TEST with Roy Campbell: Live at The Hinton House

More exquisite madness from Brooklyn's barn burning free jazz label 577 Records, home to the free and the brave.

This time it's a hard core NY borough blowout recorded live in April 1999 that cantankerously and vividly chronicles the only known performance of the late, free/avant, Harlem/NoBro legend, trumpeterRoy Campbell. Unrestrained, Campbell raises the roof with a loosely defined autonomous collective of downtown alchemists, namely drummer Tom Bruno, bassist Matt Heyner and the rioting reeds of Sabir Mateen and Daniel Carter.

Test, as they were known at that moment, hue tight to the grand tradition of tumultuous cacophony, making cathartic release the guiding star. The true merit. Performing at a lower Manhattan benefit gig, Campbell, who counted among his many mentors Lee Morgan, Yusef Lateef, and Kenny Dorham, and who had played alongside a host of names including Matthew Shipp, Cecil Taylor, Kenny Kirkland and Rashied Ali, flies full force gale: frantic, frenetic, formless. Darting and dodging with Carter and Mateen who, even on that rare off day for either of them, can cry longing Heaven. For their hugely active parts, Bruno and Heyner meet half way then agree to charge off and ecstatically pursue the margins.

Live at The Hinton House testifies in its own language. Its own rightful glory of communication. Of listening, probing. Reacting to every frequency with an open, vibrant heart and responding in kind. In gratitude that forty-four minutes like these actually exist to break down the senses, leaving spellbound listeners exhausted but oddly exhilarated and anointed.

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