Jane Ira Bloom / Allison Miller: Tues Days

The story goes that, during spring 2021, on five consecutive Tuesdays in March and April, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and drummer Allison Miller recorded a handful of improvised sax and drum duets just to see what might happen and evolve. Well, a lot does because with Tues Days both Miller and Bloom cut their inner hippie loose to gambol out in the fields with flowers in their hair and their skirts all a-billow.

It is not all fun and games, as any ageing hippie learns, but still you have gotta get out in the sunshine, air it out and bond; close the chasm that technology, in equal terms ,either helps us cross or broadens, and jam merrily on. Even if it is remotely, you are never alone.

So we have the title track, a true reversal of fortune given the last two years of our human story, opening a dance fest of ideas. "Technicolor" vaunts and veers into the thoughtful and sparing "Rowing in the Dark." Pensive yet hopeful, the duo share epiphanies that last long after something proves otherwise.

"This Is It" sets the foot tapping once again while "The Wild Frontier" beckons in its own obstinate, oblique way. Bloom screams, Miller skitters and somehow everything is right with world. "Light Years Away" is that quieter moment everyone needs. "A's and J's Test Kitchen" is the duo's (and listeners') just reward for the unbridled, pure human engagement that Tues Days swears by.

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