Klotski documents the live, free-improvised performance of Chinese tenor sax and traditional flute player Lao Dan with three of the most important figures from the Chicago free music scene – pianist Mabel Kwan, who has deep roots in contemporary music, double bass player Joshua Abrams (of Natural Information Society), and drummer-percussionist Michael Zerang. The album was recorded live at the Elastic Arts in Chicago in April 2024.
Lao Dan is known for his unique approach to the traditional Chinese flutes – xiao, bawu, dizi, suona, as well as the Armenian traditional duduk and other bamboo flutes, pushing their sonic palettes into free jazz and free improvised music. The performance opens with Lao Dan embracing Peter Brötzmann-like, ecstatic, and restless fire-spitting tenor sax tactics on the opening piece, «Green Tongue». But when Lao Dan picks the traditional Chinese double-reed suona on the following «Wandering Donkey», the Quartet’s dynamics begin to open up, and enjoy driving rhythmic spells and free improvised games that highlight the independent, opinionated, and versatile voices of Lao Dan, Kwan, Abrams, and Zerang, as well as the instant rapport of this quartet.
Since then, the performance swings between urgent, ferocious, and energetic pieces, with Lao Dan on the tenor sax, still owing much to theBrötzmann-like seminal full blast blows, and more playful, exploratory pieces, when Lao Dan picks the traditional flutes. The latter pieces allow the patient and emphatic weaving of complex sonic universes, especially of Lao Dan. The performance reaches its climax with the last piece, the sixteen-minute title piece that tells a complex and layered musical drama, which begins in Ancient China, crosses continents and oceans, and emphasizes Lao Dan as a brilliant storyteller, and is beautifully enriched by Kwan, Abrams, and Zerang. Lao Dan calls this kind of performance «modern pioneer music».
Eyal Hareuveni
Lao Dan (tenor saxophone, Chinese flute, suona), Mabel Kwan (piano), Joshua Abrams (double bass), Michael Zerang (drums, percussion)
