Ralph Sounds

Even a catalog of the dozens of instruments Ralph Carney plays on Ralph Sounds (saxophones, contrabass clarinet, trombone, Tibetan bowl, organ, saw, and bamboo flute, to name a few) can’t prepare a listener for the disc’s dizzying breadth. From the growling Dixieland of ”Dirge” to the cartoonishly spooky atmospherics of ”March of the Puppets,” the longtime Tom Waits saxophonist creates a one-man musical universe as unique and personal as its title implies. A-