Alliance for Improvised Music

New Show


Scott Fields / Francois Houle / Jason Roebke trio

Aug 27, 1999, Go Studios



Scott Fields (left), Jason Lee Roebke (center), Francois Houle (right)
(credit: Amy Wencel)

When guitarist Scott Fields brought a trio to Two-Way Pull Records in Chapel Hill a year ago, I was unfamiliar with his work. By the end of the evening, it was clear to me that Fields is a unique composer and performer, whose approach owes more to the avant technique of Cecil Taylor and modern classical compositional theory than to any mainstream jazz aesthetic.

Fields is a brilliant technician, whose approach encompasses both ferocious, propulsive power and poised precision. His original pieces cover an extraordinary stylistic range. Some of the compositions explode into jagged sonic shards that overwhelm the listener. Other compositions are unusually spacious, allowing each tone to resonate and breathe. Consistently, they blur the distinctions between composition and improvisation.

Fields' unique musical sensibilities were first shaped by the percolating rock and blues scene of his native Chicago in the late 1960s. In the early 1970s, he became intrigued by the experimentally inclined players affiliated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM). AACM affiliated players like Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, and Fred Anderson were early heroes to the teenage Fields. The AACM was in its heyday during this period, forging a new avant jazz sensibility that placed its emphasis on extended compositions, quiet, spacious improvisations and theatrical performance rather than high energy raves.

As a teenager, Fields immersed himself in the Chicago jazz and rock scene, hustling for gigs, scuffling for a meal and a roof, and living on the fringes. In approximately 1976, his health failing and his fiscal prospects dim, Fields left Chicago for Madison, Wisconsin, where he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin. Originally, Fields majored in classical guitar and composition. He ultimately graduated with a degree in journalism and economics, and a Masters in mass communication research from the School of Journalism. For over a decade, Fields performed only rarely, and on those occasions, played from the classical guitar repertoire. He limited his improvisations to blues licks that he played for his own relaxation. He earned his living as a technical writer and freelance journalist, specializing in articles related to environmental issues and policies.

In 1989, following his father's death, Fields decided to renew his pursuit of a musical career. Since his return to music, he has recorded a series of extraordinary projects. Five Frozen Eggs (Music & Arts), featuring pianist Marilyn Crispell, bassist Hans Sturm, and percussionist Hamid Drake, is a pointillistic project, in which the melodies are dissected into tiny segments, which are then dispersed among the melody players, creating an underlying, ever present and constantly shifting structure. Disaster At Sea (Music & Arts), an Opera Seria, is a brilliant programmatic tour-de-force, hauntingly evoking a series of impressions of a ship sinking and the last moments of the casualties. 48 Motives (Cadence Jazz) and the soon-to-be-released 96 Gestures (CRI) are modal compositions, allowing a conductor to construct performances from a series of pre-composed units, which the conductor can choose to omit, play, or edit as he chooses. The result is performances which always are built from the same material, but are unique at each performance. His extraordinary instrumental technique and his intriguing compositions have attracted such major players as Joseph Jarman, Larry Ochs, Matt Turner, Marilyn Crispell, Hamid Drake, and Francois Houle to his projects.

For his performance at GO! Studios, Fields will be joined by a completely different trio than that which accompanied him during his prior Triangle performance. The trio will consist of clarinetist Francois Houle and bassist Jason Lee Roebke.

Francois Houle is known both within the avant jazz and modern classical context. He is a classically trained player, who earned a degree in performance from Yale University. His compositional style is strongly influenced by 20th century classical composition, including the minimalists. He discovered improvisation comparatively late in his musical studies. His improvisational style melds the precision of his classical technique with the inspiration of such players as Jimmy Giuffre, Evan Parker, and the late John Carter to create a unique voice. He has recorded with such respected players as trumpeter Dave Douglas, bassist Mark Dresser, pianists Marilyn Crispell, Myra Melford, and Georg Graewe. His work, available on the Songlines and Red Toucan labels, has been described by the distinguished critic, Art Lange, as "hover[ing] unselfconsciously above categories and styles."

Jason Lee Roebke is an emerging player, who has yet to have a recording released. Roebke is primarily influenced by harmolodic theory. He received a grant to study the compositional and improvisational theory of Ornette Coleman, and has studied under saxophonist/composer Roscoe Mitchell.

The current tour draws upon the material the trio prepared for their forthcoming Nuscope Records release, Hornets' Collage. Each member of the trio has contributed compositions to the program. The result is varied, drawing upon the very different techniques of the participants. Houle's compositions are simple but elegant, with a modern classical sense of balance. Fields' compositions are edgier, incorporating episodes of coiled tension. His compositions also tend to extend his contrapuntal technique, segmenting and dispersing the melodic line. Roebke's contributions tend to build upon the flexible structure of harmolodic theory, recalling the stop-and-go, sing-song structures of Ornette Coleman's classic compositions. In each case, the lines between composition and improvisation are frequently difficult to discern. The emphasis is upon the variety and range of sonic textures elicited by the group and its interplay.

For those with an interest in the increasingly busy intersection between avant jazz and modern classical compositional theory, this is a rare opportunity to hear two of the defining talents of this emerging genre in an intimate setting. If you have an ear for the adventurous, don't let this one pass you by.

-- Stan Dick

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