Otherlands Trio
Star Mountain
INTAKT
When the Borderlands Trio went on hiatus in 2024, two-thirds of its complement was not ready to quit. In short order bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Eric McPherson found a new third person, and Otherlands Trio came into being. Replacing pianist Kris Davis with the tonally adventurous and emotionally authentic alto saxophonist Darius Jones ensures that certain things will not be the same, but one essential quality persists. While all three mem bers are credited with creating the music, and they did so in real time, they do not consider themselves to be a free-improv ensemble, but spontaneous composers. The difference likes in a commitment to cohesion; they may not know what they’re going to play when they start, but each participant will make sure that they have the other two’s backs.
On the opening track of this studio record ing, “Metamorphene,” this shared purpose manifests in a bass-drums groove that contin ually morphs but never quits, which enables Jones to pursue a series of short, cork-**** ing lines wherever they might lead. Jones once more finds freedom in the locked-in quality of the Julius Hemphill-like rhythm that begins “Lateral Line,” but he’s ready to melt his own tone into Crump’s to create a single stream of sound during the track’s second half. Likewise, the saxophonist’s pops and McPherson’s stacca to patterns at the beginning of “Diadromous” sound like the work of one hybrid drum kit.
Star Mountain necessarily sounds different from the three albums that McPherson and Crump made with Davis, but it sustains that project’s creative streak.

Otherlands Trio
Star Mountain
INTAKT
When the Borderlands Trio went on hiatus in 2024, two-thirds of its complement was not ready to quit. In short order bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Eric McPherson found a new third person, and Otherlands Trio came into being. Replacing pianist Kris Davis with the tonally adventurous and emotionally authentic alto saxophonist Darius Jones ensures that certain things will not be the same, but one essential quality persists. While all three mem bers are credited with creating the music, and they did so in real time, they do not consider themselves to be a free-improv ensemble, but spontaneous composers. The difference likes in a commitment to cohesion; they may not know what they’re going to play when they start, but each participant will make sure that they have the other two’s backs.
On the opening track of this studio record ing, “Metamorphene,” this shared purpose manifests in a bass-drums groove that contin ually morphs but never quits, which enables Jones to pursue a series of short, cork-**** ing lines wherever they might lead. Jones once more finds freedom in the locked-in quality of the Julius Hemphill-like rhythm that begins “Lateral Line,” but he’s ready to melt his own tone into Crump’s to create a single stream of sound during the track’s second half. Likewise, the saxophonist’s pops and McPherson’s stacca to patterns at the beginning of “Diadromous” sound like the work of one hybrid drum kit.
Star Mountain necessarily sounds different from the three albums that McPherson and Crump made with Davis, but it sustains that project’s creative streak.

Continuing his long tradition of interdependent duets, and uniquely partnering with a percussionist, UK guitarist Fred Frith creates another distinctive program. The drummer here is Brazilian Mariá Portugal, who has worked with among others Simon Nabatov and Paula Sanchez. Then again Frith is no stranger to working with drummers, from his earliest days with Henry Cow to later meetings in larger or smaller Free Improv groups.

Although Portugal is three decades younger than Frith, the connection is immediate and profound with idiophone clanks, rattles and rolls from singularly emphasized parts of the kit and percussion extensions meeting the jagged picks or consistent strums from the guitarist. Tinges of e-bow string sibilation and terse interludes of folksy melodies are part of the four improvisations.

With plaintive, percussive and prompt sequences introduced at points throughout, other motifs ranging from electronic fizzes, bass drum accents and Rock-like fuzz tones and string squeaks enter the mix. Unexpectedly as well on the concluding “O tempo e sua secura” not only are there snatches of Portugal’s high-pitched and yearning syllables and wordless whimpers, but Frith also vocalizes some throaty gargles and cries to match the thick low-string twangs from his guitar.

