Blaise Siwula, Nobu Stowe & Ray Sage, Brooklyn Moments, 2005

I backtrack today to a CD you may have missed (I did) from a batch that pianist Nobu Stowe kindly sent me recently. It's a very solid trio effort in the free zone, Brooklyn Moments (Konnex). It was recorded in 2005 and features a five-part set of total improvisations for Blaise Siwula (alto & tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, bamboo flute), Nobu Stowe (piano) and Ray Sage (drums).

We've encountered these artists before on this blog, perhaps Maestro Siwula more than any one of the three but more lately Nobu, and Ray Sage in his work with the pianist. I am happy to say that this 2005 encounter is a very good one. Everyone contributes strongly to the collective effort and there is much in the way of good free musical thinking and creation going on.

The mood changes and evolves as Blaise switches from instrument to instrument. It's not that the switch necessarily prompts the change in mood as much as the restarting of the creative cogs brings on a restart in the interactive process. The music can and does go from plaintive whisper to super-energized roar, sometimes as a climax situation, other times as discrete improvised segments. There can be utterly free phrasings or key-centered pulsations, too. Either way the three together inspire Siwula to some excellent expressions, Nobu free-wheels his contributions in multi-directional periodizing, and Ray Sage is an open-eared dynamo that goes with the trio, leading and following with genuine drum-set artistry.

There is a really nice conjuring of collective spontaneity to be heard, a testament to the talents and good chemistry of the three on this day in 2005. Listen and you will be transported back to that early September session, in a perennial vital Brooklyn, now eight years ago but as fresh as anything coming out today.