Coxhill/Muller/Rutherford – “Milwaukee 2002 ” – [Emanem]

Max Level   12/23/2005   CD, Jazz

Live improvised music, on the quiet side, in solo, duo, and trio formats. Saxophonist Lol Coxhill has been a fixture on the UK improv scene for decades, as has Paul Rutherford on trombone. I was not familiar with German bassist Torsten Muller before hearing this CD. Although the three players are obviously well-versed on their instruments, they seem to be more concerned here with the range of sounds they can make than they are with recognizable musical technique. Rutherford starts the CD off with a wild 22-minute (!) solo trombone piece. Muller does a lot of light touching and scraping in his solo bass spot. Coxhill then spends 15 avant-garde minutes with his solo soprano sax. Various duo/trio combinations make up the other three tracks, and those are interesting performances as well. But it’s that fearlessly extended soloing that blows my mind.