Ab Baars Trio, Roswell Rudd - Four

Artist: Ab Baars Trio, Roswell Rudd
Album: Four
Genre: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation
Labe:  DATA Records
Recording Date: 2001


Of the second generation of musical freedom fighters, Roswell Rudd proved to be one of the most astute at collective ensemble work. That's not surprising given he cut his teeth playing Dixieland and swing. This session led by Ab Baars gives him an opportunity to demonstrate that his ensemble acumen has sharpened with age. The first five numbers here are devoted to Baars' characteristically quirky Dutch compositions -- little march tunes, folk tunes, wry pop tunes, and the like seasoned with a bit of harmonic indeterminacy. These are developed through a careful interplay between the two horn players. Rudd's gruff yet sensitive trombone and Baars' chirping clarinet make for a piquant ensemble. The music, for all its free flow, remains controlled and maybe a bit too cool. The same cannot be said the final half of the program, devoted to Rudd's suite "The Year Was 1503." The suite is a series of feature numbers for each bandmember tied together by Rudd's rambunctious, over-the-top narration, which mixes the sophomoric with the surreal and is quite as characteristic of the trombonist's broad Yankee vaudeville nature -- remember he did time in a Borscht Belt hotel band -- as Baars' tunes are of his Dutch sensibility. The session ends with Rudd's solo turn, where he exercises his own wild, avant Dixie trombone to fine effect. AMG

Double Bass – Wilbert De Joode
Drums – Martin Van Duynhoven
Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet – Ab Baars
Trombone – Roswell Rudd

1 Miff 5:43
2 Boo And Milly's Marching Band 5:18
3 Pound's Stolen Mountain 5:37
4 Truisch 7:28
5 Song 8:58
The Year Was 1503
6 The Hotel Drummer 6:00
7 The Horsehead Fiddler 5:08
8 Big Eye Louis Nelson 6:30
9 Bartolomeo Tromboncino 9:06
Recorded live at the BIMhuis Amsterdam, June 6, 1998 

FLAC