(Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Improvisation) Ballister (Dave Rempis, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Paal Nilssen-Love) - Mechanisms - 2012, WEB, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Dave Rempis, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Paal Nilssen-Love present their association as a“free-wheeling trio” and that means everything. It means, for instance, aspecial attention to the process of music making, and this one deals with improvisation – jazz-flavored, for sure, but free in its creative resources. In the very powerful listening experience provided by “Mechanisms”, you’ll immediately identify those resources: driving grooves, noisy textures and occasional melodic interjections. Some of the references are in Julius Hemphill’s bands with cellist Abdul Wadud, in Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time, and in the electric Miles Davis groups of the seventies. But a distinguishing feature sets this band apart: these are the sounds of contemporary Chicago. Even if Nilssen-Love comes from Norway, he’s very much connected to that broad-shouldered sound through his frequent, varied,and long-standing collaborations with Chicago musicians. This common aestheticis what unites them; the rest is inventiveness, musicality and instrumental virtuosity.