Aruán Ortiz Don Byron CD "Random Dances and (A)tonalities" selected The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2018 by Billboard Magazine

12/27/2018 by Ron Hart

10. Aruán Ortiz / Don Byron, Random Dances and (A)tonalities (Intakt) 

Twenty years after helping to usher in a new era for creative jazz with his chamber funk masterpiece Nu Blaxploitation, reedist Don Byron moves things forward in the duo realm with Random Dances and (A)tonalities, working in tandem alongside Antiguan pianist Aruán Ortiz that adds a warm, beating heart to the complexity of cubist jazz through an exhilarating dialogue that transcends generational and geographic boundaries. Bringing together Byron's Bronx and Ortiz's Santiago de Cuba for clarinet, saxophone and piano, this is the placid sound of two well-spent December days in Zürich, Switzerland, a deep chat between two East Coast cats amidst the snowcapped mountaintops of the Alps setting their scenery.