Andrew Cyrille is known as (to use a quaintly old-fashioned term) an “avant-garde” musician. He’s a drummer who works more with texture than with beat, and he does it with great delicacy. With him are guitarist Bill Frisell, whose stylistic range is legendary, keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum and bassist Ben Street. This fascinating music is entirely their own creation, although there are hints of the jazz tradition. The opening track is a Coltrane piece, and another recalls Thelonious Monk. Two of the numbers have a calm beauty, largely thanks to Frisell’s spacious phrasing and cool, clear tone, and another gives the impression, created by Teitelbaum’s synthesiser, of taking place in a vast, echoing cave.
