David S Ware, Cooper-Moore, William Parker & Muhammad Ali - Planetary Unknown - AUM Fidelity - AUM068 - ****

The saxophonist David S Ware, the pianist Cooper-Moore, and the bassist William Parker are Seventies veterans, pre-dated by half a generation by the drummer Muhammad Ali, whose brother Rashied defied time for John Coltrane when he broke rules still being broken here.
Planetary Unknown is an instant genre classic, Cooper-Moore's pendulous suspensions bracketing sustained ecstatic group blowouts.
While European improvisers seem playfully excited by unfettered sound for its own sake, possibly as a metaphor for absolute freedom, the American free jazzers sound as if they are trying to conjure God out of their horns.

(11/9/11)