Weather

Giardullo's first solo recording, Weather presents the American multi-reedist and composer alone on soprano saxophone, captured live at Klub Re in Kraków, Poland, in April 2004 during his tenure as an artist-in-residence at Warsaw's Contemporary Arts Center. A longtime associate of Joe McPhee — and a player whose path also crossed with figures such as Steve Lacy and Milford Graves — Giardullo here works in the demanding format of unaccompanied single-line improvisation, sustaining drama through shifts of timbre, dynamics and phrasing rather than rhythm section support.

The album comprises four extended pieces: three originals and a closing reading of John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme.' Across them Giardullo draws on split tones, controlled harmonics, circular breathing and a wide vibrato, taking small phrase fragments and mining them for their purely sonic possibilities.