Search - Glenn Spearman :: Free Worlds

Four sessions, four bands, four dates between May 1994 and June 1995: this collection hones in on tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman's sprawling, insistent talents with a wide-angle lens. When Spearman died late in 1998, the world of high-energy free jazz lost a scion, a link to the hypercreative boil-overs of Frank Wright and Albert Ayler as well as a tireless explorer of new group configurations. Free Worlds finds Spearman fronting a three-horn sextet (with alto saxophonist Marco Eneidi and trumpeter Raphe Malik) for four burning tunes, all scorched by the intensity of each player blowing wide-open, tone-disrupting storms. Then there's the renowned quartet featuring pianist Paul Plimley, bassist Lisle Ellis, and drummer Donald Robinson. They're prone to searching, laying down chromatic chords to mark territory and then playing beyond rhythm within the chords. The last two ensembles are oddballs, for sure. With Shafqat Ali Khan and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan on voices, Spearman manages to blow a rough, sandpapery texture across their "Raga Shamwati," and guitarist J.R. Routhier sings on "The Skin She Bears." Neither context is handled haplessly, and both succeed. But it's when Spearman joins hands with Eneidi, Malik, Ellis, and Plimley that you hear how much the jazz world has lost. There are few as intellectually dynamic enough to blow with such energy and smarts combined. Not only that, but the few(er) that are left--after Spearman--have lost a wonderful role model. --Andrew Bartlett