Bobby Bradford / Frode Gjerstad Quartet, The Delaware River

On the docket today is a very together recording of the Bobby Bradford / Frode Gjerstad Quartet live in Philadelphia called The Delaware River (No Business NBLP 87). The quartet includes Bobby Bradford on cornet, Frode Gjerstad on alto sax and Bb clarinet, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass, and Frank Rosaly on drums. which not surprisingly is a very game proposition.

In the tradition of No Business's keen appreciation for the avant jazz music scene, this is a first-rate window onto the quartet's world that night in March of 2014. The rhythm section is, as you'd expect, completely focused on the music at hand, giving the front line a very creative wash of free momentum that Bobby and Frode draw from as a catalyst. For anyone who knows the work of Bradford and Gjerstad, it will come as no surprise that the two are well suited to work together. Frode has held his own for years as a very important reed presence in free jazz Europe and of course Bobby Bradford is a legend in the US for his association with Ornette Coleman and his partnership with the late John Carter in a landmark quartet.

But of course no one can be sure of what an outcome might turn out as until the hearing. This set is a confirmation of the rightness of this quartet, of the continued creative excellence of Bobby Bradford, the equally inventive Frode Gjerstad in a non-compromising "new thing" world, and the righteous chemistry of the quartet as a full-bloomed entity.

This is music with space for all. Bradford and Gjerstad get some remarkable interplay together with their simultaneous two-way soloing, each clearly hearing one another and responding with parallel ideas. Their space openings for the rhythm team are judicious as well. Ingebrigt and Frank are two of the liveliest artists in their own right these days and they know how to extend the music accordingly with good ideas and open support as well as independance.

So as the Delaware River flows so does this quartet. It is not a floodtide of histrionics nor is it in a drought condition of narrow trickling. This is the quartet like the river in steady-state continuity. And so the program gives us a fascinating earful of these four in productive and fruitful togetherness.

It is a nice addition to the discography of all four artists. It satisfies. I am clapping enthusiastically with these words. Listen to this one.

Josh Berman Trio, A Dance and A Hop

No kidding, Chicago is producing some of the finest new jazz on the planet. The new generation of players have stayed put in Chi-town and/or they have expanded outward to form a Chicago diaspora in other urban centers both in the US and abroad.

There are some great recordings being made of the new Chicago thing. Delmark as to be expected has covered an excellent sampling of it and today we have another: cornetist Josh Berman and his trio doing A Dance and A Hop (Delmark 5021). It is album number three for Josh, comprising a trio of players very familiar with each other, with a long history of playing together.

Josh is joined by Jason Roebke on acoustic bass and Frank Rosaly on drums, one of the very best rhythm teams to be had, certainly. And the originals here have the newness of the unexpected along with jazz roots. The band brings out the astute rhythmic and melodic hipness in the best ensemble trio-work manner.

Berman shows that he nowadays can thrive mightily in an exposed trio context. And that he does, with a fluidity of invention, a pinched clarion purity spiced by expressive swoops, growls and split notes. The mid-to-upper range is prominent and his tone is distinctively his.

Jason Roebke gets plenty of space to give us both the solo and ensemble version of his bass inspirations. And Frank Rosaly as ever has the potent swing and musical flexibility to stretch time and mark compositional figures or comment on improvisational doings with all the earmarkings of a percussion colossus. And check out his solo on "Luggage"!

When you combine the compositionally striking material with the improvisational prowess of a trio who knows where to go and heads out in the right ways every time, you have an album that stands out as an outstanding document of why Chicago is a center of the new jazz, as it just about always has been.

The Berman Trio gives you every reason to celebrate the new on A Dance and A Hop. I strongly recommend this one.

The Rempis Percussion Quartet, Cash and Carry

Dave Rempis and his Aerophonic label have been giving us some excellent Chicago-style avant jazz improvisation. The present-day Chicago style is as contentful and distinctive as deep-dish pizza, I suppose you could say. The Dave Rempis contingency gathers together some of the best players and opens up special territories of sound with every new release, it seems.

The Dave Rempis Percussion Quartet continues where the earlier Aerophonic releases leave off--in this case with two long cuts of live music from Chicago's Hungry Brain club, featuring Dave on alto-tenor-baritone, the busily significant bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, and two of the best drummers active on the scene, Tim Daisy and Frank Rosaly. Cash and Carry (Aerophonic 010) is the title of the CD.

