AAJ Review: David Binney: Lifted Land

[jkelman]

My review of David Binney's Lifted Land, today at All About Jazz.

For the altoist's fifth release for Criss Cross, he continues to buck the apparent restrictions of the label's recording MO: it's almost impossible to believe that this recording was made in just a single day -are at least it would be were it anyone but Binney, a musician who may not be as well known to the public as he should, but who has become increasingly influential to a younger generation of aspiring musicians.

With a revamped quartet that includes pianist Craig Taborn, bassist Eivind Opsvik and, for the first time on the label and with Binney, drummer Tyshawn Sorey, the saxophonist delivers a set that ranges from the through-composed to the largely free - in fact, the longest track on the album, "As Snow Before a Summer Sun" is an 18-minute reduction of the single, performance-length piece he performed at the Rubin Museum of Art in 2011. At over 18 minutes, it's an episodic piece that provides everyone complete freedom, with cues acting as rallying points throughout.

It's just one of seven new Binney compositions (and one, the closing a cappella solo piano feature, "Red Cloud," a deceptively focused free improvisation by Taborn) that represent both a conceptual shift and a continuation of the compositional approach he's been honing since he first emerged in the 1990s with the now-super group (but then, relatively unknown), Lost Tribe.

Review here.

[wideopenears]

Killer artist, and that's a killer line-up. I have a few of Binney's earlier ones...this looks like a "Must Buy."