“See Through Blind” is the most elongated and specific of these unique duets. String rubs vibrate with squeezed tenacity as they move downwards while the percussionist adds metallic clips and measured rebounds. Once a noticeable lyrical fragment appears and quickly vanishes at the half way mark, closely clenched guitar frails and speedy hand patting cadences ascend and then conclude as simple rumbles and pops are matched with restrained string vibrations.

Now that Frith and Portugal have proven how impressively in sync they are one-on-one, perhaps there’s nothing the Matter with expanding the duo into interaction with others in the future.

https://www.jazzword.com/reviews/fred-frith-maria-portugal//

While improvised piano-trumpet duets go back to Louis Armstrong’s and Earl Hines’ “Weatherbird” of 1928, balancing the four valves and 88 keys is a delicate challenge. The 21st century iterations here could be linked to abstract paintings. American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s and Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier’s Angel Falls creates a subtle version of abstract expressionists’ splashes of color canvases, whereas Japanese, pianist Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura’s Ki is more like a monochrome painting which demands closer scrutiny to discern musical nuances

Courvoisier and Smith are experienced duo performers. Smith, whose career goes back to the late 1960s, has worked with pianists as different as John Tilbury and Vijay Iyer. Almost three decades younger, Courvoisier’s duet partners include Ned Rothenberg and Mark Feldman, but never a trumpeter until now. The two have been linked in large ensembles as part of Smith’s extensive catalogue though. Interestingly enough among those sessions was a quartet with Fujii and Tamura. Ki is the 10th duo the other two have recorded and while Tamura usually records with Fujii, on her own she has recorded duos with everyone from Otomo Yoshihide to Joe Fonda.

While also maintaining a painterly straight line, Courvoisier and Smith append numerous splashes of improvisational color as their disc evolves with extended techniques such as the pianist twanging the instrument’s inner strings and Smith creating brassy triplets, half valve slurs and protracted flutters. Occasionally as on “Sonic Utterance” light brass pitches and delicate formalist key glissandi are emphasized. But most tracks are rougher and more intense.

The title track for example evolves as additional reverb from string strums meet breezy brass slurps that slowly inflate to full force romanticism before energetically fragmenting into thinning trumpet squeaks and stinging keyboard clips. In contrast the probing aural brush strokes which shade “Line Through Time” extend short wavering brass bites and piano key probes that with gouache-like effects widen the line into full keyboard emphasis and smeared brass notes.

Reflecting and completing the overall design, the open horn brass portamento and thematic key-and-string decorations from Courvoisier on the final “Kairos” reflect similar sketching on the introductory “Olo’Upnea and Lightning”.

If jagged lightning define much of Angel Falls, then Ki is more of a light rain by a married couple. Minimalist in artistry, the simple musical geomatric shapes were drawn by Tamura, who composed seven of the eight tracks. The results aren’t static however. Although overall Fujii’s touch is more serene and reflective than Courvoisier’s and Tamura’s solos are more fully rounded and horizontal than Smith’s, digressions include pointillist textures and half-valve squeaks from the trumpeter as well as dips into pedal point emphasis and jagged key slashes from the pianist.

Experience plus marriage means that tracks like “Kusunoki” include moderated antiphonic connections with every key stroke carefully outlined and portamento echoes combining into trumpet grace notes and restful piano comping. Other such as “Arakashi” and “Icho” reflect the dispassionate lyricism that moves with warm reverberating keyboard pumps and vibrating trumpet grace notes duets closer to delicate brush painting than abstract art’s scattershot washes. Yet even those tunes that emphasize widening keyboard sweeps and low pitch tremors plus wallowing immersive breaths encompass relaxed linear evolution.

Like broad visual art awareness, the individual and distinct ways each duo illustrated its program demands respect and recognition.

https://www.jazzword.com/reviews/sylvie-courvoisier-wadada-leo-smith/

ANY jazz listeners have affirmed, that in the long wake of the John Coltrane Quartet, the foursome that has since most touched their brilliance is the English quartet, Mujician. Composed of the Bristolian pianist Keith Tippett, the south London tenor and soprano saxophonist Paul Dunmall, Luton-born seven-string bassist Paul Rogers and the Shropshire drummer, Tony Levin.

