Mike Reed’s Loose Assembly - Last Year’s Ghost

482 Music 55

Ken Vandermark's claim to the mantle of Chicago improv kingpin has been on the wane for years. Scrupulously self-effacing, he would probably be the first to applaud the power shift. Young bands continue to breed like sea monkeys in the city, propagating and cross-pollinating at a rate that is impossible to tally with any accuracy. Mike Reed's Loose Assembly is one of the latest offspring. In content and design, the ensemble has a lot in common with the group assembled for Aram Shelton's Arrive (also on 482). Reed's compositions bridge freebop and chamber music nodes of reference, the strings of bassist Josh Abrams and cellist Tomeka Reid balancing the more melody-oriented work of altoist Greg Ward and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz. His drums radiate from a center position between the two pairs and provide everything from discrete beats to less delineated colors and shadings. The album emits the structural integrity of a suite with shorter interstitial pieces connecting longer excursions and the succinct LP-like length only accentuates the invitation for repeat play. Tracks alternate between tuneful heads-to-solos affairs and more texture-based sound collages that sometimes mimic the sounds of electronics. On the former cuts, Ward reminds me a lot of Jemeel Moondoc in his balance of Coleman and Lyons influences, particularly on "Afterthoughts" and "The Entire State of Florida", which sound like they could be outtakes from the elder saxophonist's seminal Revolt of the Negro Lawn Jockeys album. Throughout, Reed’s confidence in his colleagues manifests in a balance between his strong compositional sense and recurring latitude for solo spots like Reids graceful show of cello harmonics on “Simone’s Crumbs”. Well-paced and parceled, this is one to savor.

~ Derek Taylor