After more than 10 years of working together, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul asked saxophonist Oliver Lake and trumpeter Graham Haynes to join in this quartet, their name taken from their first initials, as they present compositions from all four players, plus a poem from Lake, ending with two collective improvisations; a solid and dynamic start to a new quartet.
Label: Tum Catalog ID: TUMR50.2 Squidco Product Code: 27341
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2019 Country: Finland Packaging: Digipack Recorded at the System Two Studios in Brooklyn, New York City, on July 2nd, 2016, by Joe Marziano.
"By the time the OGJB Quartet came into existence in 2015, Barry Altschul and I had already played together quite extensively for more than 10 years, touring and recording first with the late great Billy Bang in the FAB Trio and then, after Billy´s untimely passing, with Jon Irabagon in the 3dom Factor.
The OGJB Quartet was originally conceived as the OJB Trio. I had just finished a tour with the Generations Quartet featuring Oliver Lake and, after that tour, thought what great trio Oliver, Barry and myself would make. I had mentioned the idea of this trio to Kunle Mwanga, a friend to all of us, and Kunle replied by asking: "Why not make it a quartet and add Graham Haynes as the fourth member?" To me and Barry, this seemed like a great idea as we have both always loved the combined sound of the trumpet and the alto saxophone and Graham was a perfect choice. So, the OJB Trio became the OGJB Quartet.
The music on this recording sings and strolls down the street, it swings, it dances, it swirls around your body like water and it grooves with a deep sense of its musical history. We feel that a perfect synergy is found within this quartet. What more could we ask for?"-Joe Fonda
"[...] An avant-garde all-star outing featuring the democratic collective of saxophonist Oliver Lake, cornetist Graham Haynes, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry AltschulÑthe first letters of the first names giving the group its nameÑBamako presents a free-end-of-the spectrum sound that breaks new ground while maintaining its grip on a late-fifties/mid-sixties foundation of flexibility. Like alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman's early recordings the music holds sway without a chording instrument, with a sax joined by a cornet to replace the sound of Don Cherry's pocket trumpet. And like pianist Cecil Taylor's mid-sized ensemble mid-sixties outings, those horns enjoy maximum freedom. In fact, a good place from which to approach Bamako is coming off a listening session of Coleman's Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic Records, 1959), followed up by Taylor's Unit Structures (Blue Note, 1966), to reset the radar back to a free-jazz receptivity.
The album opens with "Listen to Cornell West," a tumultuous Joe Fonda composition featuring a seismic rhythm behind horns that flow initially in unison before breaking into a searing squabble. The title tune, from Haynes' pen, features the horn man on the dousn'gouni, a West African instrument that, in conjunction with Altschul's contribution on the mbira, and Oliver Lake recitation of his poem, "Broken In Parts," makes the tune the most otherworldly and hypnotically beautiful segment of the recording. Bassist Barry Altschul's "Be Out S'Cool" has the horns ruminating over rhythmic jumble; and Oliver Lake's "Stick'' stutters ahead in a freewheeling a fire and brimstone mode.
Bamako closes with a pair of inspired collective improvisations, "OGJB #2" and "OGJB #1," the former a patiently-delivered introspective sound-poem; the latter sounding like a soundtrack to a psychedelic dream, wrapping up an innovative free-jazz outing. "-Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz