This live recording from 1996 is drummer/composer Gerry Hemingway's last album with his longstanding European-based quintet, rounded out by bassist Mark Dresser, cellist Ernst Reijseger, clarinetist/alto saxophonist Michael Moore, and trombonist Wolter Wierbos. As the title partly suggests, there is an intimate, down-to-earth feel to this music, or at least more so than one might expect from an avant-garde jazz record. Hemingway employs a range of moods and colors, and he successfully draws on a number of non-jazz styles in his pieces. For example, while he doesn't make explicit genre references in the same way as, say, John Zorn, there are clear hints of folk music from South Africa (Toombow), the U.S. (Gospel Waltz), and Europe (Ari, actually an arrangement of a traditional Bavarian waltz). The dynamics tend toward the quieter side and, especially when Moore is on clarinet and Dresser and Reijseger are bowing their instruments, the music takes on a chamber music feel. In fact, the only piece that has any real ties with the bop idiom (in the sense of "swinging" in a traditional sense) is Full Off, and even that pushes the envelope with its convoluted theme and constant rhythmic changeups. This album is a shade more accessible than some of the quintet's previous releases, partly because the pieces are not as lengthy as on earlier efforts, but also because the music tends to be more spacious and open than in the past. On the whole, Waltzes, Two-Steps offers a solid introduction to the group for newcomers and is certainly a worthwhile purchase for fans. ~ William York, Rovi

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