Darius Jones Quartet featuring Emilie Lesbros, Le bebe de Brigitte (Lost in Translation)

Darius Jones is not only an alto saxophonist of importance in the new "jazz." He is also a composer-conceptualist of great imagination and merit. You get all of that in his latest album, volume five in his "Man'ish Boy" epic. Le bebe de Brigitte (Lost in Translation) (AUM Fidelity 095) is the Jones Quartet with vocalist Emilie Lesbros. The instrumentalists are Jones of course, Matt Mitchell on piano and Rhodes, Sean Conly on bass, Ches Smith on drums plus Pascal Niggenkemper adding his bass for one number.

The compositional element drives the music in various directions, from a swinging feel to bluesiness, balladry, a freely forward moving, and such. Emilie Lesbros is very much integral to it all, out front and expressively present. She contributes some of the lyrics and on one she is composer and lyricist. Darius gives us five compositions and wrote the lyrics for two of them.

This is all about identity, about, in Maestro Jones' words, how "much of the hatred and ugliness in the world comes from everyone trying to create a unison when they should be striving to create a harmony." When people fail to communicate effectively with one another, it often has to do with differences in language and culture. There is a kind of loss in translation. Much effort is needed to come to understand those people who come from contrasting backgrounds from your own, and this music embodies that problem as well as solves it in a real-time microcosm.

Such is the case, Jones notes, in a musical encounter as much as it is in any other. And so this album and its music is that attempt to arrive at a harmony. That it does is a part of Jones' own conceptually directed openness as well as the band's identity as developed individuals each with a place they have come from as well as a distinct something to say.

The result is a product of the very musical sensibilities of Jones, Lesbros, Mitchell, Conly, Smith (and Niggenkemper) and Jones' strong compositional framework.

Darius sounds especially beautiful on alto here, expressive and singular. The band in each of its parts stands out as a whole, too. Mitchell is a rapidly moving force on piano these days and he contributes some fine work. But then everybody is key here.

The many moods and nuances of the music make for an excellent set. It is music that requires your active participation, of course. If you devote your undivided attention to it, worthwhile unfolding universes of meaning and mood are revealed.

One of the serious contenders for the year's best! Need I say more? Hear it.

Ask 7, Michael Vlatkovich Septet

Some jazz artists you can count on to make quality music year-after-year. They may not always win popularity contests, yet their music lives and breathes well. Trombonist jazz-composer Michael Vlatkovich is one of those. With his own bands/projects and now as a member of the Rich Halley group he comes through consistently. Being a West Coaster he may not have as large a presence on the scene than if he was in New York, for example, but that has nothing to do with the music.

So today another fine one, the Michael Vlatkovich Septet's Ask 7 (pfMentum CD089). It is Michael, his trombone and compositions along with a multi-wind outfit of Ron Miles on cornet, Wade Sander on bass trombone, Mark Harris on alto sax/clarinet/bass clarinet, Glenn Nitta on tenor sax, Kent McLagen on acoustic bass and Chris Lee on drums.

It is a game outfit that handles the composed ensemble music well and has a deep pocket of good improvisers to get the music moving. These are some of Vlatkovich's most compelling compositions, modern and on the outside edge but also somehow timeless in a classic sort of way.

Combine the music with some very nice voicings and performances, good solos and a loosely swinging rhythm team and you have some excellent music. That is what you get. Vlatkovich's trombone is in good evidence and as always has high artistry. The other wind players get some good things going solo-wise. Harris and Nitta get my ear especially.

Hearing this I felt strongly that Vlatkovich would write some excellent big band charts but no matter because we get a very full-sounding septet that allows for some very ambitious and successful Vlatkovich music here.

It's one of his very best and so I heartily recommend you hear it. Encore!

Charles Evans, On Beauty, with David Liebman

Baritone sax phenom and jazz composer Charles Evans has been giving us much to like with his consistently worthwhile albums, more than a few by now, and he shows no signs of letting up. If there is such as thing as sophomore jinx in jazz, and I am not sure there is, he is not one prone to it. Quite the opposite.

The new one delves deeply into an avant chamber jazz that consists of a multi-part composition-improvisational platform called On Beauty (More is More 152). It is a through composed suite by Charles featuring himself of course on baritone, his mentor David Liebman on soprano, Ron Stabinsky on piano and Tony Marino on bass.

