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Music
Music
Fractious Solidarity for Trouble TimesBalance and teamwork from individualists the record business considers totally impracticalTom HullTuesday, December 20th 2005Freedom and Form 1. WILLIAM PARKER QUARTET: Sound Unity (AUM Fidelity) Balance and teamwork distinguish every album on this list, but only a great bassist can hold your attention up against this much firepower on trumpet, sax, and drums. 2. ANTHONY BRAXTON: 20 Standards (Quartet) 2003 (Leo) Spread out over four discs, the set structures provide a playpen for Kevin O'Neil's cool guitar and the leader's lofty sax. 3. TOMMY SMITH & BRIAN KELLOCK: Symbiosis (Spartacus) Duets, tenor sax and piano, standard stuff exquisitely rendered. 4. CRAIG HARRIS: Souls Within the Veil (Aquastra) Heavy with history and horns, sprightly with African percussion, sublime resistance against the oppression of black souls. 5. FME: Cuts (Okka Disk) Stands for Free Music Ensemble, but it's really Ken Vandermark's post-punk power trio, where freedom reverts to form. 6. PARAPHRASE: Pre-Emptive Denial (Screwgun) Another sax trio, with Tim Berne in the catbird seat, tethered for his own good by Drew Gress and Tom Rainey. 7. DENNIS GONZÁ SPIRIT MERIDIAN: Idle Wild (Clean Feed) Loquacious Oliver Lake fleshes out this quartet's healing music for distressing times. 8. FIELDWORK: Simulated Progress (Pi) Vijay Iyer's robust piano leads Steve Lehman's skinny alto sax, which is the idea. 9. SIRONE BANG ENSEMBLE: Configuration (Silkheart) Less ambitious than Vietnam but more fun, a stripped-down string section with Charles Gayle in the backseat. 10. THE VANDERMARK 5: Alchemia (Not Two) Twelve discs from one week in Krakówtrue grit from the hardest-working man in avant-jazz. Recent ArticlesMore by Tom Hull
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