All The Dolls In The Same Place by Jay Terrien

Jay and Not So Silent Pat. . .

If you look at Jay Terrien’s website you won’t have to look very far for some items of dubious and questionable taste – an unhealthy fondness for scatology matters and Manchester United which I suppose amounts to the same thing in some circles.

You’ll also find numerous samples of Terrien’s exquisite bass playing and the fact that he has a brand new album that he’s busy hustling. Solo bass players, whatever their own personal likes and dislikes, are inevitably faced with the “Jaco question.”

Since 1976 and the release of his first solo album, Pastorius raised the bar for every solo player since. It boils down to this; do you go head to head on chops (which you’re bound to lose) or avoid using the old trombone-dipped-in-syrup sound (just about impossible to do).

Classically trained Terrien (he was offered but declined a place at the Boston Conservatory to study viola,) clever ducks the question by concentrating attention on a collection of intricate, detail-orientated self-penned compositions shored up by the inclusion of drummer Pat Mastelotto throughout the album.

Being a fan of XTC and King Crimson, Jay took little or no persuading to work with Mastelotto when producer Ronan Chris Murphy dropped Pat’s name into the frame.

So although this may be a Jay Terrien solo album with the bass up front and in your face, it’s equally an album featuring a power duo with the ability to bulldoze or gently move the earth as the occasion demands.

The opening Double Entendre and Emo are heavily reminiscent of the Trey Gunn band – Emo in particular sharing the lilting baroque quality of Gunn’s Rune Song from his 2000 album, The Joy Of Molybdenum. And like Gunn’s work, the metric mayhem inflicted upon the tunes is counter-intuitive and of course, hugely entertaining.

On Judging By The Size Of Carnie growling undertones and shifting times subside to the permafrost sparkle of glistening harmonics and soaring solos from Terrien’s upper register work as Mastelotto rumbles and tunnels his way out from under the tune. Lyrical tracks such as Hereiam suggests that no matter how hard he may try to hide it beneath that whacky slacker “hey Dude!” image presented on his website, Jay is in fact a sensitive soul at heart.

Terrien uses anything from two-string to twelve-string basses through a variety of processors so it’s no surprise that he’s able to wring out a wide range of expressive timbre from such instruments. There are chops aplenty from both parties but perhaps more importantly there’s an overarching structure that ensures this is no rambling jam session.