Jeff Marx's Tenor and Jeff "Siege" Siegel's Drums in Duo "Dreamstuff"

Jeff Marx plays a solid Post-Trane tenor in ways not entirely typical of some of the players out there. There is the passionate sound but there are lines he comes up with that aren't stock-in-trade contemporary tenorizing. "Siege" Siegel is a drummer that you can hear swinging along on a lot of sessions. Their duo disk Dreamstuff (Ayler Download Series aylDL-070) has been out a few years but is no less interesting for it.

One invariably thinks of the Trane-Ali duo Interstellar Space when you get this configuration in a free setting. And yes, there are moments when you hear a bit of a hommage to that. But other times Marx is playing head melodies and otherwise bringing something of his own into the brew. Siege plays freetime now and then but otherwise has more of a pulse and swing orientation than the late master Ali. There are some moments here and there where they are regrouping to find common ground. But those moments don't last long and they fall into something interesting quickly enough.

Perhaps this album will not set the world ablaze. It hasn't yet. But it's different enough, unique enough that it stands out when you've heard it a few times. Something a little different. It's available as a download only (at a decent price) from Ayler Records. Click on the Ayler link to find out more about doing that.