Billy Bang, Frank Lowe
Above And Beyond
FormatCDLabelSolid RecordsGenreJazz & Improvisation
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Grand Rapids, Michigan, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, 28 April 2003. The Billy Bang Quintet with Frank Lowe on tenor, Andrew Bemkey on piano, Todd Nicholson on bass and Tatsuya Nakatani on drums. Lowe was playing with one lung. He died that September, and this is his last recording.
Bang and Lowe went back to the loft years and had made a run of duo and group records together. Justin Time, which had Bang under contract for Vietnam: The Aftermath and its sequel, released the tape in 2007 as Above & Beyond: An Evening in Grand Rapids.
Four pieces in sixty-five minutes. Bang's Silent Observation (eighteen minutes), Lowe's Nothing But Love, Bang's Dark Silhouette (twenty-four minutes) and At Play in the Fields of the Lord. Jeff Stockton at All About Jazz advises hearing it as a whole, each player working his way into his solo and the band bringing the tune back into focus, and calls it the quintet at the height of its powers. Mark Saleski, on the same site, thinks Lowe knew something special happened that night. Steve Leggett at AllMusic calls it remarkable.
Japanese CD edition from Solid's Justin Time series.
