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Geof Bradfield: Colossal Abundance

By Dan Bilawsky
August 8, 2024
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In the summer of 2023, saxophonist

Geof Bradfield

saxophone, tenor
b.1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Geof Bradfield and trumpeter

" data-original-title="" title="">Chad McCullough launched Calligram Records—a label focusing on the Chicago creative music scene and its branches. The first batch of albums was strong, with showcases for each of the label heads' respective combo projects, trumpeter

Russ Johnson

trumpet
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Russ Johnson's chordless quartet, and newcomer tenorist

Arman Sangalang

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Arman Sangalang. A wide variety of offerings followed—the global stew of Atlantic Road Trip's first flight, a kicking trio date from guitarist

Scott Hesse

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Scott Hesse, a broad-minded gathering with trumpeter

Rob Parton

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Rob Parton's Ensemble 9+, etc.—and as of Calligram's one-year anniversary, its catalog boasts a dozen dynamic releases. Now, as year two takes off, the future looks even brighter with the arrival of Bradfield's Colossal Abundance.

The power of 12 surrounds and resounds in this large-scale project. Bradfield uses this well-timed opportunity to harness and refract the inherent wonders tied to the magic number—12 pulses of African rhythmic cycles, 12 pitches in Western chromaticism, the combinatorial powers of 12 musicians in this band—and the results are, frankly, astounding. Using the Quaver (Calligram, 2023) band as a core—his quintet featuring Johnson, Hesse, bassist

Clark Sommers

bass
b.1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Clark Sommers and drummer

Dana Hall

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Dana Hall—Bradfield builds by adding like-minded label mates, friends and familiars. On the horn side of the equation he brings in saxophonist/flutist

Anna Webber

saxophone, tenor
b.1984

" data-original-title="" title="">Anna Webber, multi-clarinet maverick

Ben Goldberg

clarinet

" data-original-title="" title="">Ben Goldberg, trumpeter

Derrick Gardner

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Derrick Gardner, trombonist

Norman Palm

trombone

" data-original-title="" title="">Norman Palm and French hornist

Momo Hasselbring Seko

french horn

" data-original-title="" title="">Momo Hasselbring Seko; and on the rhythm front, he puts percussionist

Gregory Beyer

percussion

" data-original-title="" title="">Gregory Beyer in play. The music these artists create together is as exciting as it is unpredictable.

That personnel lineup speaks to outsized sounds, but Bradfield surprises by starting in the other direction—with intimacy—on traditional Shona song "Mahororo." A percussion duet for the leader's mbira and Beyer's berimbau, it nods to the Mother Continent's language, Bradfield's fascination with the finger piano and his studies on it at home and abroad in Zimbabwe. That particular soundprint helps set the scene for a swirling, hypnotically fragmented take on

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane's "Lonnie's Lament" that comes second and serves as a proper introduction to this rangy ensemble. Further demonstrating his band's capabilities, Bradfield offers two distinctly different portraits of Charlie Parker's mother—his own loose-yet-grooving "Adelaide Bailey," arriving next in the running order and carving out space for Goldberg's gleeful contra-alto clarinet and Johnson's temperature-controlling trumpet, and

Jaki Byard

piano
1922 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Jaki Byard's "Mrs. Parker of K.C.," appearing later in a reshaped form as a ride across the Danakil Desert.

"Tuku," honoring Zimbabwean musical icon

Oliver Mtukudzi

guitar
1952 - 2019

" data-original-title="" title="">Oliver Mtukudzi and drawing on influences like

Abdullah Ibrahim

piano
b.1934

" data-original-title="" title="">Abdullah Ibrahim and

Randy Weston

piano
1926 - 2018

" data-original-title="" title="">Randy Weston, gives Gardner and Ward room to shine, opens space for Hall to have at it, and turns for Bradfield's tenor to have the final say in a half-time hideaway. "Kaleidoscope" is pure trance dance, with Bradfield's bass clarinet and Webber's flute each drawing ears out front before the band takes to power play. "Requiem," with Beyer's marimba and Sommers' emotionalized statements serving as a prelude to reflection on life lost in the Middle East, shows the poignant powers of Goldberg's Bb clarinet work.

Wayne Shorter

saxophone
1933 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Wayne Shorter's "United" provides a shift in both sound and mood, with a mixture of big band sonics and small group interplay, comparatively down-the-middle soloing—from Gardner, Bradfield and a delightfully aggressive Hall—and the forwarding of hopeful ideals. Then two sides of the blues bring the album to its end—the spellbinding and haunting "Gandanga Blues," moving with an air of mysticism and mournfulness, and a hip-as-hell, reggae-fied take on

Henry Threadgill

woodwinds
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">Henry Threadgill's "Bermuda Blues," with some primo Palm soloing.

It's incredibly rare for an album to hold attention from beginning to end and almost unheard of for one to work so easily and seamlessly from so many points of arrival and departure. But Colossal Abundance comes with those gifts. It's the ne plus ultra of creative cohesion and easily one of the finest records of the year.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Mahororo; Lonnie's Lament; Adelaide Bailey; Tuku; Kaleidoscope; Requiem; Mrs. Parker of K.C.; United; Gandanga Blues; Bermuda Blues.

Personnel

Geof Bradfield

saxophone, tenor

Greg Ward

saxophone

Anna Webber

saxophone, tenor

Ben Goldberg

clarinet

Derrick Gardner

trumpet

Russ Johnson

trumpet

Norman Palm

trombone

Momo Hasselbring Seko

french horn

Scott Hesse

guitar

Clark Sommers

bass

Dana Hall

drums

Gregory Beyer

percussion

Album information

Title: Colossal Abundance | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Calligram Records

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