Album Review: Joe Hertenstein Trio with Ray Anderson – The 7th Dinner Live (2025; Fundacja Słuchaj)

(originally published at Avant Music News)

The words “with Ray Anderson” are about as reliable an assurance of quality as you’ll find in the music world. Joe Hertenstein, drummer and leader on this record, doesn’t shy away from hiring sidemen with more name recognition than he has. For The 7th Dinner Live, that means a veritable all-star quartet of inside-out (or is it outside-in?) instrumentalists.

The trio--also known as “jh3”--consists of Hertenstein, bassist Michael Formanek, and Amsterdam-based reedman Michael Moore. To the extent these tunes are written, they were prepared for a foursome. While Anderson gets the special-guest billing on trombone, he is cast as one of the group.

The 48-minute, six-track session is a selection from three live dates in October 2024. (Thanks to compact European geography, the recordings come from stages in three different countries on consecutive nights.) Hertenstein and Formanek are locked in from the first note. It is tough to tell where the compositions end and the improvisation begins, largely because these two are so fully in sync.

The line is also blurry because the free blowing leans toward the tonal. Moore, especially, seems to have an endless supply of off-the-cuff melodies. Anderson gets wilder, but with his predilection for all sorts of traditional styles, there are dashes of Dixieland and funk strewn throughout. The tune “Opener,” especially, has a whiff of the classic Bobby Previte album Just Add Water, a 2001 star turn for the trombonist.

Some of the album’s highlights come when one or more members drop out. Formanek turns in a great solo on “Opener.” “Alles Jutta” showcases Moore in a duo with Hertenstein. The horn players sound great when both are improvising: I would have happily heard more duo passages sans bass or drums.

This is free jazz for people who don’t think they like free jazz. Anderson is always likeable, and Formanek brings the grooves. Leading from the drum chair, Hertenstein is unobtrusive, making everybody else sound good. The crowds in Germany, Austria, and Italy seemed to enjoy these performances, and I suspect you will, too.