Between 1990 and 2005 they waxed six memorable albums on the US Cuneiform label, but now a triple CD has been created by Jazz in Britain, recorded from concerts in Cheltenham (1993), Vienna (2003) and Birmingham (2010). It is a beautiful sonic triptych called Mujician in Concerts, with the four members playing at their unified peak.

Sometimes haunting and hymnal as if coming from ancestral spirits — as in the opening message of Dunmall and Tippett in Cheltenham, othertimes rhapsodic and joyous: “We never spoke about the music beforehand,” declared Dunmall, “we just walked on stage and trusted in the music and each other.”

Rogers is a virtuoso bassist like no other, playing an instrument like no other, and Levin’s sense of time and moment is deeply empathetic, knowing instinctively the musical minds of his quartet-mates. Tippett and Levin are gone, but thanks to devoted and skilled travelling recordists, Andy Isham and Steve Trent, these long and precious musical instants are still with us, throbbing with life and artistry.

Between 1959 and 1970, Washingtonian tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse (1924-88) was the featured horn of Thelonious Monk’s Quartet, and his husky, quasi-adenoidal tone became the companion sound to Monk’s genius melodies and “brilliant corners.” But he showed another sphere when he recorded Cinnamon Flower in 1977, an album full of sounds of Brazil. The new reissue on Resonance Records includes this release with some overdubbing, plus the tracks in their undubbed, original form.

So we have a Latin feast of Rouse with Brazilian compadres trumpeter Claudio Roditi, pianist Dom Salvador and drummer Portinho, plus the great Michigan-born bassist Ron Carter, late of the Miles Davis Quintet. Rouse is joyous, in another element, on Cinnamon Flower, buoyed up by a relentless rhythmic upsurge and melodic beauty, for example on Desencontro (Disenchantment), and his notes leap up blissfully on Alvorada. It’s a powerful reissue, racked with elation and flair.

The great Mississippi-born trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith is 84 this year, but it hasn’t curtailed his mighty breath. His new album is Angel Falls (Intakt Records), partnered with the Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, whose pianism he describes as “advancing as if she’s going there to save creation.” In the destructive era of Trump and Musk that is certainly what they are both doing, with power and beauty too. Wadada’s horn talks fire and Courvoisier’s keyboard words make a palaver of freedom. No wonder one track is called Sonic Utterance, for that is what the entire album is.

Finally there is the burning saxophonist of Canterbury, the late Tony Coe. In 1977 his quintet, Axel, recorded the tracks of What Say We Play Today? (Jazz in Britain Records) at the Camden Jazz Festival. It’s taken 48 years, but now it’s there for us.

Pianist Gordon Beck, guitarist Phil Lee, bassist Chris Laurence and drummer Bryan Spring join Coe for a gripping performance, with the final title track reaching 28 minutes. Throughout, sheer musicianship excels, with the luminous, underrated Lee taking on the prominence of a second horn, and Coe playing clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophones as if he were born to each. The fivesome create their own inventive sound, driven by uniqueness.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/best-2025-jazz-albums

The end of the year and its corresponding flood of obligatory “Best Of” lists is always a helpful time for readers to learn about music they missed, forgot about, or reevaluate records they initially reacted to as “meh.”

These lists are particularly valuable for musicians who don’t receive much press–although with music journalism’s death rattles growing louder every year, most music that deserves coverage goes unnoted–and is especially so for avant garde music.

So now it’s my turn to get in the year-end list game and give some love to avant garde jazz(ish) albums. I make no claim to these being the best and I did not rank them. Aside from the obvious requirement that the album has to kill, there are only three rules for making this list:

1. It must be in the jazz, improvisation, and adjacent universe. Otherwise I’d have a tough time figuring out how to rationalize including Fatboi Sharif’s Goth Girl on the Enterprise, Raven Chacon’s latest noise/electronic collaboration, and post-minimalism from Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir on the same list as a bunch of weird jazz(ish) records.

