Quin Kirchner is a black mage. That’s the only way to describe how something like The Other Side of Time comes to be a debut jazz LP so fully formed and focused that it could only be the product of someone who’s been down this road before, or someone who just so happens to dabble in the dark arts.
So I’m right, Quin, aren’t I? Bloody magic.
Bloody magic and a swinging band. Peep the personnel, who deserve explicit mention:
• Quin Kirchner - drums, percussion, kalimba, sampler, wurlitzer
• Nick Broste - trombone
• Nate Lepine - tenor saxophone, flute
• Jason Stein - bass clarinet
• Matt Ulery - bass
• Ben Boye - piano on “Together…”
Flexing his apparently prodigious muscles as a bandleader, Kirchner refuses to stop recording at the end of a single slab of wax, opting instead to double down on a second LP, cramming even more tunes into the release than his label, Astral Spirits, likely thought possible. I can only imagine the conversation:
Quin: It’s gonna be a double LP.
Astral Spirits: OK.
Actually, that wasn’t hard to imagine at all.
So then The Other Side of Time stretches in all directions, a vast landscape where anything can happen, and anything does. There’s the 11-minute opener “The Ritual,” which moves from primordial beginnings through passages of righteous grooves (check out that sax player!) to a dirge-like denouement, as bold an opening statement as you’re likely to find on a jazz (or any other) record. There’s the utterly fascinating “Drums & Tines Pt. 1” and “Pt. 2,” engrossing exercises in glistening percussion. And of course the fulsome ballroom of “Together We Can Explore the Furthest Beyond,” a track once tackled on its lonesome by my TMT colleague Rick Weaver.
And that’s not all: Kirchner puts his own spin on the works of others, such as the breezy jaunt of Sun Ra’s “Brainville” or the ruminative “Self-Portrait in Three Colors” by Charles Mingus. (And oh god I could just almost always go for some Sun Ra or Mingus.) Turns out Kirchner knows which crates to dig through at ye olde record shoppe.
Or maybe he just walks into ye olde record shoppe, waggles his fingers, intones a few choice chants, and causes the best records to arise from their resting places and float in a mesmerizing haze of sparkles across the room to his outstretched hands. In fact, I would not be surprised if every single Quin Kirchner rehearsal begins that way, with a spell cast over the room to boost dexterity, speed, luck … uh, defense? Somebody should really examine those drumsticks for magical residue.
Tracklist and notes:
01. The Ritual
02. Brainville
03. Crossings
04. Drums & Tines Pt 1
05. Wondrous Eyes
06. Limbo / The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers
07. Resounder
08. Together We Can Explore the Furthest Beyond
09. Mumbo Jumbo
10. Flutter
11. Karina
12. Drums & Tines Pt. 2
13. Armageddon
14. Ripple
15. Self-Portrait In Three Colors
All compositions by Quin Kirchner (BMI) except
Limbo written by Andrew Hill
The Shoes Of The Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers & Self Portrait In Three Colors written by Charles Mingus
Brainville written by Sun Ra
Karina (Domingo No Grajaú) written by Arthur Verocai
Mumbo Jumbo written by Paul Motian
Armageddon written by Kelan Phil Cohran
More about: Quin Kirchner
