The Rempis Percussion Quartet - Montreal Parade | Album review

Dual drummers conjure images of jammers like the Dead or the Allman Brothers. In jazz, the tradition runs deeper. Think back to the legendary battles between Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. Of course, that kind of hammy, big-band showmanship is about as far away as you could get from the Rempis Percussion Quartet, whose stickmen, Tim Daisy and Frank Rosaly, lock in effortlessly on Montreal Parade, the group’s fifth album.

Bandleader and saxist Dave Rempis, a key figure in the Umbrella Music collective, has logged countless hours on the bandstand with each drummer—in a duo alongside Rosaly, and with Daisy in the Vandermark 5, among other spin-offs. The glue is bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. The combo’s latest addition makes his recorded debut here, and he ties together the frenetic percussion and darting dynamics with grace, pushing the music forward through the often amorphous, polyrhythmic flood.

Playing the lone frontline instrument, Rempis has a wide swath of canvas to fill. He takes full advantage of the freedom, deploying all the tricks in his toolbox from a breathy whisper to a gnarly skronk. This is a group that’s committed to exploring the outer reaches via improvisation.

That’s spelled out on “If You Were a Waffle and I Were a Bee,” a 42-minute romp ranging from hard-swinging to sedate and back to ecstatic. The first track, “This Is Not a Tango,” earns its handle with the opposite approach, a hail of percussion simmering into a swinging Afro-Latin groove. Like a snake charmer, Rempis coaxes mesmerizing performances from this writhing beast.

The RPQ hits the Hideout Wednesday 13.