NOW THEN
(Tao Forms)
9/10
Raindrops on a window move with glacial slowness until two or three converge, whereupon they race as one with extraordinary velocity. This trio is like that. When the music converges, all sense of self is lost in the exhilarating rush of collective music-making: a spiral of prodding, colouring and answering each other. Drummer Tani Tabbal’s background with the mystical Sun Ra and the great saxophonist/composer Roscoe Mitchell has honed his instincts for finding the profoundest way to play a groove: part heart, soul and feel; part a matter of meticulously layering sounds around the kit.
Bassist Michael Bissio shares this instinct, and he and Tabbal pen compositions that allow it to flourish, while on the title track they can also deliver rhythmic matter as ephemeral as the wind passing through a copse of trees. The trio’s third member is alto saxophonist Adam Siegel, who improvises with a keen sense of contributing just a third of the story, rather than dominating it, but can rise up to match the most volcanic titans on his instrument when the music demands. He also has a lighter, more aerated sound that comes out on Bisio’s Ornette Coleman tribute, Oh See OC Revisited.