PAPATAMUS REDUX

GIANT STEP ARTS GSA 16 (RECORDED AUGUST 2023)

Jason Palmer calls the meeting to order with his opening trumpet call on this live session recorded at Ornithology in Brooklyn. One by one, the other participants enter the conversation. Drummer Marcus Gilmore comes in with blistering rhythms in a free exchange with Palmer. Next comes Larry Grenadier introducing a strong rhythmic bass line to the proceedings. Saxophonist Mark Turner is the last to join, just in time to accompany Palmer on the melody of the angular up-tempo opening tune — “B.A.M.D. (Budgets are Moral Documents).” After exploring all the harmonies, melodies and rhythms of that tune, the band goes on to perform eight more originals for a total of almost two hours of pure energy and interaction. Unless you were at Ornithology that evening, the two-CD set released as The Cross Over, Live in Brooklyn could be tedious listening, but Palmer and the band manage to keep things interesting. For example, “Same Bird” starts with a bass and drum duo before the rest of the band launches into the relaxed mode of this tune that features Palmer’s solo quoting Monk and “As Time Goes By.” Gilmore introduces “Beware of Captain America (A Line for Wayne Shorter)” with a drum solo that evolves from quiet brush work to explosive rhythms before Palmer’s shofar-like trumpet blast brings the group together. Palmer and Turner introduce “Dream For the Freedom Fighters (Those Who Fight To Keep the Dream Alive)” in unison before each member of the band launches into solos on this contrafact of “You Stepped Out of a Dream.” There’s the funky flavor of “Do You Know Who YOU Are? (A Line for Dr. C. West) to the bluesy feel of “The Cross Over (A Blues for A.I.)”  Regardless of the nature of the tunes, Palmer and Turner, who have been working together for the past decade, are the perfect combination of swaggering trumpet and sinewy saxophone, much like Cecil Bridgewater and Billy Harper in Max Roach’s pianoless quartets, and Grenadier and Gilmore are the perfect bandmates to propel them through two hours of inspired improvisation. My only issue with The Cross Over, Live in Brooklyn is the total length of the recording, the longer tunes (ranging from 11 to 21 minutes) and the extended solos. Trying to dedicate two hours listening to what the audience at Ornithology experienced that night was a challenge. Wish I could have been there.

BOTTOM LINE: It’s obvious the audience at Ornithology enjoyed the energy, compositions, solos and ensemble work of trumpeter Jason Palmer, saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Marcus Gilmore on this live recording. You will as well, but it will require two hours of serious listening to some serious music presented by some of today’s most compelling and competent musicians on The Cross Over, Live in Brooklyn.