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DAVE DOUGLAS IN OUR LIFE TIME New World/Countercurrents 80471-2

1. In Our Lifetime
2. Three little Monsters
3. Forward Flight
4. The Persistence of Memory
5. Out In the Cold
6. Strength and Sanity
7. Four Miniatures after Booker Little
8. 7. Sappho
9. 8. At Dawn
10. 9. Shred
11. 10. Rapid Ear Movement
12. 11. Moods In free Time
13. 12. Bridges

Dave Douglas - trumpet

Chris Speed - tenor, clarinet

Uri Caine - piano

James Genus - bass

Joey Baron -drums

Marty Ehrich - bass clarinet, track 1

The opening trumpet solo on this album by Dave Douglas really made me sit up and take notice, but unfortunately the album is like the curates egg, good in parts. There can be no doubt as to the ability of the musicians, they are all superb instrumentalists, but they lapse into free form at times and when they do, they sound like my big band warming up before a concert!

I note that this album was produced with help from the National Endowment for the Arts & New York State Council for the Arts, just as nearly every album of this type is supported by the Arts Council in the UK. The reason for this is clear to me, in general people do not want to pay to hear free form music.

The great shame of it all is that when the rhythm section starts to swing Dave Douglas proves that he is a fine jazz player and this also true of the rest of the front line. For a demonstration listen to track 3, Booker Little’s Forward Flight, where Chris Speed also shows his credentials as a first class jazz tenor player.

Apart from the free form bits, I enjoyed this album and would love to hear the band on some more familiar material. They do play like a band should even on tuneless offerings like Out in the Cold and even that comes to life when Dave Douglas solos!

Don Mather

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