2. Except for one or two exceptions, the music has to sound like nothing I’ve quite heard before. If it sounds like Pharoah Sanders could have recorded in 1967 and there’s no new wrinkle to it, it’s not avant garde.

3. No more than one album per artist or per label so that I can spread the love.

Here, in the order that I’ve listened to them the most, are my favorite ten boundary-pushing gems from 2025.

Recorded at the 1981 Jazzfestival Zurich and available now for the first time, Irène’s Hot Four is a summit meeting between four distinguished free jazz heads of state. A lot of European free jazz might get a bad rep, although sometimes deservedly so, for a “grip it and rip it” approach where the band dials up the wailing, bashing, and banging to 11 and keeps it there. Swiss pianist Irene Schweitzer, Dutch drummer Han Bennink, German saxophonist Rüdiger Carl, and South African by way of England bassist Johnny Dyani take a different approach.

Over three long romping tracks and a spirited encore, the quartet creates new scenes and vignettes each with their own story. There might be a duet between Carl and Bennink that quickly moves into a wild manic ride with just the rhythm section. Or Schweitzer, who passed away last year, might play the inside of the piano. Sure there’s some bombast and wild abandon, but there’s playful absurdity, melodicism, and moments of quiet as well. Carl swaps out his saxophone for accordion here and there to change the entire group sound, often leading into good natured parody and farce.

Twisted oom-pah bass and polka? Yes please. Bennink can be the world’s loudest or softest drummer, and there isn’t anything he won’t try to get away with. The voice on the megaphone on “All Inclusive”—that’s his. There is a sense of joy throughout the concert, as the Hot Four never seem to run out of ideas or the technique, energy, and musicianship to pull them off. Every moment is fresh and inspired. To me, this set demonstrates the height of free improvisation—European or otherwise.

RIYL: All-Star games; a ****-hot good time

https://www.passionweiss.com/2025/12/17/the-10-best-avant-garde-albums-of-2025/

Gregg Belisle-Chi: Slow Crawl: Performing the Music of Tim Berne

Il rapporto di Gregg Belisle-Chi con la musica di Tim Berne è stretto. Ne avevamo conosciuto gli ampi legami nel primo volume dedicato alle composizioni del sassofonista, Koi: Performing the Music of Tim Berne, uscito nel 2021. Poi nella pubblicazione in duo di Mars e Zone One dell'anno successivo, e in quella di Yikes Too, edito nel gennaio di quest'anno, in trio con la batteria di Tom Rainey, dove Belisle-Chi è allo strumento elettrico. Nei lavori in solo e in Mars la chitarra è acustica.

Tutti documenti significativi, che mettono in risalto la sintonia tra il veterano sassofonista e il chitarrista, ora trentacinquenne, già molto apprezzato dai suoi colleghi. Al punto che Henry Threadgill lo ha inserito nell'organico del suo ultimo lavoro, Listen Ship, in un poker d'assi chitarristico insieme a Bill Frisell, Brandon Ross e Miles Okazaki.

Dunque, la frequentazione tra Berne e Belisle-Chi è già ben consolidata. L'interesse del chitarrista per la musica di Berne era nato ai tempi del college, a Seattle, quando aveva diciotto anni e cercava qualcosa di più stimolante rispetto ai prevedibili gusti musicali dei suoi compagni di studi. Ascoltando cose come Science Friction, si accorse che era proprio quello che cercava in quel momento: una musica "molto personale, un po' spigolosa, davvero anticonvenzionale e unica." Naturalmente, era attratto dal lavoro dei chitarristi che lavoravano con Berne: Frisell, Marc Ducret, Nels Cline, David Torn. Ma l'attenzione maggiore era rivolta alla composizione.

