Tom DeSteno

Tom DeSteno & Bob Magnuson Quartet: Ready for Action

by Derek Taylor
August 2, 2002

Aligned in sturdy opposition to those who would have you believe that free jazz is a played out and parsimonious pursuit, modern improvisatory maestros Magnuson and DeSteno deliver the goods in an album that lives up to the boast of its chosen title. The co-leaders exercise a disarming subterfuge on the opening “She’s Gone” as the band wastes no breath in firmly substantiating their credentials in the idiom. It’s a tune that opens slow and somber on the bed of ...