Evans and Liebman have a very inspired improvisational presence, both separately and collectively, as they weave improv with the compositional material. Ron Stabinsky plays his very modern harmonically extended parts and adds some brilliant improvisations as well. And bassist Tony Marino brings up the bottom with a full tone and good ideas.

This is music that plays structure against freedom in ways that may remind you of early AACM or even Jimmy Giuffre in his more outside period when Paul Bley and Steve Swallow were key members in his ensemble. But that only covers precedents, not things imitated, for Charles comes through once again as a determined and eloquent musical personality, a baritone of stature but also a music composer-director who has direction and purpose, who succeeds in carving out his own new jazz turf in ways that make you listen and appreciate.

It is one more landmark-signifying notch in the musical belt of Mr. Charles Evans. It is more-or-less required listening for anyone who wants to explore the newness to be had out there today. Formidable music!

Allen Lowe, Mulatto Radio: Field Recordings 1-4

What do you say about a hugely ambitious and largely very successful project of the breadth and girth of Allen Lowe's Mulatto Radio: Field Recordings 1-4 (Constant Sorrow 101, 4-CDs), which is subtitled A Jew at Large in the Minstrel Diaspora? Even this subtitle would take many pages to unravel, something best done by Allen Lowe himself in a book. In fact the accompanying booklet goes some length in explaining what all that might mean. As with Allen in general it is outspoken and perhaps controversial, one of those things that you can be essentially correct about (assuming that) and open yourself up to a veritable shooting gallery nonetheless, with you as one of the mechanical ducks.

What matters at this point in time for me is the music--and as for that, I hear what is going on in this vast collation and I approve. Not that anybody needs my approval here. Judging things I tend to do almost involuntarily, so there you go. But I suppose that is partly the point of these blogs.

Allen was spurred on by his thoughts to immerse himself in early jazz in its surroundings in not-quite-jazz, roots and what you might term pop from the olden times. He emerges from that exploration with a sequel to his blues set (look him up in the search box for that review).

The 4-CD set contains a wealth of Lowe compositions that start with an early jazz feel and wind their way through Monk and Mingus influences while always keeping an out/avant stance that at times very much comes to the fore, other times is strongly implied. There is plenty of room for improvisation and Allen gets a fair amount of time to show us that his alto playing is something to listen closely to, to pay attention to....Now I may hear everything from Frankie Trumbauer to John Handy, Jackie Mclean, Ornette, and others--but it's Allen's very thorough immersion that puts those influences into a mix that is all his. The compositions do that, too.

And then he has chosen the players here very well. Kalapurusha makes a golden appearance, perhaps his last date before we lost him? The saxes in general get some excellent things going. Ras Moshe sounds great. But close behind him are Noah Preminger and JD Allen. The piano chair is enlivened in some very different ways by the likes of Matthew Shipp, Lewis Porter, and Ursula Oppens, depending what is needed for the piece at hand. Then of all people Ken Peplowski on clarinet, who plays impeccable Peplowski. Ray Suhy gets a chance to play some very interestingly out guitar and on banjo straddles the old-ways and outness. I can't list everybody here but Lou Grassi plays a good role on the drums while Rob Wallace plays a good roll. They both have roles to play and play it they do. Kellso and Sandke do justice to the trumpet requirements and take interesting solos. Then there is a tuba player, Christopher Meeder who gives you the old style and the post-Draper outness too. OK there are others and I am sorry to leave them out, but nobody sounds like they do not belong.

Allen gets a good balance between the compositional and the improvisational--and this is significant fare on both sides. There is the old and the out, again in balance. Imagine Mingus and his Blues and Roots album, only it isn't Mingus and it's right now, like 2013, and it's what Allen creates out of the past and what these excellent players do with it. "My Jelly Roll Soul" did something that can be done again, only subject to what's happened since. And done differently, no less originally. That.

That's what this is.

And after a first, thorough immersion I must say that it's music I want to return to frequently because it's real. There is nothing of the rehash about it. There's no doubt, there isn't any attempt really at literal recreation or some strict form of authenticity. An authenticity of repertoire is not there, and that's what makes it so interesting to hear. Because, face it, the original recordings of the styles treated are where you need to go. Then this becomes comprehensible, but not because it wants to BE that music; but rather it wants to comment on it and further the music of today in the process. (Even if you don't know well the early styles commented on in these "grooves" you still can dig in and dig.) And at the same time I am not saying that all repertoire projects are misguided. There are some great ones that make sense but this is not what this is.