This August 31, 2014 set celebrated ten years of the group's existence as it also marked the end of that year's Chicago Jazz Fest, so that on hand was a crowd of advanced jazz lovers who migrated from the outdoor festival to the club.

Judging by the recording, the crowd was treated to some superior music that night. All four are in full-bore expressive mode. Dave is on fire and has a great deal to say, Ingebrigt plays with much authority and imagination, and of course Tim and Frank give us the freewheeling thrusts of power and subtlety we expect from them, only doubled, so to say, by their dual generation.

The open freedom of the two lengthy, in-the-moment performances has everything to recommend: solo excellence, group dynamics and interactions at a high peak, plenty of ideas and that special something you get from dedicated avantists when everything clicks.

If you don't know Dave Rempis well Cash and Carry is an excellent place to begin. Those who already dig Rempis and the new Chicagoans will find this one essential. Yes!

Pandelis Karayorgis Quintet, Circuitous

Boston-based Pandelis Karayorgis is a post-Monk avant pianist with poise, great ideas, real torque and feeling conjoined with a lively musical mind. And he writes compositions that reflect his angular way and stay with you long after you've heard them. For the recording Pandelis Karayorgis Quintet Circuitous (Driff 1304) he gathers together a significant group of Chicago jazzmen in a studio date recorded there. These are musicians often associated together (see previous reviews on this site) and their conjunction with Pandelis is most fortuitous, fortunate, fabulous, productive.

The musicians involved are Dave Rempis, tenor, alto and baritone, Keefe Jackson, tenor sax, bass and contrabass clarinet, Nate McBride, contrabass and Frank Rosaly, drums, cutting edge musicians all.

The set involves all Karayorgis compositions. They set the tone for the improvisations and inspire all to some of their best work--the powerful Rempis, puckish, ascerbic Jackson, angular Karayorgis, deep exploratory McBride and the wise ranging swing and free intelligence of Rosaly. This is symbiosis at its best: the Chicago artist clearly get a jolt from their association with Pandelis and vice versa.

A fine date, great example of Karayorgis today and a testament to the creative thrust of four exceptional Chicago improvisers. Grab this one.

The Rempis Percussion Quartet, Phalanx

Dave Rempis, a saxophonist composer-conceptualist of high repute and attainment, has launched his own label, Aerophonic, and gives us as first offering a 2-CD set of his Rempis Percussion Quartet live. Phalanx (Aerophonic 001) pits Dave on alto, tenor and baritone with a formidable gathering of Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass and the excellent two-drum pairing of Tim Daisy and Frank Rosaly.

This makes for some very together free burning and a killer rhythm section. The quartet gets a disk each for two live sets, one in Milwaukee, one in Antwerp.

It's a matter of extended free blowing and a fine thing it is. Dave sounds great as always on tenor and alto but I don't recall hearing much of him on baritone, and that is a real treat. Ingebrigt as one can always expect brings a busy and smart bass approach to the mix and the one-two punch of Daisy and Rosaly is everything you could ask for. Not surprising given what we have heard them do in one drummer situations, but as a two-part percussion team they give complexity and depth to the blowing that sends it all over the top.

This is a real-deal scorcher! A great kick-off to the label and plenty of heat throughout. Dave Rempis takes off in style!

Nicole Mitchell's Ice Crystal, Aquarius

Nicole Mitchell has rapidly assumed a position of stature as one of the finest jazz flautists active today. Her string of varied albums in the past few years shows an artist who can lead ensembles of strength and originality and put together compositions that stand out, all the time hitting us with great flutework.

For her latest she takes a kind of look back with an ensemble and sound that has a relationship to the classic Eric Dolphy-Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note sides of years ago. The band is Ice Crystal and the album is Aquarius (Delmark 5004).

It's a fabulous gathering of Nicole, the increasingly central vibist Jason Adasiewicz, Joshua Abrams on bass and Frank Rosaly on drums.

Ten Mitchell originals push the band into some great zones, all swinging and smart. Nicole sounds ravishing and the Adasiewicz comping-soloing style sets her off perfectly. Abrams and Rosaly do all they might be expected to do--subtle swinging, hard and inventive. You can listen to Abrams doing some very hips things in there and Rosaly is a cat anybody would welcome on a gig.

This is another very solid, totally enjoyable building stone in the Nicole N. edifice. It will give her a wider audience, I suspect, and at the same time will not disappoint those of us who have been digging from the beginning.