In some cases, avant-garde jazz has been confrontational, angry, and unapologetically harsh; words like "blistering" and "violent" have often been applied to the free-form improvisations of
Charles Gayle,
Cecil Taylor, and post-1964
John Coltrane. But taking a free-form approach doesn't necessarily mean clobbering the listener with brute force; since the '60s, Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) has been offering a reflective, contemplative, and more reserved alternative to the scorched-earth school of free jazz. And one certainly doesn't have to be based in the Windy City to favor that kinder, gentler view of the avant-garde; recorded in Brooklyn, NY in 2006,
Line-Up is a perfect example of avant-garde jazz that would rather reflect than confront. This 55-minute CD finds pianist
Russ Lossing forming an acoustic duo with bassist
John Hebert, and overall, the performances don't have an in-your-face outlook; instead,
Lossing's pianism is quite impressionistic.
Lossing brings a variety of influences to
Line-Up, ranging from
Taylor to
Paul Bley to
Thelonious Monk to
Andrew Hill. Clearly, he has benefited from
Taylor's innovations in the area of free-form pianism, but while
Taylor is known for scorching density,
Lossing is very much a proponent of space (which is something he has in common with the Chicagoans of the AACM) and give listeners a lot more breathing room. Thankfully,
Hebert appreciates and understands where
Lossing is coming from, and the two of them enjoy a strong rapport on original material as well as interpretations of
Duke Ellington's "Pitter Panther Patter" and
Irving Berlin's "All Alone." Some of
Lossing's albums have been criticized for being uneven, but
Line-Up is among the more consistent efforts in the pianist's catalog. ~ Alex Henderson