Cornetist Kirk Knuffke and double bassist Michael Bisio have recently gotten together again; this time, just the two for a tête-à-tête entitled For You I Don’t Want to Go. This could be considered the follow-up to their Row For William O. encounter from 2016, though the two has more often collaborated together with cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. Moreover, earlier this year the two released a trio album under Knuffke’s leadership with Matthew Shipp in place of Longberg-Holm.
But now, we’re back at the heart of this long-running alliance and the instinctual interaction between the two that makes their duets much more than just an exchange of chops; it’s a very personal engagement of two souls painting musical art together.
For You I Don’t Want to Go is actually an album-length single, consisting only of the 36-minute track “For You I Don‘t Want to Go / Sea Wamp.” From the outset of the lone performance, Bisio shows off his inimitable flair for devising bass lines that are as adventurous as a solo while locking down the traditional bass duty of maintaining a pulse and covering the low end.
Put another way, Bisio comps and leads simultaneously very effectively. Knuffke’s cornet is so lyrical and he has a way of bringing out the expressive tonality of that horn such that you know it’s a cornet and not it’s close cousin, the trumpet.
Throughout the piece, the pair are chasing and reacting to each other, reading each other like a book and make real melodies from thin air, never reaching for random notes. Many times they settle on a simple groove and mine it for all it’s worth then gracefully move on to the next motif pulled out of the ether. There are also some lovely passages where each take the stage alone, such as Bisio’s sawed bass performance around the twenty-one minute mark.
“Improvised” does not mean “unlistenable,” it means the opposite for the best improvisors such as Knuffke and Bisio. And it’s unique to these two; their mutual encounters with Longberg-Holm and Shipp don’t result in quite the same music. That’s why For You I Don’t Want to Go chronicles another chapter in the special partnership between Kirk Knuffke and Michael Bisio.
For You I Don’t Want to Go is up for sale now, from NoBusiness Records. Get it from Bandcamp.
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