You couldn't make it up! An album inspired by an 1896 vaudevillian who, watched by a crowd of 5000, caught a turnip on a fork held between his teeth that had been dropped from Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge 270 feet above.
Incredible? You betcha! However, even more incredible is the fact that I've got two duo albums by Liam Noble up for review on the same day ... you wait for a bus and then ...
The two are totally different, not least because no one is dropping turnips off bridges and the material is, in the main, far removed from the Billie Holiday material that Noble played on the Lewandowski album.
Nevertheless, both musicians on both albums gel.
Simkins and Noble, seemingly cautious at first, gradually warm to the task and, as the session progresses so does the Vortex audience's applause.
As well as Stella by Starlight, When You're Smiling and Warm Valley there are pieces by Duran Duran, Jim Hall, Steve Swallow, Keith Jarrett and a traditional piece (Black Waterside). Swallow's Eiderdown (a cover?) perhaps impressed me the most.
The stand out moments, however, are the contrapuntal passages where their two lines entwine like reptilian lovers. Simkins forceful, spitting out the phrases like a man possessed, determined to show who's boss. Noble, writhing exquisitely beneath the onslaught then taking charge and showing that this is a musical relationship that is worthy of more exposure. Lance
Stella by Starlight; Lucky Teeth; Warm Valley; Save a Prayer; Careful; Black Waterside; Eiderdown; Memories of Tomorrow; When You're Smiling.
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