Friday, August 13, 2010

Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit "Alive"


Today something pretty obscure yet worthy in the free improv realm. It's a group called the Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit and the CD is Alive (Ruby Red Editora 12/2007). Not surprisingly this is a group of improvisers working out of Buffalo, NY. The CD was captured live at Soundlab in that city in 2006.

We have the indefatigable Steve Baczkowski on tenor-bari-bass clarinet, and the churning free drumming of Ravi Padmanabha. (We covered several of their fine duet CDs in previous posts.) They are joined by five local improvisers: Mike Allard on alto, Michael Hermanson on trombone, plus bass, cornet and percussion.

This is dense and invigorating free music Buffalo style. That means that there is a certain old-school, collective sort of blazing that takes place. The music is raw, fundamental, fire-eating. Steve Baczkowski especially appeals to me with his huge sound but everybody gets into the grooveless free groove on this one.

It may be a little hard to find but definitely worth picking up if you like a good old hoot-out!

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