Jeff Cosgrove/John Medeski/Jeff Lederer | History Gets Ahead of the Story
(Grizzley Music)
Jeffcosgrovemusic.com
While bassist and bandleader William Parker has been an inspiration for multiple generations of forward-thinking jazz musicians, good luck finding his tunes in anyone’s book but his own. Past Parker associate and drummer Jeff Cosgrove, alongside Woodstock-area organist John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood) and wind player Jeff Lederer, at long last give Parker’s singular gifts as a composer the rousing recognition they deserve. The trio draws ample scoops from the gutbucket on the opener, “O’Neal’s Porch,” fracturing into pointillistic beads of texture and leaving Lederer’s altissimo howling like a hot wind in the distance. Medeski also sets his drawbars for higher vibrations and joins Lederer’s flute in a chirping dialog of startling synchronicity to open the impellent free bop of “Little Bird.” Cosgrove deftly supports throughout, never overplaying. The probing, noir-ish “Harlem” closes the set and brings specificity to the mystery, much as the trio does for William Parker’s considerable songbook.
This article appears in November 2020.
