“This is a New England-based quartet with members from different places. Recently I caught a trio with Stephen Haynes, Ben Stapp & Joe Morris which was strong but pretty out! Former Bay area bassist Damon Smith moved to Texas and recently relocated to Boston. No Doubt you recognize his name from his work with Henry Kaiser (Plane Crash Trio & Quintet), Sandy Ewen and John Butcher. Guitarist Jeff Platz generally plays here at DMG at least once a year and sends us discs from different sessions: mostly Boston-based players plus Daniel Carter & Blaise Siwula. Drummer Matt Crane is the one name here I don’t recognize readily although he has worked with Rich Rosenthal. The music here sounds free yet focused. The quartet does a good job of bending their notes together, stretching certain notes in swirls and tight fragments. Mr. Platz rarely if ever plays his guitar with very few recognizable jazz licks. The quartet sounds like they are starting to rock out on “Gather and Knit”, which has a sort-of tribal beat midway through. What I like about this date is this: it is cerebral, never very loud, almost like a dream in which things float by but never abruptly. As this disc evolves, the quartet slowly become more familiar with each other’s playing, different combinations of the players weave in and out of each other’s way. On the first half, Mr. Haynes works with some lower-case, breath like sounds, while later on he erupts in occasional bursts as Mr. Platz weaves layers of lines or fractured sounds around the other members of the quartet. This is a solid (group effort) date with little or no grandstanding.”
