These two sax-percussion duos represent several generations in Chicago improvised music—saxophonist Gerrit Hatcher is 26, while drummer Steve Hunt is 63—but all the musicians share an exploratory curiosity, and both pairs engage in fascinating modes of communication. Reedist Keefe Jackson and Hunt—a perpetually overlooked titan in the city’s jazz scene who’s played in NRG Ensemble, Caffeine, and Extraordinary Popular Delusions, among others—are celebrating the release of The Long Song (1980), a succinct cassette featuring three feverish pieces of bob-and-weave interplay, aerated friction, and surprisingly bruising onslaughts that reveal less common sides of each musician’s personality.…
These two sax-percussion duos represent several generations in Chicago improvised music—saxophonist Gerrit Hatcher is 26, while drummer Steve Hunt is 63—but all the musicians share an exploratory curiosity, and both pairs engage in fascinating modes of communication. Reedist Keefe Jackson and Hunt—a perpetually overlooked titan in the city’s jazz scene who’s played in NRG Ensemble, Caffeine, and Extraordinary Popular Delusions, among others—are celebrating the release of The Long Song (1980), a succinct cassette featuring three feverish pieces of bob-and-weave interplay, aerated friction, and surprisingly bruising onslaughts that reveal less common sides of each musician’s personality.…