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The fertile ground between hard bop and free jazz continues to attract the next generation of jazz artists, most notably trombonist Samuel Blaser. On Pieces of Old Sky, his new CD from Clean Feed, the Swiss-born and New York-developed brassman (now residing in Berlin—yes, he’s an inveterate globetrotter) shows off the fruits of his rapid development as a bandleader and instrumentalist. In a quartet featuring three like-minded collaborators—guitarist Todd Neufeld, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Tyshawn Sorey — Blaser delivers a work that is both imaginative and forceful. Pieces of Old Sky begins with the title track, a 17-minute long opus that immediately showcases the delicate and ruminative strengths of Blaser’s quartet. Neufeld’s painterly guitar serves as a perfect foil for Blaser’s wide-open declarations, with Morgan’s bass issuing soft punctuation next to Sorey’s atmospheric drums and cymbals. “Chorale I” and “Chorale II,” both clocking in under three minutes, are in a similar vein, seeming in a way like afterthoughts or simply “more pieces of old sky.” 100gr
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