SoundDance

The release of 'SoundDance' celebrates the 80th birthday of the hugely influential pianist and composer Muhal Richard Abrams, a double CD set that captures him live in concert in two fully-improvised duo performances.

Disc one, "Focus, ThruTime Time" features Chicago tenor saxophone titan Fred Anderson in his first release with Abrams despite a history going back over fifty years. It is sadly also perhaps the final recording of Anderson, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 81. The second, "SoundDance", features Abrams with the laptop and trombone of George Lewis, the composer and MacArthur Fellow who is well known for his innovative work in interactive computer music.

The performances place Abrams in two very different situations: His duo with Anderson finds him in a more familiar acoustic setting, while the one with Lewis finds him negotiating through a vast array of acoustic and electronic sound textures. Both performances are unfettered by traditional song structure and represent the height of spontaneous artistic invention.