Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The spirit that is free is not constrained by the bars of imagination, for even in a cell that freedom can arise, it can attest, it can take the stand and declare with certainty that the mind can achieve anything and certify its own truth and name its own terms for the thoughts it has dreamed.
Jazz has its detractors, but it arguably has its own space, its own freedom compared to the substantial moves afforded other genres, for the Blues can be found constricted by the darkness of emotions, Rock by its eye on excess, Prog by its need for verbal communication, and Pop by its more simpler charms, but Jazz can climb in circles whilst still moving forward, it is the freedom that offers untold riches, and with or without lyrical compliment, it unlocks the cage of forced constraint with a smile on its face.
The art of improvision is not lost on Will Glaser, and in his fourth in a series of music that explores the dynamic of improvised expressions, the sense of spontaneity is overwhelmingly passionate, the free spirit that inhabits Climbing In Circles Pt. 4 is one that inhabits strength, virtuosity, a flair for the dramatic, the solemness of drive, and the moment we all wish to hear from any artist, the breath of genius.
Across standards such as Stained and Fractured Glass, Bad Dream Machines, Middle Things, Ballad In The Jazz Style, Dead Fly Disco, and Of The Woods, Will Glaser, and in collaboration with Matthew Herd and Alex Bonney, invokes celebration, the party of the polymaths and personal triumphs are let loose and go wild as the weave their intricate and observed dance for the pleasure of the souls set free.
It is freedom that Will Glaser offers with sincerity across the album, the style and drama of the improvised musical pattern is subject to no one, and yet refuses to be a lord, instead it is of equal stature, content in its own skin, no master, no fierce insistence on who is the boss, it is just the key to freedom, to imagine anything that you wish as you soak in the music’s own imagination.
Climbing In Circles Pt.4 is a stirring album, one that urges the listener to think for themselves, to add if they must their own images, or be relaxed enough to just sample the air as it quivers in response to the sound of freedom.
Will Glaser releases Climbing In Circles Pt.4 on Friday 29th April.
Ian D. Hall