Golia, Vinny

Low and Inside; (Close Call Anyway...) Music for Baritone Saxophone

Label: Nine Winds Country: USA

"Woodwind multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia has been both the beacon and a touchstone for the West Coast free improvising community, particularly in Los Angeles, for over 30 years. Golia started his Nine Winds label in 1977, as a vehicle for distributing his own music, then expanded its mission statement around 1980 to document music from Canada to Mexico that wasn't being heard. Some 200 releases later, Nine Winds is still on the cutting edge, still exposing adventurous musicians to discerning listeners.

Golia has been making terrific records for eons, but even amongst his excellent catalog, Music For Baritone Saxophone is a highlight achievement.

For starters, the octet assembled is loaded with virtuoso players interpreting very creative music with exquisite arrangements. Somehow Golia has managed to produce one of his most accessible records in years without compromising a bit on his originality.

Due to a snafu in the CD printing, e-flat and bass clarinetist Brian Walsh was left off the octet personnel in the liner notes; unfortunate, because he's one of the reasons this disc works so well. The brass section of Dan Rosenboom on trumpet and George McMullen on trombone are key-especially Rosenboom, who gets the lion-share of solo space. An intriguing component is Alex Noyce on electric guitar. He favors a John McLaughlin type overdriven tone on much of this album, circa Inner Mounting Flame (Columbia, 1970). He knows how to ramp up the tension, and, amazingly, his rock-ish timbre fits perfectly with the horns. Gavin Templeton on alto saxophone gets a good deal of improv time-he's got an updated sense of Eric Dolphy in his performances. The veteran Ken Filiano is never less than compelling on doublebass, and Matt Mayhall on drums is fiery and disruptive in the best possible sense-he keeps this music surging forward.

Golia himself redefines the notion of what is possible on the baritone saxophone, and, on several cuts, takes that one step further on his custom-made Tubax, a refinement of the contrabass saxophone. His solos on either one have all the fluidity and acceleration of much smaller horns-there's never an urge to describe either as "lumbering," because in his hands they are not. On "And These People Drive Too!" Golia's Tubax hits the ground running with long, quicksilver lines that dart from low to high with astonishing precision The full band enters at about the 4:00 mark, after a crisp drum solo. Rosenboom's, tart, clarion-call trumpet emerges, expands, then yields to a distorted, caterwauling guitar solo. Throughout, the horn ensemble wraps Anthony Braxton-esque counterpoint around the soloists. [...]

Anyone who appreciates tight, creative ensemble work and virtuosic soloing should give Music For Baritone Saxophone a listen. Golia is something of a baseball enthusiast, hence the album subtitle: Low and Inside; (close call anyway...).To carry the baseball metaphor one step further, on this masterpiece, Golia swings for the fences...and clears them."-Robert Bush, All About Jazz