snobb "Scorpion Eater" could be a great title for fiction book or art-crime movie.Using it for avant-garde jazz quartet's album is intriguing but does it has any sense? Sax player Tony Malaby who led two unusual trios few years ago - one with tuba and drums and another with cello and drums - just decided to combine them in more compact quartet,leaving just one drummer on board. "Scorpion Eater" is his second album as leader coming from 2014,this time recorded with exotic sax-tuba-cello-drums quartet Tubacello (first was released with Malaby's more traditional Tamarindo trio).

Album's opener "Buried" just blows the listener out - unusual tuba/cello low frequencies rhythmic duo instead of more traditional bass works surprisingly well in short(just two-minute+)attack,perfect fresh alternative to what could be a power trio's song.But right after things turns to unexpected direction. "Trout Shot",second longest album's composition, is nothing but free form percussive construction of rhythms and sounds but thanks to exceptionally creative drummer John Hollenbeck it is full of tension and changes.In a second half it explodes with almost tribal rhythms and silently-screaming sax,in whole it fits to be used as alternative scene horror movie's soundtrack. Two minutes long "Fur" coming after is a distant desert song,fragile and sounding from far away,with touch of Eastern motif in sax line.

"March" leads us to album's central composition,fifteen-minutes long "Bearded Braid". This meditative ambient piece slows things down telling Eastern fairy-tale which finishes with very short "Scorpion Eater" - full of tension and drama with no unambiguous final.

Far not very often jazz album's title means something or has relation with music it contains. "Scorpion Eater" is a rare exception,even more unique since music it contains is quite abstract and free.Great example how cinematic modern creative music can be.For those experienced in using their imagination Malaby's "Scorpion Eater" is as great as the book or movie of such title could be.

snobb It took quite a lot of time for me to find out my key to sax player Tony Malaby music, and that key was his Tamarindo project - a supertrio with bassist William Parker and drummer Nasheet Waits. Parker needs no introduction,he's a cult bassist leading his own projects for decades,one of my bass-hero of all times. Nasheet Waits is a New-Yorker who played in pianist Jason Moran's Bandwagon (fantastic band even if a bit too straight for my taste) where I saw him playing live a decade or so ago.

"Somos Aqua" is third Tamarindo album, all released on Portuguese Clean Feed. Power trio plays groovy dense progressive jazz with lots of experimental steps and tricks but never lost the track. Working as one unity,all three musicians demonstrate excellent balance between tunes and space,free and organized. Music is complex,running as river flows,changing every minute but very permanent in its continuity.

Malaby's sax sounds ascetic,often warm and lyrical, sometimes harsh. His power is not in loudness or emotive attacks,but in philosophical talking-like acuity,constant dialogue with bassist and drummer(can't call them rhythm section here - both Parker and Waits are equal soloists and creators on this album).

More concentrated and crystallized than on Malaby's works with bigger bands,Tamarindo's music is the place where his talent shows at its best. One among better advanced jazz albums coming from 2014.