John Tchicai, Garrison Fewell, Tino Tracanna, Paolino Dalla Porta

Big Chief Dreaming brings together John Tchicai, the saxophonist who grew up in Denmark and first came to prominence in 1960s New York, playing and recording with Albert Ayler, Don Cherry and Archie Shepp, and Garrison Fewell, an American guitarist whose reputation was built mostly teaching and playing in Europe. John Kelman, reviewing it for All About Jazz in July 2005, wrote that it was intended as the first of many collaborations between the two. They are joined by saxophonist Tino Tracanna, bassist Paolino Dalla Porta and drummer Massimo Manzi, and the quintet's twelve pieces came out on Soul Note in 2005.

Tchicai plays tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, Tracanna soprano and tenor, Fewell keeps the clean hollowbody tone Kelman calls his signature. Everyone except Dalla Porta brought compositions, and between the written pieces sit freely improvised duos and trios. Instant Intuition and Grappa To Go are improvised duets for Fewell and Tracanna, while the title track is an open improvisation for Tchicai, Fewell and Manzi. Tchicai's Prayer For Right Guidance rests on a drum figure whose metre keeps shifting, and Tracanna's Simplicity is a two-chord vamp with a relaxed swing. Kelman heard Tchicai more lyrical and less extreme than usual and called the record "both successful and surprisingly approachable". Bill Shoemaker, in Point of Departure (2005), heard material ranging "from Ornettish dirges to puckish, Monk-inspired romps and workouts driven by oddly accented grooves", held together by the quintet's quietly urgent temperament, and saw the album as a good way to reintroduce the label to American listeners after years of absence.

Soul Note CD 121385-2, first released in 2005.