Andrew Cyrille Quintet
Ode to a Living Tree,  Evidence CD ECD 22185-2, 1997

 Strong modern jazz, with plenty of drumming

Que cojones! They actually recorded the final movement of  A Love Supreme: "Acknowledgement" and "Resolution"! And did a decent job of it too. Of course, they don’t scale the heights reached by John Coltrane and his quartet 35 years ago, but did you really expect that? What may be most striking is how incredible is seems that anyone would even try  A Love Supreme again. Who wants to invite that comparison? But maybe it’s an American thing. Elsewhere, where they don’t stand so close to the Coltrane legacy,  A Love Supreme is just another great jazz song.  Ode To A Living Tree was recorded in West Africa and Cyrille says producer Tetsuo Hara urged the band to do it. By the way, don’t overlook the rest of the CD. The musicians are fine–the front line is David Murray and Oliver Lake–and there are some great moments, notably Cyrille’s opening and closing duets with African drummer Mor Thiam. Babatubde Olatunji himslef would be pleased.– Pete Kelly