Andy Champion and Graeme Wilson are no strangers to one another featuring many times together in various bands but especially in Champion’s own vehicle ACV and Wilson’s The Graeme Wilson Quartet. This recording made on Valentine’s Day 2020 gave the pair the opportunity to produce a CD of free improvisation. I suppose it beats a dozen roses and a candlelit dinner.
Opening with the gloriously named Golf with Sausages the album goes from strength to strength with a series of improvised tunes each imaginatively titled although I was slightly perplexed by the second track being called Indecision II whereas the eighth track was called Indecision I (thereby justifying their respective titles).
Both Champion and Wilson are not only great instrumentalists but also great improvisers. Each takes their turn in the limelight as the album to’s and fro’s from quiet to loud, slow to fast, light to dark, joyous to melancholy and melodious to discordant. Empty spaces are employed to great effect as one soloist takes over from the other and the musicians will often diverge on a tangent only to seamlessly dovetail back together again.
Despite being only tenor sax and double bass, a vast array of sounds are conjured up throughout. Champion excels with the bow on the rather dark, atmospheric title track (Shoes for Losers) and on Sinking Below the Horizon the percussive effect of the double bass combined with the full range of the tenor saxophone provides the hyper-light on an album full of highlights.
The CD comes beautifully packaged on the northeast label - New Jazz
and Improvised Recordings and is another yet another triumph for this fledgling
enterprise.
Steve H
No comments :
Post a Comment