Tucked away in New York City, Seneca Village was once a borough for African American landowners. Here are a couple albums from concerts from the area, as free as the original residents.
A pianoless quartet led by sweet toned trumpeter Jason Palmer along with tenor titan Mark Turner, bassist Edward Perez and simpatico drummer Johnathan Blake hits the stand with five tunes (some dedicated to famous artists) ranging from 10-15 minutes. Palmer’s horn is warm and open on his solo intro to the loose post bopper “Falling In” and stretches out with Turner on the hip “Kalispel Bay”. Turner is a low heating Bunsen Burner with soft long tones that glide over the shifting sands of rhythm on “Landscape With An Obelisk” and glides over Perez’s intro to the lazy “Self Portrait”. The mood overall is relaxed, intuitive and languidly creative, like a sunny day in the park, which it was.
Tenor saxist Abraham Burton creates a trio with drummer Eric McPherson and bassist Dezron Douglas for a similar gig in Summit Rock at Central Park, for seven tunes in the 6-11 minute range. Burton’s style has a thick Sonny Rollins boldness along with a searching Coltrane-ish restlessness as on the swinging “Flower” while he gets luminous on “Will Never Be Forgotten”. Douglas opens up “Low Bridge” with a nifty little line that gets funky with McPherson, while the drummer gets kinetic on “Curious”. Burton glows in the dark with a rich vibrato as everyone stretches out on “If You Could See Me Now” and the team gets into an exotic mood on “Dance Little Mandisa”. Open music in the open air.
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