Gauci Leibson Parker Sorey: Live at Scholes Street Studio

Tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci certainly knows how to pick a band. On another of his regular bulletins which go under the title Live At Scholes Street Studio, he has assembled a line-up to die for, notable for the appearance of Tyshawn Sorey on drums and William Parker on bass. Although Argentinian pianist Santiago Leibson may be less feted, he is a trusted collaborator who combined effectively with Gauci on Pandemic Duets (Gaucimusic, 2021), and he plays a full role on the three unnamed collectives which make up the album.

As with all Gauci's latter day dates this is a free blowing session defined by both the saxophonist's distinctive style and how he responds to his partners and vice versa. With his amalgam of overtone manipulations and multiphonics which see him pursue oblique trajectories from overblown falsetto to gruff bottom end, Gauci presents a unique challenge. But it is one to which the band, and especially Sorey more than capably rises. While an acclaimed composer and educator, he affirms here that he remains a superlative drummer too, thrillingly powerful but acutely sensitive to the dynamics and flow.

In that, he is helped by the way Parker's supple rhythmic scaffolding anchors the entire program, freeing up the drummer in particular to converse, color and comment all at once. Leibson too acts as a percussive powerhouse, his repeated stabbed motifs forming a sturdy bedrock, though poised to launch into flowing runs whenever Gauci pauses. The pianist's sequence of note-spraying glissandos at the conclusion of the volcanic "1" form one of the standout passages on the record, as does the bassist's splintered arco break earlier in the same piece.

But whether a track veers into pointillist dialogue as midway through "2" or begins with a hesitant open soundscape like "3," the quicksilver evolution which characterizes this set means that exhilarating mayhem is never more than a breath away.

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