Hirsh / Swell / Clouse / Parker: Out On A Limb

Can déjà vu be contagious? Or at least a particular quality or disposition that is communicable? This might be the question to ask after sitting down with Out On A Limb by the improvising quartet of Steve Hirsh, Steve Swell, Jim Clouse, and William Parker. The music this unit created spontaneously in April 2024 does not appear from thin air, it is a product of a half-century of innovation and modernism in music.

Much of that history has been written by bassist William Parker, working with the pioneers Cecil Taylor, Peter Brötzmann, Bill Dixon, Charles Gayle, David S. Ware and Matthew Shipp, plus leading his ensembles, small and large. Likewise, trombonist Steve Swell has been called upon by Parker, and Anthony Braxton, to add to their bands as well as leading a trio, his Fire Into Music quartet, and other various duos and large ensembles.

Parker and Swell are joined by two technicians of the avant-garde. Jim Clouse might be better known to those who read the credits to recordings, as he has recorded, mixed and mastered hundreds (maybe a thousand) modern studio sessions. Here he plays various saxophones, drawing from all the music he has absorbed over the years. Steve Hirsh made a splash on Chad Fowler's Mahakala Music in 2021 recording with Joel Futterman, then Eri Yamamoto, Ivo Perelman, Zoh Amba and William Parker.

The three lengthy improvised tracks (the shortest being twenty-three minutes) draw on the quartet's collective memories. Needless to say, many avenues are explored here, but specific themes also arrive with each track. "But Where" harkens back to "The Chase" by Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray. Not that Close and Swell are playing some proto-bebop, but they are in pursuit, wrapping lines around each other while Hirsh and Parker act as the engines. With "Out On A Limb," memories of Charles Mingus' workshop come to mind. Parker instigates with some fat blues, and the others follow his example. The finale, "Escape Velocity" opens with bowed bass, followed by saxophone and trombone incantations and Hirsh's brushwork. The piece follows in the tradition of John Coltrane's spiritual mediations. The quartet creates this spontaneously composed prayer out of thin air. This music is new, one has an eerie feeling it has been internalized by listening habits and also the fine musicians here.