David S. Ware Quartet & Matthew Shipp - Great Bliss Vol. 1 (2018)

Since this is pianist Matthew Shipp's first session with David S. Ware (and only his second recording date ever), it's safe to say Great Bliss, Volume 1 is the launching pad for the quartet that helped make the tenor saxophonist's name and reputation. Conceived from the start as a two-CD project, it finds the leader intent on establishing his multi-instrumentalist credentials with three tracks featuring him on saxello, two on flute, one on stritch, and just two on his main axe.

"Forward Motion" exerts an inexorable force with Shipp's block chord undercurrent, a compelling opening flute solo from Ware, and drummer Marc Edwards' textural chimes. (His bells, chimes, and cymbals are extremely well-recorded, a good thing since he doesn't play much straight drum kit here). "Angular" is another title to take literally, a feature for the duck quack timbre of Ware's saxello, with the melody a collection of fragmented motifs leading to brief solos. But "Bliss Theme" sounds downright mainstream in a vaguely Atlantic- era John Coltrane way, with Ware getting big, mellifluous tones in his tenor's lower register a great choice to trip someone up in a blindfold test, because it just doesn't square with Ware's avant-garde reputation in most circles.

The self-descriptive "Cadenza" is all about flurries, with the stritch's more reedy, Middle Eastern tone before Ware switches to saxello over tympani on "Sound Bound," with Shipp and Parker taking serious solos over Edwards' changing percussion colors. The closing "Thirds" is full-bore quartet, with Ware on tenor and Shipp both sallying above the protean rumble the latter's directness and economy comes through very strongly.

But "Thirds" is preceded by a recited poem with flute ("Mind Time"), and saxello solo ("Saxelloscape One"), and that really tells the story of Great Bliss, Volume 1. It's all too much about fragments and individual displays of versatility it's weird these pieces came first, because all the tangents and experiments are here at the expense of the core, of the central foundation of Ware's music. You can read about his vision of that in the excellent liner notes here, but Great Bliss, Volume Two is better if you actually want to hear it.