Several things you can depend upon with Kali Z. Fasteau's congregations. First, of course, that she plays an impressive battery of different instruments in freely evocative ways. She sets moods and follows up with the right sort of note conjuring. It is as a wind/reedist and pianist that she perhaps most impresses, but it is the overall sound envelope and flow that remains at the forefront of her music. Secondly she is a great facilitator. She gathers together some seminal players in interesting ensemble combinations, and she sets up an improvisational situation where they give us their very best.
This is true of her recorded output as a whole. It is very true of Live at the Kerava Jazz Festival: Finland (Flying Note 9012). Here we have a 2007 concert that teams Kali with tenor titan Kidd Jordan and the big-ears drumming of Newman Taylor Baker.
It's a collective ensemble much of the time and Kidd Jordan sounds beautiful. Baker gets maximum traction from listening and contributing just the right percussive wash, and Kali alternately brings in important contributions on piano, echoed flute, drums, vocals, soprano and bowed strings.
The Kerava date has that cosmic dimension one has come to expect in Kali's music. With the formidable trio lineup of Fasteau-Jordan-Baker things most definitely get going.
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