Certainly one of the more adventurous titles in the Columbia catalog,
Presenting Burton Greene is a complex and fiery affair.
Greene is teamed with bassist
Steve Tintweiss, percussionist
Shelly Rusten, and
Byard Lancaster on both trumpet and alto saxophone.
Lancaster is particularly hot and, when he isn't plowing through scales at 90 miles per hour, he employs a wide, Ayler-esque vibrato. Of particular interest may be
Greene's use of electronics to augment his usual instrument of choice. The result could perhaps be described as Morton Subotnick-meets-
Cecil Taylor as rapid, oscillating tones match and complement
Greene's upper register runs on the (acoustic) piano. Free improvisation reigns on this date although most numbers begin and end with a theme of some sort or another. Many of these themes are quite catchy and, in a sense, help counter some of the more intense and somber improvisations with a touch of warmth and humor. "Slurp!," for example, gets things off the ground with a dissonant yet bouncing and playful head before
Lancaster lets loose on alto, prompting the captain to leave the seat belt sign on until the turbulence subsides.