Old School

Spectral, a fine trio of out-there improvisers, is a throwback of sorts to the abstract collective improvisation that evolved from free jazz after the 1960s. It's not clear whether there is (or ever was) much of an audience for this sort of thing, so I was pleased when a "crowd" of 30 or so fans and the merely curious turned out for last night's free performance in Palo Alto, put on by Earthwise Productions. I was equally pleased when a few folks skulked out at the end of the 20-minute first piece. They were, presumably, in the "curious" category, and had not signed up for this noise. That's OK: there's a place for music that pushes people outside their comfort zone, and props to them for giving it a polite listen.

Spectral consists of Larry Ochs and Dave Rempis on saxes and Darren Johnston on trumpet; last night they were joined by Madalyn Merkey and Tim Perkis on electronics. The music is all texture and soundscape: evolving patterns and configurations of tones and spaces echoing around the room– no tunes, no beats. Without a bass, and Rempis having left his bari at home, the sound palate was treble-heavy, with bell-like overtones from the three brass horns joining Perkis's preference for ringing distortions.

Merkey and Perkis sat stage left and stage right, tapping at laptops and twiddling knobs. Between the two of them, they made a pretty good humpback whale– Merkey providing pops, clicks, and whistles, Perkis adding bellows and fuzzed cries and moans. But their whale was usually swimming somewhere pretty far off in the ocean, and the horns took center stage.

Rempis on alto and Ochs on tenor and soprano are both masters of the genre, combining rich tone with bursting, angular runs and odd effects. To my ear, Ochs ran a little warmer and Rempis a little more aggressive last night. Johnston, meanwhile, has a more gentle sound, often playing in the airy style of Bill Dixon. Standing center stage, he stooped down frequently to switch out one of the four or five mutes at his feet. Johnston is a master with the plunger, and showed off just about every sound his horn can make, always in the right place at the right time, always sensitive to the ensemble's direction.

Much of what I like best about the jazz being made right now is the incorporation of rhythms from Latin, African, and hip-hop traditions, often mobilized in subtle and novel ways by the great new generation of drummers like Eric Harland and Henry Cole. What I'm much less fond of is the tendency toward highly structured compositions that offer much less space for extended improvisation, spontaneity, or looseness. There can be a bloodlessness to it. Spectral is unabashed in its commitment to a now older, less user-friendly mode of jazz-making, not without structure, but open to any sound an instrument can make and ready to let loose and see where things go. It ain't got that swing, and you'll never hum along. So is it jazz after all? As Philip Levine put it, call it music.