Hugh Ragin’s three expansive duets with pianist Marc Sabatella on Gallery are somewhat impressionistic. There is a languid beauty to the music even when the material is built upon jagged contours, and there is a translucency to Ragin and Sabatella’s exchanges even when the temperature of the music occasionally spikes; credit Ragin’s ability to make any line sing, and Sabatella’s sensitivity in curling around Ragin’s statements. The luminosity of the music is enhanced by CIMP’s live to 2-track recording technique, which allows Ragin’s clarion horn to meld with a very full piano sound.
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