(ECM)A portentous title for an unself-consciously inquisitive,selflessly collective quartet nominally led by the great drummer Andrew Cyrille, an elderly master of unpredictable yet flowing free-jazz momentum, or steered by the kind of patience that drummers aren’t always distinguished for. His very classy partners here are Bill Frisell (guitar),jazz/classical synth pioneer Richard Teitelbaum (a long-time Cyrille collaborator) and Ben Street (double bass). A version of John Coltrane’s Coltrane Time kicks things off with a snare sample Cyrille learned from Coltrane drummer Rashied Ali – which he sustains while the others float rhythmically and arrhythmically around him. Frisell’s melancholy Kaddish rings quietly on over Cyrille’s far-distant mallets, Street’s Say resembles a slow pop ballad, or Dazzling (Perchordally Yours) is built around alternations of single chord-hits and silences,the players reacting to the resonances. It all swings without regular swing, sounding fluently melodic, and though much of it is cell-like and episodic. It might be too wrapped up in itself for some,but its close-listening musicality grows on you.
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Source: theguardian.com