The three leaders, on AT ONE TIME, Henry Kaiser, John Oswald, and Paul Plimley, have all worked with Cecil Taylor, both in performance and in workshops. Here, they share their love of the late master Taylor’s music with a celebration of language and narrative strategies that were discovered/pioneered by the great piano maestro. Two special guests join them to make quartets on two tracks. Scott Amendola joins in on drums and Tracy Sliverman brings his 6-string electric fiddle to the party. Unusually, pianist Paul Plimley chose to entire play vibes on this album. Oswald plays alto sax, as is usual. Kaiser plays electric and acoustic guitars + electric bass. Kaiser, Oswald, and Plimley have been collaborating together for well more than 40 years; this project is also a celebration of their friendship and love of improvising together, recorded during tough COVID times.
“The first piece, ‘anagram ritz rewarding,’ has a calm vibe at the center although there is some strong, intense, circular interplay. Things pick up becoming more intense on ‘oceans felons salad’ when Mr. Kaiser switches to his signature electric guitar w/ that bent-tone/sustained/psych-like sound. Mr. Plimley is a thoughtful vibes player, often taking his time to counter-balance the more frenzied extrapolations by Kaiser and Oswald. Mr. Kaiser and Mr. Oswald have obviously worked together for many years as we can hear them connecting on different levels no matter how far out they go. John Oswald, who is a longtime member CCMC (with Michael Snow) and is also known as ‘Plunderphonics’, is a great free saxist who rarely seems to record.
Oswald is in extremely fine form here and is digging deeply into diverse vocabulary. There are some great moments of hair-raising intensity when all three players let go and push things into the stratosphere. On the final piece, the trio are joined by ace drummer Scott Amendola who adds a strong percussive undertow while Mr. Kaiser appears to be playing some impressive electric bass. Things really take off here especially the frenzied vibes-work by Paul Plimley. This entire disc is a powerful concoction of focused free/spirit music at its best.” - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
1. Anagram Ritz Rewording 04:17
2. Oceans Felons Salad (feat. Tracy Silverman) 26:43
3. Targeted for Who 01:48
4. Loon 09:29
5. Net So 01:05
6. Fir Loom (feat. Scott Amendola) 17:52
Henry Kaiser - Guitar
John Oswald - Alto Sax
Paul Plimley - Vibes
Scott Amendola - Drums on Fir Loom
Tracy Silverman - 6-String Fiddle on Oceans Felons Salad
Art Direction - John Oswald and Brandy Gale
