Ghostly Thoughts

More free blowing from England. Texturally, John Adams' guitar adds much in a session of this kind. He uses sounds liberally, anything at his disposal to create the necessary waves to be part of the action. And that action is aggressive: Dunmall comes from the late John Coltrane era in terms of his improvisational muscle. Like Peter Brötzmann, he is a wailer and squawker. Mark Sanders is a ferocious drummer who comes out of both Roy Haynes and Ginger Baker. Adams is the anchor with his fragile arpeggios and haunted chords. Dunmall and Sanders are out after each other from "Misericords" onwards, pummeling each other with atonal screeching and rimshot blasts that would knock down a rhino at 20 paces. As for ideas, it's very difficult to determine what the game of this trio is — except to say that there is plenty of humor here (especially on the part of Sanders). Dunmall's attempts at a melodic framework to build the group's improvisation on fail miserably; harmonically they are bankrupt of ideas, and modally there isn't enough there for Adams to weave a web around. It's left to sound then, as on the title track and "Fred the Needle," to shape shift into some other reality than free jazz/improv, though it never reveals itself. From the listener's perspective, this is nothing more than a wanking session.