Village Voice writer Greg Tate’s Burnt Sugar is a mighty force indeed, an ensemble of top-tier improvisers playing a chaotic form of free jazz that reflects the downtown New York free improv scene but draws most heavily on Miles Davis’ early ’70s bands. Usually, Tate directs traffic using a technique inspired by the great Butch Morris’ “conduction” method of orchestrating improvisers, but for their album “The Rites,” a series of improvisations based on Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” they teamed with Morris himself, who conducted this track.
— T.B.
