Four new releases by the always creative Leo Records…
Alto saxist Daniel Daemen teams with piano player Lucas Leidinger for eleven compositions by the latter during a 2017 recording at a church in Cologne. Daeman’s tone is warm, sighing to the 
nocturnal “Icelandic Sunset” and warm on the elliptical “Abraxas.” Leidinger is calm and reflective during “Dialogue,” elegiac for the parlor mooded “Mit Ari” and delicate as he chimes during “Gorimol.” Deep subtones get visceral along with piano strings throbbing on “I Will Be Grown Out of Your Face” and the team creates fluid moments with long tones for the pretty “Ankomst.” Intuitive.
Stefano Leonardi mixes flute, bass flute and traditional folk flutes as he tams with Marco Colonna/cl-ac-bcl, Antonio Bertoni/cel, Fridolin/b and Heniz Geisser/perc for eight collective pieces. At times the music gets loose and scattered, with long tones by flute and bass clarinet on”Old Roots” while the horns grunt and gurgle for “Eternal Voice” and “Resistance.” Geisser rumbles while the reeds are tongued to oblivion on “Franctured Brances” with eerie high tones and strummed strings hovering on “Towards the Light.” Moods for a B film noir?
Musical Director, conductor and pianist Mark Harvey teams up a free thinking big band that create a 12 part “The Swamp-A-Rama Suite” for the main focus of this album. Thunderous percussion, tympani and angles provided by Harry Wellott and Hollis Headrick form the undercurrent for material such as “No Walls” and the rhythmic “Fake News Blitz.” Some growling trombones by Bob Pilkington, Jay Keyser and Jeff Marsanskis get wild for “Twit Strom Two-Step” and the groaning “Democracy Street Dance.” The festive “Saba313” and loopy “De-Evolution Blues” swing and sway like a trapeze with a loose rope, making the listener hold on tight to hang on! Political themes, but assembled like Occupy Wall Street.
Armed with piano, Rhodes, micromoog, trombone and euphonium, Stephen Rush teams with Jeremy Edwards/dr, Andrew Bishiop/cl-bcl, Tim Flood/b-synth and Davy Lazar/tp for twelve free and frisky originals. Rush’s piano is elliptical on the sepia toned “Time Cycle 6” while bopping joyfully on “Simple Subtractions,” dancing with Edwards and Bishiop’s bass clarinet during “Time Cycle 0.” For other pieces, you get plenty of trumpet squawking and reed gurgles and high pitches vying for attention on “Time Cycle 5” and “Time Cycle 1” with a dash of Klezmer during “Ninth Ward From the Sun. Pungent plunges.