That's what I get out of this. There is no controversy with the music. It's just good music. Is there too much? Only if you don't have any listening time. It requires that, certainly. It's out music that dives deeply into roots but does not wish to become those roots. The compositions and the players are what is happening NOW. And it's a very, very good thing. So, encore.

Angles 8, By Way of Deception, Live in Ljubljana

Today, the second of two Clean Feed Live at Ljubljana Jazz Festival disks covered this week (Monday I covered one by Igor Lumpert's Trio). The Swedish large ensemble Angles 8 steps forward for their lively set Angles of Deception (Clean Feed 256).

Martin Kuchen's compositions, direction, and alto sax are what is primarily motoring this band, and they come across especially here with a kind of joyful Afro-riffing that shows the positive influence of Ornette, Sun Ra, the "ethnic" side of Don Cherry and the buoyancy of Pierre Dorge's New Jungle Orchestra.

It's Martin and seven other well-healed musicians from Europe (trombone, trumpet, baritone-soprano, alto, vibes, piano, bass and drums) igniting five of Kuchen's pieces in a very lively manner.

All the front liners can solo and do so freely and sometimes collectively, while riffs and counterlines take off and rock the house.

It's a first-rate band doing first-rate music. Afro-free jazz on fire! Be sure and get an earful of this one. It's quite excellent, really. Encore!

William Parker, Centering, Unreleased Early Recordings 1976-1987

Box sets can go a number of ways. For years the typical set contained all released material by an artist on a label plus a number of "bonus tracks," unreleased numbers and/or alternate takes. That was and is fine if you are a devotee of the artist, must have it all, and don't mind paying. Otherwise it can be a lot of money if all you really wanted were those few extra tracks.

Of course there are box sets of other sorts. Today's set is that. William Parker's Centering (No Business CD 42-47), as the subtitle makes clear, is composed entirely of Unreleased Early Recordings 1976-1987. It's six CDs in all, with booklet and attractive slipcase.

What makes all that important? It's William Parker the superb bassist, jazz composer and bandleader at his very best. It's avant "jazz," free expression, new music in quite decent sound quality, covering some of Maestro Parker's significant associations and performances in and around New York during the period. It is an ear opener.

First I need to give you a rundown of who does what and when. There are some fine duos and trios from the early period--with Daniel Carter, with Charles Gayle, and a trio with John Hagen and Arthur Williams. There is a lot of music from the Centering Dance Music Ensemble with David S. Ware and Denis Charles (that for the performance included Patricia Nicholson's dancing). That's one of my favorites of the set, but there are many high points to be heard.

Then there are the mid-to-large ensembles: a vocal trio of Ellen Christi, Brenda Bakr and Lisa Sokolov with Parker on bass and Rashid Bakr on drums. From there, the Big Moon Ensemble octet of Jemeel Moondoc, Carter, Williams, Roy Campbell Jr., Parker, Jay Oliver, Charles and Rashid Bakr. There's the music for dance with a Septet including Billy Bang and Ellen Christi. Finally there's the full blown Centering Big Band for a full disk. That's Carter, Moondoc, Ricardo Strobert, Ware, Charles Tyler, Raphe Malik, Campbell, Alex Lodico, Masahiko Kono, Zen Matsura, Sokolov, Christi and of course Parker himself.

The point of the rundown is to show the wide variety of groupings and the presence of lots of avant masters.

In the end, after hearing this entire set several times (and I will surely be listening much more), I am left with a deep sense of the importance of William Parker's music on the scene in those days. He became increasingly widely known as an avant bassist of the very highest tier, sure, but as is clear from these recordings, he was an important force on the scene as band leader and composer-conceptualist as well.

There is a rather huge amount of great music in the set. Yes, there are some free blow-outs of a high order, with Carter and Gayle, and the trio of Ware, Parker, and Charles really moves along.

The mid-to-large ensembles and the vocal-oriented sounds show us a complex music that surely is free in many ways. But there are some great writing and blowing frameworks too, and all of it hangs together very well.

Space and time don't permit me to comment at length on each cut, six FULL disks worth, but I am left after hearing the set in some ways a changed man. I mean that I am very, very impressed with this music. It puts his early years in a very significant light. He was making important music then, as now. And the music of the set is endlessly rewarding to hear. A treasure trove is what it is, something that will delight, stimulate and enthrall anyone with an interest in and love of the new in improvised music. Highly recommended.

