Monder / Malaby / Rainey: Live At The 55 Bar

It is almost certain that guitarist Ben Monder was uncertain just what was likely to result from building a trio with saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Tom Rainey. Recorded at the threshold of the COVID-19 shutdown during Monder's monthly Tuesday residency at New York's The 55 Bar, this fully improvised "Suite 3320" can easily be taken as a prophecy of New York's and the World's pandemic lockdown.

Is it the growing sense of dread that informs the performance of this music? Or, maybe just listening conjures the angst created by the virus. Either way, Live At The 55 Bar is a cathartic and purifying experience. "Part I" opens innocently enough with with shimmering guitar, echoing tenor, and quiet rattle of cymbals. The three musicians have worked together quite often in the past two decades, Monder in Malaby's Paloma Recio and Rainey in the saxophonist's Paloma Recio. As "Part I" grows, it exhibits an organized entropy, floating melody in an ambient-like dream state. Rainey, the ever conversant partner, juggles a fidgety percussion attack while Monder and Malaby tend to growing conflagration. "Part II," is taken from the two sets recorded that evening in the most benign manner. Malaby, swapping his tenor for soprano saxophone, proffers songbird-like notes over Rainey's brushwork and Monder's vibrating guitar hum. The music builds intensity over its 29 minutes metamorphosing into an almost doom metal ( think Sunn O) performance. Sure, there's a riot going on, but with three master improvisers in command of the scene, and the track ends as a cathartic experience. "Part III" gives no respite, beginning with reverb/feedback guitar and twisting/chirping saxophone, the trio exercising an intensity as if to say to their listeners (in the club and at home) "keep this moment in your memory, it will demarcate life before and after pandemic."

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