eMusic Review 0
All three of the musicians assembled here have impeccable free-jazz credentials, including longstanding associations with folks like Ornette Coleman, Anthony Braxton, Frank Zappa, Steve Lacy and, most importantly, one another. Although this is their first recording (set up on the fly in trombonist Bruce Fowler’s house in 2009), Bradford, Dresser and Ferris have been gigging together off and on for decades. Perhaps that’s why this music escapes some of the more predictable tropes and meandering of much “free jazz” — it’s continually purposeful, resourceful, coherent and surprising, while retaining the open-mindedness and high-wire tension and agility that makes the genre so invigorating. The ensemble is so inside each other that they hold our attention, but this is no cerebral exercise that you have to “get.” It grabs you and brings you along for some educated experimentation that is no less swinging for being highly evolved.
One of the first things that corrals you is the shifting dynamics of the brass and bass lineup. Bradford’s trumpet and Ferris’s trombone surge together with superb timing on unison phrases during “For Bradford,” “BBJC” and the closing of “In My Dream.” But just as often Ferris’s low-toned, slippery lines create a bridge between the higher… read more »
