Smoker - Magnuson - Filiano - Grassi

Smoker - Magnuson - Filiano - Grassi: Large Music 2

by Glenn Astarita
August 1, 2001

With the successor to the quartet’s 2000 release, Large Music 1, the musicians’ continue their pursuance of free-bop/swing amid sequences of investigative dialogue and a plethora of lofty peaks, bottomless pits and soul searching lines. However, the band also generates briskly stated melodies on the opener, “Gwendolyn the Cat”, as trumpeter Paul Smoker and saxophonist Bob Magnuson meld raw firepower with tightly coordinated unison choruses atop bassist Ken Filiano and drummer Lou Grassi’s implosive rhythms. Meanwhile, the band exhibits a ...