(Michael Moore – clarinet & alto sax; Fred Hersch, piano)
Another very creative duo album from a pair of top-flight performers. Moore and Hersch first met 33 years ago while studying at the New England Conversatory in Boston, and have performed in various bands together ever since, but this is their first duo recording stint. Many of the 11 tracks are by one of the jazzmen or the other, with Monk’s Four In One and Bittencourt’s Latiny Doce De Coco in the middle. Moore pretty much alternates tracks between his clarinet and sax. I really was drawn to the clarinet tracks as some of them reminded me of Jimmy Giuffre. The interplay of the reed instrument and the grand piano is so precise, clever and accurate that there must be a bunch of notes on paper somewhere behind this. Sonics are very clear with great presence on all three instruments.
TrackList:
1. Aquellos Ojos Verdes
2. Bedtime Story
3. The Sad Bird
4. Four In One
5. Spirit of ’76
6. Doce de Coco
7. This We Know
8. Lee’s Dream
9. Sandwiches & Brandy
10. Langrage
11. Canzona
– John Henry
