Geof Bradfield / Myra Melford / Ben Goldberg / Dana Hall: Open Or Close

Ornette Coleman may come to mind at the beginning of the spin of Open Or Close. This is understandable. The title song, which opens the set, is from Coleman's pen. Additionally, the jazz collective at work here—reedmen Geof Bradfield and Ben Goldberg, pianist Myra Melford and drummer Dana Hall play loose and free, à la Ornette, with a lot of seat-of-the-pants energy. The sound has a common thread strung out between Coleman's 1968 Blue Note Records album New York Is Now, which paired him with the fiercely blowing sax man Dewey Redman. 

Bradfield and Goldberg rip it up at times. Other times, find them dancing in otherworldly, parallel dimension tangos. Bradfield brings his tenor and soprano sax to the mix, along with his particularly mellifluous bass clarinet, giving the album something of an Eric Dolphy vibe at times. Goldberg plays clarinet and contra alto clarinet here, bringing unique colors into the mix, and pianist Melford sits in as a free jazz wild card, as inspired as Cecil Taylor with the free-ranging zest she adds to the mix.

Beyond the opener, Bradfield contributes one tune. Goldberg brings in a pair and Melford adds two of her own distinctive compositions. Drummer Hall's "Aargh" closes the show with a dose of whimsy and a spring in its step. Meanwhile, Melford's "A Line With A Mind of Its Own" that points to the pianist's fascination with visual art, especially abstractionist Cy Twombly, who created the cover art for her  2025 recording,  Splash (Intakt Records). The tune is reimagined beautifully for quintet here.

  A collective iconoclasm and pervasive surprise is the plan of the day on the vivacious live recording—serious music that does not turn its back on whimsy and a good time for all.