Thursday, April 15, 2021

Sumari - Sumari IV (April 16, 2021 Unseen Rain Records)

SUMARI IV is the group's first studio album featuring the miraculous double-bassist Hilliard Greene. This is also Sumari's first studio album recorded and mixed after the passing of engineer Jim DeSalvo, who was responsible for documenting their previous work. SUMARI IV's commanding music, mixing the utmost in simplicity with taut, intricate layers of rhythm, appears here through the virtuosity of the musicians alone, eschewing overdubs and effects heard on Sumari II and III.

There are moments when a bell-like rhythm appears and one wonders if is it Hill Greene playing harmonics, the bell of Tom Cabrera's ride cymbal, Matt Lavelle's swallowed alto clarinet outcry or Jack DeSalvo's tintabulistic guitar and banjo pluckings, which is to say the players' musical consciousness merged during the many moments of coalescence. This an album of ancient dances and future visions.

1. Piece 1 14:55
2. Piece 2 13:45
3. Piece 3 17:39
4. Piece 4 13:54
5. Piece 5 14:10

MATT LAVELLE - alto and bass clarinets
JACK DeSALVO - guitar and banjo
HILLIARD GREENE -double-bass
TOM CABRERA - drums and percussion

Recorded at Woodshedd Studio, Westbury, NY
Mixed and mastered by Larry Hutter, Orlando, FL