George Cartwright - A Tenacious Slew (2023)

The dictionary would tell you that a tenacious slew is just a whole lot of stuff that clings and cloys. (A tenacious stew would be one that was hard to digest, perhaps made by an elderly relative.) George Cartwright’s new Cd though is neither. In fact it goes down rather easily and comes off with only a little scrubbing.

George is still the master of blowing his sax in all directions. Here he’s back at the mouthpiece with other giants of Minnesota’s far-out jazz realm (Adam Linz, Alden Ikeda, JT Bates and Memphusian Chris Parker). They were recorded live at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the energy of that evening is captured well on tape. What didn’t come out at all was Anne Elias’s accompanying video projections (you’ll have to imagine those). She does make a haunting appearance though with some enigmatic poetry that serves to ground the fantastical music that swirls around it.