Pianist
Paul Bley's early ESP free jazz session combines the influence of the Jazz Composer's Guild with
Ornette Coleman. On Barrage,
Bley is joined by alto saxophonist
Marshall Allen (in one of his few appearances outside of
Sun Ra's Arkestra), trumpeter
Dewey Johnson (who would go on to play on
Coltrane's
Ascension the following year),
Eddie Gomez on bass, and
Milford Graves taking care of percussion. All compositions are by
Bley's former wife,
Carla Bley, with a definite nod to
Coleman's hyperactive stop-start punctuation (
Paul Bley had fronted one of the earliest incarnations of the original
Coleman quartet).
Graves and
Allen are especially irrepressible here, making Barrage a lost free jazz classic. ~ Al Campbell