Lo stesso Belisle-Chi racconta che, ascoltando la musica di Berne, si chiedeva come avrebbe potuto suonare, se interpretata da una chitarra sola. Ancora non immaginava che proprio lui sarebbe stato il protagonista di tale impresa. O forse già in quel momento, alla fine del primo decennio del Duemila, spuntava un germoglio. L'occasione per il primo volume fu data dal periodo di isolamento durante la pandemia: "Ho registrato in casa, con un Neumann prestatomi da Reid Anderson. Poi ho consegnato il materiale a David Torn, che ha masterizzato e mixato tutto."

Il presente lavoro arriva dopo le collaborazioni intense in duo, in trio o con vari altri organici. Afferma il chitarrista: "Devo molto ai concerti svolti con frequenza quasi settimanale al Lowlands di Brooklyn, dove ho avuto modo di assorbire, interiorizzare, di immergermi realmente in questa musica."

Si tratta senza dubbio di un approfondimento rispetto al precedente volume, che però si colloca piuttosto in una continuità dialettica. Un lento trascinamento, appunto. Alcuni brani sono stati scritti appositamente per questa occasione, altri sono tratti dal lavoro del trio con Rainey ("Yikes") o dal CD in duo Angel Dusk, del sassofonista con il pianoforte di Matt Mitchell ("Concepción"). La musica di Berne acquista qui la forma di una riflessione per chitarra acustica, con risultati di articolazione densa, in cui piani e traiettorie si intersecano, lasciando ampi spazi ai silenzi, alle risonanze, ai vuoti. Accentuandone il carattere introspettivo e multidirezionale. C'è stretta simbiosi e contemporaneamente un respiro diverso, una morbidezza che pur ne mantiene la caratteristica complessità, nei salti intervallari, nell'interesse esplorativo.

La morbidezza nasce dal fatto che il chitarrista non usa il plettro: il carattere enigmatico e serpentino della musica di Berne viene illuminato da angolazioni policrome, da prospettive diverse, si alimenta di nuovi umori. Arricchimento e fedeltà dialogano in stretto accordo, si rispecchiano in una serie di rifrazioni sonore, timbriche, umorali. Tutto confluisce nello stesso corpo, alimentato da nutrimenti diversi. Con risultati davvero ammirabili. Belisle-Chi è un musicista da seguire con attenzione.

Album della settimana.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/slow-crawl-performing-the-music-of-tim-berne-gregg-belisle-chi-intakt-records__7842

Gregg Belisle-Chi: Slow Crawl: Performing the Music of Tim Berne

Il rapporto di Gregg Belisle-Chi con la musica di Tim Berne è stretto. Ne avevamo conosciuto gli ampi legami nel primo volume dedicato alle composizioni del sassofonista, Koi: Performing the Music of Tim Berne, uscito nel 2021. Poi nella pubblicazione in duo di Mars e Zone One dell'anno successivo, e in quella di Yikes Too, edito nel gennaio di quest'anno, in trio con la batteria di Tom Rainey, dove Belisle-Chi è allo strumento elettrico. Nei lavori in solo e in Mars la chitarra è acustica.

Tutti documenti significativi, che mettono in risalto la sintonia tra il veterano sassofonista e il chitarrista, ora trentacinquenne, già molto apprezzato dai suoi colleghi. Al punto che Henry Threadgill lo ha inserito nell'organico del suo ultimo lavoro, Listen Ship, in un poker d'assi chitarristico insieme a Bill Frisell, Brandon Ross e Miles Okazaki.

Dunque, la frequentazione tra Berne e Belisle-Chi è già ben consolidata. L'interesse del chitarrista per la musica di Berne era nato ai tempi del college, a Seattle, quando aveva diciotto anni e cercava qualcosa di più stimolante rispetto ai prevedibili gusti musicali dei suoi compagni di studi. Ascoltando cose come Science Friction, si accorse che era proprio quello che cercava in quel momento: una musica "molto personale, un po' spigolosa, davvero anticonvenzionale e unica." Naturalmente, era attratto dal lavoro dei chitarristi che lavoravano con Berne: Frisell, Marc Ducret, Nels Cline, David Torn. Ma l'attenzione maggiore era rivolta alla composizione.

