Rick Jensen is a New Zealand jazz saxophonist who is now living in London. He has a number of free and legal albums on the Clinical Archive netlabel. His quartet is decidedly free jazz yet manages to swing and, if sometimes chaotic, still have a jazz feel throughout. The overall sense of sound comes from the 70s free jazz movement with clear influences from giants like Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons, and Sam Rivers.

I would recommend his 2006 album titled Night Shelter for the uninitiated. This is his only studio album. It is a collection of more structured tracks, rather than the more extended marathon-like tracks he prefers in his live albums. There is a sense of coherency in these shorter tracks and allows the listener to savor each one in smaller doses. The rest of the quartet is Sam Stephens on bass and Hammond, Nigel Patterson on Hammond, recorder, and bass and James Gilberd on Drums and Percussion.

The other three albums are recorded live in London. The quartet changes personnel on each recording with only pianist Phil Somervell and drummer Paul Mays being on all three. As previously stated, these albums tend to be longer tracks leaning toward the improvised. This “in the moment” sense of improvisation can be quite exciting and Rick Jensen has the right of amount of emotion and skill to pull it off. The Moscaicist, The Alarmist, and The Escapist are all good examples of free jazz and Jensen’s sidemen are all up to the task of creating meaningful music that in in the present. Highly recommended for adventurous jazz fans.

All four albums are available in 320kbps MP3 at the Internet Archives though the links below.

Download
Night Shelter
The Mosaicist
The Alarmist
The Escapist