Andrew Cyrille

X Man is a quartet album led by drummer Andrew Cyrille with flutist James Newton, bassist Anthony Cox and acoustic guitarist Alix Pascal, recorded at Sear Sound in New York on 8 and 9 May 1993 and released by Soul Note in 1994. Each of the four wrote two of the eight pieces. With no piano and no horns, flute and guitar carry the melodies over bass and drums, and the sound of the group stays light and open.

Pascal's Answer Me opens the disc and his Lydia comes later. Cox wrote Novo and 5:05, which is the long centre of the record at about seventeen and a half minutes. Cyrille's pieces are A Simple Melody and the closing Akan, and Newton wrote E-Squat and the title track, which runs close to ten minutes. The disc lasts about an hour, and more than a quarter of it belongs to 5:05. Shared writing makes the leader one voice among four, and Cyrille's drumming works as much in colour and accompaniment as in time. Jon Rosenberg recorded, mixed and edited the session, Gennaro Carone mastered it and Flavio Bonandrini produced it. Ducale's listing credits the leader with drums and percussion and gives the guitarist as Alix "Tit" Pascal.

This is the Soul Note CD 121262-2, first released in 1994.