Susie Ibarra Trio Radiance (Hopscotch, 1999)
By Micah Holmquist
February 2, 2000

Charles Burnham (violin),
Cooper-Moore (piano, harp, diddley-bo),
Susie Ibarra (drums, percussion)

Radiance is Susie Ibarra’s first cd where she is the sole leader. Prior to this she has been the coleader of discs with fellow drummer Dennis Charles and saxophonist (and husband) Assif Tsahar. Her biggest claim to fame, however, is her tremendous work in ensembles lead by such masters as Matthew Shipp and David S. Ware. The premium quality in all of these endeavors has been the ability to simultaneously keep the pulse and expand the horizons of rhythm by injecting large doses of "world" music into her patterns and thus creating a unique sound. "Thank you Susie Ibarra for sounding like an African drum choir traveling through Tibet," said William Parker in his self-penned linear notes to his album The Peach Orchard, which Ibarra also played on.

All of this created anticipation for Ibarra’s debut as a leader but also raised the question of how will she continue to progress? Radiance answers this question quite nicely. The "international" flair is still there but so is a much bigger reliance on grooves and funk influences. The music has clear avant-garde classical and jazz influences but does not get as "out there" as some of the sessions that Ibarra has played on. There is nothing abrasive or especially unpleasant about this music at all. The end result is disc that is equally accessible and complex.

The disc opens with "blessings," "dreams," and "laughter" which compose a suite with the same name as the disc. "Blessings" opens and begins with the same soothing combinations from the keys of pianist Cooper-Moore and Ibarra’s cymbal rolls. Moore never breaks significantly from this mold although Ibarra quickly turns to hectic, although sparse, playing and violinist Charles Burnham adds some bittersweet lines. "Dreams" changes course and starts with a solid drum groove. Ibarra picks up the pace rather rapidly but without forcing anything before the track turns into a drum solo. The solo lasts only a short time, however, before Ibarra makes a seamless opening for the other players. Burnham is good but the real standout is Moore who plays the harp. He perfectly takes up the tension and patterns that listeners might expect from a bassist but does so without sacrificing the beauty and floating qualities of the harp. Moore’s diddley-bo takes up the entire "laughter" which will probably not hold up to repeated listenings but was certainly fun the first time.

Things begin to pick up with the next track, "a glimpse." Here all of the musicians show their playful side in an up-tempo number that centers around a superb drum solo and the interactions between Burnham and Moore. The lone tune not credited to Ibarra, "up from the skies" by Jimi Hendrix, comes next and opens with some standard fooling around by Ibarra. Burnham quickly gets in on the act first by imitating Ibarra and then by imitating Hendrix. This is probably the most conventional song as the violinist is able to reduce the Hendrix tune to its bare essence as the other two provide the perfect accompaniment. "Half moon" follows and provides yet another showcase for Burnham and Moore. The opening to "jagged threads," the next cut, sounds like a bop tune that you just know you’ve heard before but just can’t place it. A dash of Latin jazz appears before the tune evolves into a full scale deconstruction of splashes from both Ibarra and Moore. Burnham stays wisely in the background by just adding small bits to the music that work as exclamation points. "Arbors" and "magandang araw" continue to allow for all three musicians to play parts that go from beautiful to chaotic and back again. There are also two alternate versions "dreams" and "laughter." "Laughter" with the diddley-bo works far better as and nightcap to a larger body of work than when it is stuck in the middle.

Ibarra regularly stole the show when she did accompaniment for other musicians. It is thus a bit ironic that the playing of Burnham and Moore is what stands out most on Radiance. This isn’t a bad thing, however. She still gets some fine playing in and it is a good thing for a leader to elevate the status of the other musicians. Better to be surrounded by peers than those who are on a totally different page. All three are on the same page with Radiance and it make for some great music!

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