Lo stesso Belisle-Chi racconta che, ascoltando la musica di Berne, si chiedeva come avrebbe potuto suonare, se interpretata da una chitarra sola. Ancora non immaginava che proprio lui sarebbe stato il protagonista di tale impresa. O forse già in quel momento, alla fine del primo decennio del Duemila, spuntava un germoglio. L'occasione per il primo volume fu data dal periodo di isolamento durante la pandemia: "Ho registrato in casa, con un Neumann prestatomi da Reid Anderson. Poi ho consegnato il materiale a David Torn, che ha masterizzato e mixato tutto."

Il presente lavoro arriva dopo le collaborazioni intense in duo, in trio o con vari altri organici. Afferma il chitarrista: "Devo molto ai concerti svolti con frequenza quasi settimanale al Lowlands di Brooklyn, dove ho avuto modo di assorbire, interiorizzare, di immergermi realmente in questa musica."

Si tratta senza dubbio di un approfondimento rispetto al precedente volume, che però si colloca piuttosto in una continuità dialettica. Un lento trascinamento, appunto. Alcuni brani sono stati scritti appositamente per questa occasione, altri sono tratti dal lavoro del trio con Rainey ("Yikes") o dal CD in duo Angel Dusk, del sassofonista con il pianoforte di Matt Mitchell ("Concepción"). La musica di Berne acquista qui la forma di una riflessione per chitarra acustica, con risultati di articolazione densa, in cui piani e traiettorie si intersecano, lasciando ampi spazi ai silenzi, alle risonanze, ai vuoti. Accentuandone il carattere introspettivo e multidirezionale. C'è stretta simbiosi e contemporaneamente un respiro diverso, una morbidezza che pur ne mantiene la caratteristica complessità, nei salti intervallari, nell'interesse esplorativo.

La morbidezza nasce dal fatto che il chitarrista non usa il plettro: il carattere enigmatico e serpentino della musica di Berne viene illuminato da angolazioni policrome, da prospettive diverse, si alimenta di nuovi umori. Arricchimento e fedeltà dialogano in stretto accordo, si rispecchiano in una serie di rifrazioni sonore, timbriche, umorali. Tutto confluisce nello stesso corpo, alimentato da nutrimenti diversi. Con risultati davvero ammirabili. Belisle-Chi è un musicista da seguire con attenzione.

Album della settimana.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/slow-crawl-performing-the-music-of-tim-berne-gregg-belisle-chi-intakt-records__78422

It’s hard to argue with the press release “a mesmerizing solo debut! A contagious exuberance of playing, energetic explosive improvisations, and an openness to jazz tradition and experimentation combine on this album to create an impressive musical statement. “Almost everything he plays affirms his history and culture as a first- generation American, the son of a Panamanian mother and a Dominican father. Growing up in the Bronx and in Queens during hip hop’s first years – the first jazz he heard were samples – hearing salsa and merengue at home, attending Latino evangelical churches, and – yes – studying classical music at the Harlem School of the Arts shaped Marcelo’s identification as an African Latino with an inclusive sensibility. Once artists establish a strong identity, they can draw outside the lines, smudge them, even erase them, without diluting or diminishing that identity. That is what Alexis Marcelo has done with Solo Piano”, writes Bill Shoemaker in the liner notes.
‘Boogieminish Bop’ is a fun opener, a unique take on a tired genre. I particularly liked ‘Amargado’ with its false ending, combining flamboyance with deftness of touch. The rippling notes of the gospel ballad ‘Break Bread’ up and down the length of the keyboard is typical of Marcelo’s approach. All the material is original apart from the dramatic ‘A Saca Comote’ by Caitro Soto, the Peruvian composer on which Marcelo shows tremendous dexterity and a playful ‘Eronel’ by Thelonius Monk. A sustained chord begins ‘Chroma’ with sparse choppy chords to follow, quite unsettling experience at first; the music is as much about the spaces in between as the actual chords and notes. ‘Dance Around the Sun’ is on a kind of loop, an orbital expression of the subject matter perhaps, a clever construction becoming increasingly frenzied, getting too close to the sun perhaps? ‘Drifting’ accommodates some vamping. Alexis Marcelo is not only technically gifted but varied stylistically as well as innovatory in a most impressive display of virtuosity and imagination.

