Pat Thomas/Olie Brice/Gary Wilcox – The Day After (Jazz Now Records, CD)
Evan Parker/Tom Challenger – May Spring Last A Lifetime (False Walls, CD)
Once you have come to terms with the death of jazz (and rock), you can begin to enjoy it again without getting over obsessed with what might be coming next. This disc from the trio of Pat Thomas, Olie Brice, and Gary Wilcox was recorded at the Vortex Jazz Club, and is released on Jazz Now Records, a sub-label of Jazz In Britain. As Oli Brice puts it in the liner notes:
“The album is completely freely improvised, but definitely with an abiding love of the jazz tradition which always informs our playing.”
To my ears, a dominant flavour that permeates the album is the playing of Cecil Taylor from the period that spans Looking Ahead, through the recordings with Buell Neidlinger on Candid, up to Into The Hot. But, at 12 minutes or so into the opening track, we suddenly move into the world of Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music for an interlude. So those are just two poles of influence which spring to mind when contemplating the sea of possibilities which the trio explore. Brice is a weighty anchor, but Wilcox sounds just a little far back in the mix, which is a shame as he is so engaged and diligent. This does however foreground the beauties of Thomas’s harmonic language and pianism.
Finally, we should note Brice’s other comment on behalf of the trio:
“We share anger and horror at a lot of what is happening in the world. Gaza was certainly not far from our minds and hearts as we recorded”
May Spring Last A Lifetime begins with pad sounds and breath, the breath building until the reed begins to sound, to sub tone or squeak. The tenor saxophone duo of Evan Parker and Tom Challenger is new to disc, but the illuminating interview in the sleeve notes, conducted by CJ Mitchell, sets out the long hinterland of playing together which precedes the recording:
“Later we rehearsed a couple of times in a big sports hall, then it seemed we needed a slightly smaller space to hear the detail more precisely. At a certain point, it’s like, okay, we’re ready, we can do something. There’s an understanding there now. It’s not about my playing or your playing, it’s about our playing. What is that about? What have we found?”
Parker certainly seems to have found a fruitful working method in Kent, and although it seems tempting fate to call it late work, False Walls have very faithfully documented this process.
The recording is warm and intimate, without being too closely mic’ed, and the duo has a pleasing affability. Challenger edited the recordings so that the single track does not present a continuous piece of playing, but presents something that is faithful to his memory of the playing.
Both discs present us with paradoxes and contradictions, and are all the better for it.
.
Stuart Riddle
Purchase CD or download of The Day After here
and May Spring Last A Lifetime here.
.