crossing engineer-derived artistry of airport terminals. In the liner notes, So-ster Adam Pliwinski questions how much of this material was preconceived and how much was improvised, and the fact that someone who participated in the project is questioning it somewhat underlines what I was poking at: Terminals is an art project; not strictly an album. It was conceived, maybe given some guardrails, but then was left to wander, on its own. Fans of such a discipline may marvel at that conception, and that will add to their appreciation of the output; those of us more skeptical of art-projects-as-music – or unaware of the pitch – may be put out by how relatively uninvolved about half of this comes across.

(Half of it kicks ass, mind you.)

Sō Percussion plays a range of stuff falling under their instrumental banner; they are paired with a harpist, sax player, guitarist, and organ/piano player – Zeena Parkins, Greg Osby, Nels Cline, and John Medeski, respectively. Certainly all very experienced players. And yet, for Parkins and Osby, it’s as though they weren’t sure how they were supposed to jump in to Sō Percussion’s playing, while at the same time, SōP play it safe to leave room for their guest. So the whole A/B-side of this LP is minimalist tickling of percussion, and then after like ten minutes, Parkins starts carefully playing, or Osby just figures fuck it, I’ll solo; it doesn’t feel very… cohesive. Admittedly, I don’t have an ear for harp, and once Osby gets going, the track start to groove, but either way, their “terminals” are either sedate or not act more like tradeoffs between musicians instead of a combined effort.

Nels Cline kills it, mind you, and Medeski post-rocks the shit out of things. In both cases, we’re probably hearing folks more inclined to rock, or heavier arrangements, and I’ll allow that that’s “easier” for my ears to latch on to. However, I can appreciate minimalism, and get down with jazz; I just wish there was more audible teamwork on the A/B compositions, or at least to my lay ears.

Given all of that, I think Parkins / Osby’s stuff is definitely interesting on its own, while the Cline and Medeski entries well surpass that into material that feels unique to this project, the SōP team pushing each artist to try out their chosen instruments in fascinating ways / combinations with So’s varied percussions. That would probably balance out to a 4-star review, but I gotta be a jerk and complain that Terminal 4 is missing on the physical edition, and is instead gifted as part of a digital download of the whole album. Cheekily, Previte is the “guest” on Terminal 4, and yeah, the track is badass as all get out. Bobby essentially straddles both sides of the project, going way experimental and anti-drum for the first half of his track – y’know, ho-hum, making noise – and then converting into speaker-rattling bombast in the latter half. I get that the track lengths would’ve meant an additional 1-sided LP or something, and so sacrifices were made, but… the “concept” feels incomplete knowing there’s an extra terminal out there, and maybe figuring out how to include it on the album could’ve further broken up the comparative tepidness of Terminal 1 and 2 (i.e. the A/B LP.).

I do sincerely appreciate the artistry here. I don’t mean to cast aside the first LP by just saying that I don’t have an ear for harp – I recognize that there’s a lot of subtlety at play here, or even that if I had more of an ear for some of this, those subtle things would sound pretty massive or obvious. I approach this as a Previte fan, and in general, when he sits more on the sidelines as an experimenter or arranger – which does feel like the case here – I acknowledge the ideas and skill involved, but have to admit that the music ain’t always my bag.