Bill Dixon: A Song For Claudia's Children
Musicians:
Bill Dixon (piano), Marco Eneidi (alto sax), John Buckingham (tuba), Peter Kowald (bass), William Parker (bass), Mario Pavone (bass), Lawrence Cook (drums).
Composed by Bill Dixon
.Recorded: Bennington, VT, May 16, 1985
Rating: 90/100 (learn more)
Bill Dixon exchanges his trumpet for piano on this track, a mysterious tempest of low sounds beneath Marco Eneidi's keening alto saxophone. As is common with Dixon, the ratio of composed-to-improvised material is difficult to pin down. A diffident, non-tonal melody played and repeated by Eneidi forms the tune's backbone, as the bassists and Dixon improvise a roiling commentary. The recording quality is distant and murky—purposely so, one imagines, as a means to exaggerate the effect had on the music by the use of multiple basses. It's a strikingly inventive and gutsy aesthetic choice. Dixon's not nearly as interesting a pianist as he is a trumpeter, but his contribution works well in this context. Eneidi is very fine—an underrated and wonderful saxophonist, then as now.
Reviewer: Chris Kelsey
Tags: 1980s jazz · avant-garde
Comments are closed.