Though he began his career as a hard bop stylist, by the new millennium woodwindist Hayes Greenfield had taken to performing surround sound solo shows, featuring speakers in each corner of a room, looped horn performances, and encouragement to the audience to wander the space and experience the music by being deeply immersed in it. When the pandemic curtailed his live shows, Greenfield turned to software as a way to make a record that simulates those experiences. The accurately-named Painting in Sound is the result.
Using saxophones, flutes, clarinets, harmonica, kalimba, loops, effects pedals, and his own voice, Greenfield adds layers of drones, riffs, ambient abstractions, and improvisational solos, then uses his software to move the sounds as if they’re following the pathways of feet taking a body over here, or a head turning to focus over there. The spaceshifting production helps keep the listener off-balance and more inclined to experience the music as intended, without pre-supposed analysis, but it’s all in support of tunes Greenfield lays down in real time. Calling as much on the spirit of Steve Reich as on that or Charlie Parker, the reedist swirls his colors together in minimalist patterns that stay steady but refuse anchors. Given the parameters and the freedom to move within them, Greenfield makes it easy to float through “Dots, Lines, and a Pinch of Bird,” “The Murals of Federal One,” and the subtly bluesy “Film Noire” as if you’re on a trip without having to leave your listening room.
