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Ken Vandermark/Barrage Double Trio: Utility Hitter (1995 , Quinnah). One bass-drums-reeds trio (Nate McBride, Curt Newton, Vandermark) came out of Boston; the other (Kent Kessler, Hamid Drake, Mars Williams) is strictly Chicago. The liner notes help you keep them straight, which is a blessing, because there's a lot going on here. Vandermark composed six pieces, labeled as dedications to musicians famous enough that you can figure them out -- Mingus, Ornette, Ayler, Cherry. They sandwich five shorter free improvs: one shot each for of the trios, and three pair-ups ("Bass Duo," "Drum Duo," "Tenor Duo"). It's as straightforward as cutting-edge free jazz gets. While the Ayler concept descends into dueling tenor hell, the opener dedicated to Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin is as fun a joust as the inspirations. Best of all is the closer, "Polarity," dedicated to Andrew Hill: not so obvious, what with no piano, but Hamid Drake lays down an irresistible rhythm, and Vandermark one-ups Joe Henderson on tenor sax. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.