Jon Irabagon / Ava Mendoza / Mike Pride / Mick Barr

Proof, if any more was needed that contemporary musicians can flourish in more than one style is this third edition of I Don’t Hear Nothin’ but the Blues (IDHNBTB). While Anatomical Snuffbox’s single orotund improvisation is crammed with more distorted dual guitar frails and fuzztones, buzzing and refracting percussion smacks and sopraniissmo honks and vibrating reed multiphonics as any Metal outburst, each band member also can function in more restrained circumstances.

If IDHNBTB is the four’s collective Superman persona, then their individual Clark Kents are involved elsewhere in everything from contemporary composition to pure improv. Tenor saxophonist Jon Irabagon for instance works in less frenetic circumstance with Matt Mitchell and Jon Lundbom. Guitarist Ava Mendoza has worked with William Parker and Matana Roberts, drummer Mike Pride with Jason Stein and Peter Evans and guitarist Mick Barr with Marc Edwards and Kevin Shea. Each player is also committed to sounds bordering on Hard Rock though, so that the thick nearly impenetrable mass that defines this program is familiar as well.

Still with each player invested with enough extended techniques to showcase not only pounding tones but their timbral extension as well, sound variations and variables prevent the emphasis from becoming uncomfortably claustrophobic. Cascading string flanges and reflective twangs, dedicated reed glissandi and honking slurs plus affiliated drum pressure are heard alongside the churning drones. In fact, close listening to this Rock-like palimpsest reveals a layer of intricate interactions among the sound barrage. Still, many listeners will be satisfied to reverberate within the barrage of throbbing power that IDHNBTB projects here.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Anatomical Snuffbox

Personnel: Jon Irabagon (tenor saxophone); Mick Barr and Ava Mendoza (guitar) and Mike Pride (drums)