Paradoxical Frog returns with a second album, Union (Clean Feed 262), that continues in a way where the first left off (see earlier review on these pages via the search box at the top of the page). It's a trio of Kris Davis, piano, Ingrid Laubrock, tenor and soprano sax, and Tyshawn Sorey, drums and also melodica and trombone for this outing.
It's a very serious venture of high modernist composition/freedom, all three contributing their pieces and all three performing with collective and individual strength and originality.
Kris Davis plays carefully thought-out, harmonically expansive lines that Ingrid Laubrock counters with her own personal take on modernity. Tyshawn Sorey is the percussive dynamo that he is, for this trio a meticulous sound sculptor as well as a driving force.
The music has the New Music spaciousness and control with some of the energy and propulsiveness of New Thing. It comes off very well because these are a well-matched, gifted threesome.
Music of the era. . . music without a commercial bone in its virtual body. . . music that stakes critical ground in the new age we live in. . . music you should hear.
