While that may not have been the original intention, Reduction of Man—the new album from experimental percussionist Max Jaffe—commemorates his dozen-plus years in New York City, making experimental music in various configurations. It also happens to have been created using an interesting method devised by Jaffe and incorporated with unique sampling technology.
Jaffe, who’s now based in Los Angeles, played with Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones, Leverage Models, Chrome Sparks, and the experimental quartet JOBS and was an early adopter of the Sensory Percussion drum set technology, initially using it to trigger and manipulate samples (as on his 2019 album Giant Beat). When that process eventually hit a wall, Jaffe refocused the technology toward another project. Invited to participate in the Pioneer Works Residency program in 2021, he gathered a group of musicians and would trigger an “event” using Sensory Percussion to which the players would respond through improvisation. “Jaffe would then process and manipulate the ensemble’s output in real-time,” according to the album’s press notes. “Drumming with one hand, composing with the other.”
The result encompasses a wide variety of sounds, occasionally warm and meditative but often jarring and explosive. Max Jaffe’s wealth of free jazz experience seems to take the lion’s share of the influence here, but the musicians Jaffe assembled are all top-tier and vital to the record’s sound. Trumpet player Chris Williams (HxH, Pink Siifu), guitarist Will Greene (Trigger), and bassist/keyboard player Jesse Heasly (Spirits Having Fun) attended the series of core sessions, while additional sessions included saxophonist and Jaffe’s former Elder Ones bandmate Matt Nelson, tenor saxophonist Nathaniel Morgan (Helado Negro) and multi-instrumentalist Lucia Vitkova.
Album opener “The Ollie” sets the scene: whistling, chiming, and buzzing synthesizers trade blasts with twangy electric guitar, processed percussion, bubbling bass runs, and jazz trumpet exhortations. The sound gets occasionally cluttered, but all instruments are clearly heard, deftly playing off each other’s improvisational curiosity. “The Simp” continues along the same lines but hangs together a bit more logically as a structured song (relatively speaking – everything on Reduction of Man is very free-form and fairly boundless).
“The Yasha” clocks in at about ten minutes, and the longer run time allows the musicians to stretch out truly. Everyone seems to be moving a little slower, emitting a jazz-noir feel. Greene’s guitar offers a fusillade of wild, frenetic notes, and the song can become completely unhinged and pull back at a moment’s notice. Chaos and relative calm coexist in this mysterious, adventurous sonic scenario.
The album’s second side begins with a new instrumental focus, as “The Droopy” is more about marrying exotic percussion with marimba-like sounds, with less emphasis on the guitar and trumpet duels on side one. The record’s final song, “B+B”, is even longer than “The Yasha” at more than 15 minutes, and Jaffe throws it all in the pot here. Mechanical engines, ringing bells, and playful electronic bursts of percussion are sprinkled over long, sustained notes, followed by more of Williams and Greene trading riffs like Godzilla and Kong cutting a swath of destruction.
Reduction of Man is an appropriately styled record that reflects Max Jaffe’s years in New York City. It draws from punk-oriented scenes and the city’s vast, rich jazz resources. As an example of an artist who is deeply eclectic and supremely talented, the record also fits the bill. But above all else, it’s fascinating and a lot of fun to listen to.