Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Tony Malaby: The Cave of Winds

Tony Malaby: The Cave of Winds

By Mark Corroto
January 28, 2022
View read count

Saxophonist

Tony Malaby

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Malaby releases a 21st century version of

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonny Rollins' The Bridge (RCA Victor, 1962). During Rollins' three year voluntary hiatus from performing in the later '50s, he took to practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge near his Lower East Side neighborhood. Malaby, a resident of Jersey City in 2020, was also on a hiatus of sorts, an involuntary one. The pandemic had cancelled all performances, so he took to practicing under a turnpike overpass and soon invited other musicians to join him. The traffic noise, swirling winds, sirens and birds were the inspiration for the saxophonist to reunite his quartet Sabino, the title of his first release as a leader in 2000. Three quarters of the original Sabino lineup, Malaby, bassist

Michael Formanek

bass, acoustic
b.1958

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Formanek and drummer

Tom Rainey

drums
b.1957

" data-original-title="" title="">Tom Rainey, released the excellent Live At The 55 Bar (Sunnyside, 2021), an all improvised live date from March 2020. Here, Sabino's original guitarist

Marc Ducret

guitar
b.1957

" data-original-title="" title="">Marc Ducret (quarantined in France) is replaced by Monder for this June 2020 studio session. Malaby penned six of the seven tracks here, alternating between the swinging "Corinthian Leather" and the abstraction of "Recrudescence" and the title track. This inside-outside approach to music-making exhibits just how hungry the quartet were to interact, perform, and improvise. Monder exorcises a few demons with the monster shred which opens "Scratch The Horse" and acts to ignite Malaby's overblowing heavy metal saxophone. Elsewhere Malaby employs a frenetic soprano saxophone against Formanek's bowed bass on "Insect Ward" and the 18-minute title track eases back in an unhurried exploration of sound.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Corinthian Leather; Recrudescence; Scratch the Horse; Insect Ward; The Cave of Winds; Life Coach (for Helias); Just Me, Just Me.

Personnel

Tony Malaby

saxophone, tenor

Ben Monder

guitar

Michael Formanek

bass, acoustic

Tom Rainey

drums

Album information

Title: The Cave of Winds | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Pyroclastic Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Amaro Freitas, Emma-Jean Thackray, C...
< Previous

Brand X and Jeff Berlin, Norway's Re...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.