Vinny Golia • Bernard Santacruz • Cristiano Calcagnile “To Live and Breathe…” // Stuart Broomer, The New York City Jazz Record

When it comes to the musician playing the most members of the woodwind families, even Anthony Braxton might have to cede the title to Vinny Golia (Golia, one year Braxton’s junior, celebrates his 77th birthday this month) who plays the full range of saxophones: from soprano to bass; alto and bass clarinets; of the transverse winds, piccolo to bass flute; of the double-reeds, English horn and bassoon; he has also played tarogato, the wooden Eastern European instrument merging elements of clarinet and soprano saxophone. But for this 2017 concert in Trevosso, Italy, Golia was traveling light, playing only soprano saxophone and piccolo.

The opening “An Introduction to Bonsai Basics” has him crafting fluid, coiling lines that wander subtly between microtones at the same time he constructs a more conventional line, creating a strangely compound oscillation that’s richly expressive, a psychic zone that flirts with multiple meanings. The track introduces the rhythm section of Bernard Santacruz (bass) and Cristiano Calcagnile (drums), a subtle pairing who provide consistently empathetic support, shadowing, accenting and lifting Golia’s lines, then coming to the fore in delicate flashes of brilliance. “Thoughts within the Vineyard” feels like a continuation, lightening the insistence while shifting the locale with a certain tonal inflection towards the Middle East.

Calcagnile is an immediate presence on the piece dubbed “Drumstart”. He’s at once energetic and restrained, matching light cymbals and deft drumbeats with a subtly propulsive bass drum that clears a space for the entry of Golia and Santacruz. The bassist spins his own intricate web through the multiple metallic mix of snare and cymbals, and the two supporting musicians create a complex field against which Golia can flutter, gather energy and soar. “Visit to the Mountains” is a gently piquant interlude with a certain touch of the blues.

The concluding “Evanesce” (the verb a direction rather than mere description) has Golia playing piccolo, a thin, piping, yet beautiful sound. He seems often here to be playing multiphonics, notes sometimes doubling, even shadowing themselves, a compound discourse in which ultimate growls through the instrument press toward speech.

This is a dense, rewarding, virtuosic set, one in which Golia’s impressive array of other winds, from alto to bass registers in multiple forms, is never missed.