Denouement is a 1999 release on Fields’ own label and a nice example of his skills. This version of the Ensemble is a sextet, and it includes guitarist Jeff Parker (Chicago Underground Trio, New Horizons Ensemble, Tortoise) and percussionist Hamid Drake-two of Chicago’s finest-along with drummer Michael Zerang and double bassists Hans Sturm and Jason Roebke. Free improvising is still the band’s primary modus operandi, but there’s a better sense of interplay among the participants, and the larger band’s varied sound palette offers a richer sound than the trio. Plus, Parker and Fields often play off of one another, exchanging lines and phrases, which leads the band to do so as well. That interplay is mostly missing on Mamet.
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