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.
Tres Gone Presents the Bi-Coastal Orchestra Live from the Dunes
Tres Gone
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Tres Gone Presents the Bi-Coastal Orchestra Live from the Dunes Review
by Stewart Mason
Track Listing
Title/Composer | Performer | Time | Stream | |||
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1 |
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Tres Gone | 37:58 | SpotifyAmazon | ||
2 |
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Tres Gone | 05:21 | SpotifyAmazon | ||
3 |
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Tres Gone | 07:29 | SpotifyAmazon | ||
4 |
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Tres Gone | 15:01 | SpotifyAmazon |