MMBC | Terma
(Independent)
Although the pandemic has prevented many musicians from gathering to play together in person, a happy byproduct of the situation is that it’s led some of them to mine their pre-lockdown recordings and unearth unheard gold for release. Such is the tale behind this set of nine untitled improvisations recorded back in 2007 by MMBC, the trio of Kingston bassist Michael Bisio, saxophonist Michael Monhart, and drummer Ben Chadabe. Monhart and Bisio (the latter of the Matthew Shipp Trio) go even farther back, having played together in Seattle before they both moved to New York in 2005, and on Terma (Tibetan for “hidden treasure”) the deep communication they share is copiously clear. But Chadabe is a perfect partner for them, adept at knowing when to assert himself, when to hang back and let his collaborators speak their piece, and when to bring balance to this superb and distinctly spacious music. Terma is gold worth digging for.
This article appears in March 2022.
