Fire Room, Second Breath, Catalytic Sound

From 2016. There are surprisingly few “live at the Vortex” albums. Especially by a group featuring a famed American. And even more especially one as no-holds-barred as this one, listen above, by the fearsomely charismatic and rather brilliant reedist Ken Vandermark of Fire Room.

Just a couple of tracks really spanning over 40 minutes’ worth of music, slabs of what you are hearing are soaked in the crackly electronics coating provided by Lasse Marhaug and powered by the multi-directional Rashied Ali-meets-Animal drumming of The Thing’s Paal Nilssen-Love.

Second Breath is not for the faint-hearted. In case you were wondering about the alleged cacophany factor lingering in the background, as some might contend, better to switch the brain on and zone right in to what is actually a more plugged-in version of late-Coltrane updated with randomly zig-zaggy bleeps and ominous splashes of opaque buzz. Net result: pure gestalt.

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This is a must for hard bop fans, Harrell has come up with the goods on two counts: a fine band (Mark Turner on tenor sax, Charles Altura on guitar, Ben Street on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums) who run hard with the trumpeter; and a bunch of compositions that make sense and provide both a heat and plenty of depth kept taut and true by the great rhythm section.

Harrell is an inspiration to many trumpeters out there including the UK talent Reuben Fowler and it is easy to see why. Harrell keeps the formula the same on most of his albums so no one is smashing up the rule book but that formula is one that continues to remain true to his vision and there is a clarity on Infinity that you won’t find on too many records out there. SG

Fire Room, Second Breath, Catalytic Sound

2019 Highlight: Tom Harrell, Infinity, High Note