Cryptology (album)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Cryptology is a jazz album by saxophonist David S. Ware. It was recorded on December 2, 1994, at Sound on Sound in New York and released in 1995 on Homestead Records. The album runs 61 minutes and 36 seconds and is part of Ware’s early work, following Earthquation (1994) and preceding Oblations and Blessings (1996).

In the fall of 1992, Homestead Records’ new manager Steven Joerg steered the label toward free jazz, helping sign the David S. Ware Quartet after pianist Matthew Shipp urged him to do so. Ware has described Cryptology as “a meditation on Coltrane’s example of using music as a vehicle for transcendence.”

Critical reception was strong:
- AllMusic’s Thom Jurek called the music “raw, unwavering, and intense almost beyond measure.”
- The Penguin Guide to Jazz praised the long, linked improvisations as “an impressive first draft.”
- Rolling Stone’s David Fricke, in a lead review of the title piece, called it “a sharp lesson for anyone who thinks free jazz is just a euphemism for no discipline.”
- The Wire listed Cryptology among its 50 Records Of The Year for 1995.