The must-listen pile is reduced by two more, with short reviews of these new releases from an unusual trio (Bill Frisell, Kit Downes, and Andrew Cyrille) and a more traditional quartet (Ben Wendel, Gerald Clayton, Linda May Han Oh, and Obed Calvaire).

Bill Frisell, Kit Downes, and Andrew Cyrille
Breaking the Shell (Red Hook Records)
A review
The pipe organ does not show up very often in modern improvised music, but when it does, the adventurous and highly musical Kit Downes is often the one present at the console. On the wonderfully strange Breaking the Shell, he’s at the keyboard of the organ at Greenwich Village’s St. Luke in the Fields, collaborating with the equally adventurous and highly musical electric guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Andrew Cyrille. The trio explores nine well-shaped spontaneous compositions and two traditional European folk tunes. Their interactive ruminations, sound paintings more spatial than temporal, emphasize their instruments’ timbral and sonorous possibilities in creating a wide range of feeling—from the thoughtful, aspirant “El” to the anxious color swatches of “Untitled 2023” to the meditative “Southern Body” on which Frisell casts a gorgeous line into the ineffable. “Cypher” captures radio signals from Out There, while the traditional Hungarian folk tune “Este a Székelyknél,” with its flutelike organ and americana guitar, communicates a deep earthly gratification. Whether Out There or down here, Breaking the Shell yokes together three exceptionally sensitive improvisers in the service of wonder.

Ben Wendel
Understory: Live at the Village Vanguard (Edition Records)
A review
On Understory, saxophonist Ben Wendel, whose sound is as brawny as it is agile, leads his top-line quartet colleagues—Gerald Clayton (piano), Linda May Han Oh (bass), and Obed Calvaire (drums)—on a live jaunt at the underground Village Vanguard. The program is all Wendel compositions, with the exception of Ferde Grofé’s “On the Trail,” which finds Wendel’s sax scaling canyon walls and Clayton growing 10 extra fingers. The invigorating set includes bluesy funk (“Scosh”), a Latin touch (on the opener, “Lu,” which spotlights Wendel’s microtonal control), an Asian accent (the mellow “Jean & Renata,” with its open and celebratory heart), and a touch of gospel (the soulful “Tao”). The burning standout might be “Proof,” a contrafact of Thelonious Monk’s “Evidence,” itself a contrafact of “Just You, Just Me.” (Just you, just me equals just us, but to get justice, you need “Evidence,” which delivers “Proof.”) Wendel exercises a stroyteller’s logic in his compositions and improvisations that easily carries the listener wherever he leads, and he likes to stretch the boundaries. The entire crew is on target, but Clayton deserves special acknowledgment, with his deliquescent tangles, his harmonic command, and his exceptional technique. (How many other pianists can bend multiple notes simultaneously while on the run?) Understory breaks the surface and takes flight.

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