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Thomas Wictor
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NEWS

Jun 04, 2013

Pink Things is described as "Spontaneous improvisation recorded live at Radical Sound in San Francisco." Personnel are Steven Menasche on drums, Ron Kukan on guitar, and Scott Thunes on bass. Produced by the San Francisco Free Jazz Collective. Nine tracks.

Normally, I despise improvised jazz. In 1986 I walked out of a concert in Tokyo after just ten minutes, even though the bassist was one of my heroes. It was garbage. For some reason that frenetic Coltrane-style sax makes me crazy. The band was four guys each playing their instruments separately, trying to outdo each other by producing the most notes in the shortest intervals. I couldn't believe how pretentious and self-indulgent it was.

A video of the show is on YouTube. I sent the link to Thunes, and he told me he stopped listening after just a few seconds.

"I don't do that shit," he said.

So when I saw that Scott played on Pink Things, I was worried. However, my fears were completely unfounded. This is music, not masturbation. These are improvised compositions, not three musicians trying to outdo each other in volume, chops, and contrived weirdness. What made me walk out of the Tokyo concert--after the crappiness of the performance--was the smugness. The four musicians kept smirking at each other, as though we the paying audience didn't matter. Listening to Pink Things, it's clear that there isn't a nanoparticle of smug in any of the three players. They love their art. Can improvised jazz be relaxing? You bet.

Tone is very important to the players. Menasche's drums are quiet and somehow warm, as are Kukan's guitar and Thunes's bass. The compositions are considerate. That's the best way I can describe them. They aren't assaultive, belligerent, or juvenile mind games. Instead, they're expressions of deep feeling, emotive instead of technical. In Tokyo, it was clear that members of that awful band considered their fans sycophants, while non-fans like me were philistines who "didn't get it." In other words, the band's entire existence was a big "Fuck you!" to people who just wanted to have a nice time.

Pink Things is a very, very nice time. It's music for adults, not those suffering from terminal arrested development. Like Alice in Chains' Dirt, there isn't a weak track on the entire album. My favorite is "Traffic Indigestion," followed closely by "In the Air" and "Po-Boy From India."

I can't recommend it enough. Five out of five stars. And a big kiss.