Three stone jazz geniuses get together . . .
Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 12/17/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
". . . and create previously unheard but strangely familiar music.
Don't get me wrong: This is music entirely beyond the scope of normality. Yet it resonates with our deepest longings in such homely, even accessible, fashion, despite its surface weirdness, that it should (and one is tempted to say absolutely ought to be) heard by the widest possible audience.
Each of these remarkable players has a formidable, if somewhat abstruse, resume. They've played together and been recorded on three or four different occasions. They've been part of, together or separately, some of the most evocative exploratory jazz.
That they've come together in the early third millennium to record music of this consequence is not only unexpected but entirely serendipitous.
Yes, it's admittedly sometimes difficult to integrate the welter of sounds into a coherent aural palette, yet it's always worth the effort, at least in my opinion. Take, for example, the sonic rarity of "Dramaturns" near the end of its remarkable 18-plus minute excursion: We have lunatic piano juxtaposed against ethereal laptop then morphed into odd trombone voicings (laptop and trombone courtesy of the inimitable George Lewis) resolving into unexpected coherence. What to make of this seemingly bizarre aural nonsense save musical genius of the first water?
And again, check out the piano-percussion-laptop musical collage of "Soundhear" (weird song titles merely enhancing the inherent aural oddness), sounding like Gismonti/Vasconcelos on steroids filtered through some arcane yet friendly postmod Scelsi/John Adams sound design.
Look.
The gauntlet's thrown down. It will be interesting to see which avant-jazz warrior(s) will rise to the challenge."
A panoramic aural experience
Case Quarter | CT USA | 04/15/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"there are no themes here so there are no variations, and without themes there is nothing to improvise. cecil taylor has passed through this musical territory from time to time, and don pullen has skirted the borders, but this isn't avant garde or free jazz. there have been pioneers, mahler, harry partch and quite a few 19th century pianists/composers, so only (kind of) traditionally can streaming be considered experimental music. keith jarrett has visited the territory. settlers have been anthony braxton and anthony davis, check out his middle passage. that's about as close as i want to get with a description of abrams' streaming.
this is a highly sophisicated cd, an extraordinary achievement. and i like the terse statements, mostly on the art of improvisation, by the players george russell, roscoe mitchell and abrams for linear notes.
and i also like the cover painting by muhal richard abrams."
Track Listings (5) - Disc #1