Glen Moore and David Rothenberg: Bass Lines / Border Lines

David Rothenberg lists whales among his contributions to Bass Lines / Border Lines, an arresting credit for a record made in the Dance Hall in Arivaca, Arizona, near the U.S.–Mexico border. The opening piece, “Jaguar through the Wall,” puts that border in the path of an animal with its own reasons for crossing. By the 17-minute finale, “Lives of the Desert Whales,” a humpback has joined Rothenberg and bassist Glen Moore. Rothenberg was 18 when he spent a summer studying with Oregon, the group Moore cofounded with Ralph Towner, to whose memory the album is dedicated. He had been listening to Moore for decades by the time of this recording, and in an interview he mentions how closely a humpback’s song can resemble a bowed double bass. With Moore in the room, the resemblance is just as intriguing the other way around, and you start to wonder how much ocean a bass can hold. The jaguar is already in motion when we arrive, and the immediacy of the playing gives us no time to craft arbitrary…

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