Wild Mans Band: Three Rocks and a Pine

The Wild Mans Band tries to live up to its name on Three Rocks and a Pine. Their front line contains Gustafsson on tenor and baritone and Peter Brotzmann on alto, tenor, clarinet and taragot, an instrument played in the Balkans that sounds like a soprano sax. Peter Friis Nielsen plays bass and Peter Ole Jorgensen drums. There’s textural and timbral variety here due to Brotzmann’s doubling-when’s the last time you heard jazz taragot? He and Gustafsson, like Vandermark, have their work pretty much together technically. Gustafsson gets around his baritone like it was a tenor. Nielson and Jorgensen play creatively, both individually and collectively, adding substantially to the interest of the album.

Originally Published April 1, 2000