(Free Improvisation / Avant-Garde Jazz) The Nu Band (Roy Campbell, Jr., Mark Whitecage, Joe Fonda, Lou Grassi) - Live in Paris - 2010, rec. 2007 [NoBusiness Records NBCD 16], FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

An average of one album every other year is pretty good going for a free jazz collective, and that's what The Nu Band has achieved. Its fifth, Live In Paris, comes ten years after their first communion in 2000. It's also a departure, not in that it is a concert recording as there are already three of those in the discography, but in that, for the first time, the quartet showcases its considerable talents at instant composition.
Reedman Mark Whitecage's résumé numbers two fine, though overlooked, examples on the CIMP label in Consensual Tension (1997) and Research On The Edge (1999), while trumpeter Roy Campbell is a past master of ensemble improvisation, exemplified by his participation in the feted Other Dimensions In Music. Nor are bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Lou Grassi strangers to such unfettered expression. Grassi's Po band regularly resorts to cooperative genesis, while Fonda has taken his infectious swing and tough tone off the map in his collaborations with Xu Fengxia and even the Fonda-Stevens Group.
All this experience is put to astute use, guided by quick ears and an innate sense of what makes satisfying music. Look no further than the lengthy opener, "Somewhere Over the Seine," for an example. It starts with Whitecage's acerbic alto saxophone expostulating over a loose-limbed, free groove. Campbell's bravura trumpet gives way to a series of extemporized unisons between the two horns, a defining characteristic of this foursome. After Fonda's energetic arco solo, Campbell returns, pinched and mournful, on pocket trumpet, before heading, goosed by the reedman's alto, into another sprightly dialogue. Finally, a throbbing bass figure signals forward momentum into a playful conclusion.
The quartet explores some exciting territory on its journey. Although "Bolero Francaise" begins more dreamily, flugelhorn and chuckling alto eventually interweave, Whitecage inciting Campbell to ever greater heights. One of the highlights features the reedman in tandem with Grassi's rumbling drums, his sinuous lines sliding between pitches, culminating in a sequence of anguish-drenched cries, before trumpet intertwines for an anthemic finish. A compelling rendition of Grassi's "Avanti Galoppi" is the only chart - its bounding gait with a contrasting elegiac horn line offering an affectionate portrait of the drummer's sadly missed pet dog.
Confirmation of The Nu Band's ability to conjure form from thin air comes on the final "The Angle of Repose." Whitecage settles on a descending motif, which forms the backbone of a twinkling bounce, with both horn men wailing to a climax, eliciting enthusiastic applause for a set created with passion, and delivered without fuss.
John Sharpe ~ allaboutjazz.com

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 1 from 15. November 2010
EAC extraction logfile from 25. February 2013, 21:57
the nu band / live in paris
Used drive  : TSSTcorpCDDVDW TS-L633A   Adapter: 3  ID: 0
Read mode               : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache      : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction                      : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out          : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks   : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations       : Yes
Used interface                              : Installed external ASPI interface
Gap handling                                : Appended to previous track
Used output format              : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate                : 896 kBit/s
Quality                         : High
Add ID3 tag                     : No
Command line compressor         : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%x" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%v" -T "ALBUM ARTIST=%v" -T "COMMENT=EAC Secure Mode, Test & Copy, AccurateRip, FLAC -8" %s
TOC of the extracted CD
     Track |   Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector
    ---------------------------------------------------------
        1  |  0:00.00 | 23:34.67 |         0    |   106116
        2  | 23:34.67 | 25:33.73 |    106117    |   221164
        3  | 49:08.65 | 12:52.03 |    221165    |   279067
        4  | 62:00.68 | 11:44.15 |    279068    |   331882
Track  1
     Filename C:\MY RIPS\01 - somewhere over the seine.wav
     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00
     Peak level 100.0 %
     Extraction speed 1.5 X
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Test CRC 96FD924E
     Copy CRC 96FD924E
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [9AEC1242]
     Copy OK
Track  2
     Filename C:\MY RIPS\02 - bolero francaise.wav
     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00
     Peak level 100.0 %
     Extraction speed 2.1 X
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Test CRC 2577D291
     Copy CRC 2577D291
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [6D4D6B52]
     Copy OK
Track  3
     Filename C:\MY RIPS\03 - avanti galoppi.wav
     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00
     Peak level 100.0 %
     Extraction speed 2.1 X
     Track quality 99.9 %
     Test CRC C65A263D
     Copy CRC C65A263D
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [10D76FAA]
     Copy OK
Track  4
     Filename C:\MY RIPS\04 - the angel of repose.wav
     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00
     Peak level 100.0 %
     Extraction speed 2.5 X
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Test CRC D08E8BAD
     Copy CRC D08E8BAD
     Accurately ripped (confidence 1)  [47270F01]
     Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum D64D1A362D3A1F725F8659E2B280C19AAAE6E1A7CC06C8709A74937EE495E5ED ====

REM GENRE Jazz
REM DATE 2007
REM DISCID 2C114904
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v1.0b1"
PERFORMER "the nu band"
TITLE "live in paris"
FILE "01 - somewhere over the seine.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "somewhere over the seine"
    PERFORMER "the nu band"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "bolero francaise"
    PERFORMER "the nu band"
    INDEX 00 23:32:67
FILE "02 - bolero francaise.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "avanti galoppi"
    PERFORMER "the nu band"
    INDEX 00 25:31:73
FILE "03 - avanti galoppi.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "the angel of repose"
    PERFORMER "the nu band"
    INDEX 00 12:50:03
FILE "04 - the angel of repose.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00

-----------------------
DON'T MODIFY THIS FILE
-----------------------
PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.5.1RC6 build 1.5.1.7
Copyright (c) 2008-2010 y-soft. All rights reserved
http://y-soft.org
ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2
Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved.
FILE: 04 - the angel of repose.flac
  Size: 74890488 Hash: 82349EA1AF1EBADA2A2ABFDFA24E5192 Accuracy: -m0
  Conclusion: CDDA 100%
  Signature: ADEAAB08B6D154D8559F29B8C63FF72560EF6DFA
FILE: 03 - avanti galoppi.flac
  Size: 92220593 Hash: 11F21A60AF59094DB15AFC5753B90AAC Accuracy: -m0
  Conclusion: CDDA 100%
  Signature: 2A333827CDD28FB1CE8FBFDDFD42659A3B31F386
FILE: 02 - bolero francaise.flac
  Size: 155108049 Hash: 4C7B935E091EE8E1A567A68314149EDD Accuracy: -m0
  Conclusion: CDDA 99%
  Signature: 9AF4B3410BA62641949EADE6FC8DD8CF0B05CC62
FILE: 01 - somewhere over the seine.flac
  Size: 149275889 Hash: 16BC3171B397E6C6EF8C8A54322E38C1 Accuracy: -m0
  Conclusion: CDDA 100%
  Signature: 86437EBD1EF8F8DDD8632488A616055B8BD61CE8