It’s hard to argue with the press release “a mesmerizing solo debut! A contagious exuberance of playing, energetic explosive improvisations, and an openness to jazz tradition and experimentation combine on this album to create an impressive musical statement. “Almost everything he plays affirms his history and culture as a first- generation American, the son of a Panamanian mother and a Dominican father. Growing up in the Bronx and in Queens during hip hop’s first years – the first jazz he heard were samples – hearing salsa and merengue at home, attending Latino evangelical churches, and – yes – studying classical music at the Harlem School of the Arts shaped Marcelo’s identification as an African Latino with an inclusive sensibility. Once artists establish a strong identity, they can draw outside the lines, smudge them, even erase them, without diluting or diminishing that identity. That is what Alexis Marcelo has done with Solo Piano”, writes Bill Shoemaker in the liner notes.
‘Boogieminish Bop’ is a fun opener, a unique take on a tired genre. I particularly liked ‘Amargado’ with its false ending, combining flamboyance with deftness of touch. The rippling notes of the gospel ballad ‘Break Bread’ up and down the length of the keyboard is typical of Marcelo’s approach. All the material is original apart from the dramatic ‘A Saca Comote’ by Caitro Soto, the Peruvian composer on which Marcelo shows tremendous dexterity and a playful ‘Eronel’ by Thelonius Monk. A sustained chord begins ‘Chroma’ with sparse choppy chords to follow, quite unsettling experience at first; the music is as much about the spaces in between as the actual chords and notes. ‘Dance Around the Sun’ is on a kind of loop, an orbital expression of the subject matter perhaps, a clever construction becoming increasingly frenzied, getting too close to the sun perhaps? ‘Drifting’ accommodates some vamping. Alexis Marcelo is not only technically gifted but varied stylistically as well as innovatory in a most impressive display of virtuosity and imagination.

Moody, contemplative and gorgeously expressive, Abstraction Is Deliverance is the work of a quartet that deserves its place in the front rank of contemporary creative music.

With the exception of the title piece — the album’s most aggressive performance, featuring high-level interplay and an extremely powerful saxophone component — this is a dark-hued work that’s both eloquent and emotive. Displaying roots that extend from modalism to melodicism that echoes the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, the band’s fifth outing stakes its place among the best recordings of this decade.

The opening “Ware” illuminates the lineage from Newk and Trane to the titular David S. Ware with a fervid rhythmic underpinning and Lewis’ meditative lead, while “Remember Rosalind” layers a winsome melody over Chad Taylor’s slowly churning accompaniment.

The oft-recorded “Left Alone” drifts on Taylor’s reiterative foundation and Brad Jones’ resonant toms, providing fertile ground for Lewis’ rich exposition of the Billie Holiday/Mal Waldron melody.

Above all, this is a band that appreciates texture. “Multicellular Beings” and “Per 7” are both prime examples of how these four can shift their traditional roles to build performances that seem so purpose-built that listeners may mistake them for through-composed work.

Over the course of its five recordings, Lewis’ quartet has grown into the one of the most eloquent improvising groups in recent history. They appear to be transforming their 41-year-old Swiss boutique label the way John Coltrane did for Impulse! in the ’60s.

https://downbeat.com/news/detail/the-5-star-new-releases

Two saxophone-centred quartet sessions are either directly dedicated to influential deceased musicians or do so with inference. Yet both transcend admiration to appropriateness, by substituting original compositions for musical replicational. Coastline is the more obvious homage of the two since French multi-reedist Matthieu Donarier only plays soprano saxophone on seven tunes celebrating Steve Lacy’s influence. Abstraction is Deliverance is a bit differences because American tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis only dedicates the eponymously title “Ware” to the late David S. Ware and also performs his version of Mal Waldron’s classic “Left Alone”. However the instrumentation of his quartet and his improvisational intensity also reflect the spirit of John Coltrane, a Ware influence who also recorded with Waldron and played some of his compositions.

