Free Jazz Late - Night Makeout Session
jive rhapsodist | NYC, NY United States | 11/07/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The piano...it will always be the piano, it seems. Cecil Taylor notwithstanding. And - well, let's talk about the piano. And the project that was called "Free Jazz". Not that Bley ever claimed allegiance to that project. But still...Think of the records you remember from ESP, back in the day: Ayler, Ornette at Town Hall, the Fugs. And then think of the piano records: this one, Ran Blake...The piano brings a harmonic story along with it. And a certain idea of dynamics. Solo dynamics and ensemble dynamics. This is a very good trio CD. The playing is wonderful. Some of Carla Bley's pieces have a kind of Pop/Rock influence inside of them which is very much of the time (Ida Lupino). Not my favorite thing, but the trio has a real approach to playing those pieces - sounds like Jarrett got a lot from this.It's not like I want a piano to scream...it's not like Bley never screams (listen to the beginning of Start - pretty fierce). It's just that I can imagine the piano trio's accessing and engaging with colors and moods that it never seems to. It's always less removed from the Supper Club than the rest of Jazz is, no matter how hard it tries. One thing I both admire and envy about Bley is how much he is able to work within the Modern Jazz piano's expressive limitations. It's true: outside of Cecil, every time a piano tries to howl like Ayler or wail like Ornette it just sounds pushed and overplayed. But a man can dream, can't he?"