Songlines
2003
Apparitions
About This Album
Saxophonist Tony Malaby grabs the ears of jazz fans and critics alike, and on the basis of his Songlines label debut as a leader, 2003's Apparitions, it's easy to hear why. His robust tenor fits in well with the adventurous New York City crowd that held court at the Knitting Factory back in the '90s, while his tone, phrasing, and innate melodicism -- not to mention that soulful upper-register wail poised just at the brink of a multiphonic explosion -- might even draw comparisons to Coltrane himself. On Apparitions he's powerful enough to hold his own with a powerhouse rhythm section: bassist Drew Gress, and the tandem drumming team of Tom Rainey and Michael Sarin. Listeners familiar with the N.Y.C. jazz community in which these musicians are leading lights might be drawn to this recording on the basis of the drummers alone; matchups like Rainey (in the right channel) and Sarin (in the left) don't happen all that often. One might recall the Ned Rothenberg Double Band's Real and Imagined Time, with Jim Black on the right and Billy Martin on the left, but that was a six-piece ensemble, and Rothenberg was not the solitary horn perched alone in the middle of a rhythmic tumult.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)

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