Like Moses, sometimes great things are found amidst the reeds…Charles Pillow plays alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute and bass flute on this spacious yet swinging trio session with Jeff Campbell/b and Rich Thompson/dr. The team has a loose and attractively casual feel as they mix up with bop classics and standards. Pillow’s clarinet flies through “Donna Lea” and skips with delight on a charming “Cherokee” on bass clarinet, along with some deft brushwork by Thompson on a cool “Quasimodo.” Campbell and Thompson add some 3rd World exoticism for Pillow’s flute on “Invitation” and are nimble during the sleek “ Just in Time.” The free spirited atmosphere, combined with the variation of woodwinds keeps the spirits high on this welcome session.
The Unhinged Sextet consists of Vern Sielert/tp-fh, Will Campbell/as, Matt Olson/ts, Michael Cocour/p, Jon Hamar/b and Dom Moio/dr for eight rich originals. The textures are rich, while the rhythm team supplies a supple pulse on the ESP-inspired modal “Don’t Blink” with Olson’s rich tenor and the percolating “Low Talk” with Wielert’s muted trumpet. Moio leads the team like vintage Jazz Messengers on the crisp “The Swing and the Saint” and Campbell bops with delight on “Autumn Fall.’ Kocour’s piano is elegiac during “Folk Tune” as well as on his own “Sense of Sematics” which has him getting flexible with Hamar’s bass, and the whole team delivers gracious sounds around Sielert’s flugelhorn on the lovely “Purple Lilac.”