Abrams, Muhal Richard / Lewis, George / Mitchell, Roscoe – “Streaming ” – [Pi Recordings]

Thurston Hunger   11/22/2006   CD, Jazz

Five healthy meals from three master jazz chefs. Thanksgiving indeed!
Dig the portions of percussion on “Soundhear” with Abrams clocking
in piano chord clusters while the clock-factory wakes up, cuckoo
clocks included as Lewis tosses in aviary samples. After 12 minutes
things start to spiral, the piano gallops a bit more, and these
great swirls of effects are tossed in…then we get some sterophonic
bullfrogging, this piece really feels like the product of one mind
as opposed to the improvisation of three. They are beyond the same
page and on the same fiber. “Bound” delivers a slice of jazz ambience
more active than you might catch on an old ECM release, the sounds
seem to just peek out behind each other…a gently blown sax, with
a flute darting between it and maybe Lewis on-the-fly re-processing
it all?’ 11 minutes of music becoming… “Dramaturns” has some wild
moments to it…kind of a sunny stoll in the park chasing a trombone
butterfly to start, after 8 minutes Lewis puts down his horn Abrams
rolls some piano spritzes through and Lewis returns a the Mac(intosh)
daddy. Channeling some choruses that could be lifted from the recent
Gerard Pape, it creates a very otherworldly tension. Think Gorecki
more than AACM, eventually Abrams transforms it to a more soothing
improv, but still Lewis has banks of vox humana eventually we come
back to earth and that garden. An outstanding release, and very cool
that superstars were brought into the studio and captured precisely
rather than a two-birds-with-one-stone live set at some festival.
Do not miss…

-Thurston Hunger