Similar to Jason Ajemian's other project Who Cares How Long You Sink, but scaled way down, Lay All Over It is just as cool and insouciant and enigmatic a new jazz entity as there is out there. The 7'' record ?Never Too Fat To Fly? (Laboratory Standard Recordings, Knoxville TN.) finds Ajemian in his wheel house, on the edge of experience, hanging out over the musical horizon and doing his own thing with like-minded criminals in tow. The song is actually written by brother Michael Ajemian, here performed by the trio which includes Jason (bass/vox), Tim Haldeman (tenor sax) and Noritak Tanaka, drumbo; each side is a unique take on the same tune, with one being a more uptempo, almost hip-hop influenced rendition with a stronger sax and vocal presence and the other being sparer, experimental, sidelong almost falling apart, drunken...so the record seems to form a duality between outward confidence and disciplined, darker introspection.
'Least that's the view from here.
More importantly, both cuts are performed well and done so in an entertaining way, which is not surprising considering the source. Ajemian and crew remain one of my favorites to be watched, and with duos like The Story of Modern Farming operating out of Amsterdam, I feel the origins of an intriguing new international experimental jazz axis bubbling up from fertile and dexterious minds. 9/10 --
P. Somniferum (25 February, 2008)