The birdlike sound, terse eloquence and Thelonious Monk-inspired structural audacity of the late soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy often guide Swiss reeds-player Jürg Wickihalder, a European jazz luminary joined here by the eclectic, light-touch percussionist Lucas Niggli and improv/contemporary-classical bass virtuoso Barry Guy – the latter celebrating his 70th year with the same boundary-busting energy he has displayed for the last 50. Like Lacy, Wickihalder is engagingly fond of airily strutting soprano sax-and-bass unison tunes that dissolve into impetuously-spinning free passages and dead halts, but he also plays more spaciously here – often through distinctive approaches to alto and tenor saxes. Abstract improv passages precede contrastingly dreamy sax meditations or voicelike laments of an Albert Ayler-like fervour; ballad-like pieces gently bloom while the saxophonist’s partners scuttle and skip; the lyrical Sussholz is a delicate dialogue for mellow tenor sax and Guy’s ringing pizzicato; and the springy Dipper is like a periodically derailing calypso. Edgy jazz composing, awesome virtuosity, collective improv and invitingly songlike melody are all very subtly fused together here.
