**** Clusone Trio

LOVE HENRY

(Gramavision)

Improvised music doesn't get any edgier or more entertaining than the Clusone Trio's exhilarating mayhem. Reed player Michael Moore, cellist Ernst Reijseger, and percussionist Han Bennink hold no musical convention sacred -- they'll humiliate a tune with their rude behavior and inappropriate responses one second, then lavish it with praise and attention the next. They can work against one another, ignore one another, or display a truly telepathic rapport and somehow never lapse into mere anarchy.

This live concert recording captures them in all their perverse vitality. You just can't help loving a band who start with the drummer barking like a seal, the cellist making sounds like a ripping shirt, and the saxophonist making kissy noises with his reed, then segue without missing a beat into Lee Konitz's "It's You." Their send-up of "White Christmas" ranks among the most hilarious deconstructions of that melody ever played, but their arrangement of the traditional title tune is touched with a beautiful melancholy that's quite respectful -- except for Bennink's disruptive clatter. It's those ironies and exceptions in the trio's performances that make them new music's most serious comedians.

-- Ed Hazell