Signal to Noise Review
JASON STEIN SOLO In Exchange for a Process + JASON STEIN’S LOCKSMITH ISIDORE Three Less Than Between
Leo Records 2009
Clean Feed Records 2009

Bass clarinetist Jason Stein, Chicagoan by way of Long Island, first came to prominence with Vandermark's Bridge 61, and has also recorded with saxophonist Keefe Jackson and oboist Kyle Bruckmann, as well as leading his own trio Locksmith Isidore. Stein's approach is thankfully quite singular, recognizing-but not beholden to-canonic figures like Eric Dolphy and Michel Portal. Indeed, his concentrated circular/horizontal approach, spacious and microcosmic, recalls (if anyone) the non-linear eddies of Jimmy Giuffre and Michel Pilz.

With only one statement as a leader to date, 2008's A Calculus of Loss (Clean Feed), it takes some downright chutzpah to follow that with a solo recording of bass clarinet. In Exchange for a Process is just that, eleven pieces that explore the nuances of Stein's very particular relationship to the instrument. There is a point of comparison here with Giuffre's solo clarinet pieces, especially as he began to explore tonalities, registers and cadences outside the "proscribed idiom" of jazz. Stein references Dolphy on "Hysterical Eric," but rather than an approximation of Eric Dolphy's sound on the instrument, it's an exploration of the jubilant feeling one gets from listening to the elder statesman let loose. As Stein subdivides and recombines his phrases, giving gleaming kisses to the reed, fluttering and finely twining closely-valued hues, it isn't so much about putting an instrument through its paces as it is one artist's affirmation of his relationship to the brush.

Locksmith Isidore is Stein's primary group with drummer Mike Pride and bassist Jason Roebke (who replaces cellist Kevin Davis). "Protection and Provocation" opens with eddying whirrs, but with the support of a rhythm section, the leader's shuffling grit becomes quite compositional. Roebke and Pride are adept at skittering and clambering over one another, but their meaty off-kilter swing is also an axis for Stein's inner dialogues. Light, jagged gestural play characterizes "Laced Up with Air," a balanced scamper that toys with thinness and mass. On "Stevenesque," delicate footfalls soon fall away into hushed areas of reedy harmonics and breathy split tones. As a trio, Locksmith Isidore work collectively to explore an interaction that's as personal as any one man's vocabulary.

-Clifford Allen, January 2010