Buffalo Collision

The obvious collision at play on (duck), available now for purchase in MP3 format and soon as a physical disc, is that of different decades. Tim Berne and Hank Roberts, the band’s saxist and cellist, rose to prominence within NYC’s downtown scene during the ’80s, while pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer Dave King have turned heads over the past few years as members of the stylistically omnivorous jazz trio the Bad Plus. But since all four are such broad-minded, virtuosic players, there’s little intergenerational tension in this lengthy set of improvisations.

More problematic, though, is the matter of scope. The Bad Plus works within tight, if rarely conventional, song forms, whereas Berne often favors slow-burning expanse. The 35-minute piece that opens (duck), “1st of 3,” hews to the latter mode, and though it contains several remarkable passages—a perversely jagged free-form march; a dirgey, eerily plaintive outro—it achieves focus only intermittently.

By contrast, Buffalo Collision finds a potent medium on “2nd of 4,” a ten-minute jaunt that’s utterly gripping throughout. Here Iverson and Roberts begin by riffing playfully on a stately classical mood. Once Berne and King enter, the band moves en masse toward a gospelish avant-funk bounce that does justice to its moniker. If (duck) doesn’t completely jell, it still holds great promise for the future: A whole disc of pieces as streamlined as “2nd of 4” would be an instant classic.

The Bad Plus plays the Village Vanguard Thu 1–Sun 4.