Clarinet savant Ben Goldberg had spent the darkest days of the pandemic focused on being a bright creative light, but his release to open up the Year 2022 brings out a spontaneous collaboration with guitar great Nels Cline and drumming eminence Tom Rainey that predates all that. Goldberg, Cline and Rainey are all very good at what they do, but that would mean very little if they were not also good at handling the telepathy end of things. The Art Spirit, Live at the Owl Music Parlor is a document of a club date from May, 2016 that does a pretty good job showing what these musicians are capable of individually and a great job showing what they can do collectively with no premeditation. I think The Art Spirit begins and ends with the state of mind that the trio brings to this gig; they are audacious, playful and even relaxed. It’s almost cliché to say of improvisations that the musicians take the music wherever the spirit moves them to take it, but it really feels that way over this trio of extended performances. Moreover, Ben Goldberg has a unique flair for making (but not force-fitting) his clarinet fit into…
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Ben Goldberg, Nels Cline + Tom Rainey – 'The Art Spirit, Live at the Owl Music Parlor' (2022)
