In Full Cry

In Full Cry is Joe Maneri's second recording for ECM, an imprint known for its reverb-drenched jazz recordings, and the label's echoing production suits Maneri well. The reverb, along with minimal accompaniment from bassist John Lockwood and drummer Randy Peterson, provides a base for Maneri and his violinist son, Mat, to improvise over in a slippery, space-filled alien blues. Joe Maneri plays some excellent, atonal piano on a few tracks, but he's even better on the rest, where the clarinet and saxophone allow him to take more liberties with the pitches he plays. The quartet is sparse and mournful on these pieces, and the listener can discern some conventionally sad phrases, featuring fragments of pentatonic scales and traditional songs. But Joe and Mat use typical blues signifiers, such as bent notes and moaning, overblown lines, as a foundation for their free jazz explorations of microtonality, in which the musician divides the octave into a different series of pitches than the 12 used in most Western music. A cursory listen might produce the opinion that the members of Maneri's quartet push bent notes too far or in the wrong direction, or that they're playing out of tune, but close listening reveals that they're simply playing by their own rules.