John O'Gallagher: The Honeycomb

What if jazz was rock-and-roll? Not the corporate-halftime show-American Idol rock, but the dangerous music your parents (maybe grandparents) were afraid of. Remember, there was a time when jazz was threatening. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie startled listeners with their revolutionary 'bebop,' before Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler caused fist fights and mini-riots. Jazz has since been tamed and put on display in Lincoln Center, safe for listeners to consume unscathed.

Be warned, there still are some wild men on the loose, creating seditious music. Exhibit one: alto saxophonist John O'Gallagher. Like his brethren Steve Coleman and Rudresh Mahanthappa, O'Gallagher's music peels back the nice, to deliver pure unembellished jazz. The Honeycomb follows The Anton Webern Project (Whirlwind Recordings, 2013), a sextet recording with vocals that utilized the Austrian composer and conductor's music.

With The Honeycomb, he pares down his approach to a simple trio. O'Gallagher has previously released three trio discs, Dirty Hands (Clean Feed, 2009) and two on the CIMP label, with different bands. This lineup with bassist Johannes Weidenmueller and drummer Mark Ferber, powers-up for some muscular and energetic interactions.

The disc opens with "Uroboros," stilted rawbone composition that lurches angular sounds over an intricate form. The music mixes pugnaciousness with an infectious groove applies by Weidenmueller and Ferber. O'Gallagher reconfigures Charlie Parker's "Relaxin' At Camarillo" into the anagram-titled "Extralogical Railman." The Parker composition gets scrambled as it is tele-transported through time, but the saxophonist pieces the DNA strands back together, making a recognizable yet new animal. The trio has a special chemistry here, it maneuvers a sly a serrated edge on "Eve Day" never overindulging, nor derailing. This is edgy music, played with a dangerous touch.

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