Canadian-bred, Berlin-residing trumpet boss Lina Allemano keeps herself constantly challenged, leading no less than five projects that mine avant-jazz, improvised music and experimental electro-acoustic music. Pipe Dream (Lumo Records) is her seventh and latest from her primary ensemble, the all-acoustic Lina Allemano Four quartet. As before, it’s Brodie West on alto saxophone, Andrew Downing on double bass and Nick Fraser on drums.
The Lina Allemano Four is a small ensemble that is – increasingly so – acting like a big band, and Pipe Dream takes on such a challenge head-on. Take the opener “Banana Canon” for example, where an orchestra’s entire section can be represented by a single instrument. But even more impressive, there is the ability to improvise through all that while staying on point.
“Pipe Dream (on Prokofiev Theme)” is likewise a through-composed piece, though it’s imbued with plenty of freedom, most notably Allemano’s ample chops instigating the band forward. The Four go dirge on “Dragon Fruit,” the scraping of the low notes on Downing’s bass setting the mood. The song proceeds to venture out into open territory, culminating in four-way improvising that maintains a pulse on the melody.
The next seven tracks serve as four movements of Allemano’s ‘Plague Diaries’ suite. After the flawless solo trumpet exhibition for “Intro: Longing”, the band launches into “Longing” itself, a sophisticated mixture of jazz and chamber music, Allemano and West playing in sync around each other as they blur the lines between soloing and charted patterns.
West gets his turn going alone for the intro of “Trying Not to Freak Out,” where the main part of the song takes on a Jekyll & Hyde character, pivoting back and forth between formal and frivolous. Downing’s arco “Hunger And Murder” intro is hushed but foreboding. His breathing-cadence sawing provides the foundation for the main part of the song that follows. “Doom and Doomer” is the most rhythmically charged of the movements, also rich in melodic ideas in a way similarly heard on Steve Lacy songs.
The digital version of this release adds a couple of bonus tracks, some worthy alternate takes of “Banana Canon” and “Longing.”
Pipe Dream is challenging but satisfying chamber jazz that comes from a quartet that knows each other so instinctually, but it starts the ever-restless Lina Allemano relentlessly pushing forward her craft. Get Pipe Dream from Bandcamp.
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