Tres Gone Presents the Bi-Coastal Orchestra Live from the Dunes

The Bi-Coastal Orchestra is a playful name for this collaboration between four improvisational musicians from Seattle (Tres Gone plus pianist Bill Larimer) and three of the same from New York City: percussionist Armen Halburian, reedsman Mark Whitecage, and clarinetist Rozeanne Levine. The one-off septet played a short residency at a Seattle improv landmark called the Dunes, where this live recording was made. There are just four lengthy pieces here (the epic 38-minute opener "Bi-Coastal Suite" is over half of the album's playing time by itself), one of which is the amusing semi-joke "Music Tames the Savage Beast": for seven and a half minutes, Levine affably battles a disinterested audience's chatter, slipping quotes from standards like "St. James Infirmary" into a lyrical solo that does in fact manage to eventually quiet the audience. The similarly sedate "Reflections" is a full-band piece that proves that free jazz improv doesn't have to rely on the usual honk-blat-phwee clichés. Those two pieces are the strongest, but overall, this is a great piece of collective improvisation.