Sudo Quartet, Live at Banlieue Bleue, Leandre, Zingaro, Tramontana, Lovens

The Sudo Quartet brings the delightful avant virtuosity of bassist Joelle Leandre into a formidable quartet setting with Carlos Zingaro on violin, Sebi Tramontana on trombone, and drummer vet Paul Lovens. They have a nicely performed CD out Live at Banlieue Bleue (No Business NBCD 51) that I have been listening to with interest. The band holds forth in March of 2011, live and extemporaneously inspired.

The sound chemistry is excellent thanks to Leandre's inimitable presence on bass and vocals, the soul and sound dynamics of Tramontana, Zingaro as a multi-stopped and vigorous foil to Leandre, and Lovens with his dynamic sound color tumbling.

The personalities and color-tones of the artists and their somewhat unusual instrumentation puts it all together. Any aspiring bassist should listen closely to Joelle. Everyone interested in avant jazz should give this one a spin!

Eric Boeren 4tet Does "Song for Tracy the Turtle"

Eric Boeren plays a nice cornet. He is in the free zone but looks backward to bop and what came after as much as he looks ahead. His compadres for Song for Tracy the Turtle (Clean Feed 186) are well chosen and certainly well-known in free improv circles. There's Michael Moore on alto and clarinet, Wilbert de Joode on contrabass, and Paul Lovens on drums. The date was well-recorded, live at Jazz Brugge 2004.

They have an early-Ornette Coleman quartet sound about them, tempered by where they have been and what they are as players. And they do three of Ornette's numbers, as well as one by Eubie Blake. The rest are Eric's pleasing originals. It's delightful music. Now it may not set the world on fire, but it shows all concerned in a good place, playing well. It is good to hear this group! Check them out.