John O’Gallagher: Ancestral

     “Who’s the drummer?” is often the first thing I want to know when I look at a new release. When I glanced at the cover of alto saxophonist John O’Gallagher’s Ancestral, and saw the names of two exceptional master percussionists, Andrew Cyrille and Billy Hart, plus guitarist Ben Monder, I knew I was in for an exciting musical experience. And so it has proved. Cyrille and Hart have never recorded together before, but their collective spirit and breadth of experience makes the double drumming and the unusual quartet instrumentation sound totally natural. All the compositions are by O’Gallagher, and their open-ended nature gives the players plenty to work with. O’Gallagher’s powerful voice on alto, which sometimes reminds me of late Art Pepper, is never less than thrilling. His imaginative solo style draws on his own decades of playing in a wide variety of contexts and his immersion in late-period recordings of John Coltrane. The compelling Altar of the Ancestors is a clear homage to the glorious duets with Rashied Ali on Coltrane’s Interstellar Space. That’s just one standout among many. The stately and elegant Profess is another. Monder and O’Gallagher play the theme loosely together, then the saxophonist straps in for a passionate and urgent solo. All the while, Cyrille and Hart are churning and roiling underneath. Monder tosses out an exciting solo, spurring the drummers’ on and being stimulated in turn. Another highlight is Quixotica, a mournful ballad that puts O’Gallagher out front with the melody caressed by Monder’s quietly sympathetic lines and carefully restrained drumming. Everybody cuts loose on the improvised Postscript which closes the CD. Monder’s playing on the session ranges from clean chordal passages to electronically altered explosions of sound, and pretty much everything in between. From the photos from the session, it appears that everyone was playing together in the same space, and without headphones. It might be an old-fashioned way to record, but when the musicians are totally in sync with one another, it’s a method that often yields superior results to a more isolated studio situation. The deeply impressive Ancestral testifies to that approach. Warmly recommended. 

Whirlwind WR4840; John O’Gallagher (as) Ben Monder (g) Andrew Cyrille, Billy Hart (d); Montclair, NJ, no dates specified; Awakening/ Under the Wire/ Contact/ Tug/ Profess/ Altar of the Ancestors/ Quixotica/ Postscript; 44:39. whirlwindrecordings.com