Single Piece Flow
Awarded a 1999 MacArthur Fellowship (colloquially called a "genius grant"), saxophonist and bandleader Ken Vandermark outdid even himself on this 1997 outing. His Vandermark 5 group--but one of the numerous outfits in whose ranks he blows maelstroms of saxophone--never sounded better than on these intricate, often thrashing tunes. Vandermark has a highly developed palette, both in terms of his writing for a quintet and in terms of his own playing, which has rib-rocking properties that blast through on a bunch of these tunes. The band skates across a revised hard bop that gets a couple of new edges from free jazz and punk without ever leaving the realm of riff-centric, solo-heavy acoustic jazz. There's Jeb Bishop (himself a trombone ace) on the 'bone and grinding guitar, Tim Mulvenna on flying drums, Chicago mainstay Kent Kessler on bass, and the astounding Mars Williams--charter member ofLiquid Souland longtime anchor of bothHal Russell's NRG Ensembleand the post-HalNRG unit--on saxophones, as well. The music verily blares, with clarion blowing and a thrilling energy pervading every moment here. Pivotal '90s listening.--Andrew Bartlett