The Second of the Eight New Goldberg Albums

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

As promised yesterday, I am continuing my account of clarinetist Ben Goldberg’s 8 Albums on August 8 releases by examining the second of those eight albums. The title of album is Spillway Four, but it has nothing to do with the use of dams to control the flow of water! Rather, it refers to the fact that all eleven tracks were recorded on a single afternoon in March of last year, taking place at the Spillway Sound studio run by Eli Crews in upstate New York.

Readers can probably guess that the second word of the title indicates that this is a quartet album! Goldberg shares the front line with John Ellis on tenor saxophone. The other two players provide the rhythm: John Hébert on bass and drummer Hamir Atwal. According to my archives, this was my first account of Ellis since my days with Examiner.com, when I wrote about his performance with keyboardist Ben Sidran on Sidran’s album Don’t Cry For No Hipster. My encounters with Atwal were more recent, since he performed on the two Ben Goldberg School volumes. Hébert last appeared in October of 2023, when he was the bassist on Nighttime Creatures, the debut album of the Angelica Sanchez Nonet.

Spillway Four begins by revisiting the fourth of the six movements in the For Bobby suite, discussed yesterday. This is followed by “Actual False Alarm” and “New Etude” and concludes with “From Everywhere” and “Trouble 2.” Between these are six tracks, all identified only with numbers. Goldberg describes the quartet as “some swinging cats;” and the swinging could not be more vigorous. As is often the case, I find myself drawn to Atwal’s energetic drum work. Just as engaging are the coy ways in which Goldberg and Ellis casually drift in an out of unison!

Like For Bobby, the album discussed yesterday, Spillway Four is another “excellent source for engaging attentive listening!”