Muhal Richard Abrams with Fred Anderson and George Lewis – SoundDance – PI Recordings – PI37 - *****

When jazz got serious in the sixties, Muhal Richard Abrahams' Association For the Advancement Of Creative Musicians facilitated Chicago night club turns' migrations to art lofts. On the first disc of this double set, the octogenarian pianist duets with Fred Anderson, on his final recording. The misunderstood saxophonst died last year, his bold choices often mistaken for errors of judgment. Their set is sometimes sedate and grand, intermittently explosive, and unarguably excellent. Twenty years' Abrams' junior, George Lewis joins for an oblique second disc on trombone and laptop, skewing cumulonimbic piano rumbles with frying blubber and digital froth.

(11/6/11)