Phil Haynes - Michael Jefry Stevens, Music for Percussion and Piano

 

I've appreciated the creative drum-percussion prowess of Phil Haynes and the pianistic incandescence of Michael Jefry Stevens for a good while now, ever since I first started reviewing for Cadence. With the  duet album Music for Percussion and Piano (ARC Records) we get to hear them in a series of adventurous twosomes and it is a happy thing.

The music consists of some 18 relatively brief improvisations of a definite inner quality much of the time, a sort of later development of what perhaps Paul Bley was sometimes doing years ago, in the sense that it was less referential than self-contained, less channeling of jazz and blues syntax than forging a free harmonic-rhythmic universe unto itself but then cascading perhaps in ways that Cecil Taylor opened us up to. Not in a derivative way, any of it, and in this case less high-energy than reflective, more soundful than not but also self-testificatory at key moments.

The drum-piano dialog utilizes a kind of conversational in-the-moment speak, a definite speechifying there-ness if you will. And as the set rolls on there are more climactic jettisons of sound and a smoothly continuous expression field that holds your attention and keeps you actively listening. This kind of music demands a certain steadiness of listening devotion but it pays off with a long-form presence that is a real pleasure to experience.

Phil Haynes and Michael Jefry Stevens are on a roll here. Give it repeated attention and it will make a lot of musical sense in time. It deserves a place in your musical stash if you appreciate various markedly original expressions of freedom for piano and drums. Bravo!