Expanding Light

On their breathtaking debut album the new Whit Dickey Trio shines their collective illumination into the unexplored darkness surrounding them. The album teams Dickey with one of his most long-standing collaborators in saxophonist Rob Brown and the young firebrand bassist Brandon Lopez.

While the Tao Quartets was manifest as a harmonic balance of opposites, Expanding Light is an exercise in going full-bore Yang. The result maintains a visceral ferocity even at its most abstract or airy moments, a sonic territory that the drummer refers to as "free grunge," influenced as much by the gripping rock of Nirvana at their finest as by the holistic experimentation of Dickey's mentor, Professor Milford Graves.

Dickey and Brown have worked together for over 30 years, forging an instinctual chemistry while still managing to surprise one another with a mutual penchant for risk-taking. Brown has worked with legendary figures Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, and Reggie Workman; not to mention an extensive & profound body of work in numerous William Parker ensembles.

Though Lopez was born a year before Dickey and Brown began playing together, he proved an ideal partner for the drummer in the grungier end of the Yang. A player who has become a force on numerous NYC scenes in recent years, his relentless fervour and formidable power have led to collaborations in the realms of classical, jazz and experimental music with the likes of John Zorn, Tyshawn Sorey, Chris Potter, and the New York Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden.

Personnel: Whit Dickey (drums), Rob Brown (alto saxophone), Brandon Lopez (bass)