Utility Hitter

Utility Hitter is an album by American jazz reedist Ken Vandermark, which was recorded in 1995 and released on the Quinnah label. He leads the Barrage Double Trio, composed of one bass-drums-reeds trio (Nate McBride, Curt Newton, Vandermark) from Boston and other (Kent Kessler, Hamid Drake, Mars Williams) from Chicago. The whole band plays six Vandermark compositions, the remaining five tracks are short improvisations: one for each of the trios and three duos.

Utility Hitter
Studio album by
Ken Vandermark
Released1996
RecordedSeptember 9 & 10, 1995
StudioLoose Booty, Chicago
GenreJazz
Length67:12
LabelQuinnah
ProducerKen Vandermark
Ken Vandermark chronology
International Front
(1995)		 Utility Hitter
(1996)		 Hoofbeats of the Snorting Swine
(1996)

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[1]
Down Beat[2]

The Penguin Guide to Jazz describes the album as "monumental" and states "The dedications to Mingus, Andrew Hill, Ornette, Cherry and Ayler are marvellous, but so is the revisionist hard-bop-as-raging-fury of their tribute to Griffin and Lockjaw."[1]

The Down Beat review by Aaron Cohen notes that the album "draws on Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz double-group assembly as a blueprint" and claims "It takes considerable nerve to emulate a legendary configuration, and Barrage Double Trio demonstrates that the experiment should be tried more often."[2]

Track listing
All compositions by Kent Vandermark except as indicated
  1. "Over and Both" – 5:15
  2. "Chicago Trio" (Drake/Kessler/Williams) – 2:39
  3. "Agamemnon Sleeps" – 15:46
  4. "Bass Duo" (Kessler/McBride) – 3:14
  5. "Turn Your Head" – 4:49
  6. "Tenor Duo" (Williams/Vandermark) – 1:56
  7. "There Is No Reason" – 8:51
  8. "Drum Duo" (McBride/Newton) – 3:31
  9. "East River Suite" – 12:40
  10. "Boston Trio" (McBride/Newton/Vandermark) – 2:19
  11. "Polarity" – 6:12

Personnel

References
  1. Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2002). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (6th ed.). London: Penguin. p. 1487. ISBN 0140515216.
  2. Cohen, Aaron. Utility Hitter review. Down Beat June 97: page 54. Print.
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