Improvising groups come and go, with a variety of theories existing about how much time the participants need to be spending together in order to create the optimum music. While some lean toward the magic and wonder of the "first meeting," quite an argument can be made for the working group that puts in hour upon hour of playing time, especially when there are compositions of some kind involved. Malachy Papers, a band whose name is indeed a stoned mutation of the name of bassist Malachi Favors, put this disc together from a series of weekly live gigs, and it is music that has come together in a powerful way and continues to grow. This Kansas City group has strong jazz influences, with a front-line horn man who never lets the listener forget that his message is coming from the city of the blues shouters. Saxophonist Mark Sutherland also goes to Mars sometimes, getting exotic or otherwise strange tones out of home-made reed instruments. This is all part of the appeal of the group, which also plays plenty of music that has a strong Blue Note essence, as in the label when it was recording adventurous albums by players such as Bobby Hutcherson. The latter vibraphonist comes to mind frequently via the work of percussionist Mike Dillon, who often doubles on vibraphone. He can lay down a solid beat, play freestyle drums, switch to tabla, bring in freaky electronics -- or do all of this at once if he's had a good night's sleep, which is not a probability. On this recording, the bassist is Bill McKemy, one of several fine players who have worked with this group off and on. There are also some guests slipping in and out of the program of seven tracks, all composed by bandmembers or the band as a whole. The pieces are well thought out, often involving evolving sections or other types of extended forms. Sutherland gets some great solos going, sometimes playing with the fluid swing of Cannonball Adderley and other times getting into a crying tone that is reminiscent of Argentinean tenor man Gato Barbieri. The entire project has the feel of a particularly great gig, although it could just be samples from many. The participation of sound man Chad Meise is more of the same practice-makes-perfection mentality. He works with the group all the time, and has figured out a way to come up with a superior live recording. All told, this is an excellent document of an up and coming band that, if it keeps up this pace and level of creativity, may become very important indeed. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi

1		Sump
2		Ratsody/Pole Shift
3		The Dummy One
4		Blue Point Tango
5		Roughneck and Thug
6		Dovebelly
7		Riddle and Funk

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