Has modern music finally reached the point where an actual melody is no lingered required? These two recent releases address that thorny issue.
Tenor saxist Rich Halley teams up with Clyde Reed/b, Carson Halley/dr and Michael Vlatkovich/tb-perc-acc for a collection of music that is described as “a bunch of free improvisations.” Because Halley and Vlatkovich have warm and inviting tones, you’re willing to hang in there with them while the tenor howls on “Riding the Trade Winds” and the ‘bone languishes on “Metal Buzz.” There are lots of percussive permutations and rustlings about, some of them work as during a bluesy “The Shadow of Evening” and cataclysmic “Angular Momentum.” There are moments of catchy phrases on “The Shove” and fluidity on “Quiet Like Stone,” so if you’re looking more for Ornette Coleman than Cole Porter, you will appreciate the venture.
Clarinetist Bill Payne joins together with violinist Eva Lindal and pianist Carol Liebowitz for a communal collection of free form interaction as well. Eerie bowing sounds meld with chirping and brooding reeds on “It Happened This Way” and “Ever Since,” while atmospheric flights of fancy are felt as Lindal chirps on “If Then” and plucks on “What We Are Saying.” Liebowitz chimes to a droopy licorice stick on “Holus Bolus” and eerie perceptions are palpable n “Unspoken.” This session comes across more as a modern classical collection for the background to a Scandinavian movie than something you’d sit and drink in at a concert.