(Free Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Free Bop) Sean Conly, Alex Harding, Darius Jones, Chad Taylor - Grass Roots - 2012, MP3, 320 kbps

New York altoist Darius Jones’s 2009 searing debut album, Man’ish Boy with his hoarse, raw-toned sound loaded with emotional weight, introduced an exciting, uniquely inventive talent of extraordinary ability. Now, in this self-titled album he presents a new avant US group with baritone saxophonist Alex Harding, bassist Sean Conly and drummer Chad Taylor, all highly experienced players. The seven numbers, although composed by the members singly or collectively, sound very much like free jazz in a neo-impressionistic context. Opening with an orchestral fanfare and cymbal clashes, the lead track, Hottness evolves into frantic passages of stabbing notes amidst sudden tremolos against busy drums and bowed bass, only to subside into a slow-pulsing pleasantly melodic theme, suddenly erupting into controlled muscular mayhem with scorching baritone and an almost hysterical alto, before reverting to the subdued theme to end. After a series of four-piece spaced, staccato jabs, Flight AZ1734 takes off on a fast post bop theme – albeit with faint echoes of Nat Adderley’s Work Song – with a hectic, rasping, shrieking solo from Jones, an odd off-beat baritone solo and a very skilful, quick bass solo featuring speeding chords. A Jones composition, Lovelorn, beginning with baritone pedal notes and alto response becomes a mournful ballad, led by a pure-toned alto with highly active, distributed percussion, gradually building to a frustrated scream; another superbly executed chordal bass solo reintroduces the alto theme underpinned by a loping baritone to conclude. In an unusual collection the most unorthodox track is a tempo-lessHovering Above, where various sounds – breathing through the horns, tapping, growling, rumbling, vocal noises, squeaks – convey an eccentric soundscape.

Sean Conly - bass, composition
Alex Harding - baritone sax, composition
Darius Jones - alto sax, composition
Chad Taylor - drums, composition