Harris Eisenstadt, Canada Day III

As promised two days ago, here is the other new album by Harris Eisenstadt, Canada Day III (Songlines 1596-2). It's the paired down quintet of Nate Wooley, trumpet, Matt Bauder, tenor, Chris Dingman, vibes, Garth Stevenson, contrabass, and of course Harris on drums and compositions.

This is more music of fascination. Harris sometimes writes music you might not always expect of a drummer. That is not intended as deprecatory. What I mean is that the music of course has a rhythmic component, but it is often the long flow of sequence that prevails. Now that happens to give Harris lots of space to do his excellent time variations, but it also has a kind of multi-dimensionality--long flow and solo improvisations or ensemble counterpoint--that breaks it up and gets polyvalency-polysemantics going (OK, this is a jazz column, so I should say I mean something with several dimensions, several meanings at the same time).

And OK bebop of course always has had the cycle of changes that was the long flow backdrop to the solo and rhythmn section punctuations. Harris can have harmonic cycles in motion but there is a more through-composed quality to the flow. It often involves motives and mood. Finally it's not just that he does this, it's the distinctive how and what that sets the music apart as different, original.

In this way Harris can have fairly long pieces that do not waste time--everything is of a piece and everything makes great use of the time spent. I don't need to go into the tendency of CDs and their spacious time element encouraging artists to indulge in overly long programs and perhaps stretching out in ways that overtax the listener. That's not what happens here or in any of Harris's recordings. The music is necessary and sufficient, never indulgent.

Needless to say all the artists here improvise with their own originality and feeling. Harris on drums is somebody to listen to productively just in himself. Dingman's vibes give the ensemble its special sound quality and he can weave lines, but then Garth is strong as well. The Wooley-Bauder team is excellent of course, here as elsewhere.

Composer Eisenstadt comes through with more of his sophisticated yet fired-up subtlety.

Don't miss this one!! Really.

Clare Fischer Orchestra, Extension, 1963

The 30-minute 1963 Clare Fischer Orchestra album Extension (Pacific Jazz 017) helped launch the composer-arranger as one of the finest, if under-appreciated, such practitioners of his generation. The album has been rather scarce in the years following its original issue. Thankfully it's available again in a finely put-together reissue package.

This is a West Coast date, of course, and includes some fine and sometimes rather unremembered musicians of the locale, Sam Most, for example, and Jerry Coker along with Bud Shank and Larry Bunker. Clare plays piano and organ throughout. It's a kind of big band-orchestra amalgam and the amassed forces give out with a rather large but often contrapuntally layered sound texture.

The late Clare Fischer has never been an easy one to pin down and it is as true of this album as the ones that followed. The influence of 20th century concert music, bop, cool school and Afro-Cuban elements combine here in rather masterfully worked-out sequences.

The remastering and packaging are exemplary, with a miniature reproduction of the original album two-panel design and text. It's very subtle music, mostly, and essential Fischer. You might want to grab this limited edition issue now before it disappears.

Heiner Stadler, Brains on Fire, Complete, Reissue

When I and the world were younger and the Jazz Composers Orchestra Association was distributing all kinds of interesting avant jazz and new music, sometime in the mid-seventies, I came across Heiner Stadler's first, then second volume of Brains on Fire. I was attracted by the impressive personnel line-up, people like Reggie Workman, Jimmy Owens, Tyrone Washington, Lenny White, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Joe Farrell.
Once I heard it a few times though I was most impressed with Mr. Stadler as a jazz composer. His charts had looseness, freedom and a thoroughly developed avant writing style that gelled and made the listening a very illuminating go. Here was an expanded tonality handled with a post-Russell aplomb and interepreted with verve and fire by some of the best jazz musicians around.
So when I was sent a copy of the new two-CD reissue, complete with a large amount of unreleased material (Labor 7069), I was happy. The original music still sounds terrific; the new pieces/performances give still more good reasons to have this set in one's collection.
Perhaps most intriguing of the new material is "Bea's Flat," a 24-minute rearrangement of an old Russ Freeman number, for the Big Band of the North German Radio Station (with Schoof, Dudek and Mangelsdorff). But it's all good.
Lovers of free-composed modern jazz need to check this one out.

