Imbued with an ominous serenity to begin, an elegy resounds. 

     Chicago jazz scene cellist Tomeka Reid and saxophonist Nick Mazzarella know how to expunge the dreary and dismal and instead lift the spirits here on these cultured highly abstract and unusual duets. Never forgetting to wail and channel the blues there is a freedom achieved via the discipline of free improvisation. Soaked in the tradition of Julius Hemphill (an enduring influence on avant gardists such as Tim Berne) and relevantly here Hemphill’s work beyond the World Saxophone Quartet with cellist Abdul Wadud, the pair paid overt tribute to in the effective opener, Signaling was whittled down from a bumper session that garnered a larder full of music recorded two years ago in Chicago’s Fox Hall Studio and have a shapely suitably curated quality achieved via the rough authentic timbre of Mazzarella providing salt rather than sugar. Reid heads off to locate independent improvising lines via thoughtfully serious ideas that obliquely match and intersect with what the sax lines more prominent in the mix lay emphasis on and provide plenty to delve into, the only caveat relating to the limitation of the setting.
Nessa records site; and listening link