This is another fine inside/outside album from bassist Eric Revis, keeping some heavy company with Ken Vandermark on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Kris Davis on piano and Chad Taylor on drums and percussion. Each one of these musicians is a leader in their own right, but they work as a finely drilled team with Revis pointing the way forward. The group is very open minded, experimenting with both form and freedom while developing solid ensemble play and vivid soloing. The title track "Sing Me Some Cry" opens in a very atmospheric fashion, with thick bass and Davis strumming inside the piano. Skittish drums and saxophone add to the emotional content of the music wheeling through a series of variations. "Good Company" develops a percussive foundation, as Taylor sets the pace from the drum kit with a muscular bent. Piano fills in adding to the percussive feel, and the rest of the band joins in with a grandly swinging feel, that builds a very good up tempo collective improvisation, with powerful ensemble playing. Things stretch out quite nicely, allowing the musicians to really buckle down and play hard and true. Vandermark's raw and incisive playing is a real treat on this track, which is one of the album's highlights. There is another percussion intro with the bass on "Pat. 44" as the rest of the band fills in at a spacious medium tempo. Davis adds colorful chords, while Vandermark probes for an opening, which he finds and exploits with another interesting solo, with a strong rhythmic feeling set up along with him. Things change on "Obliogo" with a nice rhythm coming into focus and tight group interplay, especially in Vandermark's rich and meaty tone chewing up the available real estate and performing a high-quality feature. Revis takes a well-earned bass solo backed by some choppy percussion that works well before the group comes together to stick the landing. Another imaginative bass solo begins "Rye Eclipse," opening vistas for the group to explore, with Taylor folding in some nice percussion and Vandermark adding long gales of pure sound, causing the music to further develop episodically with the percussive piano of Kris Davis, meeting Vandermark's stark, rending cries. They all come together in a very exciting fashion, setting a fine sense of dynamism in their sound. "Rumples" opens with a nimble rhythm section interlude soon joined by saxophone developing a nice up tempo feel punctuated by sharp drumming, and tasteful piano notes and chords adding a provocative sound. Vandermark creates pithy saxophone statements that fit in very well with the overall sound of the track. A subtle bass and percussion pulse open "Drunkard's Melody" before Vandermark weaves in with slurs of saxophone, making a counter argument like the drunkard in the title. The rhythm section plays in an insular manner, carefully setting things out for Vandermark to come and bully through making for an excellent push-pull dynamic. "Glyph" is the album's final song, free and patient in its development, a collective improvisation performed at a low boil, underpinned by the leaders well-articulated bass. Gentle ripples of piano move across its surface before the music takes on a more balladic tone, developing a hue of understated grace. This album worked out very well. All of the musicians are at their highest level of their collective instruments, and they use this talent to work together in creating a memorable performance.
Sing Me Some Cry - amazon.com
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