As Was

An early release by San Francisco's free jazz-meets-modern classical Rova Saxophone Quartet, As Was finds the group branching into a variety of stylistic areas but keeping their free jazz roots firmly at the base of their music. (Imagine four Anthony Braxtons in a frisky and experimental mood.) The set starts with the brief "Daredevils," a playful blast of honk-blat-phwee that co-founder Larry Ochs describes in the liner notes as "a little hit of the circus." The mood turns superficially more serious on "Quill," an exploration for soprano saxophone with an intriguing call-and-response structure. "Under the Street Where You Live" returns to the cacophony of the opener, with a few Albert Ayler-style solos unspooling over a main theme that honestly resembles a herd of angry geese at times. The expansive 20-minute closer, "Paint Another Take of the Shootpop," is dedicated to Olivier Messiaen and Otis Redding, and impressively enough, elements of both can be heard in the way passages of musique concrete alternate with R&B-inspired improvisations that almost sound, dare we say it, funky. Engaging, at times abrasive, yet accessible, As Was is one of the Rova Saxophone Quartet's strongest early releases.