Joe Morris, William Parker, Gerald Cleaver - Altitude (2012) {Aum Fidelity}

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Joe Morris, William Parker, Gerald Cleaver - Altitude (2012) {Aum Fidelity}

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Joe Morris, William Parker, Gerald Cleaver - Altitude (2012) {Aum Fidelity}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 422 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 173 Mb
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© 2012 Aum Fidelity | AUM073
Jazz / Free Jazz / Modern Improvisation

Joe Morris, William Parker, and Gerald Cleaver are among the most gifted instrumentalists & improvisers in the world today—natural and consistent innovators, always sharing, igniting new ideas, and seeking something beyond description. They have performed & recorded together in different configurations on numerous occasions over the last 15 years. Altitude documents their first communion together as a trio, and they gripped it by creating timeless music rife with invention fully in the moment. John Zorn asked AUM Fidelity to curate his new music performance space The Stone for two weeks in June 2011. Booking this trio as part of the series was a very first thought. Altitude presents the entire first set of the night, along with two excerpts from their second set. The long form of music creation/ total immersion in invention that transpired is now revealed for all outside those walls that night.

Of all the possible combinations and permutations of modern improvising jazzmen, it's a wonder that the trio of guitarist Joe Morris, bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver have never worked together as a unit. Luckily in 2011, at the urging of label chief Steven Joerg, the trio got together for two sets at The Stone in New York as part of a two-week AUM curated series.

Much like on Cleaver's previous release with Parker and pianist Craig Taborn entitled Out of This World's Distortions (AUM, 2011), this ensemble performs in a seemingly leaderless fashion. Each player subscribes to the one-for-all and all-for-free principles. That is, each player pulls the music in different directions while simultaneously listening and reacting to their partners. Those last two notions (to listen and react) are so very important in maintaining the energy throughout the four long-form improvisations.

The two sets are distinguished by Parker swapping his bass for the sintir, a Moroccan three-stringed lute. Morris defers the bass lines to Parker, sticking to electric guitar and his signature rapid hard-scramble sound. Opening track "Exosphere," clocks in at over 26 minutes and is a marathon of a piece, taken at an accelerated aerobic pace. Morris silences his guitar at the 11th minute and a breath is finally taken. Cleaver stirs the pot throughout in a constant bustle, while Parker applies wave upon wave of energy.

Piece-by-piece the trio builds their three way dialogue, forgoing the classic model of building tension followed by release. They maintain a constant exchange throughout. With Parker on sintir for the second set, his vocalizations permeate the affair, but the energy remains. The liner notes remark that the player's clothes were soaked through from the effort. Such is the experience of this exhaustingly pleasurable recording.

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Joe Morris, William Parker, Gerald Cleaver - Altitude (2012) {Aum Fidelity}

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