Camila Nebbia

With more cooperation that any part of the American Trump administration has ever extended to anyone from South America, two US improvisers – pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Lesley Mok get together with Argentinean tenor saxophonist Camila Nebbia for set of free form improvisations. Without any preset ideas, the pianist, drummer and saxophonist immediately clicked to propel eight transformative tracks. There was little surprise in that though, since Crispell, best-known for her tenure with Anthony Braxton; and the younger Mok, who has worked with Myra Melford and Anna Webber, and the now Berlin-based Nebbia. who has played with everyone from John Edwards to Han-earl Park, are fully conversant with the vocabulary and demands of pure improvisation and easily meet the challenges.

Free form doesn’t mean formlessness, and throughout the disc’s selections, balance between inspiration and continuation is maintained. What’s highlighted as well is constant timbral surprises. So, for instance, a track like “Spirals” matches a tough drum backbeat with lyrical and shaded keyboard riffs as the saxophonist uses key percussion, double tonguing and reed bites to extend blues emotionalism.

As further proof of synergy, Mok’s cymbal scrapes and protracted rolls and Crispell’s keyboard comping and cushioning are as much part of advancing the interpretations as Nebbia’s vibrated scoops, irregular smears and pointed tongue stops. If the saxophonist’s decided expression of guff split tones, tongue flutters and repeated honking patterns seems limitless, it’s because they’re balanced by anchoring piano motifs from all parts of the keyboard or textural cushioning, which on a track such as “Suspended Time” creates the perfect response to the saxophonist’s note-bending and sliding buzzes. and confirms the track’s creative narrative.

Additionally, especially on “Driving Through Flood Water”, the protracted first track and often elsewhere, it’s Mok’s cymbal clashes and dynamic drum pumps which introduce and preserve the undulating theme even as Nebbia’s ascending and quickening tremolo timbres subversively threaten to blow it apart.

Overall the often unexpected fusion of Nebbia’s gravelly aviary trills, Crispell’s holding a thematic outline even as she slaps and pumps variations, and Mok’s ruffs and rebounds make for a notable creative music alliance. It also works because unlike the White House’s present policies no one tries to insist on making all decisions to intimidate the other partners.

— Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Driving Through Flood Water 2. Transitoriness 3. There Is No Land 4. Suspended Time 5. Longing 6. Spirals 7. A Room Is Being Erased 8. Streamside

Personnel: Camila Nebbia (tenor saxophone); Marilyn Crispell (piano) and Lesley Mok (drums)