Bass clarinetist Jason Stein, double bassist Damon Smith, and drummer-percussionist Adam Shead constitute an improvising unit with two prior releases as a trio plus two in combination with pianist Marilyn Crispell. With Five Nights in the Midwest, the threesome explodes back onto the scene with a 3CD set documenting a tour from December of 2025. The seven improvisations, presented with no edits or cuts, retain the continuity of the tour and reinforce the sheer brilliance of the trio as they personify free jazz at its very best. This astounding release is out now from Irritable Mystic Records and Balance Point Acoustics.
The tour, encapsulated in Five Nights in the Midwest, ran from December 9th to the 14th across five performances in four states, starting at the Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, WI, moving on to State Street Pub in Indianapolis, IN, then Spot Tavern in Lafayette, IN, after that Dissonant Works in St. Louis, MO, and last, Reverberation Records in Bloomington, IL.
These five gigs are represented by seven improvisations. The Spot Tavern performance consists of three pieces from two sets, as the other locales found the group unfurling one improv, most of them over 25 minutes long. Interestingly, the first Spot Tavern set is Five Nights in the Midwest’s longest by a whisker at 29:26.
The music created by this triangle is intense but never grueling. It expands the potentialities of free jazz at its most energetic, tapping into the Fire Music-Ecstatic root while mapping distinct territory and more than doubling their output as a trio; they debuted in 2022 with the Volumes & Surfaces CD and followed up that disc with Hum the next year.
In 2024, they dove into the Crispell collaboration with Spi-raling Horn and added Live at the Hungry Brain with the pianist last October. These four prior releases establish the familiarity that allows the group to extend the interactions without running low on creative steam. It also helps that Stein has mastered the bass clarinet, a highly difficult instrument to play, hence its sweetly rough tones aren’t heard that much.
Eric Dolphy was the bass clarinet pioneer; most subsequent players have followed Dolphy’s example by making the bass clarinet their second or third horn. Hardly anyone has followed Stein’s path and focused exclusively on the instrument. This means his blowing can get wonderfully aggressive while possessing a sense of control that deepens these abstract tangles.
Smith’s plucking is thunderous but supple, and his occasional string bowing further broadens the sonic tapestries conjured by the three. It suffices to say that this is a leaderless combo (one should apply the same equality to the records with Crispell), and Shead’s contributions throughout attain a fine level of expressiveness without upsetting the overall balance of the exchanges.
It’s exceedingly rare for improvisation to reach these plateaus, much less sustain them for such lengths. Five Nights in the Midwest is an utter gem that reinforces the inexhaustible fount of free jazz artistry. Stein, Smith, and Shead carry the torch.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
