Hot-off the inky-bud of last years “Mixed Motion” disk, Tani Tabbal douses more fuel on his growing spate of creative commotions as a leader, producing, for me, the best of his excellent yearly recordings – Triptych. Tabbal is most identified for his long-standing creative/recording partnership with Roscoe Mitchel/Sound Ensemble but has been expounding his releases repertoire with these three recent additions. Triptych esemplasticates traditional, character-rich Bop/Jazz/Blues amalgams with progressive alterities (non four-four rhythms), fleeting compositional group syncopation & of course – ambi-Avantgarde, from roof-melting howlers to slow, edgy, asymmetric agitations & ruminatory expandings. The programme is diverse & uncompromising, demonstrating a massive deck of approaches & wildly varying material structures. On this record, Tabbal has fashioned a trio (one less than his two previous albums), reprising saxophonist Adam Siegel on alto & recruiting Michael Biso on double-bass. The same studio & sound engineer (Ted Orr) have also been stationed once again, securing an extremely attractive sound & finish. There are seven cuts on Triptych encompassing about 42 minutes worth of matter. It’s a great set through & through, but tracks that really protruded for me were “Lhassa And The Buddha” which starts formal (but great) before collapsing in on itself with delicious decomposition. “Rare Thought” is a provokingly atmospheric piece of hyper estranged slow-creep Avant-garde. Adam Siegel ends-up exorcising some excruciating, drawn-out cries & wailings from his instrument, like a grieving phantom mourning her drowned lover in the dead of night. “Red End” is probably the wildest & most astatic piece…a just beneath four-minute flailing of unbidden amok & rut. “Il Kthunk” is another choppy, clashing high-energy poly-cycle of shifting perplexities playing out goodness-knows-what? over a flaming back-drop of Tabbals raucous tumbling…like watching a man fall down four miles of staircase…crumpling this way & that, but always maintaining the same direction. Great playing from everyone, with huge scope on the remit. Tabbal again brings the traditions into new scenarios, shares & expands on the embers/essence & wallops/incants in the full-spectrum of the Avant-garde.

Rekd: 2016

Label: Tabbalia Sound