Andrew Barker is a daring, free jazz drummer who not only embraces the challenge of pure improvisation, but engages in pure improvisation usually with only one or two other cohorts who are also masters of the form. He’s matched wits with such saxophone captains of the style such as Daniel Carter, Mikko Innanen, Sabir Mateen and Rob Brown (not to mention many other well-regarded improvisors who play other instruments). Barker has also led his own small groups, like this trio, and his latest duo is with yet another saxophone daredevil, Jon Irabagon.
Before the Covid-19 came to American shores, Barker and Irabagon holed up in a Brooklyn studio for one day and came out with four, free-form jams. Anemone (Radical Documents) is the finished product.
Irabagon has an uncanny ability to adapt his saxophone approach based on the drummer he faces. It’s more apparent because he’s performed many times one-on-one with drummers, like Barry Altschul and Mike Pride. But Barker is neither Altschul nor Pride; he’s fearless like those guys but jumps off into the abyss in his own way. The key thing to know about him is that he’s a very instinctual and telepathic drummer, a perfect partner for Irabagon as they both chart a musical course at the same time they follow that course.
On “Branded Contempt,” the tenor man responds perfectly to all of Barker’s moves, whether Barker is tapping around on the rims, shuffling around with the brushes or rumbling on the toms and open cymbals. Over the longer span of this song, the two gather up propulsion and by halfway through Barker is off the hook. But nearer the end, he steps aside and lets Irabagon finish his thought by himself because by that time, the rhythm is strongly implied.
Barker’s distinctive slow-moving tribal rhythm establishes “Anemone,” and Irabagon uses this to gradually go up the scale. Meanwhile, Barker progressively turns up the heat as Irabagon moves up into dog whistle territory. Barker’s loose, funky swing on “Learnings” is fertile ground for Irabagon’s whims, and Barker mutates his rhythm until it morphs into something else as Irabagon invents a whole motif on the spot.
“Book of Knots” opens up with Barker conjuring up an uncommon mixture of percussive timbres, and Irabagon makes his sax percussive in a way that complements Barker. Then, he forces out labored semi-notes that emits a bawl foreign to a saxophone as Barker’s hand drumming demonstrates his own thinking outside the box.
This is sax-and-drums improvisation at its most impulsive and connective. Pick up a digital or CD copy of Anemone from Bandcamp.
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