The Hearinga Suite

Pianist and AACM founder Muhal Richard Abrams recorded this album in 1989 with an 18-piece ensemble that included four trumpets, four trombones, five reeds, cello, bass, glockenspiel and drums. It’s a fascinatingly varied record; while the opening “Hearinga” is a lush big band piece, the second track, “Conversations With The Three Of Me,” starts out as romantic solo piano before lurching sideways into a very late ’80s synth exercise featuring the sampled sound of water sloshing and fake digital marimbas; it could be one of Frank Zappa’s Synclavier experiments. The synths return midway through “Aura Of Thought – Things,” and it’s as if the Residents have stormed the stage midway through a big band concert. When Abrams and his orchestra stay in the realm of acoustic jazz, though, the music is beautiful and hypnotic. Abrams’ writing is astonishingly detailed and dramatic, weaving horn lines around each other as percussion instruments ping and rattle. The sweeping, romantic “Oldfotalk” opens with an unaccompanied trumpet solo that’s absolutely majestic, and the way the band comes in will take your breath away.