• «Downtown Music Gallery», New York, January 14th, 2011

Bruce Lee Gallanter

Alexey Kruglov / Vladimir Tarasov - «Dialogos» (United/SoLyd 403; Russia)
Featuring Alexey Kruglov on soprano, alto & tenor saxes, clarinet, basset horn, recorders, melodica & piano and Vladimir Tarasov on drums & percussion. Master percussionist Vladimir Tarasov was one third of the original Ganelin Trio, legendary Russian free/jazz unit that were the first avant-garde group to tour outisde of their homeland before the Iron Curtain fell. The trio formed in the seventies and recorded a dozen disc for the Leo label. Both their pianist Ganelin and their drummer Tarasov have continued to work a variety of other musicians since the original trio split up. Mr. Tarasov has recorded with Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, Kenny Millions, Lauren Newton and a more recent trio with Mark Dresser & Larry Ochs. Saxist Alexey Kruglov is an emerging star of the Russian avant/jazz scene and has a recent disc out on Leo Records.
This disc was recorded in a studio in Moscow and has superb sound. For the first piece, "Prologue", Alexey plays inside the piano with Vladimir on selective cymbals & gongs. The sound is immensely haunting and filled with suspense. The "Suite of Free Sounds" is in five parts with Alexey switching off between different reeds. The way this suite evolves is most organic, concentrated yet free-flowing. The vibe here is one of creating an ongoing dialogue rather than the showing off of chops. Alexey occasionally plays two saxes at once as well as numerous recorders at the same time, always to great effect. This is a consistently fascinating conversation between two master improvisers, one pretty young and the other an elder statesman.

 

 

Alexey Kruglov / Vladimir Tarasov - «In Tempo» (United/SoLyd 404; Russia)
Featuring Alexey Kruglov on soprano, alto & tenor saxes, clarinet, basset horn, recorders, melodica & piano and Vladimir Tarasov on drums & percussion. Master percussionist Vladimir Tarasov was one third of the original Ganelin Trio, legendary Russian free/jazz unit that were the first avant-garde group to tour outisde of their homeland before the Iron Curtain fell. The trio formed in the seventies and recorded a dozen disc for the Leo label. Both their pianist Ganelin and their drummer Tarasov have continued to work a variety of other musicians since the original trio split up. Mr. Tarasov has recorded with Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, Kenny Millions, Lauren Newton and a more recent trio with Mark Dresser & Larry Ochs. Saxist Alexey Kruglov is an emerging star of the Russian avant/jazz scene and has a recent disc out on Leo Records which I recently heard and was knocked out by. This disc was taken from the same sessions as the other CD on SoLyd ('Dialogos'), the duo and instrumentation are the same. This time around the duo erupt right from the opening note on "A Posteriori" with Alexey on smokin' tenor sax. The players take their time and keep the interplay consistently engaging. Although Alexey Kruglov is still pretty young, he has a strong tone on each sax and has a deep bag of ideas, sounds & styles to draw from. This is yet another stimulating conversation between two obvious masters of improv.

 

 

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