Cherry Box

A favorite small labels, Eremite has, through the years, painstakingly and lovingly released a consistently high quality discography featuring often lesser-known stellar free jazz performers in quality settings and pressings. Some of these are the direct result of producer Michael Ehlers' travels to obscure clubs where he unearths live performances firsthand. Alto saxophonist Marco Eneidi is an example of a player who should be better known. As of the year of this release (2001), Eneidi had released several fine CDs on his Botticelli Records label and also appeared as a sideman on recordings released on other labels. Despite strong playing and an original sound, he barely registered, if at all, on the Richter scale. For the present recording, he leads a trio with monster string bassist William Parker and drummer Donald Robinson, each of whom understands and is compatible with the saxophonist's wheeling post-bop style of free improvisation. Eneidi's somewhat thin sound is distinguished by its wailing quality, one that combines the searing cry of the prophet with a Bird-like post-bop energy. Given the more than one hour of nearly straight blowing, his occasional lapses into cliché can be forgiven. Most remarkable are his seemingly boundless spurts of energy, shooting forth short phrases like a frenzied cuckoo. Robinson, in particular, is superb in support. The unusual album design lists biographical information for each musician on a different card, with a reference to a web site for the inexhaustible William Parker.