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Rich Halley/Carson Halley: The Wild
by Mark Sullivan
Saxophonist Rich Halley has released twenty recordings as a leader, many of them with his son Carson Halley on drums. The two have been playing as a duo for almost twenty years, working on totally improvised music together. Halley's ensemble approach is characterized by a seamless blend of composition and improvisation, but here the pair spontaneously improvised the entire set, documenting the approach they have worked on for so long. From the start that lifetime of rapport is ...
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by Hrayr Attarian
Saxophonist Rich Halley's duo outing and his son drummer Carson Halley, The Wild, is in the same vein as the tenorist's previous releases on his own Pine Eagle label. On the current album, the Halleys' characteristic unbridled spontaneity and the provocative creative zeal is simultaneously crystalized and tempered by melodic contemplation.The wistful “Flat Plane of the Sky" for instance, is an abstractly impressionistic piece. Rich Halley lets loose a meandering pensive song over Carson Halley's sparse yet dynamic ...
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by Jerome Wilson
Duet sessions are, at their best, something special, a one-to-one musical conversation that relies on a near-telepathic connection between the two players. You'd really expect that connection between tenor saxophonist Rich Halley and drummer Carson Halley since they are father and son and they deliver on this powerful disc.All the pieces on the CD are improvised. Rich Halley plays wood flute on one short interlude, “The Old Ways." On the rest he plays tenor with impressive skill. Several ...
Continue ReadingRich Halley/Carson Halley: The Wild
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist Rich Halley, home-based in Portland, Oregon, is a relentless creator of fine and oftimes fiery free jazz, averaging, since 2010, about two CD releases per year, including Creating Structure (2015); Eleven (2016); and Outlier, (2016), all on his Pine Eagle Records label. These were quartet outings, featuring like-minded free-jazzers--trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, bass man Clyde Reed and Carson Halley, Rich Halley's son, in the drum chair. Add saxophonist Vinny Golia to Outlier to make it a quintet. And it's all ...
Continue ReadingRich Halley 5: The Outlier
by Budd Kopman
The Outlier feels like the third part of a triptych which started with Creating Structure, followed by Eleven. The former recording demonstrated how structure can be created during improvisation, while the latter how more- or-less composed music with structure can be the foundational basis for improvisation. The record at hand mixes the two concepts thoroughly, so much so that, with help from the liner, one would be hard pressed to tell which tracks are composed and which are ...
Continue ReadingRich Halley 5: The Outlier
by Jerome Wilson
Veteran Oregon saxophonist Rich Halley has assembled here a CD that combines the volcanic force of the 60's avant-garde with a modern fealty to rhythm. On these ten tracks Halley and fellow Pacific Coast veterans, saxophonist Vinny Golia and trombonist Michael Vlatkovich storm and rumble wildly while bassist Clyde Reed and drummer Carson Halley contain all their fire within recognizable musical boundaries. “Recipe For Improvisers" and “Reciprocity" have rhythmic grooves based in swing and R&B while “Green Needles" ...
Continue ReadingRich Halley 5: The Outlier
by Mark Corroto
After a string of impressive quartet recordings, saxophonist Rich Halley adds multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia to the lineup for The Outlier. The band is the Rich Halley 5, not the Rich Halley 4 + 1. There is an important distinction here. This session gives the impression of a functioning quintet, not just a guest appearance. Halley's recordings of late have focused on his quartet with trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, bassist Clyde Reed, and drummer Carson Halley. They released six stellar ...
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