Glen Hall and Glen Charles Halls

Bear with me, this could get confusing; I'm 99-percent sure this duet is the result of a hypothetical "what if?" pairing of the two similarly named players, but it works nicely. Halls has a luxurious sound on piano, like he's savouring every note, which leaves Hall plenty of room for deliberate phrasing on bass flute and sax. Hall has a burred sound on sax, and a very wide tone on bass flute, which impresses most, partly because of its inherent expressiveness and uncommon use. There are some exotic pieces, like "Tabriz," where Arabic motifs are explored by flute overtop of foreboding piano. Monk is definitely a theme ― obviously, the muted swing of their cover of "Friday the 13th" being the most obvious reference ― but the near boogie-woogie of "All The Things We Might Have Been" inspires some zesty licks from Hall as well. The song titles are actually quite indicative of what's going on: "Astral" points towards McCoy Tyner and the universe, while "Anything Blues" is just that. The mood is contemplative but nicely paced.