Blue Reality Quartet!
Mahakala, 2021
8/10
Listen to Blue Reality Quartet!
The 4 players here, Michael Marcus, Jay Rosen, Joe McPhee and Warren Smith, bring their respective talents to this atypical project, where a pair of horns and percussionists make for an improvisational listen that’s capable of minimal beauty as well as busy, yet accessible jazz ideas.
“Love Exits Everywhere” opens the listen with playful, ambient percussion from Rosen before soothing woodwinds enter the gentle climate, and “Chartreuse Tulips” follows with a busier approach of frisky percussion and wandering woodwinds that emit a frantic free jazz delivery.
In the middle, “Joe’s Train” showcases McPhee and Marcus’ soulful brass alongside lively drumming that gets layered in exciting ways, while “Coney Island Funk” recruits a pair of reeds to a more tame but no less interesting atmosphere of sublime musicianship.
Arriving near the end, “East Side Dilemma” moves swiftly amid saxophone acrobatics and pulsating drumming that’s not short on solos, and “Warren’s Theme” exits the listen heavy on Smith’s vibraphone as poetic flute from Marcus enters the dreamy finish.
A record where each tune takes on a new identity, the skilled musicians work together superbly on a very exciting version of free jazz, and let’s hope there’s more on the horizon, too.
Travels well with: Cameron Knowler & Eli Winter- Anticipation; Brendon Randall-Myers/Dither- Dynamics Of Vanishing Bodies