Triplets: The Triplets Book (iii/bandcamp)

Another installment in the on-going release of live recordings by the busy saxophonist Jeff Henderson of Auckland who appears as a soloist but also within small ensembles (where it seems only the names change to protect the innocent, or guilty).

So here is Triplets: Henderson on various saxophones, bassist Eamon Edmundsen-Wells and drummer Joseph McCallum.

Recorded live at the Audio Foundation in November 2016, the first few of these improvisations (Triplets, Stones, Wabi-Sabi) are along the axis of Ornette Coleman (notably his more accessible Virgin Beauty period) and harmolodic Don Cherry where there is a joyful bounce.

Much of the second half (Old Friends, Swarm Warning) is the more demanding in its free-form playing and abstraction but the closer New Folk swings hard with an almost Caribbean lope (think Oliver Lake) so the audience – no doubt small on the night – would go out with a smile.

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You can hear and buy this and other albums on the prolific iiii label at their bandcamp site here.