Open Field + Burton Greene, Flower Stalk

Not all so-called "free" music is alike. Anyone who listens to it extensively knows that. Just like not all Indo-Pak classical is alike. So Open Field + Burton Greene and their beautiful Flower Stalk (Cipsella 002) is by no means quite like any other album in the avant improvisation realm. Why is that?

Burton Greene is an integral part of this music. He is virtually an avant institution, a pianist soundsmith with extraordinarily open ears and a superb sense of what to play and when to play it. He fills a key role here on piano and prepared piano. Open Field joins Burton on this album. It is a Portuguese-based trio of Jose Miguel Pereira on double bass, Joao Camoes on viola, mey and percussion, and Marcelo dos Reis is on nylon string guitar, prepared guitar and voice.

The drummerless quartet enters into chamber jazz territory that has a new music spaciousness to it, a sensitivity to part playing and sound color. All work together in pretty profound ways to get some immediate and vibrant ensemble combinations that vary dramatically in mood but create layers of invention that stand out.

There is no idling or preparatory runs on this one. All five pieces are filled with significant totalities where each instrumental part has its own special presence yet the working out of the ensemble as a whole gives the listener a poignant unity.

It's a beauty. The album is in limited edition release so get this one while you can. Kudos! Collective improvisations of excellence are here to be appreciated!

Pail Bug

Pail Bug (Generate Records 18) features a quartet of improvisers who follow the star of new music sounds more so than post-bop/freebop. They are Dietrich Eichmann on piano, John Hughes, double bass, Astrid Weins, double bass, and Jeff Arnal, percussion.

Their pedigree tells you a bit about where the music comes from: Jeff studied with Milford Graves, Dietrich with Schippenbach, and both John and Astrid have been associated with Peter Kowald.

The press sheet tells us that the group creates compositions "built from the extreme magnification of small sounds and gestures." And indeed this is more a micro- than a macro-music. The multilayering of sounds created by the collective places emphasis on the interaction of detailed improvisations. It's not, in other word, a band that focuses on the "big head" powerhouse thing or on aggressive soloing.

In that the music has more in common with AMM or MEV than in does with, say, Albert Ayler in full-shout mode. Or for that matter, more in the quieter sounds made by Cecil Taylor ensembles at the beginnings or endings of long improvisations.

If you listen with those parameters in mind I think you will find an interesting program of no compromising improv. They are off to a good start. May they continue to develop as an ensemble.