Rob Brown: Walkabout

MAHAKALA MUSIC 070 (RELEASED JANUARY 24, 2025)

Ornette Coleman once said melodies could be improvised infinitely and that musical ideas could flow naturally without a predetermined structure. Saxophonist Rob Brown continues to lead the pack in advancing the musical concepts expressed by Coleman on Walkabout. With the creative and sensitive support of bassist Brandon Lopez and drummer Juan P. Carletti, Brown weaves a tapestry of melodies, rhythms and moods through four extended cuts. From his opening notes of “Microcosm,” Brown’s astringent tone on alto quickly brings Coleman to mind. His prayer-like pleading dances around the pulse of Lopez’s bass and the swirling rhythms of Carletti. Following an 11 minute angular solo in which Brown explores the high and low registers of his horn with staccato passages and free flowing runs, Lopez and Carletti take the melody in a different direction until Brown returns to the intensity of his opening statement. From the explosive intensity of “Microcosm,” Brown switches to flute for the more serene “Zephyr,” which showcases Lopez’s bowed bass and Carletti’s use of shakers and shells to add color to the melody. Shifting back to alto, Brown is in full control of the musical adventures on “Natural Pathways,” an Ornette Coleman song-like form that builds naturally as Brown weaves his ripples of melodies around the free-flowing accompaniment of Lopez and Carletti. The set ends with “Tousled and Jostled,” which is a perfect title for a piece on which Brown expands a simple melody into a whirling dervish of melodic fragments, bass drones and rhythmic diversity. The music of Walkabout can best be described in two words — exhaustingly exhilarating. At times the energy level generated by the trio can exhaust you, yet you are constantly exhilarated by the ways in which Rob Brown and company weave melodies, rhythms and moods into a tapestry of sound.

BOTTOM LINE: Since his first release with Matthew Shipp in 1988, saxophonist Rob Brown has been quietly and ferociously advancing the legacy of Ornette Coleman. Walkabout is the latest example of how Brown, working with bassist Brandon Lopez and drummer Juan P Carletti, succeeds in improvising infinitely with musical ideas flowing naturally without a predetermined structure.