An alumnus of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (
AACM), percussionist
Thurman Barker moved from Chicago to New York in the '80s, where he expanded his horizons and played with a wide diversity of players. This collection is a bit of a hodgepodge, in which a few unrelated groups are recorded. The most accessible are the ones with tenor saxophonist
John Stubblefield and pianist
John Medeski, in which
Barker fuels some fine inside performances from his colleagues. The three live duets with pianist
Marilyn Crispell are a bit more adventurous, although they suffer from less than perfect audio fidelity. The feature for vocalist
Thomas Buckner, who is joined by violinist
Melvin Gibbs, among others, takes the group to the edges. ~ Steve Loewy