Flow Trio & Joe McPhee - Winter Garden (2021)

Flow Trio comprises intrepid, like-minded explorers of sound and texture with proven merit in this peculiar musical art known as free jazz.

Influenced by Ayler, Coltrane and S.Ware, the saxophonist Louis Belogenis was an intermittent collaborator of the late drummers Rashied Ali and Sunny Murray; for his part, bassist Joe Morris is a rhythm machine who’s been faithful to his own vision alongside many musical partners (multi-reedist Ken Vandermark, tenorist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp); Chicago-born drummer Charles Downs (aka Rashid Bakr) joined the pianist Cecil Taylor in the early 1980’s for a more-than-a-decade collaboration, and was a member of Billy Bang’s Survival Ensemble. Winter Garden marks their third outing as a group, the second on the ESP-Disk label, and features another prolific pathfinder and timbral digger on the tenor, Joe McPhee.

The trio grapples with violent agitation on the opener, “Rabble Rouser”, where the saxophonists clash against each other, pulling out raucous and raspy timbres as their phrases swell with volume and speed. The robust foundation of bass and drums never vacillates in the support of horn growls whether in complete ecstasy or severe distress. There’s still time for Morris’ arco dissertation. He starts alone, but somewhere down the line, is joined by antsy drumming and juxtaposed saxophone ostinatos.

“Recombinant” adopts a more pattern-based approach. McPhee’s repetitive tenor figure is later matched and kept by Morris, while Belogenis keeps chanting loose, longer lines on the soprano with perseverance and plasticity. A stream of cymbal attacks accompanies this process until the flow gets interrupted by a bass solo.

Whereas “Incandescence” is a blistering discharge of tension that becomes more melodic in its final phase, “Glistening” is the calmest track on the album. Although amorphous in form and free in pulse, the latter is less vehement in the expression and more discernible in the direction.

The title track alternates intensities and concludes the session with the saxophones on the same side. It features a double intervention by Morris, first bowing across the bass strings and then opting for pizzicato.

Unpacked with multiple levels of abstraction, Winter Garden is a raw and ferocious album that lives from intensive communication and unrestricted reciprocity.