Joe Morris Quartet - A Cloud Of Black Birds (1998)

Violinist Mat Maneri, bassist Chris Lightcap, and drummer Jerome Deupree join the adventurous Joe Morris on these seven tracks. The music is intense and challenging, but it has a certain airiness -- unlike when, say, Matthew Shipp and William Parker are in the picture. The Maneri-Morris combo makes for arresting contrasts in string timbre, particularly on their one duet, "Renascent," where Morris manages to sound almost like a tabla drum. "Threshold" and "Radiant Flux" have coherent melodies and feature the rhythm section at their best, grooving in a fractured yet propulsive way. Morris makes yet more timbral discoveries on the title track, over a mid-tempo swing feel. As for the "cloud of black birds" in question, it's part of a difficult childhood memory that Morris shares eloquently in his liner notes.