The Gerry Hemingway Quartet

From time to time as I explore the Penguin Guide to Jazz (may it be praised) I find an artist who reminds me of what all this jazz is about.  Tonight it was the Gerry Hemingway Quartet.  Hemingway is a drummer largely devoted to avant garde.  He has played with Anthony Braxton and appears, I believe, on one of the Reggie Workman albums that I frequently feature. 

I am playing 'Back Again Some Time' from Devil's Paradise.  This album blends the avant garde sensibility to solid, bluesy melodies in a way that will move you way past the red line.  Here is the lineup:

• Double Bass – Mark Dresser
• Drums – Gerry Hemingway
• Saxophone – Ellery Eskelin
• Trombone – Ray Anderson

You might think that Mark Dresser is a warning sign.  Don't worry.  This is no space music experience.  It is a digging down to the mother lode of jazz flavor.

I am also playing 'Waitin', from The Whimbler.  

• Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – Mark Helias
• Drums, Producer [Recording], Composed By – Gerry Hemingway
• Tenor Saxophone – Ellery Eskelin
• Trumpet – Herb Robertson

 The horn work on both albums is glowing.  I especially liked Anderson's trombone.