JAZZ REVIEW: Christopher Dammann "Dead Words" by Jeff Cebulski

Christopher Dammann. Dead Words.

Shifting Paradigm Records, 2026.

By Jeff Cebulski ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Christopher Dammann, double bass

Jim Baker, piano

James Davis, trumpet, electronics

Jon Irabagon, stritch, effects

Mike reed, drums

Listening to Chicago bassist Christopher Dammann’s new album, Dead Words, reminded me of something the New Music veteran drummer Barry Altschul told me: most “creative music” artists began in bebop. While people should be excused for wondering how and why that happened, its truth has been documented in sound for at least 50 years, represented significantly by the generations of the city’s AACM.

Dammann has played and recorded with many of Chicago’s angular practitioners, four of which appear on the new album: pianist Jim Baker, a longtime member of the total improv group Extraordinary Popular Delusions; saxophonist Jon Irabagon, a postmodernist New Music purveyor; trumpeter James Davis, who has played often with Dammann; and drummer Mike Reed, whose credentials in creative music are vast. The five selections offer a mixed bag of arrangements that, for the most part, have one foot in bop while the other is steeped in harmonically diverse approaches that include sections of atonal expression. Still, the solid core of Dammann’s material here is his robust bass work that travels a course from Paul Chambers to Charles Mingus to Charlie Haden, giving the music a solid platform for the others to act upon.

The Dolphy-ish “Montrose B” leads off with a bop-ish bass rhythm that provides stability for the slanted horn work from Davis and Irabagon (who is playing Stritch, a straight-lined alto sax heralded by Rahsaan Roland Kirk) and pleasantly off-key solo from Baker. The improv “Untitled” starts with a discordant horn display led by Davis while Reed pounds and thrashes before Dammann settles things down a bit as the horns-plus-effects dance around, “generating pulse without meter,” as the bassist puts it in the liner notes. “White Gladis” has Dammann driving his bow on the low end while the horns march atop Baker’s quiet comping, leading to a section of postmodern swing on a piece that pays tribute to a whale that creates havoc for high-class yachts off the Spanish coast.

The abstract “Two Themes for Improvisation” explores “elastic time,” where Davis’ electronics and Dammann’s bass converse, with Reed’s antic support, in a search for understanding, anointed by Davis’ dissonant coda. The lazily loping closer “This Is an Unraveling” serves as an afterthought to the previous intensity, with Dammann’s groovy picking and Reed’s flowing beats supporting Davis’ more melodic phrasing and Irabagon’s irrepressible counterpointing.

On Dead Words, Christopher Dammenn and friends open the door to invite people to investigate creative music as an extension of the progressive fare that evolved from a revered tradition.

About Jeff Cebulski

Jeff Cebulski, who lives in Chicago, is a retired English educator (both secondary and collegiate) and longtime jazz aficionado. His career in jazz includes radio programs at two stations in southeast Wisconsin, an online show on Kennesaw State’s (GA) Owl Radio from 2007 until 2015, and review/feature writing for Chicago Jazz Magazine since 2016, including his column "Jazz With Mr. C". He has interviewed many jazz artists, including Joshua Redman, Charles Lloyd, Dave Holland, John Beasley, and Chris Brubeck, as well as several Chicago-based players. Jeff is a member of the Jazz Journalists Association. Contact Jeff at jeff@chicagojazz.com