{"id":11508,"date":"2025-11-04T12:49:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T18:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=11508"},"modified":"2025-11-04T18:19:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:19:56","slug":"review-for-living-lovers-natural-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/review-for-living-lovers-natural-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: For Living Lovers\u2019 \u2018Natural Name\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Natural Name<\/em> (Sunnyside, 2025) is the second album by For Living Lovers, the acoustic duo of guitarist Brandon Ross<\/a> and bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi. Ross has appeared in so many contexts – electric, free, and as a leader and sideman – that sometimes his versatility on acoustic instruments becomes lost in the conversation. That is, unless you speak to someone like Cassandra Wilson, who has worked with Ross for decades. This particular excursion doesn\u2019t display Ross\u2019s rootsy side but is instead in a much freer direction. Much of the music is based on the unique intervallic organization of the duo\u2019s shared colleague – Ross recruited Takeishi to be a member of Threadgill\u2019s Make a Move band in the mid-1990s – and mentor Henry Threadgill. The NEA Jazz Master\u2019s system is based on a pan-tonal structure for composition and developing improvisation, unbounded by diatonicism. The pieces are themselves primarily composed by Ross and wholly performed on string instruments designed by renowned luthier Steve Klein. The music is natural, in the moment, and unpredictable in terms of responses and patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recordings on Natural Name<\/em> come from two different performances. Most are from the duo\u2019s inaugural September 2024 Chewattyr Residency at Looking Glass Arts in upstate New York, performed at a dairy barn converted into a studio. Three additional pieces were from a February 2019 performance at the Yamaha Music Salon in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opener, \u201cPioneer,\u201d captures the gorgeous tones of the guitar and acoustic bass, blending as if patiently embarking on a step-by-step journey. During the recording session in the quasi-open-air barn, Takeishi was stung by a wasp. Thus, the subject for \u201cPollinator,\u201d where Ross plays a voice-like banjo introduction. The piece builds rhythmically to a peak, but ends with the bass guitar fading out, reflecting perhaps the pain of the sting sapping his energy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n