condition (record/cover): NM / EX-

The trombone had a strange couple of decades after bop, and then Ray Anderson arrived and made it sound like the funniest, dirtiest, most physically expressive instrument in the room. Right Down Your Alley is his trio with Mark Helias and Gerry Hemingway, three players out of the Anthony Braxton orbit who had figured out that free playing and a hard backbeat are not opposites. Multiphonics, plunger work, growls that come straight out of Ellington's brass section, and then a sudden turn into a melody so straight it feels like a joke at your expense. The rhythm section never plays a supporting role for more than eight bars at a time.

Original Italian Soul Note pressing, 1984. Loose, loud, technically absurd and genuinely enjoyable. Anderson at his most unbuttoned.