Noah Preminger Group: Zigsaw: Music Of Steve Lampert
 In his newest foray, to be released in early October, the adventurous tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger recruits Steve Lampert, a gifted composer who is one of Preminger’s longtime New York collaborators. Ever on the frontier of experimentation, Preminger is aided by the complexity of Lampert’s composition. The piece is a fifty-minute continuum interrupted only by periodic side trips into a post-modern romanticism enhanced by electronic effects. The effects occasionally emerge from the background to become dominant long enough to support or trigger solos by Preminger, trumpeter Jason Palmer, pianist Kris Davis, bassist Kim Cass, alto saxophonist John O’Gallagher and the remarkable drummer Rudy Royston. Without sacrificing his lyricism Palmer makes astonishing stabs into the highest regions of the trumpet. On a digital instrument known as the Haken Continuum, the pianist Rob Schwimmer supplies sounds that range from bell-like dings to digital growls. They take (quoting composer Lampert) “the improvisation sections into a zone that would not have been fully realizable with only acoustic instruments.” That is to say the least. the sections would have been impossible with conventional instrumentation.
Zigsaw is a milestone in Preminger’s search, which has taken him, among other adventures, through explorations of Delta blues, Fréderick Chopin, and music from the films of his distant cousin Otto Preminger. Keeping up with Noah Preminger and his endless interests is one of the pleasures of modern jazz listening.