OGJB Quartet 4/8/16 Firehouse 12

OGJB is a jazz quartet helmed by sax titan Oliver Lake. At 74, Lake is one of the rare free blowing players connected to the birth of modern jazz. Graham Haynes, son of Roy, played cornet and ngoni (an unusual African stringed instrument that resembled a gourd attached to a clothesline pole). Joe Fonda played standup bass, bowing and plucking with his face in a constant state of smelling something foul. Barry Altschul played drums, a standard kit that put down the backdrop for the others. The set started with some spoken word from Lake, who is an accomplished poet. I have seen Haynes at this venue before, his jazz, Afro-futuristic forays into hiphop with Steve Coleman in the 90s were great. On this evening, Haynes with graying beard and hair, looked as if he just came off the set from a Frederick Douglass biopic. Lake and Haynes traded sqiuggles and blasts summoning the spirits of Ayler and Pharoah Sanders.