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Some troubadours burn brightest together
CHRIS SEARLE reviews Barry Altschul & The 3Dom Factor’s Live in Krakow
Jazz drum legend Barry Altschul

Barry Altschul and The 3Dom Factor
Live in Krakow 
(NotTwo MW960-2)

BORN in the Bronx, New York City, in 1943 and self-taught in his teenage years and later by the celebrated drummer Charlie Persip, Barry Altschul is one of the great surviving drummers whose achievement goes back to the 1960s, when he was part of an outstanding trio with pianist Paul Bley and bassist Gary Peacock.

In the early ’70s he joined Wolverhampton-born bassist Dave Holland, pianist Chick Corea and saxophonist Anthony Braxton in the Circle quartet and was the drummer on Holland’s brilliant 1972 ECM album with Braxton and fellow saxophonist Sam Rivers, Conference of the Birds.

Altschul was always a powerful free drummer, yet within his eclectic technique is the entirety of jazz percussive history, which made him partner for bop, post-bop, avant-garde and blues players from reedman like Sonny Criss and Gato Barbieri, pianists Hampton Hawes and Andrew Hill, and blues guitarist Buddy Guy.

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