Alone, Together, Apart

Here, famed modern jazz drummer/percussionist Jerome Cooper and improvising vocalist Thomas Buckner navigate a wide-ranging spectrum of tonalities to coincide with abstractly rendered sound-sculptures. Nonetheless, Buckner's wordless vocals complement Cooper's keenly constructed percussion motifs and EFX based treatments. The duo merely hints at African and Middle Eastern rhythmic stylizations via a plethora of improvisational type gestures. Whereas, Buckner is most effective at weaving within Cooper's multifaceted, but generally disciplined maneuvers amid the pair's mantra-like discourses and contrasts in pitch and meter. Moreover, the musicians paint lucid canvasses, awash with imaginary voyages as they morph lesser-known musical terrains into idealized statements. And while the duo moves forward at a deliberate pace, they sustain a great deal of interest throughout these lengthy pieces. As Buckner utilizes his trained vocal chops as a tone-shaping instrument, in concert with Cooper's complementary rhythmic structures. Whereby, the musicians pursue elusive frameworks along with textural components that often allude to subversive shifts in strategy. No doubt, this is fascinating stuff!