Cheltenham Jazz Festival: Paul Dunmall Quartet @ Parabola Arts Centre - May 1.

Paul Dunmall (tenor, soprano sax); Liam Noble (piano); John Edwards (double bass); Mark Sanders (drums).

Is it really three years since we were last in Cheltenham?!

 

As preparation for this gig I bought my first Dunmall album and streamed another on the way down. So far so good and the gig was essentially more of the same. I like free jazz but maintain what I consider healthy scepticism. It’s all about making it up as they go along, though within tried and tested motifs, licks, riffs, melodies, rhythms, harmonies, timbre, textures etc. This isn’t necessarily a criticism and some say the music’s child-like, which isn’t necessarily a criticism either.

I think it’s necessary to distinguish between free jazz and total improvisation, the latter commonly mistaken for the former where instruments associated with jazz are used. In my view, the latter is simply the naked emperor doodling, but this band  certainly weren’t that. A standard saxophone quartet and this was definitely jazz, encompassing the music’s rich history, startling musicianship and plenty of soul.

They started out with Dunmall on soprano and Edwards playing bowed bass, enabling them to change the dynamics twice, firstly by ditching the bow and then by switching to tenor. Lots of juxtaposition between quiet and rousing moments and between pairings of the musicians, responding to each other's new directions masterfully. Inventive drumming and use of percussion can be crucial and Sanders was all over it.

 

We’d only just arrived in Cheltenham and hit the ground running so, with the next show starting precisely when this one finished, we made an early exit. I can think of people in my native north east who would have given their eye teeth to have been here, who’d no doubt also claim that I’d missed all sorts of things, but to me, while the claim is that it’s always different, and on one level it is, to these ears it always ends up sounding the same.

This music is all about a one-off, never to be repeated event and doesn’t necessarily benefit from repeated listening – again not necessarily a bad thing - so could benefit as the industry increasingly moves from CD to streaming.

 

A few years ago I saw Archie Shepp deliver some riveting free-jazz at Cheltenham, which ranks with the greatest live music I’ve ever heard, but, I’ve also heard improvised music which I found unlistenable and insulting. This was neither, though I could have happily stayed til the end, but Mrs T – more selective about her jazz - was less keen. Steve T