Jean-Marc Foltz w/ Matt Turner & Bill Carrothers - To the Moon

Andy Hamilton, The Wire

Recorded in pianist Bill Carrothers' home town of Minneapolis, this session belongs in the neglected category of freely improvised yet lyrical and undissonant – a furrow that Paul Bley has explored, without capturing this exotic range of moods. With Carrothers, clarinetist Jean-Marc Foltz and cellist Matt Turner create tremulous, haunting improvisations as fully realised as if they were compositions. The pianist, who uses sparse prepared piano techniques, sets the mood on six of the ten tracks, with a rhythmic interrupted bass figure on the dark "Black Butterflies", and a searching motif on "A Pale Washerwoman" that creates a mood of wan hopelessness. Carrothers is one of the most inventive and eloquent of jazz/improv pianists, and has nothing as the recognition he deserves.