Label: Self release, 2020
Personnel - Tony Malaby: tenor saxophone; Mark Helias: acoustic bass; Tom Rainey: drums.
With a strong foothold on the left side of the jazz spectrum and boasting a captivating full-bodied sound, bassist Mark Helias puts out a live recording of his powerhouse trio Open Loose - featuring serious-minded peers Tony Malaby on tenor and Tom Rainey on drums - 20 years after it was captured at La Maison de la Radio, during the group's 2000 Paris tour. The material retrieves some old compositions spread across several released albums.
“Line Nine” and “Last One In, First One Out”, for example, were culled out from Open Loose’s 1998 debut album Come Ahead Back. You can think of the former piece as a buoyant bop-inflected scenario mounted with freedom and groove and populated by the dark hues of Malaby’s provocative horn. More groove-centered, the latter piece relies on odd meter, sturdy Coltrane-inspired melodies and limber rhythmic variations to impress.
Both “Question Time” and the ballad “Gentle Ben” would be included in their next album, New School, released in 2001. If Malaby is on fire on the former, he is naturally more restrained and melodically driven on the latter. The transformation has very much to do with the nature of the tune itself.
“Munchkins” is all muscle and agility, while the uptempo “Moto Proto”, which Helias wrote for the BassDrumBone trio, swings in a more conservative style. Yet, considerable infusions of irreverence and furor make it stand above that designation. Rainey refracts and reshapes quirky rhythms, forging an unbreakable alliance with Helias. They employ an intriguing blend of stamina and adventure in their tight rhythmic net, which suits the saxophonist’s language.
Three of the nine pieces were spontaneously created on stage, namely “The 53rd Signal”, “The Third Proposition” and “Expostulation”.
The sound might not be ideal, yet all the musical ingredients you might expect to find on Helias’ Open Loose records are here, expressed with an in-your-face energy.
Grade B
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Line Nine ► 05 - Question Time ► 08 - Last One In, First One Out