Eneidi/Kowald/Smith/Spirit – “Ghetto Calypso”

Max Level   8/13/2006   CD, Jazz

A free jazz quartet (sax+bass+bass+drums) of veterans who know which way is up, free-jazz-wise. Peter Kowald and Damon Smith, on basses, build a dense foundation of busy plucking and strange rising/falling bowed textures. Spirit’s drums add intelligent comments, functioning as a sort of sparkly top layer in the rhythm section while Kowald and Smith supply the formidable low end. Marco Eneidi’s brightly-colored sax lines stand out loud and clear atop the blur of bass-heavy motion whipped up by the three others. I think Ornette Coleman would have liked this. Recorded in Oakland 2000. By the way, Eneidi is listed in the credits as playing tenor sax, but my ears are telling me that’s an alto he’s playing.