Rules Of Engagement

opis:
allmusic.com
This is the second outing by Jeff Song on Asian Improv, and he is rejoined with collaborators such as trumpeter Dean Laabs, percussionist maximus John Mettam, and cellist and pianist Matt Turner, along with new members flutist Michael Gentile and trumpeter Cuong Vu. The proceedings are decidedly more jazz in orientation this time. There is the sense of a structured composition that is open on all sides to improvisation and invention. The disc opens with the title track, a cut time, though oddly accented tune which pits flute and piano against each other in minimal solos before the entire band crescendos in with a long string of chorded phrases that substitute for melody. Song dictates the rest of the piece from the bass chair, issuing changes in harmony, riff, and rhythm as Gentile solos over all of it. The other track that is so striking here is "The Dragon Song, Pts. 1-3." This is a 19-minute suite that revolves around a series of particularly knotty themes played by trumpet and cello that come back as modes in the latter sections. Here folk song, classical dynamic, and prog rock pomp all interweave to make this an epic of wide-ranging scope and variation, textures by rhythm and spatial dynamics. This is a solid effort, much more mature than Song's debut, deeper emotionally as well.
by Thom Jurek