Denman Maroney - 2026 - Mean Times

(64:34; Cuneiform Records)

Here we have a recording which took place on  April 11th, 1995, at the Knitting Factory, New York, featuring Herb Robertson (trumpet), Ellery Eskelin (tenor saxophone), Denman Maroney (composition and sampled hyperpiano), Mark Dresser (bass) and Phil Haynes (drums). For those, like me, who wonder what hyperpiano stands for, I suggest you visit Denman’s website where it says, “When a piano is played the way it is supposed to be played, the keys are depressed, indirectly causing the hammers to strike the strings. But a piano can also be played by stopping, sliding, bowing, plucking, strumming and striking the strings directly with a variety of tools including bars, bowls, knives, bells and mashers of metal, boxes and bottles of plastic, mallets of various kinds, and blocks of rubber… Conventional piano music is made from a palate of 88 pitched tones having a particular timbre and envelope. Hyperpiano music is made from a much larger palette in which these tools are used to alter the pitch, timbre and envelope of those tones.”

So there is a rhythm section, two brass musicians, and someone else playing inside the piano more than the outside, which probably gives an inkling as to what this music is like. Yes, it is highly experimental, and on the very boundaries of what can be described as music as while musical instruments are being used to provide the outcome, one normally thinks of music as having musicians having the same goal or destination in mind, and here I am not convinced that is always the case. I listen to a great deal of avant garde material, but this is stretching even my ears as for most of the time I cannot understand what is going on, as it is almost as if everyone has been told to go wherever they will, and often they do not seem to understand their own direction, let alone that of the others. This is never going to appeal to a wide audience, but the crowd there that night were very appreciative, and if you want to listen to music which defies that very definition and in some ways is more like an experiment being conducted in a lab, then this may be for you. That those involved are highly skilled is never in doubt, but whether I want to listen to it is another matter altogether.

Kev Rowland, July 2026

Links:
https://www.denmanmaroney.com/
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/