muzycy:
Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Craig Taborn: piano
Nasheet Waits: drums

JazzTimes
[. . .] This music is totally Rob Brown inspired, but also offers uniqueness in its contrasts. After a relatively calm snare, bass drum, cymbal combination, “Fine Line” builds with thematic synchronous piano/alto repetitions and vagaries until, without a distinct signal, the players start going in different directions, stretching their limits so that they wind up exploding. Fast and furious scattered clusters, dissonant and not, come from the piano; arpeggios and extensive pitch exploration flourish from the alto; and the drums create a background curtain of interlocking snare rolls, cymbal hisses and simple rhythmic clicking.[. . .]
By Lyn Horton


Allaboutjazz
[. . .] Rob Brown's alto sax is in command here, it both soars and digs deep, beckoning you to follow but also suggesting that you may want to stand back from time to time. Craig Taborn's acoustic piano veers expertly both inside and outside the lines, supporting Brown, but also cutting free like on his angular and intense solo on the opening tune 'A Fine Line.' In fact, this track on the whole is an exciting statement that serves as a harbinger for the rest of the concert recording.
Throughout, Nasheet Wait's drumming is fantastic. Whether it is his kinetic intro to the album or providing urgent counterbalance to Brown's unbound solo on 'Bounce Back,' the drumming is energetic and loose but detailed in the right places.[. . .]
By Paul Acquaro


Editor's info:
...Every trio without a piano, or without a drums, or as in this case without a double bass, gains in incline what it loses in “balance”. It only takes a little sometimes. Everyone plays at ease across. Everyone can split themselves. There are no more solos as solos but phases, circles of influence and predominance which do not last. The duos bind and unbind more clearly, the contrasts stand out better. The theme is no longer material to develop but, as in Unk.......
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Nowojorskie trio prowadzone przez współpracownika Cecila Taylora, Anthony'ego Braxtona, Billa Dixona czy Henry'ego Grimesa to przykład bardzo współczesnego jazzu. Nie może być inaczej skoro poza Robem Brownem spotykamy chołubionego przez Manfreda Eichera z ECM pianistę Craiga Taborna, który wystąpił ostatnio z Tomaszem Stańko na Bielskiej Jazzowej Jesieni. Za perkusją usłyszymy Nasheeta Waitsa, członke zespołu Andrew Hilla, Jason Moran's Bandwagon czy też zespołów Joshua Redmana.
Skład to niebagatelny i taka też muzyka. Tak brzmi współczesna muzyka improwizowana, jazz w swoim najświeższym, otwartym wydaniu. Jazz daleki od bluesa, za to bliski współczesnej awangardzie, daleki od swingu, za to bliski dokonaniom Ornette'a Colemana i Jimmy'ego Lyonsa.
Płyta "Unknown Skies" z pozoru jest zimna i nieobecna, ale pełna uczuć zarazem. Jest precyzyjna i w większości improwizowana.