FREE AND EASY…Natsuki Tamra, Satoko Fujii, Ramon Lopez: Mantle, Rich Halley-Matthew Shipp-Michael Bisio-Newman Taylor Baker: The Shape Of Things

Loose and intuitive improvisations are created by the triumvirate of trumpeter Natsuke Tamura, drummer Ramon Lopez and legendary pianist Satoko Fujii. The nine pieces are filled with various moods, stark and dark with soft brass on “Metaphors” and building up and releasing tension with piano and drums scrambling for cover on “Nine Steps the to Ground”. A military snare builds up intensity yet with no emotion on ”Came, Left” and the piano strings are plucked and strummed to cymbal scratching and emphysemic blowing on the swirling “StrawCoat”. Loose ends rarely tied together.

Big toned tenor saxist Rich Halley teams up with Matthew Shipp/p, Michael Bisio/b and Newman Taylor Baker/dr for some left of center post bop originals. Halley’s full bodied sound carries you through the rougher soil, jabbing over the sizzling piano on the nimble “Tetrahedron” and giving an aria of a solo intro to the boppier “Vector”. Shipp pulls the piano strings after Baker passes the baton on the thunderous “Lower Strata” and the team is quite the kinetic thing on the Monkish “Oblique Angles”. Most eerie is the elliptica “Spaces Between” with Shipp providing sparkling stars, while the closing “The Curved Horizon” is a shriek fest. Various shapes, with some round holes trying to fit into squares.

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www.pineeagle@richhalley.com

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