Rich Halley 4: Eleven

Tenor saxist Rich Halley continues to mix the flexible with driving bop with his pianoless quartet of Michael Vlatkovich/tb, Clyde Reed/b and Carson Halley/dr. This album has Halley’s team sounding very inspired from the 60s Mingus bands, meaning you get hard and pulsating grooves from bass and drums as on “Glimpses Through the Fog” and “Retroactive” yet also intertwined are some freewheeling solos from the horns that coalesce just before the repel away in divergent directions like magnets. You get white knuckle hairpin turns on the snakelike “The Dugite Strikes” just before the horns race to the finish line, while Halley highlights his bel canto sound on “The Creep of Time.” The band also shows some funk factor on “Radioactive” the rhythm team gets sinister and shadowy on “Remnant.” If you like your bop with a bit of a loose floor, this is a picker.

www.richhalley4.com

 

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