Stephen Gauci / Michael Bisio / Whit Dickey: Live At Scholes Street Studio

Tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci sends another vital missive from the Brooklyn coal face, titled like several of its predecessors Live At Scholes Street Studio. Gauci has the knack of surrounding himself with top notch company and this is no exception. Joining him are two of the more seasoned avant jazz practitioners on the New York scene, bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey. Bisio himself holds the bass chair in pianist Matthew Shipp's Trio, a high profile outfit which Dickey has also graced, while the drummer can also count a sojourn with saxophone icon David S. Ware.

Gauci has some similarities with Ware in his penchant for extended falsetto tracery, grounded by a gnarly bottom end. But there the resemblance ends as Gauci also incorporates snatches of melody, splintered multiphonics and a galloping middle register into an utterly singular phraseology. A well-balanced group ethos manifests across the five off-the-wall creations which make up the near 50-minute program. Unsurprising as Bisio and the saxophonist go way back, with the bassist mentoring Gauci's first excursions into freeform expression and featuring him as part of his highly praised quartet in the early naughties.

In a first time encounter Dickey also establishes a strong rapport with the reedman, evidenced by the urgent duets between the two which develop on both "#2" and "#3." Calling on a percussive wisdom honed over his long career, the drummer marshals his multidirectional polyrhythms with acute sensitivity to space in a less is more approach which casts what he does play into starker relief. Fortunately there are multiple opportunities for everyone to stretch out. Bisio introduces "#4" in a welter of abrasive harmonics, and when he picks up the bow once more on "#5" he instantly ratchets up the intensity as he intertwines with Gauci's altissimo cries atop Dickey's fractured tattoo.

Together the three give a masterclass in the art of spontaneous music making.

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