Revolutionary Ensemble, Counterparts, 2005

The Revolutionary Ensemble were one of those trios in the new jazz that achieved critical and artistic recognition but never quite broke through to the general public. Not exactly surprising since most of the important free improv groups remained at the time, at least in the States, with a solid underground following but without the extensive recognition that someone like Marsalis or some of the earlier household names managed to garner.

Their first tenure as a group ended in 1977 with violinist Leroy Jenkins, bassist Sirone and drummer Jerome Cooper going their own ways. We join them for a live appearance as part of their reunion in 2005, at the Teatro Gustavo Modena, Genoa. The album Counterparts (Mutablemusic) reproduces in excellent sound the music played that day.

There is a maturity to the trio you can hear on this recording. The music lays out a bit more deliberately, with each piece setting out well-defined roles for each player. The fire is still there yet there is a more deliberate balance. Like one of Jerome Cooper's drum solos there is structure and development within freedom.

Everyone sounds great. They achieve an almost classical parity really quite rarified, no doubt having to do with the many years spent together sounding out their collective edges as well as their collective middle. And within themselves too, they seem to have found a center worked out of years of making music and becoming.

There is a poise, fabulous to hear. Recommended.

The Group Live, 1986

The Group was a smartly aggregated new jazz avant improv outfit of great distinction. After all, it was Ahmed Abdullah on trumpet, Marion Brown, alto, Billy Bang, violin, Sirone, bass, Fred Hopkins, bass, and Andrew Cyrille on drums. Nice. That so many of them have now passed is a warning to those who think they will live forever. Get your projects in order, leave something behind you'll be proud of.

This band had/has every reason to be proud of what they were doing live in New York, September 1986. The tapes were running and The Group Live (No Business NBCD 50) is the result, a fine slice of this ensemble in fine form, doing various originals, A Butch Morris (RIP) composition and Mingus's perennial Pork Pie.

What is striking is how nicely the group dynamic flowed. It all lays well, relaxed, freely expressive, by all-stars more concerned with playing the music than getting jolts of ego boost. Every one of them were/are more concerned about the music than some sort of cheap aggrandizement. And it shows in the quality of what they did.

And so you get a goodly set of The Group at its best. The recording is clear, balance good and they are on top of it. What was I doing that night that I couldn't be there? Who remembers. Thank No Business for getting this out to us. It gives you something any of us would have been glad to leave behind before we headed for the stars and the great beyond!

Kali. Z. Fasteau, Making Waves, 2004

From time to time in the past months I have been covering some of the more interesting releases of Kali. Z. Fasteau. She is an multi-instrumental artist and music leader who deserves more recognition, and her rather extensive body of recorded examples equally deserves to be heard.

Today we have her 2004 release Making Waves (Flying Note 9010). It's a formidable four-artist lineup of Kidd Jordan on tenor, Bobby Few at the piano, the late Sirone on bass and Kali on synth, soprano, cello, drums, vocals and mizmar. The album is comprised of several sessions recorded in 2000 and 2004.

The flow of the music is fast-paced, thanks in part to the 15 relatively short to very short improvisations and thanks to the great variety of instrumental combinations and moods addressed. Not everybody plays at all times, and so there are varying configurations of personnel as well--with much in the form of a series of duet exchanges.

This is cosmic music, as you come to expect with Ms. Fasteau, free new improv of genuine interest.

Kidd Jordan sounds fantastic, as does Bobby Few. Sirone is a fine lower presence when he is in the mix, and Kali gives the music lots of texture and torque with her very appropriate synth work, her atmospheric electronically enhanced vocals, post-Trane soprano, skittering cello, very respectable free drumming and droning mizmar.

It's a fascinating, very listenable exploration of the free zones Kali often dwells within, with a few new twists besides. And this one has the added attraction of a miniaturization that makes time go by quickly. Recommended!

Sirone's Last American Recording: Oluyemi Thomas, Sirone and Michael Wimberly's "Beneath Tones Floor"

Bassist Sirone's recent passing was a sad event. He has been a mainstay of avant bass playing in the free jazz field since he first came to notice in the '60s. Beneath Tones Floor (No Business CD 20) finds him in good form and in excellent company on what is believed to be his last recording in the USA.

It's a fully three-way trio session with the loquacious Oluyemi Thomas on bass clarinet, soprano, musette, etc., and Michael Wimberly on drums, recorded live in NYC's Brecht Forum in 2008.

What we have, simply, is excellent free trio music. Sirone alternates between the percussive attack for which he is known and a free unfolding of melodic-textural ideas. Thomas plays good snaky bass clarinet and impassioned reeds in general while Michael Wimberly plies a very dynamic and very musically phrased set of drums.

It's a fitting farewell to Mr. Sirone, doing what he did so well in the company of two very articulate free masters. This release is available in limited edition as a CD or LP.

Recommended.