Broken Shadows is a quartet made up of two old alliances – the saxophonists Tim Berne and Chris Speed, and of the rhythm elements of the Bad Plus, Reid Anderson and Dave King – and which pays homage, right from its namesake, to Ornette Coleman. But it is more than that: it is a group that harkens to the tracks set by the first great masters of free music, such as Coleman, Charlie Haden, Julius Hemphill and Dewey Redman, putting melody at the centre of their performance. Branford Marsalis said of the group “in a time of songs treated as vehicles for improvisation, with this band, the vehicle is the song.” Liberty is planted in an admirable search for beauty.