Bob Gorry starts “Javelina.” from GoBruCcio — the latest release from the New Haven Improvisers Collective — with a statement from his guitar that’s somewhere between the blues, punk, and free jazz. Pete Riccio on drums finds his way in fast, suggesting a hip-swinging groove that Pete Brunelli on bass catches at once. Within a minute the trio are off and building momentum, making their improvisation into a lurching dance that, a minute later, they’re already taking apart, moving into another set of rhythmic and harmonic ideas.
A sense of spontaneity and history pervades GoBruCcio. It’s there in the music itself, which finds the trio of Gorry, Brunelli, and Riccio playing together freely, without a map, but also within the lingua franca of the improvised music of New Haven that NHIC has had a big hand in developing since its inception in 2005. That improvised language allows for a range of complex emotions; it’s forceful and funny, full of heart and wry asides. GoBruCcio on one level is simply the sound of three musicians who really enjoy one another’s company having a conversation, exploring ideas, seeing what they can build and take down and build again.
“Playing with Pete Riccio and Pete Brunelli — it’s just a joy,” Gorry said of making the album. “We’re all about the same age. They’ve known each other since they were kids.” On drums and bass, respectively, Riccio and Brunelli “are telepathic,” and “to be able to fit in with them — I feel so fortunate for that.” Gorry said he joked with them that “you guys are almost too good at making me sound like I know what I’m doing.”
Spontaneity and history also appear in the story of the making of the record itself, under the auspices of the New Haven Improvisers Collective, of which Gorry is perhaps the central organizer. The release of GoBruCcio is a long time coming, as the album was recorded at Firehouse 12 in November 2019.
Gorry at Firehouse 12.
“I actually recorded three different groups on one day,” Gorry said, all trios. At the time, Gorry was on track to add those groups’ recordings to the 14 other albums the New Haven Improvisers Collective has made. The 2019 session “was the first one where I chose something that’s me” — as in, he as a guitarist was the common thread among them all — “which felt weird,” he said.
Gorry doesn’t like the spotlight; he prefers to emphasis the collective in NHIC’s activities. But the eight other musicians “are all people in the collective I’ve played with. They all know how to coordinate things. And the guys at Firehouse 12 are amazing,” Gorry said, mentioning engineer Greg DiCrosta in particular.
“He just knows how to get a sound,” Gorry said.
Gorry’s initial idea had been to put out one album each for three months in early 2020. The pandemic threw a monkey wrench in those plans. The first release from that day of recording — Collective Expression, featuring Vance Provey on trumpet, Gorry on guitar, and Paul Gunsberg on drums and saxophone — came out in June 2020.
But as the pandemic derailed the music scene in New Haven in everywhere else, it didn’t mean improvising musicians stopped playing. Gorry played in two groups as part of the livestreaming jazz series that musician and New Haven Jazz Underground organizer Nick Di Maria ran out of the Ely Center of Contemporary Art. In the warmer months of 2020, Gorry got together with a few other musicians in his backyard from time to time. Getting together was tricky; Gorry had an infant granddaughter in the mix of his family pod that he needed to keep safe. But “once people got vaccinated, we started playing again” more regularly, he said.
And as venues started reopening, gig opportunities arose. Gorry was delighted to see Cafe Nine reopen for shows inside in April. Cafe Nine owner Paul Mayer “asked me when I wanted to play,” Gorry said. The match felt right for GoBruCcio. “The CD release there is perfect, and I’m not recording. I tend not to record the same group twice,” he said.
Gorry booked the CD release for GoBruCcio for Sept. 23. He still has the third release from the November 2019 recording session ready to go, though he is now acclimated to pandemic time; “that one might be next year,” he said.
Meanwhile, he noted the improvised music scene is waking up. “Over the last few months I was wondering how it was going to emerge,” he said. “Could it get started again?” But it turns out “people are there and they’re ready, making great music.”
Firehouse 12 is starting up its series tonight with the Allison Miller Trio, featuring Miller on drums, Wendy Eisenberg on guitar, and Nick Dunston on bass. Firehouse 12 founder and producer Nick Lloyd has instituted a series of Covid-19 protocols to keep patrons safe (“I would trust anything with him,” Gorry said). Best Video and Never Ending Books Volume Two have been booking experimental shows, most recently a triple bill with Dave Scanlon, Zach Rowden, and Adam Matlock. On the recording front, Gorry pointed to guitarist Joe Morris’s prolific output during the shutdown and a big album from East Axis, a quartet of Matthew Shipp on piano, Kevin Ray on bass, Gerald Cleaver on drums, and New Haven-based musician and writer Allen Lowe on alto and tenor saxophones.
“I’m just very excited,” Gorry said. “All of the people in the collective are at it, too.”
And Gorry is planning to hold NHIC’s first improvised music workshop at Never Ending Books since the pandemic began. There will be some management to do. “I used to just have it open,” he said. “I tried to keep it before that anything that happens, happens.” Past workshops attracted anywhere from one other person to close to 20 players on a variety of instruments, from guitars and horns to, once, a didgeridoo, and another time, a theremin. The ongoing pandemic makes an open policy a little harder to manage; Gorry worries about the practicalities of playing music without spreading disease (“how many horns can we stand around in legally?” he said). But he’s optimistic for the rejuvenation of the music itself.
“It’s a lot of people doing a lot of good things,” he said. “Everyone was isolated for a while, but they’re still there. Seeing them all come out is great.”
Bob Gorry, Pete Brunelli, and Pete Riccio will celebrate the CD release of GoBruCcio at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., on Sept. 23. Visit Cafe Nine’s website for more details. GoBruCcio is available now in digital form through Bandcamp.
