Victo
1998
Bingo
About This Album
Rova strikes again, this time with nearly a full album of commissions by British composers, namely Lindsay Cooper, Barry Guy, and Fred Frith. There is one piece by Ochs to round out the set. The works by Lindsay Cooper -- who plays everything from saxophones to flutes to clarinets to the bassoon and who scores dances, theater works, and films -- are the most satisfying. Perhaps because she works in structured environments so often, her two compositions for Rova -- "Face in the Crowd" and "Can of Worms" -- are a natural fit. The open sense of harmony and closely held but intricately woven melodies -- there are two, one Eastern and one Western -- pasted onto a backdrop of a seam where Ellington meets Milhaud, are so gracefully performed that it's tough to want to go any further. If anything, "Face in the Crowd" is a mini-symphony for saxophone quartet with its mode and movement changes and restatement of themes. Barry Guy's contributions, both entitled "Witch Gong Game," engage Rova's improvisational strengths properly. The shorter version is a solo for Raskin's baritone set against four written lines for the group members, who exchange them back and forth like trading cards, all elementally altered -- often humorously.
Track List (try tracks 3,4 and 5)

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