Joe Morris the bassist appears on cellist Daniel Levin’s Don’t Go It Alone (Riti). Vibist Matt Moran and trumpeter Dave Ballou make this a quartet, and a very strong one at that. The band favors a rarefied, gently shaded and spare environment, one where players constantly move between foreground and background. Often times the band only needs the light pulse of Morris’ bass to give the music shape. Ballou alternates between percussive squeals with Kenny Wheeler-like singing lines. Moran adds a percussive touch and much mystery, as he did on Ellery Eskelin’s recent Vanishing Point (Hatology). Still, this is Levin’s record. His confident contributions can and do carry the recording when they need to.
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