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Whit Dickey/Kirk Knuffke: Drone Dream

By Mark Corroto
September 3, 2019
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If the duo of drummer

Whit Dickey

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Whit Dickey and cornetist

" data-original-title="" title="">Kirk Knuffke were a baseball team, their signature style would be small ball, the opposite of towering home runs and 100 mph fast balls. They would win games like they sound here with tight efficient playing. They lay down perfect bunts and easily turn the double play with these improvisations. Opening with "Soaring," the sounds hesitates without being reluctant. Neither party, both of whom have the ability, attempts to overwhelm the other with their instrument's loudness.

If this recording was a confabulation, it would be considered a conversation rather than a debate. Dickey, whose playing has matched the energy outlays of firebrands like

David S. Ware

saxophone, tenor
1949 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">David S. Ware and

Matthew Shipp

piano
b.1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Matthew Shipp, masters the smallest of gestures heard on "Weave 1" and "Weave 2" with almost whispered brushwork and cymbal dusting.

If the pair were bottling wine, it wouldn't be Super Tuscans or bold Cabernet Sauvignons. Knuffke is more disposed to subtle flavors. "Oblique Blessing" coats the ear with hints of minerals and lavender. That shouldn't be a surprise for listeners of his duos with

Harold Danko

piano
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Harold Danko,

Michael Bisio

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Bisio,

Karl Berger

vibraphone
1935 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Karl Berger,

Jesse Stacken

piano
b.1978

" data-original-title="" title="">Jesse Stacken, or Ted Brown.

Drone Dream is a follow-up to the duo's Fierce Silence (Clean Feed, 2016), and like that, this outing may be best described as poetry in motion. It roars like Carl Sandburg's "Fog," coming in on little cat feet.

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Track Listing

Soaring; Weave 1; Weave 2; Legba Sequence - Dream 1; Legba Sequence - Dream 2; Oblique Blessing.

Personnel

Whit Dickey

drums

Kirk Knuffke: trumpet; Whit Dickey: drums.

Album information

Title: Drone Dream | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: NoBusiness Records

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