New - Bradfield, Geof - Colossal Abundance - 2xLP

“Texas tenorist Geof Bradfield’s playing possesses a steely grandeur and deep sophistication.” -Michael Jackson, Downbeat

“…Bradfield is the sort of composer who creates room for departure.” -Nate Chinen

Composer and saxophonist Geof Bradfield’s music straddles diverse streams of the African Diaspora, drawing on modern jazz, Southern blues and roots, and African rhythms. With Colossal Abundance, his 10th album as a leader, Bradfield unveils his most ambitious work to date. Colossal Abundance is a meditation on the fabulous wealth—material, intellectual and spiritual—and abject poverty that coexist in modern society. Expanding upon his critically acclaimed Yes, and… music for nine improvisers (2017), Bradfield leads a stellar 12-piece ensemble through a program of his own compositions and new interpretations of John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Henry Threadgill and Jaki Byard.

“Twelve is a magic number,” muses Bradfield. “Mathematically it’s the smallest colossally abundant number, meaning it has unusually large number of divisors. Musically, that translates here into combinations of the 12 pulses of African rhythmic cycles, the 12 pitches of the Western chromatic scale, and the 12 musicians.” The core...  more