The “must listen” pile has been growing steadily, so I again offer up a few quick first- or second-impression reviews to reduce its height. The four featured albums include two jazz releases that follow the familiar format of improvising on a written composition and two that offer intuitively improvised compositions. All four albums have much to offer.

Janet Feder + Jane Rigler
in.cantations (indie)
A review
Listening to in.cantations, the new album from guitarist Janet Feder and flutist Jane Rigler, I quickly came to the conclusion that these two exceptional musicians are actually antennae, picking up signals from each other and from Somewhere Else. It would explain their extraordinary correspondence in the performance of these compositions, which were spontaneously created in the studio over the course of four days. In a word, I have come to believe they are witches. Good witches. Very good witches. Using every possible sound that they can pull from their instruments (Feder: baritone electric and acoustic guitars, vintage Kay guitar, ocean drum, small objects; Rigler: flute, bass flute, small objects), they have produced deeply evocative and expressive music, spacious alternative sonic worlds. (Sound engineer and mixer Joe Shepard makes signal contributions to those worlds with his three-dimensional soundstage and almost orchestral sensibility. “Joe is integral to our ensemble,” says Feder.) The nine tracks were superbly recorded in real time with the two musicians seated next to each other in a very live room, with only a handful of multitracks, such as the ocean drum on “in.to” and occasional digital effects from Shepard. (Feder and Rigler each have a track all to themselves.) They cover a lot of ground in about 47 minutes. The mysterious opener, “in.decipherable,” may be indecipherable but is certainly not in.coherent. “in.cantation,” the longest track on the album at 12+ minutes, marries ache and aspiration. The agitation of “in.to” and the outrage and mourning of “in.violate,” which is dedicated to the memory of artist, vocalist, and educator Haleh Abghari, particularly seem to catch the spirit of the zeitgeist. The closer, “in.tone,” seems to offer a shadow of hope. in.cantations delivers an impressively creative musical statement and a memorable immersive experience. (Available on Bandcamp.)

Ted Brown Quartet
Just You Just Me (New Artists Records)
A review
I don’t know how 98-year-old tenor saxophonist Ted Brown’s album Just You Just Me ended up on New Artists Records, given his eight decades of musical expression, but his long-standing presence on the jazz scene is nevertheless new to me. Thanks to friend and fellow baseball fan Don Messina, the superlative bassist on this release, for clueing me in to Brown. The first thing that captured me on the album is Brown’s sound, which draws my ear as irresistibly as a magnet attracts iron filings. How does he get that “hollow gourd sound,” as described by the quartet’s pianist Jon Easton in the liner notes, from a metal instrument? The second thing that caught me was Brown’s unhurried and relaxed playing, even when generating 32nd and 64th notes on uptempo numbers. He allows the music to breathe, forces nothing, and eschews pyrotechnical flash, unspooling improvised story lines that are as surprising as they are logical. Somehow this reduces the length of the tracks, so that 7+- and 8+-minute performances seem to pass much more quickly. The third thing that grabbed me is the relentless swing of the rhythm section, which also includes Bill Chattin on drums, and the way Easton’s more angular approach pairs nicely with Brown’s flow. (All these fellows, by the way, have a direct connection to Lennie Tristano.) Drawn from excellent live recordings made in 2013 at various locations in New York and New Jersey, when Brown was in his mid-80s, the album features seven standards addressed in a genuinely spontaneous, robust, and thoroughly entertaining way. (Available on the usual streaming platforms and from New Artists Records.)

John Funkhouser, Terry Burns, and Arnaldo Acosta
Artrio-two (SongSpeak Music)
A review
The second in an ongoing series of recordings sparked by bassist Terry Burns’ desire to explore the free interaction afforded by the trio format, Artrio-two introduces a new instrumentation, with John Funkhouser (piano) and Terry Burns (bass) trading Alex Murzyn’s saxophone in Artrio-one for the drum kit of Arnaldo Acosta. What hasn’t changed are the trio’s high level of musicianship and its exuberant collaboration. These guys are playing with house money, exhibiting the format’s freedom that so intrigues Burns. “I don’t feel like I’m just backing up John’s solo. I don’t feel like he’s just backing mine up,” he says. “In so many groups, quartets and quintets, so here’s so-and-so’s solo. Okay, well, I’ll just play the changes. But in the trio format, especially this one, it’s more of a conversation—more than any other format, at least in my mind.” The three-way conversation among Funkhouser, Burns, and Acosta is ripe with shared insights and delight. Seven original tunes range from the deep affection of Burns’ “Cloud 8” to Funkhouser’s love letter “Shraddha” to “1 PM,” Acosta’s Latin-inflected remembrance of a close friend. Two covers, Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” and Leonard Bernstein’s and Steven Sondheim’s “Somewhere,” reveal Funkhouser’s sensitive arranging skill. The three guys share what Burns calls a “collective mind,” and collectively, a seriously good time is had by all. Those of us here in New Mexico count ourselves lucky to have such a fine trio near to hand. (Available via most streaming platforms.)

Present Moment
Now (Psychosomatic Records)
A review
I cannot recall how Present Moment’s Now came into my possession or when, and did not remember it was in my possession until I came across it in the must-listen pile while looking for something else. Happy accident. Seeing two names that I know well and highly respect—Mustafa Stefan Dill (acoustic and electric guitars, electronics) and Dave Wayne (percussion)—and two whose reputations as accomplished improvisers preceded them—Jim Goetsch (tenor and soprano saxes, keyboards, electronics) and Kim Stone (acoustic and electric basses, electronics)—I gave it a spin and then another. The six spontaneous and brawny compositions find the quartet’s members in fine fettle and with their ears well-tuned to one another, cannily rubbing sonic textures together on the fly. From the spontaneous combustion of the opener, “Launch,” and the muscularly rambunctious “Velocity” to the chill “Ominous” and the funky touch of “Landing,” Now offers a mix of avant-jazz, electronica, Motown, flamenco, metal, and maqqams, to name a few ingredients in the band’s eclectic and shape-shifting sound—along with indisputable evidence of a collection of adventurous and accomplished musicians in the Santa Fe–Albuquerque corridor. (Available on Bandcamp.)

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