Lina Allemano Four: The Diptychs
Lumo Records

For her first Lina Allemano Four release since 2023's Pipe Dream (also on her Lumo Records imprint), the Canadian trumpeter crafted its six pieces with a fascinating visual art-associated concept in mind: the diptych, the result three diptych pairings whose components are designed to complement but also contrast with each other. Written by Allemano and recorded at Toronto's Union Sound Company in August 2024, the material's performed by the acoustic quartet she's fronted for twenty years featuring alto saxophonist Brodie West, double bassist Andrew Downing, and drummer Nick Fraser.

As inspired as that binary-inspired concept is, it's not, in fact, the most interesting thing about the release. It's the intriguing compositional and arranging approaches adopted by Allemano and company that most recommend The Diptychs and set it apart from any other jazz quartet recording currently available. No one would ever label the release ‘classical,' yet the arrangements of the six pieces often suggest strong affinities to the form in the way counterpoint and texture are implemented and by the way each player functions as a microcosm of an orchestra section—brass (Allemano), woodwinds (Brodie), strings (Downing), and percussion (Fraser). Rarely does Fraser play something reminiscent of traditional jazz, and Downing too eschews the customary time-keeping role for playing that's liberated and adventurous. Each of the parts the four musicians contributes is equally important and integral, and the usual bifurcation between front-line and support often doesn't apply.

That being said, the quartet is still very much a jazz outfit, given the free-fire with which the four execute. Her compositions are thoroughly scripted, to be sure, but Allemano's also ensured space for individual expression is present too. It's refreshing to see all of the members' voices accorded equal weight; at the same time, a clear ensemble persona crystallizes. The two decades the members have spent together allows their four-way interactions to happen fluidly and with seeming effortlessness. Allemano's multi-layered charts pose a challenge, but she and her collaborators have long mastered the art of delivering them.

Contrast is explicit in the opening diptych, which sees the optimistic, free-boppish mien of “Positive” countered by the darker tidings of, yep, “Negative.” Don't be surprised if your thoughts turn to Ornette Coleman's early quartet with Ed Blackwell, Charles Haden, and Don Cherry when Allemano in the opener rides the swinging drive her own drummer and bassist lay down for the leader and West to wail over. “Negative” wends a rather more atmospheric route, with conventional rhythm gestures set aside for percussive splashes and lurching bass acting as prods for shadowy gestures from the trumpeter and saxophonist, the music writhing and groaning like some wounded creature. The smears and splatters Allemano delivers as the piece approaches its end reminds us that the daring of her conception's also mirrored in her playing.

The second pairing begins with the martial snare-driven animation of “Resist,” pointed pulsing from Downing, and the ping-ponging of the leader and West. The pieces gradually snap into position, with Fraser unleashing flurries of cymbals, rim-shots, and hi-hats while the others bleat and parry. Shifting away from the explosive tension with which “Resist” ends, “Coalesce,” sparked by Downing's bowed accents and Fraser's locomotive brushwork, skips exuberantly, its forward motion eliciting bright salvos and cross-talk from Allemano and West.

The third diptych riffs off egg-associated recipes, with “Scrambled” and “Over Easy” forming a final set of exercises in contrast. Naturally abstract in character, the former burrows through rough terrain with all four instruments colliding, the unabashedly explorative ‘scape as far from ‘jazz' as one might possibly imagine. The longest of the album's tracks at ten minutes, the episodic “Over Easy” eases into position methodically with a declamatory theme delivered in unison and powered with a strong rhythmic punch before venturing down a myriad of smouldering and eruptive alleyways.

October 2025