David Broscoe, alto & tenor saxophones, bassoon, percussion Jamie Gulikson, drums & suitcase Rory Magill, drums, bass, bells, melodica What the critics are saying; To say that free improvisation has fallen out of fashion is akin to bemoaning the so-called 'death of conversation'. One might postulate that conversation has died because of the cultural dominance of television or the Internet, but that doesn't mean that people don't still talk long into the night about important matters of the heart and mind. Conversation has just gone underground -- so goes free jazz. Driven into dark places by the rise of music that looks backward to the '50's and beyond, free music -- jazz's equivalent of the late-night, unbridled conversation -- remains alive, even where you would least expect it. ... Enter rake, a musically adventurous trio based in Ottawa, Canada's capital of anything but free music. With the unusual instrumentation of two percussionists and a reed player who features bassoon as much as sax, rake creates rich, widely variegated textures. There is some of the angularity of Braxton, a little of the wry music-play of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, more than a measure of Brötzmann's Sturm-und-Drang. Mostly, there is conversation -- free and far-ranging. Listen up! --James Hale David Broscoe approaches his instruments first as sound producers, columns of vibrating air. Texture and tone are considered as much as, or perhaps more than, pitch and harmony. Experimenting with multiphonics has always been as important as practicing scales. Jamie Gullikson was born and will die. In between these portals he drums. With an ear for timbre and texture, rather than 'hip licks,' he makes a fine mess. Inspired by the looseness and propulsion of the Burmese Hsaing Waing ensembles, he will look for any opportunity to avoid the two and four. Rory Magill likes to take the music for a walk. Among other things, he jumps in with pitch, harmony, two and four. Thanks to some of the teachers: trumpeter Freddie Stone, bassist George Koller, drummer Jim Blackley, and from Ghana, drummers Abraham Adzenyah, Abubakari Lunna and Kwasi Dunyo.