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Album
The Beautiful Enabler
Mauger →347 listeners2,322 plays
gammarecavant-gardeharmolodicnew thingfreepurp1e
about this album
The Beautiful Enabler is the debut recording of the collective trio Mauger, which features the enviable talents of alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Gerry Hemingway. According to Hemingway, "the group gets its name from a letter scramble of the first two letters of each of our names and is a preposition defined, "in opposition to, notwithstanding" which seems appropriate to creating art in our time." Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway share a working relationship that dates back to 1975, with a stint together in the early eighties as members of composer Anthony Braxton's classic quartet. Their finely tuned rapport borders on the telepathic on these loosely structured tunes, as they hone in on the other's next move with the skill of seasoned chess players. New to this veteran partnership is Rudresh Mahanthappa, widely known for his longstanding association with progressive pianist Vijay Iyer. While Dresser and Hemingway are adept interpreters of the most esoteric compositional concepts (Braxton's, for example), Mahanthappa and Iyer have made such intricate methodology their calling card, as demonstrated on the recent Tragicomic (Sunnyside, 2008). Hearing the saxophonist let loose in this unfettered setting is surprising and poignant; it is easily his most exploratory playing on record. Consisting of two tunes from each member and one collectively composed improvisation, the album's seven skeletal frameworks inspire selfless interaction f
