Open or Close brings together the Chicagoans reed player Geof Bradfield (co-founder of Calligram Records, producer of this album, and a professor at Northern Illinois University) and drummer Dana Hall (Associate Dean of the DePaul University School of Music), who have been collaborating for almost thirty years, and the Berkeley-based pianist Myra Melford (a professor at UC Berkeley) and master clarinetist Ben Goldberg, who have been collaborating for more than twenty years. Goldberg recorded an acclaimed trio album with Bradfield and Hall, General Semantics (Delmark 2020). This ad-hoc quartet was recorded live at Chicago’s Green Mill in November 2025.
The performance offered an uplifting synergy of powerful voices and opinionated perspectives on the legacy of modern jazz and free jazz, articulated in a rich, constantly evolving conversation. The quartet opens with Ornette Coleman’s aptly titled, title piece (first recorded on Old and New Dreams’ self-titled album, ECM, 1979), which faithfully captured the quartet dynamics, flying fluidly in and out of quartet, trio, duo, and solo formations. Melford’s thoroughly composed, demanding «A Line With a Mind of Its Own» nods to painter Cy Twombly’s observation that in his work a line «does not illustrate; it is the sensation of its own realization» (and was recorded on Melford’s Splash trio debut album, Intakt, 2025, with a cover painting by Twombly), highlighting her skills as a deeply thoughtful composer and arranger.
«No Brand» is a tribute to the giant of African jazz, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (aka Dollar Brand, who passed away in June 2026), arranged as a sensual, groove-based dance. Goldberg’s «Study of the Blues» cements the timeless, groove-based spirit of this performance, as well as his immediate, organically flowing clarinet-tenor sax interplay with Bradfield. Goldberg’s «Three Ingredients» also begins with a duo with Bradfield, now with contra alto clarinet and bass clarinet, and offers an ironic abstraction of swing-era music through collective improvisation.
Bradfield’s arrangement of South African double bass player Johnny Dyani’s «Lonely Flowers» (from Dyani’s African Bass, Red, 1980), with Goldberg assuming the driving bass duties on contra alto clarinet, puts the quartet into another infectious, hypnotic, groove-based dance. This performance ends with two powerful pieces, «The Kitchen», that use Hall’s theme for a series of intense improvisations, and Hall’s «Aargh», which deepens the free, joyful spirit.
Eyal Hareuveni
Geof Bradfield (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet), Ben Goldberg (clarinet, contra alto clarinet), Myra Melford (piano), Dana Hall (drums, cymbals)
