Drummer Jeff Cosgrove is making up for lost time from the COVID lockdown and has been hitting the clubs with a variety of bands, all three caught in the act on recently released sessions.
Cosgrove teams up at the Town Run Brewing Company in West Virginia with Jeff Lederer/ts-cl and Mark Lysher/b for a free range collection of originals and covers. With Lederer on clarinet, the team mixes klezmer and blues on an emotive “Going Home” and gets frisky around Cosgrove’s rumble on “Farmer Alfalfa” while the Lederer relaxes with the licorice stick on “Pee Wee’s Blues”. When Lederer is on tenor, the trio plays peek a boo around Lysher on “Softly In A Morning Sunrise” and go for a rapid run on “Stanley’s Package” with Lysher giving an energetic work on the finger walking. Lederer’s tenor is lonely and lovely on “Deep River” and wild and free for “Krystal’s Café”. A rainbow of colors at the brewery.
At the Rust Library in Leesburg, VA, Cosgrove teams up with beefy toned tenorist Noah Preminger and bassist Kim Cass for some intuitive post bop. Cosgrove is snappy on his drum solo during “AT” and nimble with Cass around Preminger’s clarion call of “Jumbles”. The leader leans in hard on the intro and then bears down into a groove with Preminger hammering out the harmonies on “Everyday Language” Some suave brush work sashays on “Slips” and softly supports Preminger’s agonies on the mellow “Off-Handed Invitation”. Interactive intuition.
Last up is a summit meeting between Cosgrove and free jazz giants Ivo Perelman on tenor and pianist Matthew Shipp for a gig at Carrboro, NC that features two songs, a marathon 54 minute opus and a 10.25 excerpt. The former has Perelman swooping, wailing, flailing and ranging between magma subtones and ozone-piercing high pitches, while Shipp’s ectomorphic reach extends from Chopin to stride to avalanche. Cosgrove keeps it together with sticks, mallets and skins, soloing here, accenting there, and directing traffic like a Neopolitan policeman. No fender benders in this rush hour.