Two new jazz albums recall the wide open spaces of the west

Portland, Ore. tenor saxophonist Rich Halley’s quartet album _Crossing the Passes_ on his Pine Eagle label commemorates a week-long trek over the Wallowa mountain range in Northeast Oregon,

where Halley’s been climbing since he was a boy. We could talk about his dual obsessions with music and nature as cultivating a love of wide-open improvisational spaces; he’s got one band

that only plays outdoors. But all that climbing also has practical benefits: It builds lung-power. Rich Halley has a big, full-throated sound that may recall prime Sonny Rollins. You could

look at Rich Halley’s interest in remote locales as a metaphor for how his music developed far from the jazz capitals. Not that he’s out of touch — he’s learned volumes from studying Ornette

Coleman, Charles Mingus and others. But one’s individual voice is also a function of whom you improvise with — what you react to helps shape what you play. His colleagues come from up and

down the West Coast: the great Vancouver bassist Clyde Reed, Los Angeles’s brash and burly trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, and the saxophonist’s son and climbing partner Carson Halley on

drums. They bring clarity and counterpoint even to the improvised pieces, like the themeless blues “Journey Across the Land.” Halley’s been recording for three decades — about twice as long

as Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis, who shares his interest in orderly improvising with longterm collaborators. Rempis is involved with so many bands he’s started his own label, Aerophonic.

One of their debut releases is by the trio Wheelhouse, with the fine non-egotistical bassist Nate McBride and one of the great vibraphonists of our time, Jason Adasiewicz. READ THIS STORY

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