Daniel Carter: Open Question, Vol. 2

If the title warning Open Question, Vol. 2 fails to alert one to what one was about to get into while listening to the unhinged, yet oddly disciplined and methodic rhubarb created off-the-cuff by radical downtown saxophone legend Daniel Carter, equally rebellious tenor Ayumi Ishito, pianist Zachary Swanson and drummer Jon Panikkar, well, maybe gullibility is, without doubt, a human trait. Or perhaps it is just our renowned, innate inquisitiveness and speculation that makes things like Open Question, Vol. 2 possible. And welcome.

By no means is Open Question, Vol. 2 everyone's cup of tea, but that has never stopped these manic maestros, especially when Carter is at the helm, playing a strong rogue hand in the improvised theatre. Long standing veterans of the global avant-garde, Carter, the younger Ishitio and Plaks, Swanson, who plays with song but never gives into structure, and Panikkar, who swings and pulls at will, actively and reactively volley thoughts and rebuttals. Call and response. Here-say and nay-say; the whole noisy entreaty of the human commotion and need to communicate.

Recorded live in session in Brooklyn, Open Question, Vol. 2 all thirty-nine spontaneous, combustible minutes of it, swells, gambles, capsizes. The quintet swear no allegiance to any one style. Plaks drives "Joy." Its fervor tells no lies. Gives no clue to where the music goes next but follows willfully. Available on all digital formats, music this bold leaves itself open not only to conjecture but, at worse, ridicule. But music this bold also has to be this honest.