Alan Sondheim with Christopher Diasparra
& Edward Schneider
Cutting Board
Reviewed by BravoMarco

A new release from legendary label ESP-Disk – Alan Sondheim’s eighth release & nearly 50 years since his first with the label. Avant-garde jazz, experimental, blues-ey & folk sounds from around the world. Not that easy to sum up. Apart from the three saxophones on offer we have a plethora of instruments that take you to far off places. Just great. Like: Black sea folk crossed with mellow Jazz & a hand grenade. Pure Californium……No FCC’s. All instrumental. 10&12 solo guitars. Play any: Loving 1,2,5,7,9,10

1) Xenon (5.40) Intense. Mellow sax over gut wrenching worldly instruments.
2) Argon (7.37) Middle Eastern, Turkish flavor, with that mellow sax underneath.
3) Neon (3.20) Harmonica & sax, playing the blues – Sort of.
4) Krypton (2.23) More like an Eastern European / Australian odyssey
5) Helium (6.46) Indy Folk has nothing on this –Slow paced wonderment.
6) Carbon (5.18) Similar to 2. The saxophones combining with great gusto.
7) Silicon (5.39) Sultry sax together with passionate strings.
8) Oxygen (5.39) Guitar led with the saxophones battling it out.
9) Nitrogen (4.20) Again, the laid-back combined with the manic.
10) Germanium (4.18) Could be Kentucky & the high lonesome sound transplanted to a distant land. Slow, infectious & brilliant.
11) Platinum (5.04) Ukulele & the saxophones up against each other.
12) Iridium (9.55) A funky feel & a fair amount of freestyle balladeering, it does settle down slightly. A marathon guitar twanging riotous festival.
13)Cobalt (4.18) Hot & sticky, like a shvitz house.