Thursday, February 7, 2013

Angelica Sanchez Quintet, Wires & Moss

Angelica Sanchez is officially here to stay. She's played and recorded with Wadada Leo Smith and others, she put out a very nice solo piano album a while back (type her name in the index box to read my review) and she now returns with a quintet on Wires & Moss (Clean Feed 259).

There's a warmth to her freedom, compositionally and as a pianist, and it shows nicely on this disk. She's gathered excellent all-star caliber players in Marc Ducret, guitar, Tony Malaby, tenor and soprano, Drew Gress on contrabass, and Tom Rainey, drums. And she's put six of her compositions together for the occasion.

This is a band that can solo! And they do overtop the very hip-ly loose straight-eight free doings of the rhythm team.

The result is an extension of what she did/does with Wadada, free jazz-rock going considerably further in sophistication and complex running counterpoint than some of the heavier handed variety out there. Then Angelica will surprise you with some very advanced piano, lyrical and very creative, surprise you because it all fits together in her head but most leaders don't mix it up quite like this. New music meets meta-groove? Well, yes.

It goes a long way forward, miles ahead ahead. And it's very original too! Listen to this one a bunch of times and you will get there, in new territory.

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