Label: Clean Feed Records, 2024
Personnel - Ned Rothenberg: bass clarinet, alto saxophone, clarinet; Mary Halvorson: guitar, effects; Sylvie Courvoisier: piano; Tomas Fujiwara; drums.
Switching between three reeds, adventurous New York musician and composer Ned Rothenberg delivers a great set of music, enlightened by audacious compositional ideas and extraordinary improvisational acumen. Crossings Four, his third outing on the Clean Feed label as leader/co-leader, features a notable bass-less rhythm section comprised of guitarist Mary Halvorson, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. These members, all outstanding composers and bandleaders, are capable of both tight and spontaneous moves.
The album opens with the hip “Seersucker”, a magnetic piece penned by Rothenberg and Courvoisier. Although more curvilinear than angular in texture, it still relies on polyrhythmic and polyphonic maneuvers. Here, a deliciously sluggish bass clarinet makes space for Halvorson’s effects-drenched outside explorations and Courvoisier’s modern classical inspiration.
The quartet effortlessly juggles timbres and calls-and-responses, peaking on the atmospheric “Sheets to the Wind”, where strumming piano strings and smoothly fingerpicked guitar imprints create a peculiar harmonic texture. Rothenberg’s bass clarinet emits long notes, trills, whispers, and cries, while Fujiwara shifts from understated percussion to enthusiastic drumming through a few changes of groove and vamping sequences.
Keening on alto saxophone, Rothenberg presents “Quarantina” with circular movements and suspensions before transitioning into bolder and tenser territory with hard charging power. “Tangled Tangos” features an absorbing theme delivered in unison, developing into playful exploration with occasional incendiary flare-ups. The utterly expressive “Bob and Weave” is adroitly layered, concluding the album with a superior sense of balance and communication.
Taking into account the quality demonstrated here, it is fair to say that Rothenberg is an understated artist, riding unpretentiously on the crest of modern creative music, avant-garde jazz, and structured improvisation.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Seersucker ► 02 - Sheets to the Wind ► 06 - Bob and Weave