SFE, Positions & Descriptions: Simon H. Fell's Mid-Sized Jazz Orchestra Composition

Fifteen musicians (many of them noted for their avant improvisa- tional talents) plus conductor tackle Simon H. Fell's full-length Composition No. 75 on SFE's Positions & Descriptions (Clean Feed 230). Not unlike Anthony Braxton, Fell seeks to create from the musical languages of modern classical and avant jazz a long-formed hybrid that melds some of the traits of each camp. Fell put together nine performance sections/movements in this composition that serve as vignettes and try (successfully, I believe) to hang together as a cohesive statement.

It was commissioned by the BBC and performed after only two-days rehearsal in 2007. Composition, conduction, improvisations and pre-recorded material come in and out of focus in interesting ways. It is a music to be heard with undivided attention to have an effect.

It is of necessity a first-stab at creating a more definitive version of the work. So there are times when one might hear that more could be done with what is being done. The logistical and economic difficulties of putting together a mid-sizable ensemble such as this and have them play through each section with systematic attention to detail is nigh close to impossible in today's climate, however, so in many ways we are lucky to have this version to appreciate.

Simon Fell is doing interesting work, this is an interesting ensemble and the piece moves the avant nexus forward several steps. It is worth your time to listen closely to this one.

Drummer-Composer Harris Eisenstadt and his "Canada Day II"

Drummers aren't usually jazz composers. It has to do with devoting a lifetime to the drums. It can take you away from the rest of the notes that are possible, horizontally and vertically. There have been exceptions. Denzil Best wrote or co-wrote a classic bop tune. Help me out here. I forget what it was. Tony Williams and Jack DeJohnette wrote some great music for their groups. Jack continues to do so. And there have been some more in later years. Chad Taylor. Others. The list could grow much longer but the point is that there are relatively few compared to other instrumentalists.

And there is Harris Eisenstadt. He plays and writes with his own view of how things can go. An orchestral work of his is being read this month by the American Composers Orchestra, a singular honor. And he has a new CD, Canada II (Songlines 1589-2). It's a terrifically balanced quintet of Harris on drums, Nate Wooley, trumpet, Matt Bauder, tenor, Chris Dingman on vibes, and Eivind Opsvik on bass. These are players of character and personality. Maestro Eisenstadt has written a series of pieces that bring out the sonority and quirkiness of such a line-up, at the same time as he has crafted a series of melodically distinguished lines. There are quasi-chorale forms, melodic lines that have a folky-street sort of simplicity for a second, only to veer sharply in contour and grab the ears. And he maps out other contours too, all in a style that is his--almost a modern day Tadd Dameron? He knows how to write-arrange for a relatively small group of this sort and get a large sound by sometimes having the horns sound close harmonies that beat together to project a more sonorous and large ambiance. And the vibes are given the loose-comp freedom that opens up plenty of implications for the soloists and gives the sonic whole a contentful but not-so-dense matrix.

This is serious quintet jazz that comes alive for the listener after several hearings. There is much to hear and appreciate on this one. Harris has consistently been at the cutting edge of jazz composer-bandleaders in the last couple of years. He shows on Canada Day II that he belongs there. Don't miss it!

Nicholas Urie's "My Garden:" Composer's Big Band Music Based on Charles Bukowski

Without a great deal of build up and/or suspense I'll say right off the bat that I like what Nicholas Urie is up to on My Garden (Red Piano Records [RPR] 14599-4405-2). It's very modern big-band music, well played, with the moderately acerbic and melancholic poetry of Charles Bukowski as the unifying theme.

Christine Correa handles the vocals. She's pretty much perfect for the texts. Sometimes I am reminded of the Steve Lacy-Irene Aebi collaborations in terms of the jagged art-folk of the melodic lines and Christine's delivery. But it's only at moments. The entire thrust of the album is toward a well-conceived, slightly avant modernism. With apologies in advance, I am not going to list the big band members here. I have not heard of many of the names (which doesn't necessarily mean anything) and really the primary focus is on Mr. Urie's musical vision, which has lots of room for elaboration between the various moods of Bukowski's poem-texts and the extended musical suite form utilized. But the band sounds good.

Nicholas would seem to have found his own voice in this work. It is a most interesting and highly recommended disk. Keep going, Nicholas Urie. You have something to say!

Brian Groder, His "Cartolologia Suite"

Trumpeter, composer, bandleader Brian Groder is happening. We reviewed the album he made with the legendary pianist Burton Greene on these pages (see below). And he has been pursuing his own projects with zeal.

