With the exceptionally accomplished and adaptable Bay Area multi-wind player Phillip Greenlief having just relocated to Maine, we'll be seeing less of him in California. So now's a ripe time to sample five of his wide-ranging recordings from the past year -- and buy some, so we won't miss him as much.
Phillip Greenlief, Scott Amendola, "Stay With It" (Clean Feed). Greenlief greets the resumption of his three-decade musical partnership with free-range drummer Amendola via a gleeful soul dance on alto, then proceeds to infinitely trilling and smiling clarinet as Scott does the low bump. Greenlief's tenor wheezes & sneezes through the dust of Amendola's clock shop of electronix & percussion. The clarinet reprises to fence with the spontaneous light ripostes of Amendola's entire kit. "Farfalle en Mare" is utterly eerie, just mouthpiece breaths, electronics . . . and what is that mutated cymbal at the end saying? "Goodbye?" Listen/buy here.
Phillip Greenlief, Eli Piña, "Otras Palabras." Greenlief traveled to Mexico City for a tenor-sax dialogue with young Piña (left channel), who inspired unflagging conversation on three long tracks. First the two roll with nonstop intensity, nearly argumentative. Then they develop a beautiful balance, with Piña uttering complex glottal statements and Greenlief, via circular breathing, hovering constantly in ever-varying patterns. The crowning finale is a wonderful shower of textural interplay emphasizing the two tenors' off-the-staff blowing options. Language of art & heart. Listen/buy here.
Animals & Giraffes, "At Medicine for Nightmares" (Evander). Put aside any prejudice against the beatnik-ish concept of Animals & Giraffes, founded on the poetry of Claudia La Rocco and the tenor & clarinet of Phillip Greenlief. Just listen to the effect of her deadpan line repetitions and emotional excisions, and how Greenlief's winds complement them with spare subtlety. Three more musicians contribute to this live recording -- Kyle Bruckman, Alexandra Buschman-Román and Adrian Camacho Torres on electronics, oboe, English horn, contrabass and voices -- but you barely notice them except to feel that the room just got deeper. It really is like listening to a concert in your home. Listen/buy here.
Evelyn Davis, Fred Frith, Phillip Greenlief, "Lantskap Logic: Hidden Danger Lets Me In" (Clean Feed). Recorded at the Mills College Chapel with Evelyn Davis on pipe organ, this is the kind of rumble, shake & tingle your surround-sound system was made for. Davis leans on the keys for cinematic doom, dissonance and dashing runs. Renowned avant guitarist Frith scrapes, screams and abruptly subsides to arpeggiated calm. And Greenlief's rich, penetrating clarinet stands out above his saxes in filling the reverberative space, whether with seagull cries or flowing declamations. Three super musicians having an absolute blast. Listen/buy here.
"2 + 2: Phillip Greenlief & Jon Raskin + Shoko Hikage & Kanoko Nishi." Aligning the extreme reeds of Greenlief and ROVA Sax Quartet's Jon Raskin with a pair of kotos was a smart idea in 2006, when this was recorded, and it still runs a brush through yer brain now that the record has finally emerged. One look at the long, thick strings and coffinlike body of a koto raises the possibilities of resonance, percussion, overtone, twang and sproing; double it and add extended saxes, and you can hear prop planes roaring past, urban traffic jams, factory hustle, zoo feeding time, comic swordplay . . . you know, MUSIC. Listen/buy here.