Gust Burns/Jeffrey Allport Duo
(Gallery 1412) A frequent traveler to these climes, British Columbian percussionist Jeffrey Allport micromanages his rhythmic and tonal gestures with a penetrating focus, as evinced in his rad showings earlier this year as one of the participants in the Seattle Improvised Music Festival. Allport is here presented again in concert with local pianist Gust Burns, whose playing is possessed of both a feverous technical diligence and a cumbrous emotional intelligence. In the world of modern free improvisation, which is often paradoxically traditionalized, it is musicians such as these who maintain the music’s potentially boundless vitality and progressive energy. SAM MICKENS