Line Up

In some cases, avant-garde jazz has been confrontational, angry, and unapologetically harsh; words like "blistering" and "violent" have often been applied to the free-form improvisations of Charles Gayle, Cecil Taylor, and post-1964 John Coltrane. But taking a free-form approach doesn't necessarily mean clobbering the listener with brute force; since the '60s, Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) has been offering a reflective, contemplative, and more reserved alternative to the scorched-earth school of free jazz. And one certainly doesn't have to be based in the Windy City to favor that kinder, gentler view of the avant-garde; recorded in Brooklyn, NY in 2006, Line-Up is a perfect example of avant-garde jazz that would rather reflect than confront. This 55-minute CD finds pianist Russ Lossing forming an acoustic duo with bassist John Hebert, and overall, the performances don't have an in-your-face outlook; instead, Lossing's pianism is quite impressionistic. Lossing brings a variety of influences to Line-Up, ranging from Taylor to Paul Bley to Thelonious Monk to Andrew Hill. Clearly, he has benefited from Taylor's innovations in the area of free-form pianism, but while Taylor is known for scorching density, Lossing is very much a proponent of space (which is something he has in common with the Chicagoans of the AACM) and give listeners a lot more breathing room. Thankfully, Hebert appreciates and understands where Lossing is coming from, and the two of them enjoy a strong rapport on original material as well as interpretations of Duke Ellington's "Pitter Panther Patter" and Irving Berlin's "All Alone." Some of Lossing's albums have been criticized for being uneven, but Line-Up is among the more consistent efforts in the pianist's catalog.