at Lotus Rising Dance Studio in the Salmon Falls Mills in Rollinsford on Friday, June 22

Last Friday evening, Lotus Rising Dance Studio was the setting for another in a series of music performances presented by Avant Coast, a local organization dedicated to the promotion of creative improvised music. Featured performers included saxophonists Richard Gardzina, Thom Keith and Matt Langley, drummers Rob Duquette and Luther Gray, and bassist Tim Webb. Calling the concert “Out of Boundaries,” these six musicians took the small but very enthusiastic audience on a two-and-a-half hour sonic joy ride through the many twists and turns of improvised music.

The evening was full of inspired musical moments, and citing specific highlights would really not do justice to the overall event. Suffice it to say that this was a performance in which spontaneously improvised music took center stage, from the simple, six-note motif that Thom Keith played on baritone sax to open the show to the saxophone chorus on David Murray’s “Morning Song,” which ended the evening’s performance. In between came covers of tunes by a number of renowned composers. Billy Harper’s ballad “If One Could Only See” featured a robust solo from Gardzina, and Pharoah Sanders’ “Greetings for Idris” had a folk-like melody that floated over a loose Afro-Cuban groove from Webb, Duquette and Gray. In between these tunes came more spontaneously improvised selections that tied everything together in a very natural way.

Each player was at the top of his game. Langley displayed his usual creative imagination, manufacturing solos with long, serpentine lines on tenor, soprano and baritone saxes, and displaying a sense of roots without being bound by them. Gardzina’s playing on tenor and soprano saxes was deeply soulful and equally imaginative. Thom Keith continues to impress with his jagged, darting lines and go-for-it approach on tenor and baritone saxes. At one point, both Keith and Gardzina simultaneously played both of their horns in a moment that would have made Rahsaan Roland Kirk proud. Gray and Duquette were the engine for the evening, creating churning propulsive waves of percussive energy that inspired the other musicians to consistent heights of creativity. Laying the foundation was Webb, whose deep-pocket sense of time and groove provided the appropriate amount of elasticity the music needed to ebb and flow.

It was a fantastic evening that showcased the beauty of spontaneously improvised music, all thanks to the imagination of six creative musicians who have the openness to go where their instincts guide them. “This is going to be fun tonight,” Langley said to the audience after the opening piece. And it was.