Dave Gelting’s highest profile may have come from his time playing upright bass with The Danglers, the Milwaukee trio rooted in jazz but whose modus operandi was to blur genre distinctions whenever the mood struck. Gelting has also collaborated with the likes of Steve Mackay of The Stooges, Brian Ritchie of Violent Femmes and Heidi Spencer.
On the new double vinyl LP Volume 2, (which naturally follows 2012’s Volume 1,) Gelting plays upright bass, Fender Rhodes piano, acoustic piano, Hammond organ, ARP synthesizer and guzheng, a Chinese plucked zither. The 16 instrumental tracks, all titled by number and letter only, could be musical entries from a diary that exists inside Gelting’s mind. The pieces move from the kinetic drive of “4p” to the drifting ambient sounds of “11” to the ominous mini soundtracks of “4a”. Without a typical verse-chorus structure the musical pieces are free to meander and take form of their own. Beyond straight-ahead jazz, some of these tunes recall the moody and evocative signature sounds of David Bowie and his collaborators on the Berlin trilogy of albums.
