Meanwhile, over at the space observatory, a new asteroid has been discovered and is coming in to land on our planet in the early weeks of 2025. The Ancients are, on the face of it, a fairly conventional free jazz trio being served up fresh on the Eremite label. Closer inspection shows them to be a multi-generational unit made up of some significant old guard and younger genre-busting bodies. These are firstly, on tenor sax, Isaiah Collier, a young firebrand of a player from Chicago whose ‘The Almighty’ album from 2024 was noted favourably by the New York Times. On bass, we have William Parker, who is hailed as one of the greatest bassists in the history of jazz, not to mention a multi-instrumentalist, composer and notable name on a discography that has amassed around six hundred entries over more than fifty years. Finally, there is drummer William Hooker, a player of massive free ebullience who has been swinging and crashing down walls since his self-released 1976 double LP opus ‘Is Eternal Life’. Anyone familiar with the work of Tony Williams should feel the primal force that is Hooker, he completes the Ancients line up and adds to the sense of gravitas this debut offering presents. Eremite Records made their name around thirty years ago in the free jazz universe, so when this new sighting, comprising four LP side-length improvisational recordings, emerged into view, it was obviously something we jazz heads needed to take a closer look at.
Each of the four spontaneous sets begins with a low hum of a framework, with both the kneading bass of William Parker and the tentative drum strokes of William Hooker teasing the piece into life. Isaiah Collier lays down a sax figure or two, and gradually, the ball is given a gentle nudge down the hill. Then, as it gathers some pace and momentum, so too does it pick up texture, the motions can be tangibly felt with this little extra abrasiveness. By the time the amalgamation of sound and energy is at its accelerated high point, this feels more like a life-threatening comet tumbling through the atmosphere towards a head-on collision with the earth. Planets are altered to the sound of this cacophonous music, with drums that could forge new mountainous regions, bass that would agitate the rivers and streams into motion before bursting into glorious waterfalls and a screaming sax that might summon a cowering natural civilisation back to its former glory. That each improvisation realises such dazzling central eruptions is testimony to the brilliance of the players and their telepathic chemistry. There is one moment where Collier keeps on returning to a full blown animated figure, taking a breath before repeatedly returning to it as if taking a swing with a sledgehammer to concrete, each time taking a moment to observe the new cracks, lesions and shapes that are revealed. It is as if the trio were determined to prize open new sonic worlds through sheer force, however free-jazz without context can be the place where the music loses me, but that is certainly not the case here, the structures built are all sufficiently solid that when the playing hits a frenzied peak, the listener is never lost or cut loose with the sense of abandon.
Parker originally formed the trio to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves ‘Mind Body Deal’ exhibition at the Institute Of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The sets were recorded at 2220 Arts and Archives in LA and the chapel in San Francisco, they are longform in the truest sense and simply identified on the double album with titles such as ‘2023-05-12 LA Set II’. For reference points with the past, maybe think the Cecil Taylor Unit or Ornette Coleman’s Golden Circle Band but really, music that grows out of in-the-moment self-expression such as this can only ever really sound like itself, which is exactly what it does. There is much to love in the jazz world of 2025, a lot of it is fairly accessible too and no less thrilling for it but if you fancy really sinking your teeth into something challenging, The Ancients are here to sort the real space cadets out from the pretenders. Do you dig? I think you will.
The Ancients (31st January 2025) eremite records
Bandcamp: https://eremiterecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-ancients
Forced Exposure: https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/ancients-isaiah-collier-william-hooker-william-parker-the-the-anc-2lp/MTE.080.81LP.html
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