Andrew Cyrille Quartet - The Declaration of Musical Independence album review: Elliptically groovy

In his perceptive sleeve note, New York jazz broadcaster Ben Young uses the phrase "jellyfish motion" to describe the elliptical, elongated grooves of legendary avant garde drummer Andrew Cyrille's new quartet recording, his first as a leader for the ECM label.

Sure, there is purpose and intent in the group’s floaty, attenuated improvisations, but the loose, irregular rhythms are buoyed along and buffeted by deeper, less discernible currents, carried up from the music’s ocean depths.

Bassist Ben Street and keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum weave in and out of the leader's enigmatic phrasing while, above it, guitarist Bill Frisell – a master of this vast and liquid space – drops shafts of musical light that illuminate Cyrille's gorgeous, ambiguous grooves.

[ propermusic.com ]