Sticks and Stones is a young trio of musicians from Chicago who have clearly learned from the great, modern tradition of the AACM musicians and their heirs. A trio comprised of alto saxophonist and clarinetist Matana Roberts (add this name to the frustratingly short list of excellent, female reed players), bassist Josh Abrams and drummer Chad Taylor, they navigate areas familiar to fans of the Art Ensemble, 8 Bold Souls and, generally, those players possessing both a blues sensibility and an irresistible bounce. Often, as on pieces like “The Refusal,” the rhythm team set up a lightly loping pattern, impossible not to groove along with, while Roberts keens atop, her attack sometimes reminiscent of Jimmy Lyons or Marion Brown circa Sweet Earth Flying. She evinces a very appealingly mournful tone on slower numbers like “Wordful” while proving quite capable of some nimble maneuvering (though never getting overly pyrotechnic) on the up-tempo pieces. Abrams, meanwhile, recalls something of the sound of the late Malachi Favors: solid, unobtrusive and unfailingly musical. Like many of Ed Wilkerson’s compositions for 8 Bold Souls, the works by group members here are both tight and elastic, somewhat episodic in nature but always with a strong forward momentum. They may lack that group’s profound melancholy and occasionally one wants to hear a bit more growl and bite, but that’s really nitpicking. The clean, simple lines of something like Roberts’ “Veatrice” lend themselves wonderfully to a suspension of time and are capable of inspiring an endless stream of related improvisations. The trio includes three covers: a brief, sprightly run-through of Monk’s “Skippy,” a richly funky romp through Fela’s “Colonial Mentality” and a lovely reading of Billy Strayhorn’s “Isfahan,” the latter arguably the highlight of the disc. Shed Grace is a very nice album that grows on one subtly but surely.
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