Frode Gjerstad Trio - A Sound Sight

Brian Marely, The Wire

The approach that alto saxophonist Frode Gjerstad takes to his music has hardly changed in a quarter of a century, since he was a member of the group Detail alongside John Stevens and Johnny Dyani.
He’s a committed free improvisor with heavy leanings towards free jazz. As the music he favours didn’t have a strong tradition in Norway until fairly recently, he’s tended to play elsewhere, often in America where he has a regular trio with William Parker and Rashid Bakr.

Bakr is also the drummer on the live Ayler set, the third member of the group being the late Wilber Morris. Theirs is a freewheeling but always highly disciplined music. Comprised of two very long tracks bridged by a short one that’s largely a bass solo, the CD documents an intense September 1997 gig at the Knitting Factory.