NPR Music Review
JASON STEIN’S LOCKSMITH ISIDORE Three Less Than Between
Clean Feed Records 2009

Jason Stein, a member of Ken Vandermark's Bridge 61 quartet, concentrates exclusively on the bass clarinet, an instrument that already has a certain gritty sonority. Stein has a way of reducing Eric Dolphy (who made people in jazz actually listen to the bass clarinet) in spirit, but he doesn't use the growling effects or stuttering phraseology as simple mimicry. Three Less Than Between, a recording of original compositions, occasionally makes you want to shriek back at it, and maybe punch a few kittens while you're at it. That's not a bad thing, so long as you're not actually punching kittens.