Grizzler Big Band
Open Sound, Somerville, August 24
Swansong for Lou Cohen

Coleman cupping his fist at his theremin he puts magic into Cohen smiling down harmonious free improv done right to his strict standards there is a rocking of tones like seagulls among boats at the salty pier at summer’s end the second Lou sweetly plying fiddle it is so peaceful makes death a dream Shoe tempering the violence of primal passions with puffs in the flute and the violin creaks like someone walking up the stairs as so often one feels in Lou’s music the haunted corners of an old manse tickling and rattling hums and buzzes electronics as organic as granola it is a cumulus cloud blustering and rolling apart in afternoon sky Forbes and his grand trumpet like the final sun and it’s brassy as jazz now theremin blundering wild Dave beating the hell out of a bari a complex structure of inter-communication whoops and cheers and raspberries at the burlesque but sedate as a girl on quaaludes now a military bent like taps or reveille as the sun rolls over the hill caught like gold string in the trees with their last summer growth