Donarier, who has recorded with everyone from Alban Darche to Jean-Jacques Birge, is a veteran Gallic stylist, and his associates, with whom he often plays, are equally experienced. Bassist Stéphane Kerecki has worked with figures as different as Daniel Humair and Ralph Alessi, while husband-and-wife pianist Sophia Domancich and drummer Simon Goubert have worked with the likes of Sylvain Kassap, Paul Dunmall, Hélène Labarrière and Michel Edelin.

Thus it’s no surprise that interludes exist where each move upfront for introductions and solos. Gouber’s sympathetic pacing of drum shuffles and cymbal sizzles balances expositions throughout; Kerecki’s in-the-moment stops and pulse do likewise; while Domancich keyboard versatility is highlighted at greatest length on the consecutive “Peebles” and “The Hidden Ones”. On the first she harmonizes the saxophonist’s Lacy-like vibrato with processed runs and projections, then turns to double toned expressive extensions before leading back to the head. On “The Hidden Ones” her sound is both nearly notated formal and single note pounding percussive as she integrates double bass thumps and Donarier’s elevated sax flattement into cohesive and cooperative reed squeals.

Double-tonguing at high pitches on a track like “Whim Wham’, with the pianist tinkling her keys beside him, Donarier is able to move tempos from andante to allegro with no loss of momentum or space, A walking bass pattern and keyboard stabs help insure that his subsequent squeaks and flutters cement the theme with no empty spaces. These connections are maintained throughout if his playing involves twists and turns to more dissonant puffs and screeches or as on “Ebb Tide” the original tune which is neither the Maxwell-Sigman or Robin-Rainger pop hit. On it, and mated with double-bass strokes and cymbal clips, his tone sounds closer to Paul Desmond than Lacy and as Donarier piles darker notes and then Goubert a drum roll into the tune, they confirm the quartet’s originality.

There’s no disputing the originality of Brandon Lewis and his quartet. Now together for years, the members are respected in there own rights as well as part of this group, which in instrumentation and skills can be compared to the classic Coltrane quartet. Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz also records on his own; drummer Chad Taylor has played with the likes of Jason Stein and Joe McPhee, while bassist Brad Jones has worked with everyone from Dave Douglas to David Murray.

Key tracks which demonstrate the breadth of the quartet are “Remember Rosalind” and the title tune. The first, somewhat balladic, depends on piano-reed harmonies and opens up with breathy tongue-stopping sax trills and Ortiz’s sympathetic comping. As the tune is exoticized with upwards reed slurs and downwards scoops, the note-bending stops and keyboard switching between wide glissandi and single-note emphasis, drum accents help set the mood. On the other hand, “Abstraction is Deliverance” lives up to its name as low-pitch snarky chording from the pianist and a heavy drum beat stretches the exposition until it almost reaches New Thing atonality. That’s further emphasized as Brandon Lewis stretches piles of notes through the bar lines emphasizing similar patterns over and over with slight variations. The climax occurs as a delicate harpsichord-like figure underlines emphasized droning breaths from the saxophonist.

“Left Alone” is given a properly extended and magisterial reading with arco bass buzzes, woody drum pats, keyboard clanks and a solid reed line. Other tunes are lively and light fingered with sophisticated harmonic references and Taylor expressing rumbles and cymbal slides in equal measure. Others take the saxophone impression past mainstream as he sometimes blows unaccented air through the horn, echoes split tones or clenched flutters. Diversity is also emphasized on “Mr. Crick”, which first emphasizes swing as a walking Blues before expressive tangents settle on impressionistic piano slides as the saxist extends the narrative with squeak, stops and shrills. “Ware” may be the strangest piece however. Rather then over...