Circulasione Totale Orchestra: Bandwidth

Label: Rune Grammaphon

Now’s the perfect time to catch up on some of those late-2009 releases that flew under our radar, and this one is at the top of the list, the latest from Circulasione Totale Orchestre. It’s three discs of some of the most exciting jazz-pysch-prog jams I’ve heard in ages. Led by Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, CTO has been at it since the 1980s, but on this epic from the always-reliable Rune Grammofon everything comes together. Joined by a stellar cast of free-jazz musicians from all over the world but mostly Scandinavia (don’t be fooled by the Italian name), Gjerstad, CTO’s founding member, throws caution to the wind and delivers 2-plus hours of blissed-out free improv at its very finest. If you dig long, extended psych-jazz jams, recalling everything from Zappa to Beefheart to 70s Miles to the ICP Orchestra, you need this. Trust me.