Several weeks ago he premiered his "Cartologia Suite" for mid-sized jazz ensemble in New York City. I was unable to catch it but you get some idea of what was involved by going to his site www.briangroder.com, clicking on "projects," and then streaming a solo piano rendition of most of the work. There is substance there and we can only hope that the ensemble version of the piece will be recorded in the the near future. Oh and you'll find a stream of his "Suite for Dance" on that page too. It's worth a listen, all of it.

A New One From Darrell Katz and the Jazz Composer's Alliance Orchestra

A new disk by Darrell Katz (A Wallflower in the Amazon [Accurate 5059]) and his Jazz Composer Alliance Orchestra is a matter of some occasion to me. I've followed the music over the course of a number of albums and have found that there is virtually always something to interest me in them. Mr. Katz is a well wrought sort of arranger-composer.

The new album continues Katz trend of increasingly tailoring aspects of his music for a larger audience. So there is an arrangement of Duke Ellington's "I Like the Sunrise" from "Liberian Suite," there are arrangements of a couple of classic blues numbers, and their are vocals here and there. Now the vocals should appeal to people who cannot relate to music on any level without there being some verbal-vocal content. I tend to expect the very best from jazz singers. And when I don't get it I don't like it.

The vocalists on this album are quite decent, but I do end up asking myself if they are totally necessary to the proceedings. But that is a matter of preference.

The arrangements are sonically detailed and quite well performed by the orchestra. The compositions are weighty and contemporary, they add colors and complexities that Mr. Katz does so well in creating, and there are those elements that should help more people appreciate his music.

It is a remarkable feat to keep a big band such as this one going for as long as it has, and the result is a tightly presented sonance that any lover of the larger aggregates should appreciate. It is in, but it is also out when there is an expressive need. Good!

Amina Figarova Returns with the Ravishing "Sketches"

Amina Figarova weights in with a new album, "Sketches" (BMCD 507). Once again it's Amina at the piano with 13 new pieces, scored for the mid-sized group that gives her a chance again to show what she can do with the three-man horn frontline. Bart Platteau once more brings his eloquent and warm-toned flute and we also have Ernie Hammes on trumpet and flugelhorn as well as Marc Mommans on the tenor.

Ms. Figarova's music is cool, deceptively cool. It's cool in the way that Herbie Hancock's Speak Like A Child is cool. It has moments of fire but it's the legato piano soloing and the lush carpet of beautifully voiced horns that gives everything a gentle quality, cool-like.

To appreciate Figarova's music you have to listen more than a few times because it's pretty subtle. It's music of a pleasant sort, but that initial impression broadens on repeated listening as one comes to understand the sophisticated melodic writing-voicings and the lyrically inspired Figarova piano.

This new one may be the most subtle of them all. We have a very well-rehearsed group with very capable soloists playing a baker's dozen of Figarova's jazz compositions. It's a real pleasure to hear, but it has a latent punch you'll feel as you keep listening. Get a copy and put it on a few times and you'll see what I mean.

Ms. Figarova is carving out her niche with some wonderful music. Hear it.

Jorrit Dijkstra with Some Brilliant Ensemble Music

There's a new spirit in the ensemble avant jazz being created lately in some circles. At least I think so. Jorrit Dijkstra is a part of it, at least in his recent Pillow Circles (Clean Feed). Jorrit has assembled a mid-sized, eight-member group, including two reeds (Jorrit and Tony Malaby), trombone (Jeb Bishop), viola, two guitars, one doubling on banjo, acoustic bass and drums (Frank Rosaly).

This is through-composed, through-freed in form. Ensemble composition, free collective soloing and individual moments alternate and are thoroughly integrated. Rhythmic freedom and rhythmic groove alternate, sometimes within a single movement. Multi-instrumental counterpoint often prevails in written and improvised parts, rather than homeophonic blocks that relate to basic song form.

This of course is not entirely unprecedented, but there seems to be a more of it than there used to be and when it's very good, like on Pillow Circles, there is a consistency and unity of purpose that in part comes out of having hammered out a musical syntax that now seems fully mature.

Jorrit Djikstra's compositional, directional ensemble leadership takes the front stage on this set. He has created an excellent vehicle for a talented and inspired group of musicians and the results are striking. Many stylistic elements combine in ways that do not seem patched together. Jorrit integrates the free, the electric, the advanced melodic approach and the textural colorfield perspective in a seamless whole. This is extraordinarily interesting music, played by some extraordinarily open and articulate musicians.